Welcome to Ground Hog Day.
Beyond PMSA welcomes Mrs Kim Kiepe to the Somerville House community. We look forward to working with her to ensure the best for our beloved school and the girls it nurtures and educates. We wish her every support and success in her new role.
Whilst Beyond PMSA welcomes this announcement, we reiterate the disappointment that Beyond PMSA and many of its supporters have always had about the manner in which the recruitment process itself was undertaken. The complete lack of consultation with the Somerville House community and representative bodies over the process for selection, appointment and announcement is glaringly apparent.
The fact that the PMSA attempted to reach out to the Foundation, OGA and P&F earlier in the year to ask them to provide their views to the recruiter about the “qualities” of a suitable candidate does NOT constitute authentic “consultation”. Apart from the fact that it was inappropriate for those groups to have been placed in a position to respond such a request at all (because Mrs Kearney was, at that time, still in the position of having been stood down from her role and no settlement had been reached regarding her departure) the appropriate qualities for an appointment as important as this are apparent to all, and should be glaringly obvious to any qualified and experienced recruiter. You don’t need to take a poll to improve the metric.
The PMSA needed to consult representative members of the community in the decision-making process (not just in setting the scope of requirements) because cultural fit and value alignment are just as important as tangible qualifications in a CV. Given that hardly any current PMSA Councillors have children at PMSA schools (and quite apart from the fact that virtually none of them have attended these schools themselves) this WAS important to the process. The PMSA’s attempt at “inclusion” earlier this year was therefore transparent and meaningless, and the overture by the PMSA represented an attempt to obtain a “get out of jail free card” for them by legitimizing their decision to proceed with the recruitment in the current environment. We still maintain that doing so MUST have had an impact on the pool of qualified candidates that were prepared to make themselves available to consider the opportunity.
The fact that there was no consultation with representative bodies over potential candidates represents a continuation of the PMSA’s past approach and conduct to strategic appointments. We also understand that the Courier Mail was notified of the pending announcement of the new appointment BEFORE the school community (although an article was only published today), and that the full Somerville House School Council was NOT involved in the recruitment process. Really?? This behaviour is unbelievably contemptuous and is indefensible in the current environment of heightened emotion and concern for the future of the school.
It does absolutely nothing to advance the “healing” that was supposed to emerge from the Chesterman Review.
Yes, we all know what the PMSA’s constituent documents say about “responsibility” for appointment and removal of school Principals. They will maintain that this is a liability issue that is created by the effect of the Letters Patent. But the PMSA have again stuck to the letter of “their” law in managing the recruitment process. With respect, that is simply a continuation of the generations old attitude that compliance with bare minimum legal and process requirements is sufficient. Moral and ethical leadership requires MORE than that. Much more. In the spirit of the current “reform” process, everyone expected a more respectful level of consultation and engagement, particularly given the manner of Mrs Florence Kearney’s very reluctant departure from the school last year. Yet again, none of this passes the “Mum Test”. It doesn’t even come close. For such an important role for the future of the school, this simple lack of respect demonstrates a complete misalignment with the supposed spirit of the current “reform” process.
Amongst all of this, we all still hope that proper and due recognition for the past contributions of Mrs Kearney to Somerville House will be made, publicly. In moving forward, the recent history of her contribution to the school should not be erased from history or forgotten. It appears, for the time being, that is exactly what is happening through the PMSA’s continued silence. Again, this does nothing to advance the promised “healing” for Somerville House, and this behaviour takes the PMSA’s conduct back to square one. There are still no lessons learned about proper engagement and respect. It’s going to be a long process of education about good governance and respect.
Welcome to Groundhog Day everyone.
