By CASEY NEILL
CHANDLER Park Primary School principal Peter Paul has retired after half a century in education.
Earlier this year Mr Paul was implicated in corruption claims at the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission hearing.
Mr Paul denied any wrongdoing.
The school has confirmed it will start the process of selecting his replacement early next year.
Meanwhile, the State Government has confirmed it will sell the former Maralinga Primary School site after it was vacated earlier this year.
The announcement prompted media reports that Chandler Park School was slated for closure.
Chandler Park and Maralinga merged six years ago but had continued to operate from separate campuses, waiting for funding to upgrade Chandler Park to accommodate all students.
Mr Paul made the decision to close Maralinga before the 2015 school year and bring all classes to Chandler Park in the hope that the State Government would sell the Maralinga site and the proceeds would fund the upgrade.
His lobbying secured $500,000 in funding for design and planning works.
But his efforts were tarnished in April at Operation Ord hearings at the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC).
The Education Department suspended Mr Paul in April while it fully investigated his conduct, and assistant principal Naomi Reed took the helm.
The anti-corruption commission heard that Chandler Park and Silverton Primary School were “banker schools” used to hold Education Department funds to distribute to neighbouring schools as needed.
But it was alleged that Education Department public servants misused the funds to pay for their own perks such as travel, furniture and wine.
Between 2007 and 2014, Chandler Park was invoiced for more than $150,000 for purchases from companies linked to now-sacked Education Department school resources director Nino Napoli.
In that period, the school had bought nearly $30,000 of Italian wine from Mr Paul’s wine-merchant son Matthew Paul allegedly for the benefit of education bureaucrats.
Mr Paul said he “implicitly trusted” Mr Napoli, and didn’t ask questions such as why the wine was being delivered to Mr Napoli’s home address.
He told the hearing through a lawyer that he “categorically denies any wrongdoing”.
“He did what he was instructed by a senior person who he trusted and respected,” his lawyer said.
“Mr Paul received absolutely no personal benefit for operating as a banker school for Mr Napoli.”
