ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
The new principal at Green Road Public School in Betoota Heights says she’s looking forward to the challenging task of making sure all staff members hate her by Christmas, telling The Advocate that if you’re not universally despised by teachers and parents, then you’re not doing your job as school principal.
Wendy O’Pooley decided on a “bushchange” earlier this year and decided to leave behind her old life in Adelaide and set her compass north for the Diamantina.
Former Green Road principal Roger Williams OAM was a much-loved member of the Betoota community and his retirement marked the end of a life of service to education and child development out here on the fringe of the Simpson Desert.
“That actually makes my job easier,” said Ms O’Pooley.
“I can’t wait to tell people how to do their jobs. Tell them that to do things the right way, they must be done my way. The city way.”
Just how she plans on being hated so quickly, Wendy said she has her own methods.
“4:45pm Friday staff meetings. Creative discipline methods that see problematic children indulged for their bad behaviour and their yokel parents coddled and told it’s not their fault. I will organise work drinks at the pub down the road but then bail on them 2 hours prior. I’ll drive a mid-2010s model Mercedes Benz that’s not that much more expensive than say, a Subaru Outback but the fact I have the two-door Merc means that I think – and know that I’m better than the other staff members,”
“I will tell teachers that I hate NAPLAN but tell parents that it’s a pretty good gauge of how their dumb kid is going. I won’t rock the boat with the department to get the heaters fixed but I’ll have a space heater in my office because fuck you. I’ll be rostered on for playground duty but when it’s my turn, I’ll say I have a headache and have the meek but polite young man teaching year 3 to cover for me while I sit in my office and play on the phone,”
“The possibilities are endless.”
More to come.
