Two Auckland schools have changed their enrolment zones and a third is set to follow after the announcement of a housing development in Mt Albert.
Up to 4000 new homes - a mix of KiwiBuild and market-rate housing - will be built on former Unitec land bought by the Government.
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Gladstone School and Kowhai Intermediate both changed their zones to not include the development, while Mount Albert Grammar is in the process of consulting to change its zone.
Ministry of Education deputy secretary sector enablement and support Katrina Casey told Newshub the change is solely due to growth - not to exclude families who'll live in what the ACT Pary has labelled a "ghetto".
"Boards are required to review their enrolment schemes on a regular basis and generally the trigger for making a change is growth," said Ms Casey.
"It would be unusual to do it for any other reason if there wasn't significant growth occurring."
The ministry estimates the homes would bring in 950 new primary, 300 new intermediate and 800 new secondary school-age residents.
Waterview School, Avondale Intermediate and Avondale College have all been suggested as schools that will be able to take the new growth.
The lowest decile of the rezoning schools is seven, while the highest of the schools expected to take on board students in the Unitec development is four.
Ms Casey says it's too early to confirm whether or not a new school will need to be constructed to handle the extra students, but they're keeping an eye on the area's growth.
"Auckland is unusual anyway because it is going through unprecedented growth and it will do for the foreseeable future," she said.
"So we are needing to do basically everything that we can to make sure that we are both anticipating and trying to keep ahead of the growth."
Newshub.
