4 March To the Witherlea School Community. Dear Parents & Community Members WITHERLEA SCHOOL UPDATE TO HOME ZONE BACKGROUND

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1 4 March 2016 To the Witherlea School Community Dear Parents & Community Members WITHERLEA SCHOOL UPDATE TO HOME ZONE BACKGROUND At the last Witherlea School Board meeting, the Board passed a resolution to work with the Ministry of Education ( MOE ) to reduce the size of our current Home Zone. Our board is currently working through the provisions of Section 11 of the Education Act to consult with our community and neighbouring schools. The changes to our Home Zone may have a direct impact on your family. The need for the reduction in the Witherlea School Home Zone is due to the continued and rapid development of housing in the Forest Park and Taylor Pass Road areas in recent years. There are still over 200 sections to be developed in Taylor Pass. MOE predictions indicate that Witherlea can expect 54 enrolments from the new Taylor Pass sections. Our experience with Forest Park indicates that this number may be significantly higher. Based on current roll numbers, and the number of expected enrolments (that we currently know about), we predict the school will have a roll of 429 at the end of this year. Historically, we receive over 20 enrolments from families of new entrants during the year. Accordingly, we are working on a predicted roll of approximately 450 students at the end of this year. Significantly, we have no spare classrooms at the start of the year due to the need to start an additional two classrooms in To accommodate growth, the current library and resource room are being converted back into classrooms. The board will fund the development of a new library and resource room from reserves this year. After this building work, the Board is of the view that Witherlea School will be at capacity. This will take the capacity of our teaching spaces to 450. We are therefore looking to reduce our Home Zone to keep student numbers capped at around 450. Squeezing more than 450 children into our school will place too much pressure on the school playground, grounds, hall, staffroom and administration facilities. PROPOSED NEW WITHERLEA HOME ZONE The Board has considered the terms of Section 11E (2) of the Education Act. This specifies that School Zones should allow children living in an area to attend a reasonably convenient school. The zones should also be contiguous and not leave unzoned areas. The Act also specifically allows for areas that are reasonably convenient to one School to be excluded from that School s Home Zone if the area is also reasonably convenient to another school. Taking these factors into account, the Board believes the logical area to reduce our Home Zone is part of the current zone overlaps between Witherlea and Redwoodtown Schools. This overlapping area is in the block defined with Hospital Road to the north, the Taylor River to the west, Wither Road to the south and Sutherland Stream to the East.

2 Our proposal is to use the streets and crescents in this block to define a new northern edge of our zone. Maps and descriptions of our proposed new zone is shown in Appendix A. The Board has chosen to remove this area of our current zone as it is also in the Redwoodtown Zone and represents an area that is reasonably convenient to Redwoodtown for these families. GRANDPARENTING PROVISION A Grandparenting provision will be included which will be inserted into our Home Zone. This will allow siblings of current students living in the area that we propose to remove from our Home Zone to remain as In Zone enrolments and be entitled to attend Witherlea. The conditions of this exception will mean that it will only apply to siblings born on the date that our Home Zone changes (i.e. it excludes unborn siblings) and will also become void if the family moves from the address they lived in at the time the Home Zone changed. We believe this is fair to existing Witherlea Families and will allow a transition from this area to the Taylor Pass area as development occurs. COMMUNITY MEETING AND FEEDBACK The Board wishes to consult with our Community over these proposed changes. The Board will hold a public meeting in the Witherlea School Hall on Wednesday 30 th March 2016 at 7.30pm to explain these changes further, answer any questions, and obtain feedback from our School Community. Submissions and letters to the Board on this matter will need to be delivered to the School office or ed to the address below by Friday 1 st April Due to the upcoming Board elections, the Board would like to have any changes to our Home Zone agreed by the end of Term One. If you have any questions or concerns, these can be ed to board@witherlea.school.nz Yours sincerely Witherlea School Board of Trustees Neil Sinclair Chairman Murray Hewson Principal

3 APPENDIX A : MOE DEFINITION OF PROPOSED ZONE

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5 Both sides of the road are in-zone unless otherwise stated. North boundary: South side of Wither Rd from Taylor River to Taylor Pass Rd (including Woodmor Rd). Both sides of Wither Rd from Taylor Pass Rd east through to #207 Wither Rd. The following addresses are included: Blairich View; Cashmere Grove; Eva Crescent; Howick Rd # ; Gilbert St #25, 27, 29, 30, 30A, 32, 34, 36; Alana St #1-6; Alana Place #7,9,11,14,16,18,20,22; Weld St #183A, 183B, 185; ; Corry Crescent; Scott St # ; Muirbank Crescent; Selwyn St; Safe St; Carlyle Crescent; Redwood St # ; Brilyn Crescent; All of Glenhill Drive; Hospital Rd from (south side only); Oakwood Lane # (south side, even numbers only). East boundary: Oakwood Lane south and through the Wither Hills to #1165 Taylor Pass Rd. South boundary: #748 to #1165 Taylor Pass Rd and west across to Taylor River. West boundary: Taylor River from #719 Taylor Pass Rd to Wither Rd.