Govt Petition: Increase bus capacity for Hāwea Flat School children
The Hāwea Flat School board and management team have been working behind the scenes since mid 2020, trying to get the MOE to address the need for more school bus provisions at Hāwea Flat School. This week, significant traction has been made.
We have set up a petition to the government which is open for digital signatures for the next 3 weeks - please sign here: https://www.parliament.nz/en/petitions/sign/PET_116310.
More information on the bus situation to date:
Our initial request to the MOE included 3 requests;
To provide Luggate with it’s own bus run
To extend the Luggate bus run to Queensbury
To provide an additional bus for Lake Hāwea
These requests were made due to the school going through a sustained period of growth and increasing demand for the school bus service.
In mid 2021, after a lot of back and forth communication with multiple people in the MOE transport team, the MOE agreed to address the first 2 requests, but stated they would not provide an additional bus for the Lake Hawea area until we 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 - working out at approx 3 children to every seat, 8 children along the back seat and up to 10 children standing.
Until we reach this stage, the MOE has offered a temporary solution of a run back for the Timsfield bus for days when the bus is full. 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.
The above solutions are not workable. We have pointed this out to the MOE but they have refused to discuss this further. Due to the MOE’s lack of willingness to find a workable solution the school board has had to look at alternative ways to address this. Two actions have been taken:
Mayor Jim Boult was contacted to address the requirement for children standing on the bus. In 2018, Mr Boult worked with the MOE and the Ministry of Transport to reach an agreement that no children in the Upper Clutha Area would ever be required to stand on a school bus. It was also agreed that this issue would also be addressed at a national level when the school bus contracts were renewed in 2020/21. The MOE has now reneged on this agreement.
The board engaged the support of MP Jacqui Dean to address the additional bus provisions for the Lake Hāwea area. She recommended we petition the government asking for a review of our school bus provisions.
This week, significant traction has been made with these actions. Firstly, our petition to the government has now gone live and is open for digital signatures for the next 3 weeks. We ask that as many people as possible take time to sign this by following this link: https://www.parliament.nz/en/petitions/sign/PET_116310. Please share this with as many people as possible.
Secondly, after a lot of communication with the MOE and Ministry of Transport, Mr Boult has not been successful in addressing the issue of the MOE backing out of their agreement on children standing on school buses. Because of this he has now written to our PM Jacinda Ardern and has also been in contact with media. 1News is looking to run a report on this in the very near future. At this stage they will be visiting the school tomorrow afternoon, Wednesday 3 November to do interviews with myself and parents, and film our children getting on the bus.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like further information.
Regards,
Tania
Principal
Hāwea Flat School
