Redlands School (Past and Future)

I am quite disturbed about the recent reply sent to our potential Volunteer Nominee Directors who have had a very strong past relationship with Redlands and had offered their services to join the future vacancies on our Board as Corporate Members of SCECGS Redlands Ltd.

The letter’s styling and the reasons offered not to accept their names onto a Potential Directors list are out of focus with the standards set in our earlier years of the Corporation. It appears the current School Board is not looking for new Corporate Members. I suspect that finding nominees from outside would lead to persons unrelated to the school and could lead to a loss of independence – the very issue that led us to purchase and take control of the school. It also opens up the possibility of having to take advice on those with whom we wish to do business.

Please always remember Redlands’ parents became Corporate members of SCEGGS Redlands Ltd., to ensure Redlands would always be continued just as we set out to do in 1975, when our actions enabled us to separate from the insolvency dilemma thrust upon us by the Archdiocese in 1973.

DIRECTORS.

Why did we choose this approach? The independent SCEGGS Redlands Limited was formed to replace a major group of people whose business inexperience allowed them to fail in business standards instead of remaining in their field of religion. I am not going to dwell on this matter other than to say that the assigned officers of the Diocese set their minds to development, which led to their business failure as they sought financial benefits. The Diocese allowed the SCEGGS Council to continue this practice for a number of years before insolvency prevailed for both the Diocese and the SCRGGS Council. Hence SCEGGS Redlands (the parent group) had to purchase the business or let it close.

When it appeared that the Diocese and the SCEGGS Council were in trouble, the school parents called in their P & C Officers and assigned three of them to determine whether the SCEGGS Council Group and their five schools could be saved and continued, or some of them would be closed.

We the three Trustees (nominated as such by the Redlands parents), Bruce Adams, John Lang and John Roberts had many discussions with the Darlinghurst parents who showed no interest in joining us. We then reported our findings to the Redlands parents that the Diocese had no funds available to solve their insolvency dilemma and they would need to find others to purchase one or all of the schools as registered businesses. Either they would sell the school or we could buy our school – despite the fact that we had no ready money for such a purchase or even as a deposit in the hope of a latter settlement. Even a deposit seemed also unlikely to occur – could not be found.

The school’s continuation was impossible without our purchasing the school. We needed an operational plan that included delayed payments for six years, plus a period of further fundraising for any other expenses. We did not expect this option to be acceptable to the Diocese, but it was the only possible path ahead for the parents, other than closure. (and real estate sale – Ed).

We needed to purchase the business and its assets, its already operating educational programme, and its environment. Thus with potential ownership, regardless of the efforts required by us parents, continuance at Redlands (would be) assured. The massed parents accepted our advice and appointed the three Trustees to proceed with the purchase.

We then presented our plan to try to purchase the assets – including the school’s name, song, anthem and other things such as the school history, records and other data. A very long drawn-out “AS IS” process to enable our school to be taken out of the insolvency process, and a part way for the Diocese in their overall dilemma and its possible solution. For the school there was no other option other than closure – for the Diocese, as I have said, it was a big start to opening the door for that Diocese.

We did Manage in last term 1975 ‘to manage’976 we became the Managers of the school for the six years in which we were under the banner of SCEGGS Redlands Limited, the new property owners – or so we believed.

A RESTATEMENT OF THE BUSINESS PLAN IS:

“Recognise a likely collapse of the school enrolments, believe or understand a dramatic student departure will occur, and a very needed management/ownership will be necessary for the community at large, and a very dynamic student recruitment program will be very necessary, and as well a suitable six year financial plan, top turn the school around with enough finance, whilst above all ‘continuing’ the same high standards of education previously provided over almost a century.

We all know well the Parents understood the message and continually preached the message ‘Buy the school – there is no other choice.’ We did buy the school – there was no other choice’.”

We discussed that message with the Managing Agents of SCEGGS ACCOUNTANTs, Diocesan officials, SCEGGS Council, lawyers and everyone associated with any interest in the Business transaction of the sale of Redlands and its new ownership. Parents were kept informed. They were as happy as the Trustees.

Another meeting was confirmed in late 1975, when the parents named John Lang (Company Director) as President, Bruce Adams (Company Director) as V.P, and John Roberts (Bank Manager) as Secretary/Treasurer, Charles Goldberg (Company Owner) as Director and Architect Rodney Pegus Director, and (all) subscribers to the Company Articles. Also we had the Corporate Members nominate Rodney Moore of the SCEGGS Managing Accountants as a Director which he did for the first year of SCEGGS Redlands Ltd.’, life in 1976. Rodney Moore’s assistance was a great help in our first year of our own operations. He also had offered Messrs Lang and Roberts a lot of data information prior to the end of 1975, which we found of use to us in our SCEGGS life. It was he who had asked us in 1975, ‘could you manage the school now?’ as Messrs Roberts and Lang said together “YES”.

