PMSA makes key changes to boards, college councils

The controversial governing body of four elite southeast Queensland schools is making big changes after a turbulent year.

The beleaguered governing body of four elite schools has made key changes to its board and college councils.

The Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association, which owns Brisbane Boys’ College, Clayfield College, Somerville House and Sunshine Coast Grammar School, announced the appointments after a turbulent year that saw BBC embroiled in alleged sexting and gang-bashing scandals, and court-challenged expulsions.

Greg Eddy has been appointed to the PMSA Board – Photo Supplied

PMSA chair Morgan Parker, who took on the top job in March following the exit of Greg Adsett, said the PMSA was under transformation and 22 new governance officers had been appointed in 2020, creating “a sense of renewal”.

In November last year parents and alumni from all four schools demanded the axing of the “old guard” after the PMSA’s former executive manager Rick Hiley faced court charged with fraud. The charges were discontinued in March.

The PMSA also came under fire over its 2017 sacking of popular Somerville House principal Flo Kearney and the mass student exodus and shock 2019 resignation of principal Kathy Bishop from Clayfield College.

Five key appointments were announced on Friday, with the most senior being Greg Eddy to the PMSA board and Clayfield College council. Mr Eddy is chief executive and master of King’s College at the University of Queensland.

Duku Fore, an inspirational speaker and Ugandan refugee who immigrated to Australia as a child, joins the PMSA policy committee and is the youngest appointee at just 23.

Dexus property Queensland general manager Matthew Miller will sit on the Somerville House council, while BBC parents and friends association president Paul Martin joins that school’s council.

Leadership consultant and former Royal Australian Air Force air vice-marshal Ken Watson has moved from acting chair to chair of Sunshine Coast Grammar School’s council.

Mr Parker said all five men were “exceptional professionals eager to work with us to shape the PMSA’s future”.

Parents and students at a protest outside Somerville House in October 2017. Picture: Glenn Hunt/AAP

“The calibre of applicants reflects positively on the transformation under way within the PMSA.”

In September, four BBC parents sued the PMSA and school principal Paul Brown for negligence after their sons were expelled over the alleged bashing of a fellow Year 9 student embroiled in an alleged sexting scandal.

In October, the school controversially overturned the expulsions and the students, being tutored privately in an office adjacent to the PMSA headquarters in Toowong, have been permitted to return to the campus in 2021.

Read the full inside story of the PMSA scandal in this Saturday’s Qweekend magazine