Colmont School community dumps Vince and Associates as administrators

Well-connected educators, popular locals and wealthy international businessmen ran the private school, which plunged suddenly into administration last month.

Members of Kilmore’s Colmont School community protest outside Parliament House. Picture: Ian Currie

Colmont School’s board of directors, who presided over the school’s multimillion collapse, are each only liable for losses of $100, the Herald Sun can reveal.

A who’s who of Kilmore and Taiwanese business entities are linked to Colmont, formerly known as Kilmore International School.

Well-connected educators, popular locals and wealthy international businessmen have been responsible for the running of the private school, which plunged suddenly into administration last month.

The school’s constitution means those who are responsible for the school’s sudden collapse will not suffer financially, while parents stand to lose tens of thousands of dollars from fees paid in advance and staff scramble to get entitlements paid.

The document, ratified in February 2021, states that if the company is wound up, each member is required to contribute a maximum of $100 “towards meeting any outstanding obligations of the entity”.

Concerned MPs, parents, and commentators are calling for an investigation into “where the millions have gone” and students have started a gofundme page to pay their teachers’ wages.

As new administrators Cor Cordis prepare to take over with the aim of “securing funding to enable to students to return to the school” one teacher said there was “nothing left”.

Kilmore local Greg Stute is one of the directors.

Educator Michael Rowland is another director

One insider said the “Ray Wittmer gang” continues to wield substantial influence over the school in order to protect their asset – the school’s premises on White St, Kilmore.

Mr Wittmer started the school in 1990 but in 2019 stepped down as director, forcing a change in operations that eventually led the school walking away from the White St site and Kilmore International School name.

However, the school’s land and buildings have been owned by Skywriters P/L since the 1990s, meaning the school had to pay rent of up to one million a year to an outside entity.

Mr Wittmer was a secretary of Signwriters from 1993 to 2019, and company records show that as a director of The Kilmore International School, he was paid as much as $3 million a year.

In 2016 alone, this included for $520,000 in licensing fees, $1.6 million in international marketing and processing fees and $1.2 million in rent.

As of 2021, Mr Wittmer is listed as living at an address on the Esplanade at Brighton. He is the owner or co-owner of 15 properties in Kilmore, Tallarook and Lancefield.

From 2019 Signwriters has been directed by Chien-Long Tai who was born in Taiwan, and Yuyu Chen, who was born in China.

It’s popularly believed the school’s financial issues dates back to this time, but the foreign interests in the school go back to 1994 when Tai Hsiung Chang, who was based in Taiwan, was director of Kilmore International School P/L.

From 1994 to 2012, the company had eight Taiwanese directors.

Another Kilmore identity Walter “Wally” Mott, who runs the local newspaper and is non-executive director of the Kilmore Bendigo Bank, was on the school’s board briefly during 2021.

Walter ‘Wally’ Mott

Rod Dally is president of the Kilmore Wallan RSL and Kimorre Fire Brigade secretary

Over the last few decades, Mr Mott has ownership or interests in more than 20 companies including North Central Review, Wallan Offset Printing and Crystal Creek Properties.

Mr Mott has substantial landholdings in Whittlesea, including a property on Wild Duck Way. He left the board in April 2021.

Another long-time director of the school from 1989 to 2019 was Anthony Zanelli, formerly a lawyer at Septimus, Jones and Lee.

By the time Kilmore International School became Colmont School in 2022, it had local Kilmore identity Rod Dally as chair.

Rod, a Vietnam veteran, is president of the Kilmore Wallan RSL and secretary of the Kilmore Fire Brigade.

Greg Stute, a popular Kilmore local who runs Verandah Solutions, is also a director along with experienced educators Lawrence Boyd and Michael Rowland.

One person close to the school said the current directors, were “genuinely shattered” and were “good people who did what they could”.

The Herald Sun attempted to contact those named in this story.

Federal MP Rob Mitchell, who has a long history with the school, said answers were urgently needed from new administrators.

“The government needs to know where the millions have gone,” he said. “A lot of parents also paid money in advance so where’s that gone? The administrators need to tell us.”

Deakin University Associate Education Prof Andrew Skourdoumbis said Colmont’s collapse showed that private schools needed to be even more transparent with where their money is going than government schools and called for an investigation into the school’s corporate structure.

“They (independent schools) should have full disclosure of everything from teacher salaries, to the number of employees,” he said.

“I would think for a private school it is even more important to know how money is being spent, particularly if they are receiving any sort of funds from the government,” he said.

