What's Up, Doc? Making a Difficult Decision

By Randall Freeman, PhD

It’s about maintaining a balance. Being the parents of three high school girls who are active in school and in sports, maintaining some kind of balance is critical.

One daughter is in water polo (school and club); one daughter is in soccer (school and club), ASB, and a hip-hop group at school; and one daughter is in club volleyball and school track. This makes balance a tremendous challenge. Two parents, two drivers, three daughters needing transportation creates very busy people.

Two Saturdays ago, I found myself at Paloma Valley High School at 7 a.m., preparing to distribute medals to the winners of track relay events. My wife and her mother were selling tickets. I was excused to leave at 2 p.m., my wife and mother-in-law later than that. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Being a member of the MUSD School Board requires maintaining balance as well. The decision on the revised school boundaries to include our new elementary school in French Valley requires maintaining balance among the student populations of each affected school. It requires a macro-view of the entire school district. Some people are going to be disappointed with the decisions that are made regarding school boundaries. This is unfortunate, but it is also inevitable. People resist change; it’s human nature.

The new school will be a STEM magnet school. (STEM means Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). This new school will be an exciting addition to the MUSD. Students selected to attend this new school will be creating the culture for 21st Century learning. These will be very fortunate young people.

Still, some people will resist the change to the new school. These same people will undoubtedly resist leaving the new school once they learn how fortunate they are to be involved in this new adventure. That’s also human nature.

The decision to establish the new school boundaries is not one entered into lightly by any of the school board members. Many factors are considered and weighed before making a final decision. For myself, I adhere to those famous words of Captain James Kirk: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one."

Randy Freeman and his family have lived in Menifee since 1993. Randy teaches kindergarten in Perris and his lovely wife Karen teaches first grade here in Menifee at Freedom Crest Elementary School. They are the proud parents of four beautiful daughters: Daniela, Sarah, Holly, and Megan. Other family members include dogs Scruffy and Max, and turtle Tuttles. Randy earned his PhD in early childhood education in 2011 and has served on the Menifee Union School Board since 2008. When not assisting Karen in driving the girls to all of their sporting events, Randy volunteers at the Boys & Girls Club of Menifee Valley.