STAFF at Mowbray College began asking questions about the school’s financial viability about two years before it collapsed, a court has heard.
The revelation came on the final day of a public examination in the Supreme Court into the closure of the school, which had campuses at Melton and Caroline Springs.
The court last week heard former principal Margaret Goddard had raised concerns about the school’s financial situation and in 2010 had asked the college’s board to pass a motion that it was solvent.
The school closed in June last year with debts of $28 million.
In 2010, Ms Goddard notified the board she was worried about declining enrolments, Associate Justice Rodney Randall was told.
Earlier in the hearing, the school’s former chairman, John Wallace, told the court he believed the school was solvent in 2010, despite Ms Goddard having voiced her concerns.
Mr Wallace said he expected “our creditors to be paid as they usually were” in the middle of 2010.
Mr Wallace said valuations of the school’s properties “strongly suggested” it was not insolvent in the middle of 2010.
Mr Wallace told the court he had travelled to Hong Kong in 2010 to work on plans for a kindergarten franchise, but this never eventuated. Some directors had hoped to raise $US100 million from a Middle East finance house to fund the venture, the court heard.
Former directors Anthony Keirsten-Wakefield and Kevin Yates also appeared at the examination.
