More than 100 students arrived late to Ōropi School this morning after the school was not warned about a road closure that caused traffic gridlock across parts of Tauranga.
Commuters reported heavy congestion on SH29A, with traffic backed up from the Ōropi Rd roundabout to Baypark.
Tauranga City Council had closed a section of Ōropi Rd to investigate an underslip, with the closure expected to remain in place until 6pm on Friday.
A detour was set up via SH29A, Cameron Rd and Maleme St. The council said the road would reopen if the work was completed ahead of schedule, with remedial work on the slip to take place later.
Ōropi School principal Andrew King said the school “heard nothing” from Tauranga City Council about the planned closure of Ōropi Rd between Maleme St and SH29A.
“As a result, a number of staff were very late to school.”
One bus carrying about 70 students arrived at school at 9.30am, almost an hour later than its usual 8.40am arrival. Another 50 students who were driven by their parents also arrived late.
“I understand these things happen, and we’ve also had issues in the past,” King said. “But affected schools should have been contacted so we could plan around the closure.”
He said advance notice would have allowed the school to work with its bus company on temporary alternative routes and to communicate with parents.
“We could have been able to communicate with our parents to say: you might want to consider bringing your kids to school yourself a bit earlier instead of relying on the school buses.”
Teachers were sent to collect some students along the bus route, as children as young as 5 were becoming upset or needed the bathroom. The school later sent out a message advising parents to expect delays.
“I had to do a bit of damage control,” King said. He told parents the school had not been alerted to the closure and had no time to prepare.
King said Ōropi School was in “no man’s land” geographically and often missed out on communications from councils.
Parent and NZME employee Theresa Richards said her Year 7 son, Blake Richards, left his bus and walked to Tauranga Intermediate after the bus became stuck in traffic.
“He said the bus wasn’t moving and the driver told them they’d get to school quicker if they walked,” Richards said.
Blake walked from Maungatapu Rd near the BP service station and arrived at school about 9.40am. Richards said she was worried about his safety, describing the bridge along Turret Rd as “not the safest place for them to walk”.
Another parent, Sam Case, said her daughter, Tauranga Girls’ College student Bella Fredericks, missed her first period of school.
The Year 11 student left home at 7.45am and arrived at school at 9.55am. Case said Bella spent about 40 minutes travelling just 2km. Bella was travelling in a Specialised School Transport Assistance (SESTA) vehicle.
Bella has functional neurological disorder (FND) and complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), and Case said long periods of sitting could cause her to “lock up completely”.
“I’m a bit nervous about how her body will react to a two‑hour car ride. She’s constantly in pain,” Case said.
Bella later told her mother she had medication to take and would rest in the afternoon. Case said she might keep Bella home tomorrow if her pain continued.
Tauranga City Council transport system operations manager Shawn Geard said the council received six complaints about SH29A traffic through its contact centre this morning.
“Unfortunately, the usual notification to schools wasn’t completed last week,” Geard said, describing it as an oversight due partly to the urgent nature of the slip investigation.
“We acknowledge our processes were not sufficient in this case, and we will be reviewing them to prevent future repeats of this issue,” he said.
“We apologise to the schools, students and their families for the inconvenience caused.”
Geard said council staff had since spoken with management at Ōropi and Greenpark schools.
Bijou Johnson is a multimedia journalist based in the Bay of Plenty. A passionate writer and reader, she grew up in Tauranga and developed a love for journalism while exploring various disciplines at university. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Studies from Massey University.