Brindabella board chair on outer as administrators meet stakeholders, says he is a creditor

Brindabella Christian College board chair Greg Zwajgenberg says he has been frozen out of the administration process and been told that the current board is unlikely to return when the school is back on its feet.

The Lyneham-based private school has been in the hands of Deloitte administrators since 5 March after not being able to pay some of its teachers and facing a wind-up application from the Australian Taxation Office over an $8 million debt.

It is also still facing regulatory action from the Commonwealth and the ACT Government over governance and financial issues.

Mr Zwajgenberg, writing on Facebook, said the board had no choice but to bring in administrators when teachers could not be paid.

He also says he personally put up $150,000 on 7 February to pay teachers and is now listed as a creditor. This is on top of $150,000, which he says he provided for schoolbooks and other expenses so students had the materials to start school this year.

Mr Zwajgenberg claims he is owed about $200,000.

Calling it a “hurtful episode”, he says administrators told him five minutes before the first staff meeting they had organised that his presence was not welcome.

“This decision was accompanied by statements made by the lead administrator in the staff meeting that the current board was ‘very unlikely to return’, specifically discussing me personally,” Mr Zwajgenberg.

“It is deeply hurtful that, after all the non-public efforts my wife Teija and I made, including providing a crucial $155,000 loan on 7 February to ensure all staff wages due were paid, and specifically given it was to these same outspoken staff; in return a concerted attempt was made to demean and marginalise me personally by the Administrators, who knew full well my wife and I had shored up the previous payroll.”

Mr Zwajgenberg says the administrators were specifically advised who the staff ringleaders were plotting the demise of the board in union meetings.

“The administrators then encouraged those very same staff to speak out in the first administrator-led staff meeting,” he says.

Mr Zwajgenberg again blamed a media and government campaign against the school for undermining parent confidence and contributing to a shortfall in fees.

He says the ATO action blindsided the board.

“With college fees not coming in as anticipated due to parental fears, 40 per cent of our 200 staff were left unpaid on 14 February, a situation that no one wanted, but one that we had to confront head on,” Mr Zwajgenberg says.

“With the ATO’s dogmatic position, Teija and I were not prepared to go to $400,000+ to assist the College. Bringing in Administrators to ensure everyone was subsequently paid, especially staff and key suppliers, was the board’s only option.”

Last night, administrators met with parents, and concerns were raised about the continuing presence of executive principal and board member Suzanne Power on campus and the administrators’ ability to get to the bottom of the school’s financial problems.

A video supplied to Region showed administrators trying to reassure the meeting that parents and staff could trust the process and that “a lot of the long-serving staff” were not really part of the plan going forward.

“We’re all on the one team,” the meeting was told.

“No one wins if the college closes, so we’re all tasked with keeping the doors open and working with yourselves, the staff, state and federal governments.”

A Reform BCC spokesperson said today that while executive directors remained on campus, it did not have full confidence that the administrators could forensically investigate the affairs of the board.

“Staff and parents don’t have absolute confidence in the process while there are executive directors on campus,” the spokesperson said.

The administrators will call the first creditors meeting next week. A second creditors meeting will need to be called within 20 business days, but it could be adjourned for a further 45 days.

At this second meeting, creditors meeting the administrators have got to make three recommendations: return the company back where it was, which is probably unlikely because of the Tax Office’s wind-up application; do a Deed of Company Arrangement to keep the school running and make an an offer to creditors; or put the school into liquidation.

The most likely outcome is a deed of company arrangement.

The Commonwealth is working with the administrators and has agreed to maintain its current funding arrangements for now.

Mr Zwajgenberg declined to comment to Region, preferring to use social media to make his views known.