Protest by parents grows over MUSD decision to cut busing

Parents say they will protest elimination of busing at the July 25 meeting of the Menifee Union School District board. File photo

A group of residents opposing a recent Menifee Union School District decision to eliminate school busing has collected more than 1,000 signatures on an online petition and is planning to protest the next school board meeting.

Arthur Ma, who created the petition, said a group of concerned parents is planning to march outside the district office prior to its July 25 board meeting and several parents plan to address the board. Others are going door to door to spread the word throughout the community, he said.

"Our goal is to have 10 to 20 people walk around the district office for 45 minutes prior to the meeting, holding signs up," Ma said.

Ma said he no longer has children who attend Menifee elementary or middle schools but decided to create the petition after the MUSD announcement July 12 that busing would only be offered to special education students, which it is required to do by law. The district, which has offered both free busing and bus service for an annual fee in the past, cited escalating costs in the decision to cut the bus service.

"As a concerned citizen, I noticed the school board has been making so many unsound decisions for the last few years," Ma said.

Echoing the sentiments of many parents who have commented on social media, Ma referred to the recently opened $17 million district office as something that he believes was paid for at the expense of students who will now go without busing in the coming school year. Others have been critical recently of the MUSD governing board's handling of contract negotiations with Menifee teachers, who remain some of the lowest paid in the county, and the board's recent offer of a new contract that would've given superintendent Steve Kennedy a 60 percent raise within three years (the offer was later withdrawn).

It might not force a change in the district's stance on the busing issue, but the public outcry has certainly been noticed by district officials. Kennedy said Wednesday he has been contacted for comment by three television stations as well as various newspapers.

Kennedy also said he has a meeting with City of Menifee officials this week to discuss ways in which the City might be able to help alleviate the burden on students traveling to school without bus service. One possibility, he said, would be to ask the City to share in the cost of crossing guards in order to add more of them to assist in students who walk to school.

In addition, Kennedy said he has been in discussions with Riverside Transit Agency officials about what public bus routes might be available for use by students.

"I absolutely feel for the people affected by this and I understand the imposition it is," Kennedy said. "I had been exploring other options even before this announcement, but now there is a real level of urgency to see if there are others who can help."

The City of Menifee released a statement this week saying the City "will be assessing the current pedestrian routes impacted by this action and will make the necessary improvements to ensure safer travel to and from schools." The release also emphasized the fact that the funding sources for the City has nothing to do with MUSD's state funding for education.

Also this week, City Council member Lesa Sobek said she reached out to Eric Ustation, government affairs manager for RTA. In his response, Ustation said "RTA is unable to provide direct transportation for school children due to federal transit laws and regulations that place limitations on the use of public transportation to transport students to and from school." However, he said RTA has routes that serve both Bell Mountain and Hans Christensen middle schools (Routes 61 and 74).

Kennedy said he continues to be in discussions with the Hemet Unified School District, which has provided bus service to MUSD in the past, about the feasibility of providing busing for an annual fee. The district has used this system in the past, with the annual cost usually not much more than $200 per year.

His fear is that the cost per family would be far greater now. Last year, he said, after signing a contract with Hemet for free busing with a budget of $1.5 million, MUSD was billed more than $2 million because of an unexpectedly high ridership of students.

"One of the things we continue to question is what the actual costs of that would be," Kennedy said. "We have asked what the actual number would be for a fee-based service and we're seeing if Hemet can come up with that number and pass it along."

One thing appears to remain certain, however. MUSD will not make cuts in its current budget to restore bus service to general education students.

"I wish there was some other place we could cut," Kennedy said. "Short of not backfilling positions, there's not much we can do."

One thing Kennedy said he will not do is make any cuts that affect the learning potential of students in the classroom, such as computer equipment.

"I don't want to impact anything that happens at the instructional level," he said. "In order for us to compete with other districts who are training students to do the same jobs, we need to maintain what we're doing in the classroom. Our educational program is second to none. I believe each child is an individual of great worth, and we need to maintain our current level of classroom instruction."

And in response to residents' complaints about the expense of $17 million on the recently completed district office complex, Kennedy said those funds could legally be spent only on school facilities, not busing.

Meawhile, the voices of protest continue to grow louder.

Pat Caldwell is a longtime Menifee resident who has a granddaughter scheduled to attend an elementary school this fall but who said the girl might now be home schooled because of the lack of bus transportation.

"I am livid about this," Caldwell told Menifee 24/7. "I even called our local legislators today to ask that something be done. As grandparents, this affects us too, because we'll have to step up and help the working parents. They spend millions on that new building and now they cut busing? They're not thinking. Well, they're thinking -- about lining their pockets."

Ma said that after the online petition gathered over 500 signatures, he reached out to some of the parents who were joining him in protest with online comments. He said he has turned over leadership of the movement to about seven of those most dedicated to the cause.

"I let those parents who are impacted most take over," he said. "I no longer have children going to Menifee schools. I didn't want people to think I have a hidden agenda in this. I've just seen how the people had been lacking in organization, so I decided to help."

Alexis Negrete said she and her husband have no idea how their family will adjust to this situation.

"We are in complete stress and disbelief," she said. "We moved here two months ago based off the fact that our kids would be able to be transported to and from school without having to utilize any before school or after school programs to save cost, and the savings was calculated into our mortgage, which means there is no option for having that additional expense.

"We would not have moved knowing this was going to happen, let alone buy our home. We felt so blessed to know our kids were not only going to go to a great school district, but be able to have transportation to and from and wait in a gated community for us until we got home ... This has just made this move stressful when we should be able to enjoy and celebrate what's to be our new beginning. It's heartbreaking."

Many other school districts in the county have reduced or virtually eliminated school busing. That is of no consolation to Menifee parents, who say they worry about the safety of children walking on rural roads without sidewalks or crossing busy streets like Newport Road.

"The speed limit on Newport is 55," Caldwell said. "Would you trust your 5-year-old to cross that street and walk all the way to school? I know there are crossing guards, but there are also children who get hit in a crosswalk. And they still have to walk a long way to school after they cross."