Bus clampdown riles parents

Parents of at least 120 Golden Bay students have been told they will have to pay $400 a year for each child to keep catching the school bus.

Golden Bay Coachlines will enforce Government rules in the small rural community, meaning students who don’t meet transport zone criteria will have to start paying for the ride to school.

The Ministry of Education has given the bus company until January 1, 2018, to start enforcing its regulations properly.

The move comes after Golden Bay Coachlines had been allowing more and more ineligible students to travel on the school buses.

Collingwood dairy farmer Deborah Rhodes said it would affect their family ‘‘hugely’’ because they lived just one kilometre outside the zone boundary.

‘‘We live on a main thoroughfare for one of the South Island’s biggest transport companies, Sollys, and on that road we have four one-lane bridges between us and school — with no walkways or cycleways.’’

Farming families often put their children on the bus and have to get straight back into the milking shed, she said. ‘‘We’re not always in a position to get in the car and drive our kids to school.’’

The lack of bus regulations in Golden Bay has meant that, for various reasons, parents often send their children to a school outside their ‘‘zone’’.

Kotinga mother of three, Tyler Langford, said this was something the small rural community had celebrated.

‘‘I understand where the bus company is coming from though — they are not getting funded and can’t continue taking these children as a community service.’’

She had been told by the bus company there was no guarantee her kids would get passage to school anymore, if the buses were full.

‘‘I’m mainly concerned about ensuring continuity of schooling for my kids,’’ she said.

Golden Bay Coachlines general manager Lorraine Crawford said how the changes would play out on some families was ‘‘quite harsh’’.

However, the $400 it would cost for each child per year equalled $1 per ride, and they had tried to keep costs as low as possible.

Crawford said a breakdown in communication between the bus company, parents and the schools was at fault for the rules not being followed properly.

‘‘Parents should be making private arrangements through us first before going through the schools, but that hasn’t always been happening,’’ she said.

Bus eligibility rules state that students must only access the bus when they are in the ‘‘zone’’ of their attended school.

Under ministry eligibility rules for school transport, students from years 1-8 must live at least 3.2 km from the nearest school, and students from years 9-13 must live 4.8 km away.

However, they may make their own way, at their own cost, to a bus stop and access a different ministry funded bus if they wish to attend a different school.

Golden Bay is unusual in that the three primary schools, Takaka Primary, Motupipi Primary and Central Takaka, were in such close proximity to one another.

Crawford said that in many cases, a student who goes to one of these three schools is deemed ineligible for any funding — because they live within walking distance to all three boundaries.

Collingwood Area School principal Caroline Gray said it was ‘‘absolutely appalling’’.

There was almost no cycleways and no pavements or walkways outside the townships. Gray was concerned so many of the students affected could not safely walk or bike to school.

‘‘Not only do the changes pose huge financial and practical implications to these families, but it also poses an enormous threat to the livelihood and safety of the students and drivers on the roads,’’ she said.

It wasn’t fair to ‘‘bluntly implement’’ the same policy across an entire country.

‘‘We don’t live in a metropolitan area and we have a unique set of rural circumstances that need to be taken into account.’’

Takaka Primary School principal, Jenny Bennett, said upset parents had reported to the school that it ‘‘feels like school zoning’’.

Its board of trustees was focusing on unearthing historic agreements made by the education board – prior to the MOE – to the closing committees of both Upper Takaka and Kotinga Schools.

‘‘Many people have told us that the education board promised these school’s students would have free transport to Takaka Primary upon their closure,’’ she said.

Minstry of Education acting head of education infrastructure, Rob Giller, said it understood the charges would be an additional expense parents had not faced before.

However, the parents of six out of seven school students around the country bore the cost of getting their child to school, or a student walks or cycles.

‘‘Parents in urban areas often pay considerable amounts for public transport to get their child to school,’’ he said.

MOE spent $190 million a year on school transport assistance, and that money was carefully used to help those students in most need.

‘‘For any family whose nearest appropriate school is some distance away, we are there to help, and that hasn’t changed.’’