The King’s School ‘directed to immediately cease’ payments for proposed plunge pool
One of the country’s most expensive schools has been told to ‘immediately cease’ payments for the headmaster’s plan to build a private plunge pool, with the funding regulator saying it would breach rules about how school money is spent.
Education
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One of the most prestigious private boarding schools in Sydney has been ordered to halt a construction project at the headmaster’s residence, after the state’s regulatory body found a proposed private plunge pool for the principal and his wife would be an illegitimate use of the school’s money.
The King’s School in Parramatta, which charges parents $41,000 a year per student, is still under investigation by Department of Education auditors after concerns about its spending were raised with the Non-Government Schools Not-For-Profit Advisory Committee.
The committee monitors how private schools use their finances – including their allocated government funding.
A Department of Education spokesperson confirmed the school had been issued a direction with immediate effect on January 10 in relation to a private two-by-three-metre plunge pool to be built at headmaster Tony George’s on-campus residence, which was approved by the school’s council in June last year.
“The King’s School has been directed to immediately cease making any payments which relate to the construction of a plunge pool at the Headmaster’s residence, in accordance with the Education Act 1990. The payments are not required for the operation of the school,” the spokesperson said.
Under the Education Act, all school income must be used for an educational purpose or for the operation of the school, and schools that receive taxpayer dollars must never operate for profit.
A spokesperson for The King’s School said the proposed pool amounted to a “concept only”.
“It is important to remember that the School Council had not made a final decision on a pool at the school-owned residence where the Headmaster is required to live – this was a concept only that was being investigated at a high level,” they said.
The Daily Telegraph’s attempts to contact Mr George directly were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, the school’s decision to allow Mr George, along with the deputy principal and their wives to fly business class to the UK to watch the school’s rowing team compete in a regatta remains under scrutiny.
“Expenditure relating to the Headmaster and others travelling to the Henley Royal Rowing Regatta is the subject of ongoing proceedings, and we cannot make further comment,” the Education Department spokesperson said.
The King’s School and Mr George did not respond directly to questions relating to the regatta.
If the school is found to have been non-compliant, the repercussions range from it being required to repay the funds, to having funding suspended, reduced or removed completely. The Education Minister may also decide to impose extra conditions on the school.
The King’s School is one of the nation’s most expensive private schools, charging nearly $470,000 over 14 years of schooling based on 2023 fees. It has a ‘capacity to contribute’ score of 116, meaning parents are in the top 200 wealthiest in the country.
The school reported a gross income of $80,644,417 in 2020, and earned $10,760 per student from federal and state government funding.
University of Sydney education researcher Dr Rachel Wilson said “stories like this are inevitable, because there is not enough monitoring of where school funding is going”.
“We’re not monitoring equity properly, and we’ve got growing inequity in our schools,” she said.
“It even has a long-term impact on the top end of town, because eventually it will feed into our economy … and no one benefits from this.”
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