When Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said this week he was considering a proposal to change the entry requirements for Sydney Boys High, it signalled the reopening of a debate as Sydney as the school itself.
Sydney Boys is a renowned alma mater of judges, parliamentarians and sportsmen, and the only government school in the elite great public schools sporting competition. But the way in which the fully selective school - one of 17 in the state - admits students has, for more than a decade, been hotly contested.
In 2002, a coterie of alumni led a high-profile, and ultimately fruitless, push in 2002 for selection requirements to be changed to allow sporting and civic achievement to be taken into account. Some were concerned by the school's declining performance in the private school rugby competition, drawing accusations of racism.
''The demographic of the school is fast evolving and year 7 is currently 90 per cent Asian, which has the flow-on effect on the school's traditional sports of rowing, cricket and rugby,'' wrote one old boy.
But for others, the push reflected a broader discomfort about the perceived narrowness of selective school entry and increasing coaching of primary school students to win entry into high-achieving schools.
Principal Kim Jaggar said at the time the school still hoped to create ''excellent all-rounders'' or ''modern renaissance'' men.
''That we're trying to produce the image of the kid with football boots around his neck and carrying a violin case and his school bag may seem romantic,'' he said, ''but training in teamwork and leadership are important.''
But in 2013, the drive to change the mix at Sydney Boys High has a new dimension. This time, it comes in the context of a shortage of high school options in Sydney's fast growing inner city.
Community activists and local MP Alex Greenwich, hope the move can alleviate, if only to a minimal extent, the area's capacity issues.
Enrolments in public primary schools in the inner suburbs on both sides of the harbour are booming, as young families increasingly eschew the lure of the suburbs and instead set up home in apartment blocks and terraces.
Adolescents in inner Sydney, which has no comprehensive high school of its own, commute to either Balmain or Rose Bay. On the north shore, options are limited too.
Earlier this year, North Sydney mayor Jilly Gibson called for North Sydney Boys and Girls High Schools to become only partially selective, and to take a certain amount of local students.
Proximity is of benefit when you're trying to get parents to engage with the school.
Sydney Boys High has been feeling the effects of a student population drawn from increasingly far-flung suburbs - 150 different postcodes, according to their proposal.
''Sydney Boys, like a lot of other public schools, relies a lot on its parents to provide volunteer services to the school, possibly more than others because of the high number of extracurricular activities at the school,'' says president of the school's Parents and Citizens Association Ian Sweeting who supports the proposal.
''Proximity is of benefit when you're trying to get parents to engage with the school.''
The proposal, backed by long-serving principal Jaggar, calls for entry requirements to be altered for a set number of students within a specific local area. About 30 of the available 180 places in year 7 would be set aside for students who live within five kilometres of the school.
Students would still have to meet a determined academic standard, but other factors, such as their involvement in extracurricular activities, sport and leadership roles, would also be considered.
Julie Connolly, president of the school council, said any racial undertones to earlier campaigns were a thing of the past.
''We would really love to draw a line in the sand from that,'' she said.
The benefit for the school this time, she said, is about tying it to its local community.
''We have a very good parent volunteer base and local community but we want it to be great, and public education deserves to be great,'' she said.
Though the move has been welcomed by local activists, they acknowledge it will not be a panacea to the area's problems.
Entry would still be highly competitive for placements. It would also see inner-city children competing with those from the inner west and eastern suburbs.
''The catchment area they're proposing is five kilometres, which is really broad … it's not as if we really consider that to be local,'' says Skye Molyneux, a founding member of the local school activist group Community for Local Options for Secondary Education, or CLOSE.
Adrian Piccoli said on Thursday he had discussed the proposal with Jaggar and that the government would consider it.
''I'm not suggesting that the answer is going to be the answer perhaps that the principal is looking for, but if there are good ideas out there we certainly want to hear them,'' he said.
If approved, such a change would likely invigorate calls for Sydney Girls High, the selective schools on the north shore and others to consider similar changes.
This is precisely what parent activists, concerned about the lack of public high schools in the inner suburbs, are hoping for.
Molyneux says the Sydney Boys proposal is an important first step in sparking discussion about whether these public schools should be turning away local students at all.