Dormitory Used as Residence for Principal's Relative... Administrative Action at Changwon Gyeongil High School

Electricity and Water Bills Refund Measures Amounting to Over 10 Million Won

The Gyeongnam Office of Education announced on the 8th that it has identified a private school corporation in the province that had been using the school dormitory as official residences for the chairman and relatives without permission for decades, and has imposed administrative sanctions on the related parties.

According to the audit results released by the provincial Office of Education, the principal of Changwon Gyeongil High School, the corporation chairman, the younger sister and mother of a teacher who is the principal’s third cousin, used the dormitory building as official residences.

The corporation chairman, who is the spouse of the school founder and the current principal’s mother, has lived in the dormitory building since its completion to the present, and although the teacher who is the principal’s third cousin did not live there, his younger sister and mother also resided in the dormitory.

The principal allowed only his family members, who are not school staff, to use the school building for a long time as official residences, and the electricity and water bills incurred were paid from the school expenses.

Gyeongnam Office of Education.
Photo by Lee Seryeong

The dormitory at Gyeongil High School was built as a two-story building in 1987, and two additional floors were added in 1993. It is currently operated as five residential official residences and one lecture room.

Among the five official residences, two are unoccupied and managed like storage rooms, excluding the three used by the principal and his family. The lecture room on the fourth floor was used as a multipurpose room for students and staff for about 10 years but is currently vacant.

The school is understood to have changed the building’s designated use from dormitory to official residence in the building register in December last year.

Chairman A resigned from the corporation chairman position in December last year, and teacher B moved their residence to the official residence.

Principal C reportedly explained, “It was simply a failure to properly designate the building’s use as an official residence, but it was built from the beginning to be used as an official residence,” and added that it is also registered as a staff house in the School Facilities Integrated Information System (Eduville).

The provincial Office of Education imposed a minor disciplinary action of salary reduction on Principal C, and issued a warning and a caution to the chairman and the teacher, respectively.

The public utility fees for the official residences amounting to 10,581,330 won paid from the school accounts over the past five years were collected from the residents and returned to the school accounts.

Additionally, a survey on official residence occupancy wishes was conducted for all school staff, the official residences were maintained, and the vacant lecture room on the fourth floor was put to appropriate use.

The provincial Office of Education’s auditor stated, “There have been almost no guidance or supervision due to the lack of regulations on the management of private school official residences,” and added, “The responsible department will identify the status of private schools in the province and establish standards and measures to strengthen official residence management.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.