PUHSD officials receive input on Liberty High boundaries

PUHSD Deputy Superintendent Candace Reines answers questions during Tuesday's Town Hall meeting. Menifee 24/7 photos by Doug Spoon

By Doug Spoon, Editor

Menifee residents expressed their concerns and asked questions of Perris Union High School District officials Tuesday night in a Town Hall meeting about proposed boundaries for the new high school that will serve the Menifee community.

About 60 people gathered in the multipurpose room at Bell Mountain Middle School, which was chosen as a local site for the convenience of Menifee residents. The PUHSD office, where previous meetings to discuss proposed boundaries were held, is located about 11 miles away in Perris.

Liberty High School is currently under construction on Leon Road north of Scott Road, beyond the eastern Menifee city limits but still within the jurisdiction of PUHSD. That district operates three high schools – Perris, Heritage and Paloma Valley – and will add Liberty High as a fourth when it opens in August 2021.

Liberty High is designed for a capacity of 2,200, according to PUHSD officials. That will take much of the burden off overcrowded Paloma Valley, which currently has about 3,300 students – more than 1,000 over the capacity it was designed for. Students living east of the 215 Freeway and south of Newport Road will become part of the Liberty High enrollment area. The question is, should the Liberty enrollment area be extended farther north, and if so, how far?

Several factors appear to complicate the issue, including:

-- Confusion among Menifee residents about the relationship between PUHSD and the Menifee community.

-- Residents’ opinions about a possible unification of the Menifee Union School District to include high schools – which is really a separate issue.

-- The amount of school taxes being paid by Menifee residents who live in an area governed by two different school districts.

PUHSD board members were in attendance and listened as Superintendent Grant Bennett (below left), Deputy Superintendent Candace Reines and consultant Fred Good described four boundary options and addressed concerns that were expressed. Guests were not required to state their name but were given the opportunity to address the officials with comments and questions.

Several of those officials corrected the statement of one guest that Menifee residents have no say in PUHSD decisions because they don’t elect the board members. Actually, Menifee voters have significant representation on the PUHSD board. Three of the five trustee areas are in Menifee, and Menifee residents voted those Menifee trustees in.

As reported previously, 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. MUSD board members have expressed the desire to pursue an application for such unification, with or without PUHSD support, to incorporate Paloma Valley High and Liberty High into a Menifee Unified School District. That would be a lengthy process, however.

Meanwhile, PUHSD officials must move forward in setting the boundaries for the new high school.

Specifics of the four boundary alternatives presented several times in public meetings by PUHSD officials in the last 2 ½ months were described in a Jan. 13 Menifee 24/7 news article. Much of the discussions of those alternatives Tuesday night centered around the Heritage Lake community in northeast Menifee and whether students living there – currently assigned to Heritage High – should be included in the Liberty High boundaries.

The presentation made by PUHSD officials showed that if all of the present Heritage Lake community was added to the Liberty High boundaries – referred to as Alternative 3 – Liberty High would be projected to be 554 students over capacity within 10 years, while Heritage High would have 1,045 open seats.

Good explained that Liberty could accommodate the extra students only if portable classrooms were added, pointing out two locations on the campus that could be used for such expansion. Yet he and Reines defended district officials’ preference to keep enrollment similar at all schools to make maximum use of each facility.

They also explained the factors in building a new high school with enrollment similar to the other high schools rather than expanding enrollment to something like 4,000, as suggested by some in the audience.

“I’m disappointed by the decision to buy such a small piece of land,” one resident stated. “Here we are, fighting about the fact that Liberty will eventually not be able to accommodate all the students. What is the purpose in that?”

Reines responded that the Liberty campus will encompass nearly 55 acres, which is “ideal” for a high school, and that “2,600 is a nice number” for enrollment to be consistent with other schools in the district.

“If we build a school for up to 4,000, then we would be under-utilizing Heritage,” she said.

Good added that district officials made every effort in negotiations to purchase a school site that would be suitable for the growing student population. He also said that planning for the new school began more than 10 years ago and was delayed because of funding issues, while the population continued to grow.

Reines also responded to concerns about school taxes residents are paying to two school districts.

“Yes, you are paying taxes to two districts, but you are paying only half to each district of what you would pay for a unified district,” she said.

Bennett added that a unified school district is allowed to tax residents up to $60 per year, but that because PUHSD’s jurisdiction is split between two cities, residents pay only $30 in taxes to PUHSD and $30 to the elementary school district.

Officials' explanation of the strong representation Menifee has on the PUHSD board also relates to the spending of funds from PUHSD bond measures, such as the $148 million Measure W, approved by voters in November 2018. PUHSD financial records show that half that amount was devoted to the construction of Liberty High -- meaning, in essence, that the tax money Menifee residents pay toward that bond measure is spent in Menifee, while the taxes paid by Perris residents are spent on Perris schools.

Another factor is the split in Menifee elementary school districts. The Menifee Union School District does not include the Heritage Lake community, which has always been part of the Romoland School District. Reines explained that if MUSD unification were to happen, students living in Heritage Lake would remain in Romoland School District and thus would not be part of a school district with a Menifee name anyway.

Under the PUHSD open enrollment policy, students living in any of the four high school boundaries will have the option of applying for a transfer to another school. According to PUHSD officials, however, if unification occurs, Heritage Lake students would not be eligible for such a transfer because their area would remain under the jurisdiction of a different district than a Menifee Unified School District.

The inclusion of Heritage Lake in the Liberty High boundaries would appear to cloud the issue if MUSD unification were to occur. Could Heritage Lake residents argue that although their elementary school district places them outside a Menifee Unified School District, they would have the right to attend Liberty High because that school’s enrollment area includes them? Or, assuming Liberty High’s enrollment area could not span two different high school districts, wouldn't adjustments in the Liberty boundary have to be made at that time?

This is one of the reasons some in the audience prefer boundary alternative 2, which would make the northern boundary of Liberty High the same as that of MUSD, saying it is a more logical and less complicated plan.

The agenda has not been released, but PUHSD board members are expected to discuss and possibly vote to set the Liberty High boundaries at their Feb. 12 meeting. The Brown Act prohibits board members from engaging in discussion with those in the audience, but Menifee residents are invited to address that board, as they are at all public meetings.

That meeting will begin at 5 p.m. at the PUHSD district office, located at 155 E. 4th Street in Perris.

There were many empty seats during the Town Hall meeting held at Bell Mountain Middle School.