The well-respected former leader of the Ballarat boys' college was recruited to handle a rising controversy at elite Toorak school St Kevin's College in February but last month announced he would not continue there beyond his current acting role.

This month a letter from Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA), the overarching body for St Patrick's College Ballarat and St Kevin's College, confirms that the former Ballarat principal has been appointed to a new position.

In April, EREA appointed Steven O'Connor, a former deputy headmaster and current head of school at Santa Sabina College in Strathfield in Sydney, as principal of St Pat's to commence next year.

Mr Crowley has since been appointed to work as the Director of Partnerships with EREA for a 12-month period commencing in January, 2021.

His role will involve designing and delivering key leadership projects, working on 'school renewal' and supporting associate schools.

In February, Mr Crowley had been appointed to the position just hours after the school's previous principal, Steven Russell, resigned in the wake of a scandal involving the school's handling of an alleged child grooming case.

Last month, Mr Crowley released a statement saying that while he had been a principal for well over a decade, he had made the decision to pursue "new directions".

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"Having been a principal for well over a decade now, and in some challenging yet hope-filled circumstances, I have decided the time is right for me to pursue new directions and consider other options that may present themselves," he said at the time.

"While I am unsure what this change might look like, I am certain it is the right decision. Being a principal is, without any doubt, one of the most rewarding jobs in the world, but it is also a very demanding one."

Mr Crowley was appointed to the position at St Kevin's following years of working with and supporting survivors of sexual abuse as principal of St Patrick's College.

He came to Ballarat in 2015 - a tumultuous time - and led the school community through the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

He was well-respected as principal and did not shy away from recognising the school's history of sexual abuse and taking steps to apologise to survivors and make the school a safer place.