I'm on the board of our local rural primary school here in Cambridge (Te Miro, RD4).
As with many little rural schools keeping up the number of pupils is a challenge especially when you are only 15-20mins from town.
However we have a unique(?) problem of the MoE deciding that year 7 & 8's can ride into the town middle school for free on the bus.
Our primary school is a Y7&8 school and the town middle school is over crowded.
Some Y7/8 kids, who take the bus, could walk to our school.
It feels like someone is out to ensure we fail/close.
We've been in touch with the MoE Waikato transport people but they are reluctant to re-review even though there have been complaints from others at the special treatment Te Miro gets which are contrary to the MoE guidelines/rules?
Is there anyone here who wishes they could get free transport for their Y7&8 kids but is being told "no, those are the rules"?
Those rules aren't being applied to all...
That's interesting. For our rural area school, the bus is free for those in the zone, those out of zone have to pay.
I won't name the west coastal area, but three years ago a young student from the coastal area was going to school past our area and into town and they would not let him on any of the buses at all, and the (huge) remote farm lost the family to another job further in the Waikato.
Perhaps its more about who you know, rather than what they are supposed or not supposed to do?
Te Miro is having a party next year to celebrate its centenary.