By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A once-shy child who is now the inspirational leader of Emerson School has been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
John Nimon Mooney, 73, has received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his “service to education and to professional organisations”.
“Hopefully, this is recognition of what we’re doing here at Emerson School, and where we’re heading,” he says.
“It’s a brilliant school and only going to get spectacularly better.”
Mr Mooney found his voice after winning the Under-18 section of the Royal South Street oratorial competition as a “shy, sensitive and thoughtful” boarding school student in Ballarat.
He’d recited US president John F Kennedy’s speech calling for not an arms race but a peace race.
“That changed my life because I’d always been afraid to speak.”
Since 1998, as principal, he helped Emerson specialist school’s students find their voices.
“There are disabling factors holding students back and pulling them down – our job is to change that.”
One example being the globally-lauded documentary Singfest: The Literacy of Music.
The film by Amel Tresnjic recorded a day of intensive choral singing by 120 students from nine South East schools – state, Catholic and private, primary, secondary and specialist education.
It has won awards at film festivals in San Diego, Toronto, Calcutta and London – and most recently featured in the New York Times.
To Mr Mooney, it endorses the school’s music program and the “extraordinary standards” of education in Dandenong.
“The story is simple but the message is powerful.”
Emerson School’s “world-class” reputation has much to do with the staff, Mr Mooney says.
It has a spirit that’s “infectious” in a good way, a home to some of the wisest people he’s met. It’s a place where people like to be.
Now Mr Mooney leads a mission to provide facilities to match.
The Heatherton Road main campus has not been upgraded by the State Government since it was built in 1973 – the longest infrastructure drought of any Dandenong school, he says.
“We need everything old to be new again.”
Mr Mooney is hopeful that this year’s delayed State Budget will deliver $15.5 million of stage 1 funding.
In 2010, he’d laterally pitched for a $3 million advance to create the school’s middle campus from a “derelict” former school in Gloria Avenue.
Mr Mooney has famously stopped traffic in Heatherton Road to highlight the school’s lack of a signalised pedestrian crossing. After 12 years of lobbying, he still waits for State action.
He grew up as the youngest of four children in Ballarat North. The son of a railway engineer, Mr Mooney was the first of his family to complete Year 12.
“We were not poor because we were rich in things that mattered.
“I didn’t grow up in a house of books but I was always interested in things.”
In Year 12, he was on track for his sixth consecutive top-two finish as a sprinter when he hit a major hurdle.
He was hospitalised with suspected meningitis – a complication of mumps. The sickness nearly killed him and knocked his confidence.
At 25, he taught at primary school because he couldn’t afford university studies. He loved it.
Later he studied a Bachelor of Special Education – setting him on a path of running the Krongold Centre for exceptional children at Monash University and studying psychology in London.
In his stellar career, he has been awarded a Public Service Medal for his work for children with special needs and the Southern Metropolitian Region Principal of the Year 2006.
Among his many roles, Mr Mooney has been director of The Gorman Foundation since 1986. It aims to improve attitudes and relationships with people with disabilities in the community, he says.
He is an executive member of Australian Principals Federation, life member of Australian College of Educators and Fellow of Australian Council of Educational Leaders.
He has overcome major health flashpoints – chronic lymphocytic leukemia since 2002, a heart triple-bypass last year. But there’s no plans on stopping.
“I’m here to build the new school at Heatherton Road and I’m not leaving until it’s done. I’m going to crank up my efforts.”
Recently, he announced plans to write the school’s 50-year history.
He cites the memorable lines of one of his favourite poets Robert Frost.
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep.
“And miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep.”
