Enrolment schemes: in the zone or out

Jock Murley.
Jock Murley.
King's High School is just days away from making a historic decision about whether to follow the Ministry of Education's advice and establish an enrolment scheme at the school. 

Education reporter John Lewis takes a look at Otago Girls' High School - the only state secondary school in Dunedin with an operating enrolment scheme - to see how it works. 

Long gone are the days when parents used to start queuing outside Otago Girls' High School at 6am, to enrol their daughters in the oldest girls' state school in Australasia.

Acting principal Jock Murley has been reminiscing about the first few years after 1998, when the Ministry of Education initiated an enrolment zone at the school to control its burgeoning roll.

''When it first started, it was basically first in, first served.

''We had an enrolment date, and the people who were first to hand their enrolments in were the ones who got selected.

''That was in the days when we had people queuing outside the school,'' Mr Murley said.

''Enrolment may have started at about 9am, and for three or four years we had people queuing at the door from 6am, just to get in and enrol.''

The enrolment scheme was established because the school had reached capacity, and on the ''pattern of enrolments'' it looked as if the school would exceed its building capacity, he said.

Back then, the school's maximum roll was about 720 pupils, but it had since increased to about 780 pupils, he said.

Fortunately, the system has been improved since then.

The school now operates a priority system, in which new entrants are categorised.

Under section 11D of the Education Act 1989, all pupils living in the ''home zone'' (an area of the city with clearly defined boundaries) are entitled to enrol at the school at any time.

However, those from ''out of zone'' are categorised by a staff member into five different priorities, he said.

Second priority is given to any applicant who is the sibling of a present pupil of the school; third priority is given to siblings of a former pupil of the school; fourth priority is given to children of a former pupil; and fifth priority is given to either a child of an employee of the board of trustees or a child of a member of the board.

Sixth priority was given to all other applicants. International pupils did not count in the enrolment zone numbers, he said.

If there are more applicants in the second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth priority groups than there are places available, selection within the priority group will be by a ballot, conducted in the presence of New Zealand Police.

Mr Murley said the school had room for about 170 enrolments each year.

In-zone enrolments take up only half of that capacity, so about 50% of the enrolments are from out of zone.

While enrolment zones were effective in controlling school rolls, they did have a down side, Mr Murley said.

''People who are within zone sometimes don't enrol on enrolment day, but they are still entitled to enrol later.

''And that's when problems begin to occur, because we start planning classes - we might decide to have five classes of 31 pupils or six classes of 25, and then we get a significant number of in-zone enrolments after that. It upsets our planning.''

Another ''awkward'' issue was when groups of friends wanting to enrol got split up because some got in on the ballot and some did not, he said.

''Things get a bit messy. It's a difficult one. But under the rules, I don't think you're going to find an ideal system.''

Parents had the option to appeal the ballot decision with the ministry, and give reasons about why their daughter needed to attend the school, he said.

The ministry considered the appeal and made a decision.

The ministry had found in favour of appeals once or twice, but it did not happen often.

Principals have been advised by the ministry not to comment on King's High School's situation, so Mr Murley declined to say whether it would be good or bad for the city if the school implemented an enrolment scheme.

However, another secondary school principal, who declined to be named, said King's High School should establish an enrolment scheme.

''To me, it is about using the taxpayers' money wisely for facilities.

''If we've got facilities and capacity at other boys' or co-ed schools, and the NCEA results are just as good, then why would the taxpayer fund more buildings for one school and have others under-capacity.

''Why are we spending hundreds of thousands of dollars when we don't need to?''

The principal said if King's did not establish a scheme, the worst-case scenario was the ministry might close one of Dunedin's secondary schools.

Last month, the ministry instructed King's to ''undertake the steps that are necessary to implement an enrolment scheme''.

The King's High School board of trustees will meet on Monday night to discuss the school's next steps, but it has already signalled there is still capacity for more pupils and the board is committed to maintaining parental choice.

Board chairman David Booth said the school community had been surveyed, to gather its views on the proposed enrolment scheme.

The response was unanimous, he said.

''They're saying 'No thanks'.''

john.lewis@odt.co.nz

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