MUSD to host PUHSD in Town Hall about boundaries

The area outlined in yellow is what MUSD proponents want included within the Liberty High boundaries (blue, lower right) rather than the Heritage High boundaries (red, upper right), as it is in this proposed map.

By Doug Spoon, Editor

Officials of the Perris Union High School District have agreed to meet with Menifee residents in a Town Hall meeting hosted by the Menifee Union School District regarding proposed boundaries for Liberty High School.

After hearing pubic comment from three MUSD board members who said they believed Menifee residents hadn’t had adequate opportunities to hear the proposal, the PUHSD board voted 4-0 (Edward Garcia was absent) to delay a vote to determine which of four boundary proposals to select for the new high school.

Alternative 1, recommended by a consultant hired to facilitate the process, places a heavily populated area including MUSD’s Freedom Crest Elementary School within the Heritage High School boundary. It would be the only MUSD school feeding into Heritage High and, if MUSD ultimately unifies as it proposes, that area would likely become the only MUSD feeder school into PUHSD, with the rest joining a Menifee Unified School District.

The agenda for Wednesday’s meeting included an action item to finalize the high school boundaries, but board members unanimously supported trustee David Nelissen’s motion to delay the decision, allowing more input from those who would be affected in Menifee.

The date and location of the Town Hall in Menifee has not been determined, but MUSD Superintendent Steve Kennedy was in the audience at Wednesday’s meeting and agreed to host the meeting.

Liberty High School is being built on Leon Road just east of Menifee and is scheduled to open in August 2021. Consultant Fred Good told board members and the audience in the packed meeting room that his recommendation is to place as the borders of the school’s boundary the 215 Freeway to the west, Clinton Keith Road to the south, Highway 79 to the east and Newport Road to the north.

Addressing the board, MUSD trustees Kenyon Jenkins, Jackie Johansen and Bob O’Donnell lobbied for the inclusion of the Freedom Crest Elementary area, which would stretch a narrow section of the north border to Rouse Road.

“I would like us to have more opportunities to be a part of this,” Jenkins said. “This affects a lot of families. The first opportunity we had was in December and everyone was gearing up for Christmas. Now today a decision is scheduled. I ask you to delay the vote and meet with us. We can use our communication systems to interact with the families on this.”

Good argued that Menifee residents had three previous opportunities to speak on the issue before the PUHSD board when it was discussed – the Nov. 20 meeting, Dec. 18 meeting and a Jan. 9 study session. Deputy superintendent Candace Reines acknowledged, however, that only the Dec. 18 meeting had been publicized regarding the topic.

“[Alternative 1] would separate a small group of students who have been together since TK,” said Johansen, president of the MUSD board. “I know you’re looking at numbers, but those numbers represent kids. This is not good for the kids.”

According to Good’s projection of enrollment numbers, Liberty High School would still be 208 students under capacity in 10 years with Alternative 1. But looking at Alternative 2, which includes the Freedom Crest area, Liberty would be 149 over capacity in 10 years, while Heritage would be 540 under capacity. Good also estimated that two or three new bus routes would be needed, at an estimated cost of $90,000 each.

The numbers look even worse in Alternative 3, which extends the northern border of Liberty High to include the Heritage Lake community, and Alternative 4, which stretches all the way to the northern border of the City of Menifee.

Moreover, in the event MUSD eventually unifies and takes over Liberty High and Paloma Valley High, as has been discussed, Freedom Crest students would not only be moving up to Heritage High School – they would be moving into a separate high school district. Heritage would remain in PUHSD, along with Perris High.

“I think Menifee was left out of this process,” O’Donnell to board members. “To cut out a part of our community would have a dramatic effect.”

Two residents of the Heritage Lake community argued in favor of Alternative 3, even though Good’s study projects that adding that area to the Liberty boundaries would result in Liberty High being 554 over capacity and Heritage High being 1,045 under capacity within 10 years, with additional bus routes needed.

“If Menifee unifies, we would no longer be in a Menifee district; we would be in Perris,” Whitney Heath said. “Where does that leave us?”

To clarify, Reines told Menifee 24/7 that if the Freedom Crest area is included in the Heritage High boundaries, it would still be in MUSD for K-8 purposes.

Nelissen, one of three PUHSD board members who live in Menifee, made the motion to delay the decision. Randy Freeman , Jose Luis Araux and board President Anthony Stafford voted along with him.

“I sympathize with their plight,” Nelissen said. “I understand where they’re coming from. I’m asking the board to table this and create a Town Hall. Perhaps MUSD could host it.”

Araux was the most outspoken PUHSD board member against the idea of MUSD unification during discussions in the fall of 2018. In this case, however, he was the most outspoken -- both in the Jan. 9 meeting and on Wednesday – in suggesting that Menifee residents should’ve had more input in the discussions about Liberty High boundaries.

“We’re lucky that we live in a democratic society,” Araux said. “We do not make the decision by ourselves. We need to listen, plug in all the variables and consider the potential changes.”

This issue is separate from MUSD’s desire to see unification by adding Paloma Valley High and Liberty High, but there’s the possibility a productive Town Hall on school boundaries could bring officials of the two districts back to the table on that topic.

In an MUSD board meeting on Tuesday, that board heard from Edwin Gomez, deputy superintendent of the Riverside County Office of Education, regarding MUSD’s desire to pursue unification for the first time since 2008. At that time, MUSD and PUHSD applied jointly, but a study showed that the proper criteria wasn’t met and the application was held in abeyance at the state level.

Rollin Edmunds, management specialist for RCOE, said that the 2008 application could be reactivated, but it would be unlikely that the state would approve it if PUHSD officials weren’t on board. PUHSD board members have indicated previously that if they were to consider releasing Paloma Valley and Liberty high schools to a Menifee Unified School District, MUSD would have to pay for a study showing that the state-mandated criteria would be met.

The area in question is shown in relation to the entire map. The yellow section in the upper left section would be for Perris High.

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