PMSA refuses to release full governance review report

THE peak body in charge of four of the state’s top private schools says it will not fully disclose the findings of a 10-month report into an elite school scandal that saw thousands call for it to be axed.

PARENTS and students will not be told the true story behind a scandal that has rocked some of Queensland’s elite schools.

The Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association has revealed it won’t fully disclose the findings of a 10-month report into its governance of Somerville House, Brisbane Boys’ College, Clayfield College and Sunshine Coast Grammar School.

Six-figure payout

‘Recruit externally’

The governing body ordered the review after street protests, town hall meetings and outcry by thousands of parents, alumni and donors over the botched handling of the saga.

Dubbed “Game of Thrones in cardigans”, The Courier-Mail exclusively revealed details of a high-profile data breach, lewd texts, trips to a nude Korean bathhouse, plans for a secret merger and a string of high-profile dismissals and resignations.

The PMSA church-appointed board was accused of presiding over the “toxic culture” of alleged cover-ups, financial mismanagement, corporate governance failings and the alarming exodus of staff and students.

Beyond PMSA, with about 4500 supporters, formed and led calls for the archaic 100-year-old church body to be axed and schools to be run by 21st century standards.

“As you would know, the PMSA commissioned the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) in late 2017 to review the PMSA’s governance against the general accepted standards of good governance practice and has consulted the community widely,” the PMSA said in a statement this week.

“The AICD has now completed its review and the PMSA Council received the AICD’s full report with recommendations on 31 July.

“In September the PMSA will make publicly available a summary of the AICD report and provide an action plan of when report recommendations will be implemented.

“This process is a fundamental step in PMSA’s ongoing changing journey.’’

Parent Tony Moore speaking at the Beyond PMSA town hall meeting at Riverside Receptions earlier this year. Picture: AAP/Josh Woning

Beyond PMSA has called for the full report to be made public to “motivate and attract quality staff, reverse enrolment leakage and avoid costly and recurring legal claims”.

“We will never sit back and allow the overwhelming need for a material overhaul of PMSA governance to be diluted to an exercise in “window dressing,’’ it said.

The PMSA must “own” its decision because the AICD report is not a “get out of jail free card”, it said.

“If the outcome is not a robust and three dimensional response to the litany of problems that have beset PMSA schools over many decades (and which have been very well documented since last year) then the PMSA’s self-managed “governance review” process will have been an epic failure.”