Omanu board chairman Ady van der Beek said the board wanted to be able to manage its numbers, which hit a record 631 students, according to Omanu's 2014 annual report.
"The school roll was growing that rapidly, we were concerned campus did not have capacity for further growth."
Mr van der Beek said more families had moved into the zone, so the decision was made at the beginning of last year to shrink the furthest end of the zone, pulling it back from Girven to Concord to see if that would moderate growth.
Siblings of Omanu students would still be "grandfathered" into the school.
"There has been a slight reduction and it has curbed the percentage increase we were getting year after year and we've maintained where we were two years ago ."
He said the hope was to ease the roll or even drop it over the next two years and stop the need for rapid expansion, so spaces built for functions such as art could be used for their initial purposes instead of being used as classrooms.
The shrunken boundary left parents such as Elton Haakma with fewer choices.
Mr Haakma's 4-year-old twins could attend school in August when they turned 5, but he said the family would probably wait until next year to send Alexis and Corrin to school.
"We're only zoned for Arataki. At first, we weren't too keen on it, but have heard positive things about it and maybe would try it out."
Mr Haakma said a Catholic school was probably not an option, because the family was not Catholic, and private schools were too expensive.
The family moved to Bayfair Estates in 2012, and Mr Haakma said that, until recently, he had not given schools much thought.
"We get a lot of stories and are going mainly on what we hear. We were even thinking about home schooling, but she [his partner] wasn't entirely confident. We've only got one choice and it's just Arataki and I think we should have more than one choice."
Arataki principal Shelley Blakey said she believed the neighbourhood school should be the first choice.
"An important message I'd like to get out in our community is the perception of Arataki doesn't match the reality.
"We've got talented teachers, an awesome community, there's new leadership and that's creating huge changes for everything we do."
Mrs Blakey said the concept that a lower socio-economic level equalled "less than" needed to change.
"Income doesn't define who you are as a person and your values and things like that. We have an awesome community. If people could see us in action they'd be blown away."
Mrs Blakey said her school was trending 10 per cent higher across all areas compared with last year's test results.
"This puts us on track to meet the national average. We have good quality teaching in every class. If there's any child experiencing difficulty, we've got robust tracking systems in place."
Ross Stanway, chief executive of Realty Services, which owns Eves and Bayleys, said the entire Tauranga region was well-served by its schools. "There's certain schools people want their children to go to and start looking around that school, but to be fair, a lot of choice goes to what school they went to and what school their other kids are at. In general, there are plenty of options. I don't think there's any one school that has an overwhelming popularity."
Mr Stanway said for young families, education was a major consideration when they were choosing where to live.
"But as for which school they choose - how long is a piece of string?"
Maree Wilkinson recently bought a house near Mount Primary and said she felt lucky to have found a home on Tay St through a private sale that the family could afford.
"It's been great. It wasn't so much I wanted my kids to go to Mount Primary because it's the only school; they've been there since day one. The kids' friends are there and we said, 'let's make it work'."
Mrs Wilkinson said she felt so strongly about not changing things for her kids, she even drove them 45 minutes from Whakamarama to Mount Primary for three months when the family decided to try rural living two years ago.
"It was beautiful, I loved it out there, but I said, 'I'm not pulling the kids out of school and their environment when I'm not sure I want to live out there' ... it got to a point where it was really hard. The kids hated the drive, so we moved back and rented."
Mrs Wilkinson said once rents hit $550, the family decided it made more sense to buy, and she wanted a place where her kids could walk or skateboard to school.
Mount Primary school's roll sits at 463 which has increased from around 400 five years ago. The school has an enrolment zone, and considers out-of-zone applications case-by-case.
Arataki Primary's principal said the school had no enrolment zone. Mrs Blakey said the student roll is 346, down from 361 at the end of last year. She'd like to see numbers hit 380.
"I think that would be optimistic, but it would be ideal."
Mrs Blakey says pulling in neighbourhood students who'd otherwise attend other schools "would be incredible".
"The parents I've spoken to that are here now but were reluctant to come ... they're absolutely rapt with how their children are achieving and with the social aspect of the school. The beauty of our schools is they create community. If we're drawing from our community, it's only going to strengthen it," she said.
Learning within the zones
A total of 23 schools in Tauranga and the Western Bay of Plenty have enrolment schemes, with an additional one, at Tauriko School, beginning in Term 3 this year.
Tauranga Boys' College
Tauranga Girls' College
Otumoetai College
Papamoa College
Tauranga Intermediate School
Otumoetai Intermediate School
Tauranga Primary School
Matua School
Golden Sands School
Otumoetai Primary School
Pillans Pt School
Pahoia School
Te Akau ki Papamoa
Omanu School
Omokoroa Pt School
Omokoroa School
Tahatai Coast School
Bethlehem School
Greenpark School
Maungatapu School
Papamoa Primary School
Mt Maunganui Primary School
Selwyn Ridge School
- Ministry of Education
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