Axing Queenstown school buses could endanger students, impact attendance, principal says

Checkpoint - RNZ
Checkpoint@rnz.co.nz

A Queenstown principal believes plans to axe 10 dedicated school buses will have severe impacts on student attendance and could put children in danger travelling to and from school.

The Ministry of Education is reviewing 17 routes which ferry almost 700 students to and from school.

It said it has found only 271 students are eligible for Ministry-funded buses.

Queenstown Primary said the public buses are already full and simply don't have room for the students if they're forced to switch.

It is also concerned the bus stops are not safe for young students.

Queenstown Primary principal Fiona Cavanagh told Checkpoint removing the school buses will have extremely serious impacts.

"We've got huge safety concerns for our children not being able to walk safely to and from the nearest public bus stops ... the routes in town require our children using crossings at busy intersections."

Around 220 students from the school would be affected by the change, and have to catch a public bus, which Cavanagh said were often at or beyond capacity.

"If a public bus is full, they won't stop for to pick up any more passengers, and the bus system currently is full."

She said if students had to move onto public buses, something would need to be done about the current system.

"Attendance will be impacted hugely, children will be left waiting on the side of the road for another bus."

Cavanagh also worried about the areas that students would be waiting at.

"The affected bus stops lack safe waiting areas ... students were waiting outside a liquor store, which would be one of the bus stops that they would be dropped off at in the morning and collected at the end of the day."

She said the possibility of the children waiting outside of a liquor store was "awful".

With hundreds of students potentially needing to catch the public bus, Cavanagh took them down to the bus stop to test out how things would work.

"They were overflowing off the current footpath, they were in the forecourt of Super Liquor and there were the public wanting to use that footpath as well, so it was just looked like an accident waiting to happen."

There were about 200 students who lived at least 6km away from the school, making them eligible for the Ministry buses according to Cavanagh.

She said if the routes were pulled, it would also have a huge impacts on parents.

"It'll force parents to drive, adding hundreds of extra cars into an already gridlocked school zone and central Queenstown at peak times.

"Parents are going to lose their own valuable work time transporting their children, it's going to reduce productivity and put stress on employers and households."

The Ministry of Education said it is still considering feedback from the affected schools in Queenstown and will communicate with them once a decision is made.

It said caregivers are responsible for safely transporting their children to and from school or school bus stops - and they are best placed to decide the safest way to do this.

The Ministry said it is important to note its school transport assistance is only provided to support eligible students, and it must apply its policy consistently across New Zealand to ensure school transport funding is allocated fairly and efficiently.