Clues in where the school’s $16 million average income ($10 million in fees and $6 million from governments) has gone lie in the 2020 annual report, which was written in July 2021.

The school has consistently stated that a drop in revenue due to a decline in international student income was to blame for the school’s demise, but the financial documents suggest other pressing financial matters such as boarding property rents were starting to bite by as early as 2018.

The school’s employee expenses – often the largest slice of a school’s operating budget – were just $9 million. Pressure was starting to mount in other areas. The school paid a one-off “management expense” of $1.6 million and “other expenses” not detailed totalled nearly $4 million. The school also paid $3.6 million in “leasehold improvements” despite not owning the properties it operated from.

The 2019 annual report shows $16 million in revenue, but “other expenses” of $3 million and “bad debts” of $3.7 million

However, the school was still solvent at the end of 2020, with $11 million in assets.

Even payments associated with the cancellation of leases in 2022 and rebranding into Colmont School should have been absorbed given the continuing revenue stream, insiders say.

Indeed, in June 2021, Michael Rowland and Rodney Dally signed a statement saying there were “reasonable grounds to believe” the school “will be able to pay all of its debts as and when they become due and payable”.

But by July 2022, former administrators Vince and Associates said the school had only eight weeks’ of revenue left despite the school having 360 fee-paying students and revenue of around $15 million.

A state government spokesperson said they were working closely with the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority, Independent Schools Victoria, the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria and the International Baccalaureate Organisation to help students and families affected by Colmont’s closure.

New administrators Rachel Burdett and Bruno Secatore from Cor Cordis said “focus is on securing sufficient funding to enable the students to return to school, while they undertake the necessary investigations and longer term positions are worked out”.

But as of the start of August, more than 100 students have accepted offers at other schools and most of the teachers have, or are in the process of, accepting new jobs at other schools.

Colmont dumps administrators

Creditors, some of whom are owed more than $50,000 in school fees or contract work done to rebrand the school earlier this year, voted on Friday afternoon to remove Dandenong-based firm Vince and Associates from handling the school’s finances.

Rachel Burdett, a partner with Cor Cordis in Melbourne has been appointed as the new administrator.

The move to replace Paul Langdon as administrator comes after the director of Skywriters, the company that owns the land on which the school is located, Chief-long Tai lashed the administrators’ “failure” to accept financial offers that would save the school from closing permanently in a letter to parents seen by the Herald Sun.

Rachel Burdett has been appointed as the new administrator.

Paul Langdon, from Dandenong-based firm Vince and Associates

“The landlords consider change of administrators is needed so that the Colmont School and school community have a chance returning to normal operations,” he said.

The letter said the administrators rejected proposed rent relief for the school until the year 12 students finished in October and that the owners were actively seeking new administrators who could help salvage the school.

But a teacher at the school said there was “nothing left” of the school to save, noting that many of the school’s teachers had been “snapped up” and students had taken places elsewhere.

Federal MP Rob Mitchell said it was up to the administrator to clarify “where the millions had gone”.

The school community rallied as owners of the rebranded Colmont School moved to replace its administrators, Dandenong-based Vince and Associates.

Admit Verma, whose 12-year-old son, Rannajay, attended Colmont, told the Herald Sun that there was a sense of hope among creditors at the meeting on Thursday that they would receive answers about how the school had spent their money.

Owners of the rebranded Colmont School have moved to replace its administrators.

“We believe, because this new administrator was appointed by the landlord and by the creditors, that any investigation they will do will be very transparent,” he said.

“We believe there are chances that the school can be revived. Yes, it will all be dependent on the financial statements that we’ll get from the school’s new administrators, but up until now we were not getting much information from the old administrators.

“We believe the picture will be much clearer next week.”

But Kylie Busk, assistant secretary of the Independent Education Union, said the change of administrator was “very problematic”.

Questions remain over whether any offers made by investors would be enough to allow the school to continue operating.

It did not have enough cash to continue running classes beyond Tuesday next week.

“The past administrators said they would cease all educational activity next Tuesday and year 12s next Wednesday but what happens if the new administrators say there is scope to come out of administration?” she said.

“This is a mess.

“We are very concerned because it seems there is a very small pool of funds to draw on.”

The school community say Vince and Associates rejected bailout proposals from multiple investors.

This was denied by administrator Paul Langdon, who said his company had been “exploring all options which are feasible for the continuation of the school”.

Parents and students were told the school was being placed into administration on Thursday last week, with questions remaining over its financial history under the owners’ corporate structure.

Both administrators have been contacted for comment.