This Sunday, July 6, on Menifee Valley Talk Radio, soon-to-be outgoing MUSD Board Member, and soon-to-be incoming Menifee City Councilman, Fred Twyman, will be the featured guest speaking about unification.

Call in and talk to Fred about what's it's going to take to move Paloma Valley High into the menifee school district. And for those of you in Romoland, this might be an opportunity to find out what the future holds for Heritage High and the Romoland schools with the new city.

The show starts at 7:00pm, and can be listened to online at...

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/MenifeeValleyRadio

The phone number to call is: (646) 716-6582.

Labels: Radio, Unification

"Wait and see" is where unification is headed, after trustees from the Menifee Union and Perris Union High school districts met today.

The two boards were there to figure out what to do, after it was determined by the County Committee on School District Organization that Menifee's unification bid fails to meet five of the State's nine criteria to pass muster.

Paul Jessup, Deputy Superintent of Riverside County Schools, was on hand to consult both boards on how to move forward. He said that for that most part, the biggest challenge is money. The other issues, particularly the racial imbalance, can all be mitigated. In fact, Jessup went on to say that the State has historically approved other unification bids where some of the nine criteria was not met.

Interestingly, the State can provide extra funding to help Menifee Union deal with the money issue, but only if the newly unified school district would have 25% or more of its total students in high school. As it stands right now, it would only be able to have 23.9%. If Menifee Union could get some more high school students to bump that up to 25%, then the unification effort can knock three of those five failed criteria off the list, and make a reasonable attempt at persuading the State to approve the unification bid.

The problem is that Menifee has been losing kids over the past year. Home foreclosures have sent families out of town. And now that gas prices are getting closer to the $5.00 mark, it's going to be tough to get commuters to move out here.

One solution is to take some students out of Heritage High, and move them to Paloma High. That would get us to 25%. Board members from Perris Union didn't sound thrilled about that idea, claiming that it would burden Menifee Union with having to build more classrooms to accomodate those students.

Another problem is that the unification bid also requires Menifee Union to conduct an evironmental quality study, which will cost $500,000, and can take up to two years to perform. I'm not sure what the environment has to do with shifting one bureacracy over to another, and I'm not sure the district has that money.

So all that we can do at this point is to wait until next year, and see how the demographics look. If we can get to a 25% ratio of high school students, then we can get some additional state funding to put the unification bid in a better financial standpoint.

There's also red tape. If we get to that 25% mark, and submit another unification bid, it may take a couple of years for the State to evaluate the bid, and by that time, the 25% might diminish to a lower number, and submarine the attempt.

As to when unification will happen, we're still looking at years down the road.

Labels: Unification

Board members from both the Menifee Union School District and Perris Union High School District are holding a public meeting this Thursday, June 19, to discuss how to proceed further with the unification process.

The meeting will take place at Bell Mountain Middle School, 5:30pm.

At this point, the Riverside County Committee on School District Organization is going to recommend the State Department of Education to stop this effort, based on a study last March that showed the unification effort would an adverse effect on the remaining students of Perris Union.

But even though the County believes it's a bad idea, doesn't mean it's a bad idea. The State has the last word on this matter, and be convinced otherwise. Parents are needed to attend the meeting and show their support.

Many of you readers have asked about what you can do for the new City of Menifee, here's something. Show up, and let the school board members know that you want unification.

Labels: Unification

Back on May 8th, a story related to the unification efforts of the school district appeared on The Californian’s website. You can read the story here:

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/05/09/news/californian/menifee/z7c398ad81115bfb688257444000212c5.txt

I meant to post an article related to this article when I first read it. For some reason I didn’t get to posting the article and forgot about it until yesterday, when I was reading comments under the Modified Single Track School Year Survey topic.

Basically, the article covered the fact that the Riverside County Committee on School District Organization voted on May 8th to recommend against unification to the California Department of Education. The committee’s recommendation was based on a study conducted by a private consultant.

However, the committee’s recommendation does not mean the unification effort is dead. Unification of the high school with the elementary and middle schools has been a top priority of the school board and it is something the community wants.

A small bit from the article:

One Menifee school board member who has spearheaded the drive to bring Paloma Valley into the Menifee district said he believes the state can be convinced the move is feasible and will not adversely affect the students in either district.

The numbers are close, said Fred Twyman, who also teaches at Paloma Valley High School.

State education laws dictate that high school students should make up at least 25 percent of the students in a unified district, and the report showed that Paloma High students would constitute just shy of 24 percent of the Menifee district's students, Twyman said.

As for the financial aspect, he said Menifee had agreed to compensate the Perris district for the loss of students that now go to the Perris district's Heritage High School. But, he said, the consultant discounted that agreement, arguing that it was premature.

Also, Twyman added, the consultant stated in an earlier meeting that his approach was conservative and that the state has disagreed with his findings in the last.

"This isn't dead," Twyman said. "I still feel OK about it, and I'll still go to the state (to
lobby)."

I like Twyman's optomism in this. But I am a bit confused by his comments regarding compensation to Perris for the loss of students that go to Heritage. Does this mean that students currently attending Heritage would be sent to Paloma when district boundaries are changed, or does it mean that Heritage is would also be included in the unification process?

