Fight to save bus
Rawson may soon lose its school bus, after a recent government review found some students live 20 metres too far from their school to be eligible.
It is believed the state government could save $150,000 by ditching the school bus service, which must have eight eligible passengers to run.
Rawson may soon lose its school bus, after a recent government review found some students live 20 metres too far from their school to be eligible for the service.
It is believed the state government could save $150,000 by ditching the school bus service, which must have eight eligible passengers to run.
For students to be eligible for travel on a school bus, they must live more than 4.8 kilometres from their school using the most direct ‘practicable’ route, as defined by the Education Department.
Three of the eligible students from Rawson live 4.78 kilometres from the school using the sealed main road. The government review found that using the unsealed McLelland Rd, which is unsuitable for the school mini-bus, the distance from home to school is 4.5 kilometres.
“McLelland Rd is consistently one of the worst roads in the shire,” said Baw Baw Shire Cr Michael Leaney.
“It’s like saying the shortest, most practicable route between Bass and Paynesville is to get in a boat.”
Cr Leaney has sent letters to the Education Department, as well as Member for Eastern Victoria Harriet Shing, asking the decision to be reversed.
The bus route was assessed by the department six months ago, but parents were notified only in the past two weeks.
The department allowed the community two weeks to appeal, but that appeal process ended today.
The bus is used by 15 students at Rawson Primary School, as well as four students from Lowanna College in Moe.
There is another school coach to Rawson, used by students attending schools in Moe, but the four students from Lowanna must use the Rawson mini-bus in the afternoons.
Due to arrangement of intersections in Moondarra, the original school coach that picks up Moe-bound students cannot stop, as sightlines are not suitable for the coach to turn around to travel in a northerly direction.
Instead, the four high school students are dropped off at another bus stop and picked up by the Rawson mini-bus. If the mini-bus service is discontinued, parents say those students will be unable to get home.
Parents of students enrolled at Rawson Primary School worry the loss of their bus route may be a sign of things to come.
“I know if we lose the bus there are four kids who will be withdrawn,” says Lyndsay Dunn, whose children attend the 29-student Rawson Primary School.
“If we lose the bus is it going to be a downward spiral? Will we lose the school?”
Cr Leaney echoes those sentiments.
“This is a slow burn,” he says. “It’s thin edge of the wedge stuff.”
“These remote communities pay the same in rates but they get services like this,” he says. “We’ve seen this before with bureaucrats making these decisions. Once the service is gone, it won’t come back.”