Liberty High boundaries established south of Newport Road

This is the high school boundary map approved Wednesday by the PUHSD board. Students living in the blue area south of Newport Road and east of the 215 Freeway will be assigned to the new Liberty High School when it opens in August 2021. The green area represents the reduced Paloma Valley High boundaries. The red area is the Heritage High area and the yellow area is the Perris High area.

By Doug Spoon, Editor

The attendance boundaries for the new Liberty High School have been established as the area south of Newport Road and east of the 215 Freeway.

That decision was made official on Wednesday in a 4-1 approval by members of the Perris Union High School District, which has authority over the new high school as well as existing high schools Paloma Valley, Heritage and Perris. The vote ended a three-month period including consideration of boundary alternatives at PUHSD board meetings, a Town Hall meeting held Feb. 4 in Menifee, and widespread discussion of the topic on social media.

The boundaries approved by the board was presented as Alternative 1 among four options that were considered. According to enrollment estimates presented by PUHSD, establishing that attendance area for the August 2021 opening of Liberty High School on Leon Road will alleviate overcrowding at Paloma Valley while avoiding overcrowding at Liberty that would have resulted from any of the other three options.

Liberty High will open with just freshmen and sophomores in 2021. In its first year of four-year enrollment in 2023-24, the school is estimated to have 2,217 students -- 383 under capacity. Estimates project that Liberty would still have 208 open seats after 10 years. Paloma Valley, which is currently more than 1,000 students over capacity, would have an estimated 338 open seats after 10 years.

By extending the boundary farther north, Liberty would've been overcrowded within 10 years by estimates ranging from 149 students in Option 2 to 1,433 students in Option 4 -- an alternative which would've included all of the Heritage Lake community but would've left Heritage High vastly under-utilized with 1,923 open seats.

In addition, according to PUHSD officials, the other alternatives would've required bus routes to transport some students, with each route costing an estimated $90,000 per year.

PUHSD board members insisted that their decision was based solely on the numbers and that the attendance area approved was in the best interest of all students in the district.

"The numbers have to dictate this decision," said trustee David Nelissen. "We can't go from one overcrowded school to having another."

The lone "no" vote to the proposal was cast by Dr. Randall Freeman, who said he favored Alternative 2. That option would've added a small area north of Newport Road that includes Freedom Crest Elementary School -- the only school in Menifee Union School District that would feed into Heritage High School.

Freeman, the lone supporter of Alternative 2, is a former MUSD board member. Nelissen, who like Freeman is a Menifee resident, explained why he didn't agree with Freeman.

"I live in that Freedom Crest area, but I'm OK with Alternative 1 because we have the transfer option," Nelissen said. "If my daughters decide they don't want to go to Heritage, they have options."

PUHSD board member Dr. Jose Luis Araux agreed with Nelissen and the others who voted to approve Alternative 1 -- Board President Anthony Stafford and Edward Garcia, Jr.

"Based on the input, I couldn't balance the negative effects of Alternatives 2, 3 and 4," Araux said. "We have to maintain our long-term strategic vision."

Garcia voiced his displeasure over comments made at the Town Hall meeting and on social media that appeared to be disparaging to the residents and students of Perris and perhaps even the Romoland community, where Heritage High is located.

One Heritage Lake community resident attending the Feb. 4 Town Hall meeting in Menifee argued that Heritage Lake students should be assigned to Liberty High.

"Heritage High does not have that great a rating," he said. "I want my kids to go to a school that is beneficial to them and to be around people from like-minded families."

Jason Miller, a teacher at Paloma Valley High and president of the Perris Secondary Educators Association, told board members that PSEA endorsed Alternative 1. He also expressed his disgust with parents who had made disparaging comments about "those people" in public forums.

Araux expressed similar feelings.

"I agree with Jason," said Araux, who lives in Perris. "I feel confident that the negative comments do not reflect all of the community. However, it's sad that they refer to our school in those terms."

MUSD officials' desire to become a unified school district and take control of Paloma Valley and Liberty High is a separate issue. The possible unification of Menifee Union School District – a K-8 district – depends on an application to the state that would include input from both MUSD and PUHSD officials. PUHSD board members have said that the burden would be on MUSD officials to pay for a study justifying such a separation and to push the application themselves.