23 September 2008.
Nancy Bicchieri, a lawyer, was appointed Deputy Director of the Melbourne Catholic Education Office in August 2008 and takes up her appointment at the end of September.
Many had been hoping that the new Deputy would be a person of rich experience in education and Catholic education in particular. Ms Bicchieri is neither.
Many had been hoping that the new Deputy would have diplomatic skills and experience to facilitate dealings with governments.
This appointment is critical because of the re-structuring of the CEO leadership which took place during 2006. An article entitled “
Stephen Elder’s appointment as Acting Director alarmed many priests, principals, teachers and CEO administrators. He has little education qualification or teaching experience and very little Catholic education experience. He also lacks accreditation to teach in Catholic schools and the separate accreditation to teach Religious Education in Catholic schools. He has no theological training or qualification. He has not demonstrated an understanding of church relationships or church policy.
To complicate matters Stephen Elder is identified with the Liberal Party. He held a Liberal seat in the Victorian parliament during the Jeff Kennett administration. He got a Liberal staff job with David Kemp after he lost his seat in the election that brought Steve Bracks to power. The Director’s task includes consulting with State and Federal governments on funding. Clearly, being aligned with one party complicates this task.
Concern about the possibility of his being appointed Director was expressed at a CEO consultation day with the priests who are the proprietors of Catholic primary schools. Archbishop Hart assured the priests at a meeting of his Priest’s Council that the search for the next Director would be an open one.
Stephen Elder, nonetheless, was appointed Director by Archbishop Hart on 20 December 2006 – without any public advertisement or selection process. The eve of Christmas timing, after the schools had broken up for the summer holidays, cloaked the widespread consternation which the appointment caused.
The period since Mr. Elder’s appointment has been notable for lack of vision and leadership. This is hardly surprising in the light of his lack of qualifications listed above.
The Director’s office is an ivory tower. Consultation is minimal. Consultation with governments has been confrontational and political rather than diplomatic. This has not been helped by the Liberal leanings of Archbishop Hart and Cardinal Pell.
There was an expectation that the impasse would be obvious to the leadership of both the CEO and the Archdiocese of Melbourne. The solution would be the appointment of a Deputy who would be thoroughly familiar with Catholic education in Melbourne and be a politically neutral diplomat who could take on the task of contact with governments.
The appointment of a lawyer to the position of Deputy goes counter to those hopes. The rationale being spread around is that the leadership team needs a lawyer because of recent trends in educational administration. Very strange when legal consultants abound. What it really needs is qualification, competence and experience in Catholic Education - at the top.
Let’s hope that Ms Bicchieri is a very good listener to a demoralized CEO administration and a very fast learner of diplomatic skills for dealing both with staff, politicians and the various levels of church authorities.
