Friends at odds

ALL EARS! Alexandra School chairman Keith Simmons (left) listening intently to a point being made by principal Jeff Broomes (right) as Broomes’ attorney Vernon Smith listens during a break in yesterday’s sitting of the Commission of Inquiry. 

When Keith Simmons was reappointed chairman of Alexandra School in 2008, he thought it would have been an easy task.
That was because  his personal friend  Jeff Broomes was  the principal.
Three years later, that friendship had deteriorated, and Simmons was on  the verge of resigning because of the “my  way or the highway” attitude of Broomes.
This was brought to light by Simmons yesterday as he began what is expected to be a marathon testimony at the Commission of Inquiry into the reasons that led to industrial action at the school earlier this year.