Beyond PMSA Submission

Today we are publicly-releasing the 170 page submission on PMSA governance failures with our recommendations for change, as sent to the Moderators of the Uniting and Presbyterian Churches via their appointee Mr Chesterman on Friday.

The text of the Overview section is included below. Click here for the full submission.

REGARDING THE PRESBYTERIAN AND METHODIST SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION

DELIVERED TO:

THE MODERATORS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN AND UNITING CHURCHES AND THE HON. MR RICHARD CHESTERMAN, AO RFD QC

15 DECEMBER 2017

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

OVERVIEW OF THIS SUBMISSION

This Submission is detailed and covers a range of issues relating to the role of the Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association (PMSA) in the governance of Brisbane Boys’ College, Clayfield College, Somerville House and Sunshine Coast Grammar.

Fundamentally, this Submission concludes that:

The PMSA operates under an archaic legal structure that conflicts with its objects as an organisation charged with the education of children under a Christian mission, and is also a structure that challenges modern and effective governance expectations;
The PMSA has a dysfunctional and toxic culture that is damaging to the schools and will ultimately, given time, serve to further diminish the position of the schools and significantly damage the reputation of the Churches;
Recurring crises will be ensured by inaction and the problem will get worse if it is not urgently addressed;
The PMSA is structurally incapable of delivering the skilled and experienced professionals necessary to effectively govern the schools;
The PMSA has lost the trust of the school communities, and this trust cannot be regained by the PMSA or the Councillors who presently comprise it;
The PMSA should be dissolved and have no further ongoing role in the ownership or management of the schools under its control;
The trust of the school communities can only be rebuilt with the active engagement of the Churches (whose continued role in the ownership of the schools is valued) in a process of wholesale reform that will deliver autonomous control to independent school Boards or Councils;and
The Churches have an historic opportunity to show enlightened leadership and turn the current crisis into advantage in the PMSA’s centenary year.