A local school is fighting back against the Ministry of Education’s approach to overcrowded school buses.

Hawea Flat School principal Tania Pringle told the Wānaka App the school has been working proactively to address the need for more buses for the school since last year.

The school’s roll has been steadily increasing for years, and 95 extra children have started at the school this year, taking the roll to almost 300.

Because of the pressure on the buses, the school asked the MoE to provide Luggate with its own bus run; extend the Luggate bus run to Queensbury; and provide an additional bus for Lake Hāwea. 

While the MoE agreed to address the first two requests it said it would not provide an additional bus for Lake Hāwea until buses were regularly going over the bus loading certificate.

“This means on a 43 seat bus we would have to have up to 65 children seated, with approximately three children to every seat, eight children along the back seat, and up to 10 children standing,” Tania said.

More Hāwea children would use the bus service if safety concerns were addressed.

Until that happens, the MoE has offered a temporary solution of a ‘run back’ for the bus on days when it is full, and it has not specified how often this would have to happen to justify a new bus.

“On these days we would be required to keep some children back at school and then the bus would complete a different route. This would mean on some days some children will be dropped home at different times than usual and to a different stop,” Tania said.

“It is not workable for our community.”

The bind for the school is that it refuses to allow children to stand on buses, so it will never meet the MoE’s criteria for a new bus.

“We shouldn’t have to get to that point,” Tania said.

“Our roads are quite narrow, they are uneven and are mostly [driven] at the open road speed limit,” she said, adding that more families would use the school buses if safety concerns such as overcrowding were addressed.

Last month the Wānaka App asked the MoE for an update on the issue of overcrowded buses, and was told by infrastructure and digital leader Scott Evans that under new procurement contracts from January next year, bus operators will be required to supply seating for the expected number of eligible student passengers published with the tender.

However Tania said this is obfuscation, as bus allocations are set at the beginning of the tender, but if rolls increase buses can still be filled up to the loading certificate.

The MoE continues to tell the school it has supplied a solution (the proposed ‘run back’) and will not discuss it further.

“We have gone backwards and forwards with the Ministry of Education for the last 18 months. They are just telling us the same thing,” Tania said.

The school board of trustees (with the support of Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean) has developed a petition to the government to reconsider its school bus provision.

“While the petition is for our school, we hope it will be of benefit to other schools,” Tania said.

For now, the school is hoping the petition and recent media coverage will change the MoE’s position.

PHOTOS: Wānaka App