Hawke’s Bay school bus-route cancellations to force ‘truancy’ on rural families

Five 50-seater buses will have their routes terminated from Eskview and surrounding areas at the start of the next school year. Photo / NZME

Rural mothers in Hawke’s Bay say they will have to stop taking their children to school if bus routes are cancelled.

Community members descended on Eskview and Districts Rugby Club on Thursday evening to discuss with leaders and politicians the impending cancellation of some school bus routes from the area.

They met Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti, Federated Farmers Hawke’s Bay president Jim Galloway, Hastings Deputy Mayor Tania Kerr and organiser Norm Brown to talk about how the changes would affect their children and families.

Concerned rural residents meet at Eskview and Districts Rugby Club to discuss pending school bus cancellations. Photo / Jack Riddell

Currently, five 50-seater buses from Eskview and surrounding areas are set to have their routes cut at the start of term one next year, as well as a further three bus routes from the Clive area.

Mechelle Codd, from Kaiwaka, north of Napier, said she had tried to get her son into boarding schools but had missed out, leaving her with a 35-minute drive to the nearest bus stop. Without the bus, she will have to drive an hour and a half each way to get her son to school, hindered by news this week that repair work on State Highway 2 will continue for at least another 14 months.

Codd sent letters from her local community to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Act leader David Seymour but had not yet received replies.

“Pretty much, my story is I’m going to truancy [sic] my son,” Codd said.

“There’s no other option because boarding schools are full.”

She said she was unsuccessful in getting her son into Napier Boys’ High School and Lindisfarne.

“I’m not homeschooling. We’ve had a cyclone, Covid – I am not a teacher. I really don’t have any other option.

“I have to put it back on the ministry now. What do we actually do with these children?”

She said there were 48 primary-aged school children at her two closest rural schools. A percentage of them would get into boarding schools but there would be a “huge” percentage that wouldn’t.

“Now if this goes ahead with buses being pulled, it’s only going to put more pressure on the public schools.”

K.C. Jordan, from Te Pōhue, was facing a daily four-hour round trip to get her children to school if the bus routes were cancelled.

“It’s a s***show to be quite fair,” she said.

“There’s potential to have to move to send your kids to school – I don’t want to do that. And if I did, are there any rentals available? No.”

Napier MP Katie Nimon was unable to attend the meeting due to being in the northern part of her electorate. She told organisers the Government was “taking advice” on the situation.

So far this year, 176 routes have been or are being reviewed; 21 have been terminated while 11 have been replaced with different routes or combined with others.

Ministry of Education group manager of school transport James Meffan said the primary responsibility for getting children to and from school rested with their caregivers. However, the ministry might be able to help where distance or accessibility might be a barrier.

To be eligible to receive ministry-funded school transport assistance, there must be eight or more students using the bus, students must attend their local state or state-integrated school, and they must live within a certain distance of the school.