Backlash over planned bus route
Ministry accused of going silent after school raises safety concerns
The Ministry of Education has been accused of actively trying to avoid communications with a Hawke’s Bay school principal who raised safety concerns over a proposed new bus route.
The ministry proposed reducing a bus service that took students from the Central Hawke’s Bay village of Elsthorpe to schools in Havelock North last year.
Aletter sent to the principals of Elsthorpe School and schools in Havelock North said the proposed new bus stop, at 1234 Kahuranaki Rd, had been found to be not sufficiently safe.
After a backlash from parents and locals, Elsthorpe School principal Sandy Crawford invited a representative from the Ministry of Education to a community meeting in October 2019, whichwas attended by over 50 membersof the community.
However, an email exchange shared with Hawke’s Bay Today by resident Peter Fowler appears to show ministry staff dismissing Crawford’s concerns and pretending to show they were trying tomake contact by calling him, whenthey knew he was out.
In the days leading up to the meeting, the ministry’s national operations manager of transport Steve Guiney asked a staffmember to prove they’d attempted tomake genuine attempts to talk to Crawford.
Hesaid in an email: “You must try to reach the Principle/Board . . . show mea trail of attempts to talk via official means with this principal. I am not at all in favour of you or anyone fronting to discuss policy with people whoare ineligible to receive the benefits of at policy.”
In response, the staff member said had done that by calling Crawford when she knew he was away at a conference.
The ministry’s head of education infrastructure service Kim Shannon said the internal emails were “inappropriate”.
“I have made it clear to all my staff that I expect us to conduct ourselves with professionalism, integrity and accountability at all times,” she said.
At the community meeting, then Tukituki MP Lawrence Yule said the choosing of the new proposed turning point for the bus was “a bit amateur”.
Shannon also said that ministry staff and police inspected the Kahuranaki Rdsite together and agreed it was not suitable.
“We listened to the community feedback about the proposed changes to the bus routes servicing Elsthorpe, and did not change the route in 2019,” she said.
Shannon added that there will be no change to the Elsthorpe to Redbridge route in 2021.
Fowler said a “simple solution” would be a policy exemption for route, allowing one bus to go through two zones as it has done for40 years.
“But officials are ploughing ahead, trying to use transport zones and bus movements to over-ride Enrolment Zones and student rights in determining which school they attend,” he said.
“If the bus service is cut, caregivers will have to drive up to 45 minutes each way up to 4 times a day to get their children to High School, with no contribution to the cost of doing this.”
Between July 2019 and July 2020, the Ministry of Education initiated a review of 85 per cent of the school bus routes it funds nationwide, resulting in 544 being cut or changed.