By Alex Crowe and Adam Carey
The alumni association of one of Melbourne’s most expensive private schools has taken disciplinary action against a member after a fight over how to celebrate its centenary, as details of a previously secret report into the association’s “toxic” culture are made public.
Jack Jones’ membership of Carey Baptist Grammar School’s alumni association has been suspended for 12 months after the former vice president breached its code of conduct by threatening to leak sensitive information to the media.
Jack Jones has been suspended from the Carey alumni group for 12 months following a dispute.Credit: Joe Armao
The Old Carey Grammarians Association voted to reprimand Jones after he clashed with council members who he says voted to downgrade a book celebrating the alumni association’s centenary from a hard copy to a series of social media posts.
An alumni spokesperson claimed Jones had tried to obtain financial support for the project by threatening and intimidating council members, in breach of the association’s code of conduct.
“The council would never approve a project in response to threats made by a member,” a spokesperson said.
“It would have been against our rules and processes not to take action. We have zero tolerance for poor behaviour and must provide a safe working environment for our volunteers.”
Jones denies the accusation of intimidation but agrees he was prepared to leak information to the media. He said the decision was particularly egregious given the age of many alumni meant they were unlikely to be on Facebook.
“The committee said, ‘Oh, there’s no need for a book. There’s no want for a book’ ... we have about 100 people who have already given us their stories,” Jones said.
The unprecedented disciplinary action was made possible by a tightening of governance rules, introduced with support from Jones as vice president, following a 2021 review into a “toxic” culture that had led 11 of 21 alumni council members to quit.
The report that followed was kept secret until now and found “misogyny, misandry and aggression” had occurred among councillors for the volunteer network for former students of Carey in Kew.
The report, for which the association paid HR firm Lawson Delaney $18,150, outlines how a factional split that emerged between older and younger members over a perceived push to appeal to a more diverse cohort worsened when newer members sought council election.
The independent volunteer organisation for 20,000 old boys and girls is funded by contributions from parents and has an investment account of about $1 million.
Council members who spoke to The Age claimed the newly elected members were being pushed by the school to run for council to transfer control to Carey. The school denied the claim.
The report found there was a “co-ordinated effort to have certain individuals elected to the executive and ordinary council through mass proxy harvesting”.
“Most councillors participated to one degree or another, or found themselves being carried along on a train that they never meant to board,” the author wrote.
‘I will no longer serve on a venomous toxic and backstabbing council that simply have it done the ‘old boys’ way.’
Departing female councillor
The report refers to a meeting in February 2021, at which the president at the time introduced a motion to implement a “new governance and operating model” in which a committee of 10 would be appointed by the Carey principal and another employee of the school.
“What is clear, is that an agenda was being driven by the president in a manner that was not open and transparent,” the report found.
“The delivery of the plan hours before the meeting, the lack of clarity in response to simple questions and the quantum of proposed changes deeply concerned some councillors.”
There was a push for the review when the council imploded in the weeks after the meeting and 11 of its 21 members quit, including its president and all seven women members.
The secret report details how one departing female councillor used her resignation letter to say she’d witnessed “abhorrent psychological harm and intimidation”.
“I will no longer serve on a venomous toxic and backstabbing council that simply have it done the ‘old boys’ way,” she wrote.
Council members who spoke to The Age said Carey had pushed for the review to be undertaken by the school’s lawyers. The incoming president opted to pay more than $18,000 to an external group to review the period of disunity from early 2020.
About 15 current and former alumni members contributed about 250 pages of submissions and 23 hours of interviews, according to Lawson Delaney.
Carey Baptist Grammar School principal Jonathan Walter dismissed the review’s findings.
Carey opted not to participate, and the school has rejected the report’s findings.
In a letter seen by The Age, Carey principal Jonathan Walter wrote to the incoming president at the time to express his support for keeping the report secret.
“Recommendations around council reforms are constructive and valuable. Specific recommendations around behaviour or strategy, however, almost all imply wrongdoing by the school or its staff or seek to impose obligations on the school,” he wrote.
Walter said this week that Carey “does not endorse the process that was undertaken for this review in relation to its reliability or transparency” and the matters described were inconsistent with the school’s understanding of events.
“The school has been consistently clear about its desire for the OCGA [Old Carey Grammarians Association] to remain an independent organisation. The school has no wish to control the operations of the OCGA,” he said.
“The school does not intervene in the selection of the OCGA council. The OCGA is an independent entity and selects its own council through independent elections.”
Simon Wood, who took over as president after the council’s mass exodus but has since stepped down, said he had no reason to question the report’s accuracy.
Wood, who kept the report secret despite pressure from those who contributed, claimed he was treated dishonestly by Walter, whom he accuses of letting him take the blame over not releasing the report.
“The entire experience wore me down, leading me to resign as president,” he said.
An alumni spokesperson said the association had undertaken a number of reforms since the report was written, including overhauling its culture and governance.
“Over the last four years we’ve made some incredible progress and introduced comprehensive changes,” the spokesperson said.
“We’re deeply proud to have a dynamic, diverse council team with an average age of 29 and a female majority.”
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.