HCCS Files Petition for a Menifee Charter School

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Heritage Classical Charter Schools (HCCS) filed a petition recently to open a new charter school in Menifee with the Riverside County Office of Education. It is an appeal from the request that was filed with the Menifee Union School District and was subsequently denied on August 13.

RCOE is expected to set a hearing date sometime within the next 90 days.

The new Menifee charter school, pending approval by RCOE, will be called Menifee Valley Preparatory School (MVP) and will be a public, non-profit, tuition-free school serving students grades K-8. The Menifee Valley Preparatory curriculum will be based on the classical model and founded in the four virtues from antiquity: Justice, Prudence, Temperance, and Fortitude. The plan is to offer three classes per grade level, with the average class size ranging from 24–30 students, depending on the grade level. It also plans to offer sports for grades 6-8, and music, theatre, art, science, and after school programs for all ages.

Over 100 potential parents have attended forums regarding the proposed school and there are over 300 parents following news feeds and/or emails about the proposed school online.

The program and curriculum at MVP will be directly modeled after Temecula Preparatory School which has been in existence since September 2000.

"There is clearly a strong demand for the proposed school," said Dr. Scott Phillips, headmaster and CEO for HCCS. "TPS has close to 2,000 students on the waiting list and we know that many of them come from the Menifee area. The reason that planting this school is so important is best said by Plato: 'The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.’ ”