A third of Napier’s Westshore School students left without suitable ride to school

* An initial version of this story included a quote saying public transport bus drivers do not need to be vetted. In Hawke’s Bay, all Go Bus public transport is driven by bus drivers who have been police vetted.

Westshore School students could soon find themselves having to take public transport to school as a review deems almost a third of the children are ineligible to ride.

Out of the 93 enrolled students at the Napier school, 29 are affected by changes to the Bay View school bus routes due to come into effect at the end of term four.

Principal Martin Madden said it was not safe for primary school-aged children to catch public transport to and from school each day alone and the designated bus was needed.

“Anyone can ride that bus. We don’t know who they are, good or bad, how is that safe for our children?”

He said the alternative bus option would have children aged 5, 6, and 7, arriving at school at 7.20am and getting picked up at about 4pm.

Westshore School students have been impacted by the changes to the Bay View routes. Photo / Michaela Gower

“Who is going to look after the safety of those students?”

Madden said it could impact attendance levels and ultimately would affect the funding they were eligible for.

“Say worst case scenario we lose the 29 students, we are only funded on the students we have got. I probably wouldn’t have enough money to keep the maintenance of the school up, let alone resources and staffing.”

Martin Madden said it was not appropriate for young students to catch a public bus. Photo / Michaela Gower

He said previous school bus zoning allowed parents to enrol at the school from as far as Te Pōhue and Tangoio knowing they could use the bus.

“They need to look at schools individually before they make those decisions,” Madden said.

He hoped to secure funding for a school van but said one van would not have enough seats for all the impacted students.

The Ministry of Education completed a review of school bus routes and found that a number of students were using the bus to bypass their nearest school and were ineligible for the ride.

Ministry group manager of transport James Meffan said changes to the public transport network in Napier meant they needed to look at all of the school bus services.

“Over time there have been changes in the location of eligible students and the schooling network that may have affected the status of these school bus routes.”

Reviews of school bus services are also occurring across the country and Meffan said “the ministry does not undertake route reviews with the specific intention of saving costs”.

He said changes to the routes would affect about 365 ineligible students.

“Our review found that a number of students currently using our services are actually ineligible for school transport assistance as either they are not attending their closest school or there is public transport available.”

Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings and Central Hawke’s Bay newsrooms. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and has a love for sharing stories about farming and rural communities.