While Hāwea Flat school grapples with overcrowded school buses and children having to stand in the aisles, Tarras School is facing the loss of a school bus run due to insufficient demand. 

School buses are vital to rural primary schools so when the Ministry of Education (MoE) decided to cancel a Tarras school bus run the community rallied with a campaign to have the decision  reversed.

Eight of Tarras School’s pupils use the bus service on three different runs which cover the Ardgour Valley, Jolly Road and up the Lindis Valley.

In the wake of a recent review of the bus services by the MoE, Tarras School’s principal Rachelle Haslegrave was told the Lindis Valley run would be curtailed from term one next year.

“School buses are vital in keeping our school open, allowing the children of rural families to attend their local school,” she said.

However, MoE policy is that each school bus run must carry a minimum of four children, and currently there is only one family, with two children, using the school’s 15-seater van on the Lindis run. 

Rachelle said the school advised MoE of the impact the loss of the bus run would have on the farming family who now will be forced to drive their children the 30km return trip over the Lindis twice a day, reducing the time spent on essential farmwork.

Even the “wonderful” local school bus driver supported the continuation of  the 20 minute bus run up the Lindis, Rachelle said, but MoE staff weren’t persuaded. 

“The decision was made in Wellington based on google maps,” she said.

The campaign to have the decision reversed has included letters to MoE supporting the bus run written by the school’s board, local mayor Tim Cadogan, Rural Women New Zealand and Otago MP Jacqui Dean’s office.

“We’ve tried to fight it,” Rachelle said. 

She said the decision is tough on the parents and tough on the two children who will miss the after school social interaction of their friends on the bus. Potentially the situation could go on for years as the youngest girl has only just started school and the oldest still has another three years at primary.

Next year 12 out 16 students will be relying on the Tarras School bus for transport but still not enough children living up the Lindis to meet the MoE’s minimum standard.

MoE’s school bus run policy needs to be less rigid; these children are not just “dots on a page” Rachelle said. 

PHOTO: Supplied