If the exclusive Ascham private school for girls in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs was a public company then the governing council would be under pressure to resign following the explosive events of yesterday and last night, which now resemble a farce.

As it stands, the school is like a private company, but that will not save the council or the school from some wrenching changes that lie ahead. The situation is a piquant one for some of Sydney’s heaviest hitters, involved as councillors or concerned parents.

On the Council there’s a senior company director, a Federal Court Judge, investment banker, a leading accounting Group’s CEO, a confidant of Frank Lowy and a director of Kerry Packer’s PBL.

Among the parents, investment bankers, bankers, brokers and high profile people like Bettina Arndt. Former Chief Justice, Sir Laurence Street chaired a protest meeting last night and is clearly onside with the concerned parents and not the old guard.

Plus there are unconfirmed rumours in The Sydney Morning Herald that Susan Preedy has found refuge in the home of an Ascham old girl, Gretel Packer.

There are other media people, business leaders, CEOs and people in private business among a long list of email addresses sighted by Crikey from the Concerned Parents group.

Those parents, around 300, met at the University of NSW and passed a motion of No Confidence in the Ascham Council last night. That meeting was chaired by Sir Laurence. It’s real Emerald City stuff with life in the wealthy eastern suburbs dominated for much of the past fortnight by the Ascham affair.

CRIKEY: Read the full story in the site here: https://uat.crikey.com.au/articles/2005/03/008-0001-3091.html