And of course, a news story just wouldn't be a news story if it didn't have something discouraging to say:

Whatever happens, it will not happen quickly, said Rollin Edmunds, a director with the county Office of Education. Even with the committee's blessing, the state does its own analysis and can take up to seven years to rule on a proposed organizational change in a school district, Edmunds said.

I don’t know what the next step in the process is or when it takes place, but I certainly hope the Department of Education doesn't drag their feet on making decision. And I also hope they can be swayed to find in favor of unification.

There is a joint school board meeting between PUHSD and MUSD on June 19th at Bell Mountain Middle School.

Labels: Menifee-Union-School-District, Perris-Union-High-School-District, Unification

Bill Gould, a local businessman living in the Heritage Lake development, and who is also campaigning for a seat on the Romoland School Board, writes today on his blog that he's in support of Menifee cityhood...

I am 100% for city hood. Incorporation of the area will give us control over future development, funding that the development brings, parks, police, fire, code enforcement, community services department and so much more. Take a drive around the city of Temecula one day, it is an excellent example (minus the traffic, I know) of a great city and I would love that for our community. Fortunately for us we already have a better road system than Temecula did when they incorporated!

Heritage Lake is included in the proposed borders of Menifee. Currently, it is part of Romoland.

I had hoped to hear from others who live in Romoland about their thoughts on becoming a part of Menifee. Please post a comment.

Interestingly, Gould also says he's in support of "Unification", but not with respect to Paloma High School, but rather, Heritage High School. That is, folks out there are apparently talking about moving the new Heritage High School into the Romoland School District.

If you consider the Unification issue with Paloma High School, proponents argued that because the high school is located in Menifee Valley, and serves primarily Menifee residents, it makes sense to "unify" it with Menifee Union School District.

So, can we say the same thing about Heritage High School? It is located within the proposed borders of Menifee. It's serving students in Menifee, as far south as Menifee Lakes. I don't have the statistics on this, but I'm wondering if most of its student population resides in the proposed borders of Menifee. I'm kinda thinking it should be in Menifee Union.

The problem with bringing it into Menifee Union is that Menifee Union's borders don't extend out to Heritage High. Even though the borders of the proposed city includes Heritage High, the school district itself doesn't reach that far. So, to move it into Menifee Union, LAFCO would have to approve a change of borders. That probably won't happen.

Labels: Cityhood, Heritage-High-School, Unification

Now that Menifee Union School District has moved closer towards finally gaining control of Paloma Valley High School, the question comes up, "What About Heritage High School"?

And what about other high schools that Perris Union decides to build close to, or inside of, Menifee?

According to the Press Enterprise yesterday, Perris Union School District apparently is planning to build another high school inside of Menifee...

The $2.5 million set aside for another high school in Menifee from bond Measure Z will still be reserved for that purpose. Perris Union High School District officials have said they are still negotiating for a 60-acre site in Menifee.

As for Heritage High School, it actually sits within the proposed borders of Menifee Valley, should Menifee Valley become a city. And right now, teenagers living in Menifee, on the east side of I-215, are within its service area.

Not only does Menifee Union have to buy the physical assets of Paloma Valley High School, but also compensate Perris Union for future financial losses associated with losing so many students.

What makes Heritage High School unique from Paloma Valley High School is that its students are not just from Menifee, but also Romoland, Homeland, and Winchester.

Labels: Unification

The Press Enterprise reports today that the first steps towards migrating Paloma Valley High School into the Menifee Union School District has begun.

Menifee Union school trustees hope that drafting and signing a pre-unification agreement with the Perris Union High School District will help move the process forward.

On Tuesday, trustees voted 5-0 to work with the Perris Union High School District in creating the agreement, which would spell out what would happen if the two were to split.

There is a state law on the books that says that no "unification bid" may be allowed if it's going to financially hurt another school district. Therefore, Menifee Union School District needs to work out a plan with Perris Union High School District to make sure that the loss of students won't create any financial shortfalls for Perris.

Read the full article here...
http://www.pe.com/..../PE_News_Local_H_unify09.3e9c5e7.html

Labels: Menifee-Union-School-District, Paloma-Valley-High-School, Unification

I was at my School Site Council meeting today for Ridgemoor Elementary. A school board member was present and asked our opinion on something. He wanted to know if they should change the Board Meeting times to later in the evening, so more people could go. Right now they start at 4:00p.m. The consensus from the 7 of us present was to keep the time the same, but post the agenda on a School Board web site, and then post the minutes from the meeting. As of now they post the upcoming meetings at each school. For the most part these meetings are not for the general public, but on occasion, a topic like the unification of the High School comes up, and alot of people are interested in going. If it is hot topic to be discussed and they get a feeling alot of people would show up, they would arrange to have it later in the evening. We vote for these people, so they need to hear our voices.
My suggestion to any one interested in being involved in their schools, is to join the PTA and the School Site Council. Or just get involved with your childs classroom.

Labels: Menifee-Union-School-District, Unification