Amendments

Amendments to a school’s enrolment scheme may become necessary for a variety of reasons eg

• the development of a new housing area, for which the school is reasonably convenient;
• unforeseen in-zone roll growth;
• shifting school population patterns.

Any of these may require an amendment to the boundaries of the home zone.  They may also create the need for consequential changes to the boundaries of the home zone of a neighbouring school with an enrolment scheme.

Section 11M(4) states that the process for amending a scheme is the same as that for developing the original scheme, ie

• the Secretary must first authorise the board to begin developing an amendment (11H(1) and (2));
• the board must consult with the persons and organisations described in Section 11H(3), and, if appropriate, 11H(4);
• the proposed amendment must be approved by the Secretary under Section 11I;
• once approved by the Secretary, the amendment must be adopted by the board as soon as practicable;
• the board must give notice of its adoption of the amendment, under Section 11J(1);
• the commencement of the amendment is governed by Section 11K.

A proposed amendment which would have the effect of shrinking the home zone to reduce pressure on school facilities can cause considerable anguish among current school families who live in the area of retrenchment, because it would mean that their pre-school children would in future have no guaranteed right to enrol at the same school as their older siblings.  If things are so tight that there is a very real possibility of such negative impact, it may be possible to make a special arrangement for the affected families.    Ministry staff at the local office will seek advice from national office staff regarding this very rare situation.

Minor Amendments

Section 11MA provides for a modified procedure if the amendment is minor in nature.  In this case, provided that the Secretary has first confirmed in writing that the amendment is indeed minor, and meets the purpose and principles of the legislation, the board need only notify the public of the proposed amendment by notice in a daily or community newspaper circulating in the area served by the school.  When submitting the amendment to the Secretary for approval, the board must give details of any comments or questions it has received about the proposed amendment.  (This means that the newspaper notice has to include information on how the public can make submissions on the proposed amendment, if they wish to do so.)  Once approval has been given, the amendment  can be adopted by the board.    Approval cannot be given until at least one month has passed since the date of the newspaper notice.

Unless special circumstances exist (eg if there is likely to be a considerable degree of public interest or a large number of families affected), the Secretary would consider a proposed amendment as a minor one in the following situations:

• where a school with an enrolment scheme is seeking to amend its scheme simply to include the criteria for enrolment in a newly-approved special programme;
• where a board has received from the Secretary a directive issued under Section 11I(2), requiring it to amend its existing scheme in a particular manner;
• where there is a new housing development on the perimeter of a home zone and the school is the only reasonably convenient school for students living in the new development;
• where previous ease of access to a school has been seriously affected by a roading development eg a new arterial route might have cut across an existing street, creating in effect two no exit streets, causing students on the wrong side of the new road a  significantly increased journey to get to the school which was previously reasonably convenient for them;
• residential development in a street which had previously been left out of the zone simply because it contained only commercial premises;
• changes to public or Ministry transport provision;
• where a zone boundary does not actually need to be changed, but a more precise definition is needed, to make it clear whether certain addresses are within or outside the home zone;
• where School X is having to amend its home zone as the consequence of approval for a new scheme or an amended scheme being implemented at neighbouring School Y.  (It is appropriate to allow a lesser compliance requirement for School X because there will have been full discussion of the proposed new boundary in the consultation process undertaken by School Y.)