Masterton school to contest decile hike

DILEMMA: Fernridge School principal Janine Devenport is facing the greatest change in decile rating of any school in Wairarapa in the latest round of recalculations. PHOTO/FILE.

Fernridge School is facing the greatest decile leap in Wairarapa and will contest the new rating, says principal Janine Devenport.

Ms Devenport said the Masterton school, which has a roll of 205 students, was told its rank will be raised from four to seven - the greatest decile change in Wairarapa - and about $12,500 in government funding would be sliced from its budget.

"We are going to go for a review. I definitely think our community has changed from a four but I don't know if we are a seven," she said.

"As far as I'm aware we're facing the biggest jump in Wairarapa. I wasn't very happy at all when I was told but once we get our final letter, then we can start finding creative solutions," she said.

Ms Devenport was expecting about $6000 to be cut from the school budget in July next year, with the balance slashed 12 months later.

The decile system rates schools from one to 10, based on criteria including the wealth of the students' neighbourhoods as gauged by census returns. Rankings were to be re-set this month for the first time since the 2006 census.

Lakeview School principal Ed Hodgkinson said his school, which had a roll of about 460 students, had shifted down a funding band within decile 2 and will get an extra $30,000 a year in funding.

Mr Hodgkinson, who is also president of the Wellington Regional Primary Principals Association (WRPPA), believes the decile funding system will be replaced and "new ways to calculate funding are likely to be in force before the next census".

Some decile ratings for Wairarapa schools had remained unchanged including Wairarapa College at decile 6, Masterton Intermediate School (MIS) at decile 5, Wainuioru School at decile 9, St Teresa's School in Featherston at decile 7, and Solway Primary School in Masterton at decile 6.

MIS principal Russell Thompson said schools all battle "to provide the best deal possible for our kids when the amount of funding that we get does not even come close to meeting these needs", while Solway Primary School principal Gail Marshall believed "if we did not have contributions from the families, these children would not receive the help they need".

Mauriceville School principal Rebecca Stevens said she would seek a review of its decile rise from 4 to 5, as the ranking was based on the farming community surrounding the school and not the students' community.

She was confident a review will return a decile 4 ranking, which was more equitable.

Greytown School principal Kevin Mackay said his school was facing a rise from decile 6 to 8, which was "manageable".

Ponatahi Christian School principal Peter Bertram said the decile rating for the school had risen from 7 to 8.

He believed that while decile rating sometimes set unfair performance expectations, the system "does level the playing field in that higher decile schools are generally able to raise much more funds from their community than lower decile schools".