Key points
- A new-look board seized control of East Preston Islamic College late last year.
- Parents and senior staff were planning a rally at the school on Friday morning.
- They want to show support to the former principal and his deputy who were both stood aside by the board in recent weeks.
- The state government regulator has announced a review of the school.
The Victorian schools regulator has launched a review of an Islamic college in Preston after it was engulfed in governance woes and its principal and vice principal were stood down.
The leadership turmoil has prompted alarmed parents and senior students to organise a rally outside the school gates on Friday morning to show their support for the two sidelined principals.
The schools regulator is reviewing governance at East Preston Islamic College after a new board stood down the school’s two most senior staff members.
The board of East Preston Islamic College (EPIC) stood down the school’s acting principal this week, giving staff no explanation, less than three weeks after they removed her predecessor for alleged and unspecified misconduct.
In response, the school’s latest acting principal issued a written warning to families late on Thursday that participation in the protest breaches the school’s code of conduct and “could lead to suspension or more serious consequences”.
The low-fee private school is governed by 11 Melbourne-based Islamic community groups, six of whom formed an alliance late last year to topple the former school board.
One of the new board’s first major moves was to refuse to pay teachers their salaries, in a stand-off with the former board over control of the school’s finances that was only resolved after Supreme Court mediation.
Staff at the school have been told Neil Hasankolli, the school’s principal and a long-serving senior staff member, has been stood down due to “alleged serious misconduct”, but have been given no further details.
Assistant principal Masiha Rayan, who was acting principal in Hasankolli’s stead, was then stood down earlier this week for unexplained reasons. The board had previously praised her performance in correspondence to staff. Rayan is also the school’s VCE co-ordinator.
About 100 teachers and support staff at EPIC have signed a petition calling for Hasankolli’s reinstatement. The school’s three canteen staff have also left.
Parents and senior students are planning to rally outside the school gates on Friday morning in a show of solidarity with Hasankolli and Rayan.
Nedime Hyska, who has two primary school-aged children at the school, said the leadership instability was taking a toll on students’ education, particularly senior students, as Rayan played an important supporting role for them.
Hyska said the new board was mismanaging the school.
“I don’t think they are seeing the wider picture,” she said. “They are selfish, not thinking about the students, they’re thinking about themselves.”
The school – now led by acting principal Sonya Hammoud – has hired security staff to guard the front gates on Friday morning in response.
Hammoud said she could not comment on the dual stand-downs because there was an ongoing legal investigation, but said she had just been appointed by the new board and was seeking a peaceful resolution to the school’s problems.
“At the moment we need to pacify the situation,” Hammoud said.
She said any protest outside the school would not help students.
“It is actually conflicting with the education of our students; we are here to educate and achieve good student outcomes, so we want to find some sort of peace in the situation,” she said.
The Age has sought to contact college board chairman Edin Dzelalagic and board secretary Fouad Hassan.
Independent Education Union deputy secretary David Brear said the issues at the school were deeply concerning.
“While it is still unclear how the governance structure has so badly failed the school, what is clear is that none of this is the fault of students, families or hard-working staff, and it is essential for their sake that stability is returned immediately,” Brear said.
“As we did to recover unpaid wages in January, we will not hesitate to take legal action if required to protect our members.”
Brear said EPIC had built a well-deserved reputation as a good school that plays an important community role, and was the first Islamic school in Victoria to protect and improve staff employment conditions through a union-negotiated agreement.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said, “a cyclical review of East Preston Islamic College is currently under way.”
The review by the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority includes the school’s governance arrangements.
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