Church intervenes in row over sacked principal

THE Uniting Church has ordered the warring parties in the dispute at Methodist Ladies' College into arbitration.

Rosa Storelli

THE Uniting Church has made a dramatic intervention in the bitter dispute between Methodist Ladies College principal Rosa Storelli and the school board that sacked her, ordering her termination be stayed and the warring parties into arbitration.

The involvement of the church in the week-long brawl came after a tense 4 1/2-hour meeting attended by church moderator Isabel Thomas Dobson, Ms Storelli, MLC chairwoman and publisher Louise Adler and a bevy of high-priced lawyers.

Ms Thomas Dobson, acting as church "Visitor" to the school, issued a statement after the meeting saying that Ms Storelli's overpayment, alleged to be more than $700,000 over 15 years, which was the catalyst for her sacking, would be dealt with by an arbitrator and her dismissal from her $500,000-a-year job would be put in the hands of a mediator.

She ordered "that the council take no steps to effect any action of termination of the principal's employment prior to the termination of the mediation or further direction by me or by order of the Supreme Court".

Sources said last night board members would "not cop" Ms Storelli's reinstatement and they would go to court if necessary.

In a statement, the board said it had attended yesterday's meeting "in an attempt to finalise the issues regarding the termination of Ms Storelli's employment".

It said Ms Storelli had asked the church to reinstate her, which was not granted, and that the board's right to hire and fire was "clear in the college's constitution, which was approved by the church".

"All parties have agreed that an independent arbitrator should determine conclusively the amount of the overpayments that Ms Storelli owes the college," the board said. "The board expects this to be resolved in the next three weeks. As the financial issues will now be . . . resolved by an independent arbitrator, the board is of the opinion that there are no other outstanding issues."

With the brawl in its second week, state government principals weighed into the row yesterday, saying the revelation that Ms Storelli was paid $510,000, with a $50,000 bonus, and was allegedly overpaid more than $700,000 was "mind-boggling".

"The figures, from a government schools point of view, are quite startling," Frank Sal, president of the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals, told The Australian.

Mr Sal said the principal of a Victorian government school of between 1000 and 2500 students would earn a maximum package of $152,000, including superannuation. Ms Storelli is believed to have earned $510,000, with a $50,000 performance bonus. According to the MLC board, she was overpaid $716,905, allegedly incurred between the 1997-98 financial year and March 31 this year. Julia Gillard is paid $495,000.

Mr Sal said that for the past two decades, government school principals had been falling behind their private school counterparts, while taking on greater responsibilities as schools became more autonomous. He said the MLC row, coming after the financial collapse of the Mowbray school in the western suburb of Melton in May, also raised concerns about the role of school boards.