Business class flights taken by the wife of The King’s School’s headmaster to an elite British rowing regatta will need to be repaid, after an investigation found it was an improper use of its funds and a breach of the Education Act.revealed plans by the school’s head Tony George and his deputy, and both their spouses
The NSW Department of Education later launched an audit of the school due to concerns about possible misuse of taxpayers’ money after consulting the non-government schools not-for-profit advisory committee. Under the Education Act, private schools receiving public funding must ensure all income is used for educational objectives.
The Henley Royal Regatta, held at Henley-on-Thames, England, is the most prestigious regatta in the world.The department confirmed the school had been ordered to recover the costs for the flights for the head’s wife, and must provide evidence of the repayment to the department’s not-for-profit advisory committee. The investigation found the costs of deputy’s wife had already been repaid.
The furore led the deputy to pay for the trip out of his own pocket, sources said. The flight costs for the headmaster do not need to be repaid., saying it was standard practice among private schools to fly principals overseas with their spouses, and customary for the King’s head to travel business class. “These arrangements are entirely consistent with those of other independent schools that we are usually compared to,” Abrahams wrote in a letter to parents last year.
Both the plans for the plunge pool and flights provoked anger among some parents, with one member of the school community describing the optics as “terrible”.