For some schools, the news of a promotion from decile 1 to 2 is good but for Bay of Islands College, it means a $50,000 funding chop.
Principal John Paitai has asked the Ministry of Education for a review as he says his school has been unjustifiably changed up because of the affluent neighbouring communities, while the rest of the catchment is among the poorest in Northland.
Mr Paitai says, “It's so disappointing for us to hear that we have been reclassified from decile 1 to decile 2 because we know that's not right.
The researchers got it wrong by saying that our community has now changed.”
Despite a request from the school, the Ministry of Education has declined to revisit their decision.
Bay of Islands College say that despite the affluent communities of Paihia, Russell and Opua being within their catchment area, over 80% of their students don't come from these communities but from the lower socio-economic areas of the catchment.
The school will now have to rely on fundraising to complement the finance being provided to run this school.