Australia, insurance, car, home, live, holidays

Good to Great Schools CEO Bernardine Denigan and founder Noel Pearson.Credit:GGSA

“Our expectation would be that Bernardine Denigan be stood down effective immediately and throughout the course of this independent review,” the email sent by six of 10 managers currently working in key operational roles across the organisation said.

This masthead on Saturday reported claims from more than 20 former and current GGSA employees that alleged Ms Denigan’s regular behaviour in the workplace included yelling and name-calling,belittling or disciplining staff members in front of their colleagues,targeting specific employees,undermining workers’ credentials and micro-managing performance.

Multiple people said employees frequently cried at work,one said she lost hair while working there and several others left due to mental health concerns. A further 20 current and former employees have since come forward to theHerald andThe Age to corroborate those complaints.

This masthead requested comment on the managers’ email on Tuesday but did not receive a response before deadline.

GGSA has received $10.8 million in federal government funding to launch a new program in Australian schools this year. The federal education department advised the education minister to cease funding for GGSA after the list of schools participating in its previous program dropped from 35 to eight,but GGSA nevertheless received more money.

Current and former staff who spoke to theHerald andThe Age complained the organisation “wasn’t accomplishing anything for Indigenous children” and there was no consistency in implementation because staff were continually leaving without giving handovers due to how Ms Denigan treated them.

The Cairns-based organisation employs 26 full-time staff and 14 part-time staff,according to its latest published financial accounts. TheHerald andThe Age revealed that one internal staffing document showed GGSA had hired at least 135 employees between 2018 and 2021 who have since departed,including at least nine people hired as Ms Denigan’s executive assistant.

Last week,Mr Pearson did not provide any comments for publication in response to detailed questions from this mastheadabout bullying allegations,government funding and program outcomes at GGSA. The questions were sent more than three days before an article about his organisation was published in the newspapers on Saturday.

Instead,Mr Pearson put up a defence of his organisation inThe Australian on Monday saying his work had been the subject of a “torpedo hit” in the media. He suggested the department’s advice to cease funding to his programs in 2019 was unfair because it pre-empted the findings of an independent evaluation that was due to be published in 2020. He said GGSA’s new program,launching this year,improved on the previous version because it would provide professional learning to teachers online instead of face-to-face.

TheHerald andThe Age understand that several staff members at GGSA were dismayed by Mr Pearson’s response and believe it downplayed concerns about Ms Denigan’s conduct and the impact of staff turnover.

In response to claims about bullying and turnover,Mr Pearson wrotethat non-government organisations were on “short funding cycles and can only offer fixed-term contracts to staff” and that only a minority of workers were permanent employees.

“Not many organisations are immune from disgruntled staff who gather on social media sites and complain about their experiences,” he wrote. “The board of our organisation has policies governing workplace behaviour by employees and management and,where necessary,engages independent investigators to deal with complaints.”

The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories,analysis and insights.Sign up here.

License this article