College Governance

St Joseph’s College is a Catholic School in the Brigidine tradition with a long and rich 130 year history.

Kildare Ministries

In September 2013 Kildare Ministries was established by the Holy See as a Public Juridic Person (PJP) at the request of the Congregation of the Sisters of St Brigid (Brigidine Sisters) to succeed and to carry on the ministries previously conducted by the Brigidine Sisters in Australia. Its civil incorporation is under the Roman Catholic Church Communities Lands Act 1942 (NSW) under the name Trustees of Kildare Ministries (TKM). In March 2014 the Victorian Institute of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Presentation Sisters) was accepted as the second member of TKM. As a PJP, the Trustees of Kildare Ministries is the Catholic Church authority for the ten schools and three community works previously conducted by the Brigidine and Presentation Sisters.

In April 2014, Kildare Education Ministries (KEM), a public company limited by guarantee under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), was incorporated to govern the Brigidine Colleges in Victoria and South Australia. The Board Directors of KEM are appointed by TKM to govern the Colleges in the areas of education, finance, property and employment responsibilities and to plan for the ongoing development of the Colleges. As such, KEM is the civil authority for each of the seven schools. TKM, has reserve powers in areas such as the ratification of the appointment of a Principal and approval of capital loans.

Each College conducted by KEM is responsible for the Catholic ethos and mission of the school and for the administration of the temporal goods assigned to it for its work.

The Stewardship Council of each school has delegated authority from KEM in matters such as policy, strategic planning, annual budget recommendations and community liaison.

The principal of each school has delegated responsibility from KEM to employ and supervise staff and to lead the College in the areas of faith and mission, stewardship of resource, wellbeing of the community and compliance and risk management.