School zones pushing up house prices
An increase in primary school enrolment zones in Nelson city has seen some families move house in order to get their children into their preferred school, with some indications that this has helped to push up house prices around some schools.
Parents in Tasman district, meanwhile, say they have been forced to switch schools or homes because of Ministry of Education ‘‘bus zoning’’ rules, which have penalised families who don’t send their children to the nearest school.
Six of central Nelson’s 11 state primary schools have implemented enrolment schemes within the last four years.
A scheme creates a zone around a school, from within which the school has to accept children who enrol, and which limits the number of children from outside the zone who can attend.
Stoke School is one of a cluster of three primary schools that established a zone at the ministry’s request at the end of 2016, to manage rising rolls and projected growth.
With the school still close to capacity, it didn’t take any out-ofzone enrolments this year or last, principal Sarah Davies said.
While some families within its zone had chosen to enrol at other schools, other families had moved into the school’s zone so their children could attend, she said.
‘‘Last year we had three families that did that.
‘‘They have found rentals, or in one case the grandparents had a house in the zone, so they rearranged their living so that the family could be in zone.’’
A crossover of zones at Stoke, Nayland and Birchwood schools meant that in one block of streets, parents could choose between any of those schools, Davies pointed out.
‘‘Parents always make what they feel is the best fit for their child. We just try to be respectful of that.’’
Birchwood School principal Chris Herrick said its enrolment scheme, implemented two years ago, was under review as part of the ministry’s review process.
He was confident the ministry would now lift it.
Since the zone was put in place, an extra classroom had been built, raising the school’s capacity to 280 pupils, Herrick said. The forecast roll for the end of this year was 265.
Proximity to ‘‘good’’ schools played a part in people’s decisions around buying homes in the city centre, said the manager of Ray White real estate agents in Nelson, Grant Chaney.
For example, some areas around Hampden Street School had shown a ‘‘large appreciation in property in recent times’’, he said.
‘‘Part of that is proximity to town, part is proximity to good schooling
‘‘Property values are certainly higher as a benefit of being in those school zones.’’
Other real estate agents said school zones did not appear to be a driving factor, as they were in some parts of New Zealand.
While no Golden Bay schools have enrolment zones, families said enforcement of transport funding rules in the area had had the same effect.
Olly Rickets, who lives and works on a farm in East Takaka, said she had no choice but to move her sixyear-old daughter from Takaka Primary School to their nearest school, after the only bus company running routes in the area stopped picking her daughter up.
Golden Bay Coachlines stopped taking more than 50 children to and from school this year, after the ministry required the company to enforce national criteria, whereby those children couldn’t get a free bus ride to school. They were ineligible because they didn’t go to their nearest school, or because they lived within a few kilometres of their closest one.
‘‘It would cost me in excess of $100 a week and two hours a day to take my daughter to Takaka Primary and pick her up again,’’ Rickets said.
‘‘Add in the fact that we were running the farm, and I also have a young baby.
‘‘The stress of . . . feeling politically bullied into changing my child’s school was massively unpleasant.’’
Rickets initially sent her daughter, who has high needs, to Takaka Primary, 15 kilometres away, because the school had helped with her learning needs while she was at the kindergarten next door.
Switching to Takaka Central School, a two-classroom school, 5km away had turned out well, she said.
However, the ministry’s position that it was up to the bus company to decide what to do with children who were ineligible for the free bus ride was a copout, Rickets said.
‘‘Some of the kids were taking the bus because the roads aren’t safe – we live on highways . . . they’re not going to school in town, where there’s paths and pavements and bike lanes.’’
Earlier this month the ministry said bus companies it contracted to take children to and from school could sell spare capacity to ineligible students, but this was a private matter between the company and caregivers.
‘‘[The ministry] have forced bus zoning on non-zoned schools,’’ Rickets said.
‘‘It’s not cutting costs, because those buses still have to do all those bus runs to the end of those bus runs, because there are eligible kids at the end of those bus runs.’’
Rowan Forster and his wife have been running a minivan from Upper Takaka for five children who attend Takaka Primary, 23km away, and who can no longer get the bus because they bypass Central Takaka School on the way.
Forster said he was not considering switching schools. ‘‘Our son’s got ADHD, and Takaka Primary’s better suited,’’ he maintained.
If the family couldn’t get his son back on the school bus, the situation would become too expensive and they would have to move house, he predicted.
‘‘Who’s going to want to come and work on a dairy farm where you can’t send your kids to your chosen school [if it is not the closest]?’’