We soon learned to recognise the needs of the school management and got on with it. We also learned about the correct information of the former SCEGGS Treasurer’s Malfeasance, which had in earlier days been fed to us as the major problem which had taken SCEGGS down. We also learned sharply about the (level of) the student departure in 1976, (much higher) than we had expected. Our student drop rate was 500 students out of the known enrolment of 686. A drop of 76%.

Whilst we could say ‘let’s forget about it’ and walk away from the project, we had committed to undertake the steps necessary, top turn the business into a profitable operation, an improvement of the life and presence of our children, and above all to continue the wonderful tuition previously and in its current practice. That decision was probably the most vital factor we could have placed on the eight new Corporate Parent Directors appointed to our new Corporation. We also found comfort with probably two-thirds of the Diocesan nominated Directors over the years, but I must add we might have been better aided if some of their Diocesan nominated religious Directors had not been nominated without Board acceptance/rejection, for us to vote in or out. Nevertheless we worked with every one of them, and they were tasked with being involved with 100% of our agendas with us and not being responsible for only the religious items. (They were fully engaged) In our Parent Managed agendas, and hopefully (would be) singing from the same hymn sheet as the Parent Directors.

We did not have a lot of money at the closure of the first six years as a business operator, however we were prepared to continue in the commitment to the Centuries ahead, and certainly not on the experience we had inherited in the ‘Seventies’ earlier, and also (to continue the commitment) in the drip feed Annual Deposit payments of the later years.

The Diocese needed to pay out the unpaid SCEGGS Mortgage with Beneficial Finance, and other moneys of superannuation, plus some staff costs. This they arranged to pay out vis their GAB Corporation and we were required to repay same – thus we were constantly paying out old expense moneys form our current earnings. This all before ownership could be achieved. This was in the ‘Eighties’ and ‘Nineties’ period. Settlements were always met, and sometimes even before the scheduled periods.

We had our moments but nothing more pleasurable than the acquisition of a second empty Campus nearby costing us if memory serves me correctly $15,350,000.00 in 1989 when we were stretching ourselves with about 1200/1300 enrolled students, and a Waiting List of almost 4000. I believe this “Must have been one” of our moments of joy in our very lengthy purchase programs of ownership. However in this period in 1981 we hired a dynamic Head of School and I will speak more about him elsewhere. However it was the time when we needed to up our recruitment program, and we turned to our parents to ask should we bring boys back to the school after years of absence. The Parents said “YES” but not our current (sons) children who are booked into their new schools already. Thus we announced we will become a “FAMILY SCHOOL” hereafter and introduce boys. And so we did, and our recruitment plans took a lift. Yes: we were now a family school and we accepted families with children of boys, girls, or boys only or girls only.

I do not wish to raise the gender/sex issue in our family school, however in my early part of this matter I queried the issues the Diocese imposed on us on 29th October 1979, when they established a rule on voting under Section 38 giving themselves a ruling on our voting rights which could be manipulated to overturn the plans of my 25 years of Chairmanship, or the plans of the next three Chairmen/Chairwomen of our Family School. We certainly did not offer membership of our Corporate Body, they just demanded it or else. I mention this because our fourth Chairwoman of 45 years recently submitted a draft recommendation of her Board, whilst we submitted a recommendation to return the second Constitution of 1981 back to a semblance following the first Constitution based on the data of our first generation of school ownership rules, and at a special EGM in 2019 the current Board submissio9n was outvoted, and so our third iteration of for the Constitution needs us to get back to our original purpose of owning, determining the plans of operation, and implementing those plans for a continuance into the centuries ahead. As you can see from the heading (above) I am looking at the current period to follow the early period of our school having a parent owned direction, observing the basic items of corporate ownership and independence, respected and maintained without interference. I want our school to remember we practise and respect the Anglican Faith, our Queen, and our Country, and that our students Female and Male will enjoy their studied and future places in Society, and in our Communities.

John Lang OAM 1 May 2020.

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Editor’s note: Of all the original writing provided by the Founding Chairman to assist others to understand the ‘audacity’ of the purchase and reconstruction of SCEGGS Redlands, to be then SCECGS Redlands, this edited (indicated by use of parentheses) document is the foremost. It is personal, it is direct, and it is current in 2020.

In addition it hints at two of the emergent questions in this website: given that schools are fragile, very human entities, where is the protection to be found? And who shall protect these schools, if not parents?

The questions arise inferentially but are central.

No one better than John Lang to provide essential focus sharpened by this analytical narrative.

PJCornish June 2020.