Board members at The Knox School receiving lucrative payments

The chair of The Knox School board has hit back after claims the payments to board members were “morally wrong”.

Chair of The Knox School board Wendy Lewis has defended the payment of board members, as revealed by the Herald Sun on Thursday.

Such positions are performed by highly skilled individuals at most private schools for free.

Ms Lewis wrote to parents and members of the school community to assert that board members – paid up to $30,000 annually – did “more than ‘simply attend Board meetings’”.

“The School’s founders believed that in the interests of ensuring a skills-based Board willing to commit significant time and expertise, directors should be remunerated,” Ms Lewis wrote.

She revealed that in 2022 the board members were paid $20,000 each, which has not yet been declared in public documents. This is less than the $30,000 paid in 2020. As chair, Ms Lewis is understood to get a 50% loading.

Chair of The Knox School board Wendy Lewis.

Ms Lewis said the payments amount to “about 0.84% of the School’s annual revenue”.

“The improvement in the School’s finances over the last few years has been part of the deliberate strategy of the Board, with the support of the Principal and her executive team who are responsible for the day to day operation of the School,” Ms Lewis said in the letter.

“In 2023, the School is in a strong position. The School operates with a cash surplus, despite a strategic decision to keep student fee increases low to support parents, and has no debt. Enrolments have also increased.”

Ms Lewis said she wrote to clear up “misinformation” in the Herald Sun article, but the paper stands by the story and its assertions.

Directors at a school in Melbourne’s east have been paid up to $30,000 a year to attend board meetings in a controversial break from private school tradition.

In recent years The Knox School has paid almost $250,000 annually to its directors, with $30,000 paid to six members each and $45,000 to the chair.

The move, while not illegal, is causing increasing concern within the school.

Some long-serving board members would have been paid $300,000 over the past ten years alone.

Board member Ahmad Samadi.

Board member Genia Janover.

The lucrative payments continued despite falling enrolments at the Wantirna school between 2014 and 2021 and recent significant financial losses.

The school’s financial documents show that in 2021 the seven directors, including chair Wendy Lewis OAM, were paid $150,000 despite the school posting a loss of $822,000.

In both 2020 and 2019 the directors were together paid $246,375 a year despite losses of $29,000 and $633,000 respectively.

School financial records show payments of $246,375 a year since 2016, but the payments go back to the school’s establishment in 1982.

Board member Sandra Ball.

Board member Sarah Spencer.

David Brear, deputy general secretary of the Independent Education Union, said that

“apart from remuneration for reasonable expenses, it’s unusual for board members of an independent school to be paid”.

Comparable private schools in the area, including Caulfield Grammar, Wesley College, Haileybury, St Margaret’s Berwick Grammar and Tintern Grammar, do not pay their directors.

Ms Lewis, executive officer of the Collier Charitable Fund, has been on the board since 2010, ASIC records show.

Other board members include Ted Gale who has been on the board since 2007, Genia Janover, a past principal of Bialik, former teacher Craig Spagnol, former school parent Sandra Ball, former student Sarah Spencer and accountant Ahmad Samadi.

Board member Craig Spagnol.

Board member Ted Gale.

Barry McIllwaine, old scholar, current parent and chairperson of The Knox School’s Falcon Philanthropy Group, has been agitating to have the payments cease.

“To sit on an independent school board is an honour and so you don’t have to pay people in order to attract good talent,” he said.

“It is morally wrong and against best practice governance for a non-profit organisation,” he said.

Independent Schools Australia CEO Carolyn Grantskalns said it is “up to each independent school to make decisions about how or if directors are remunerated”.

Ms Lewis said the school’s founders “believed that in the interests of ensuring a dedicated skills-based board, directors should be remunerated”.

She said the payments are disclosed in financial reports and to the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority.

She said the school operates with a cash surplus and has no debt.

VRQA CEO Jonathan Kaplan said registered schools must ensure “remuneration or other expenses paid to members of the school’s governing body are not excessive.”