Parents at this inner Sydney school took the Education Department to court. And won

Parents at an inner Sydney public school locked in a bitter internal war have had a major legal win after the Supreme Court ruled the NSW Department of Education should not have stepped in to abruptly close its after-hours care centre.

In a damaging development for the department, the ruling means the parent-run Darlo Play Centre at Darlinghurst Public School can remain operating, less than three months after it was unexpectedly slapped with a notice that its licence would be terminated at the end of term 2.

It has also prompted Sydney MP Alex Greenwich to issue a stinging rebuke of the department, who said education bureaucrats had “some serious questions to answer”.

The court ruling is the latest instalment in a long-running battle during which relieving principals have rotated through the school for the past two years while its head Rachel Privett has been on extended leave.

Privett’s leave coincided with Greenwich lodging a complaint about her with Education Minister Prue Car at the request of current and former parents, staff and teachers.

Also key to their concerns was how the Education Department handled, or according to some mishandled, complaints that have torn apart the school, pitted teachers against teachers and left families so shaken that they provided “victim impact statements” in the hope of forcing change.

Privett’s lawyer Rachael Sutton said her client “categorically denies any wrongdoing and does not have any access to the material or allegations” put to her.

“As far as our client is aware, the NSW Department of Education conducted an investigation into allegations (our client is not privy to the specifics) and found them all to be unsubstantiated,” Sutton said. “Our client has been the subject of a sustained, relentless, vexatious and malicious campaign, causing profound and ongoing harm to her.”

However, Privett’s absence as well as the sudden termination of the care centre’s licence have divided the school community. Sme parents have made unsubstantiated claims of retribution.

According to a formal letter of termination sent to P&C president Paul Yardley on May 14, the Education Department said continuing the licence of the care service may “bring into disrepute or affect the reputation of, or be detrimental to the licensor”.

That letter says an internal audit had found, among other claims, that the centre increased its fees without permission from the department, significantly overcharging parents an estimated $44,608.

The probe also said it had uncovered evidence of conflicts of interest involving the former P&C president Shane Warren, who the department said had overseen the employment and engagement of people closely related to him through family and business ties.

‘It’s absolutely appalling that the Department of Education thought that it could get away with not following due process.’

Warren has previously told the Herald he could not comment on the claims made against him in the department’s correspondence because he had “not been provided with the details or evidence of these allegations”.

However, he said his business and personal relationships with the named individuals were “well known within the community”, that they had been disclosed at the committee level, and that they had been recorded in minutes dating back to 2014.

The P&C told the department that unless it withdrew its termination notice, it would launch legal action. It said there was a lack of transparency in the handling of the termination, including the fact that no officers of the parent body were given a copy of the original audit report.

According to the judgment handed down on Friday, “the [Education] Minister has never given Darlinghurst P&C the proper opportunity to address and take steps to remedy the matters which the Audit Report generally categorised as Improvement Required”.

The judgment said the director of educational leadership of the Port Jackson Principals Network, Angela Lyris, had written a letter marked “private and confidential” to the audit team in the Education Department setting out what she described as the “community’s concerns regarding the Play Centre at Darlinghurst Public School”.

“Ms Lyris detailed a series of allegations regarding ongoing conflicts of interest and nepotism in the staffing and the accounting contractors of Darlo Play Centre; problems in the relationship between the director of Darlo Play Centre and various principals at Darlinghurst Public School,” the judgment said. She also made allegations of “money laundering” in dealing with deposit funds.

“The principal of Darlinghurst Public School appears to report to Ms Lyris,” the judgment says.

Greenwich said the court ruling “indicates NSW Education Department has some serious questions to answer”.

“We need to know who made this decision and how it was made, why there wasn’t forewarning or meaningful consultation with the impacted community,” Greenwich said.

“I am concerned there may have been an unfair and unfounded campaign against the out-of-school hours provider, including leaks to media, from within NSW Education.”

Greenwich also said he had received a “threatening and stalker-ish anonymous letter” that “appears to be from someone with links to NSW Education”.

A Darlinghurst parent Jenny, who asked that only her first name be used, said: “It’s absolutely appalling that the Department of Education thought that it could get away with not following due process. We were lucky enough to have parents who are lawyers who worked pro bono to bring this to court and overturn a ridiculous decision made by the department.”