As many as 1,300 elementary and middle school students in Menifee and parts of Murrieta and Lake Elsinore will no longer be able to rely on school buses to get to and from school.
The issue became known to parents in middle July with a general automated phone call from the Menifee Unified School District. Parents became outraged and have since been outspoken over their disappointment with the School Board for ending transportation for students so close to the beginning school. The School District maintains that they had no other choice but to remove school transportation due to budget issues.
Parent’s worries and fears remain high and some of them came to a Board meeting held July 25th where the public was able to voice their concerns. Menifee has very rural areas where the current walk time for kids who previously rode buses is over 2 hours. Some of them would have to walk 2.5 hours on the roadways or travel through rocks and fields to shortcut the route. Walking on streets or inches from cars driving where speed limits are upwards of 55 MPH, parents fear their children safety.
Families where both parents commute out of town at hours that do not allow them to drive their children to and from school cannot participate in carpools. They are concerned about their young children walking these distances unprotected. They expressed that they have no family locally to assist them with participation in carpools. They are still scrambling to figure out how their children will attend school this year. Growing concerns regarding traffic are surfacing with over 1,300 more students who previously rode in on a bus having to find ways to school.
The School Board has pointed parents to programs such as the Menifee Valley Boys and Girls Club, The Right Club, and Child for Development Center. As the city, the after school care centers, and parents continue to look for solutions to this issue. We will keep you updated as it unfolds. The School District will be helping parents provide information for these programs mentioned above.
The following are some questions I asked Ambur Borth privately from the School District. She expressed her understanding that concerns families regarding this matter and that it was a difficult decision for the Board to make. Much of the following questions were addressed at the public meeting on July 25th.
Q. What does the District think of these families and their circumstances?
A. The Menifee Union School District is currently working in collaboration with the City of Menifee to identify where improvements to safe routes to school are needed. The District has made a concerted effort to place the schools in neighborhoods so that most students can walk to school reducing the need for transportation.
meet the required reserve.
Q. Where is the money being saved going to?
A. The District was unable to meet the minimum reserve for economic uncertainty (3%) with a busing cost over $2 million each year. The reduction of $700,000 went to support the fund balance and reserves so that the District can meet the required reserve.
Q. Can some of the money that would have been used to bus be put towards other means of travel for the students who have particularly far distances to travel for school?
A. If this were to occur, then the District would need to identify reductions in other areas to insure the minimum reserve requirement continues to be met.
Q. What can parents do to help obtain the money for busing to be brought back in?
A. Many I have spoken with have said they would pay for busing. They don't understand why they paid a few years ago and not last year and now they are not given an option. This is news to me. The MUSD receives only $138,150 in transportation revenue from the State. Historically, the cost of transportation has been in excess of $1.2 million. Even when MUSD collected fees from parents, the general fund contribution, unfunded cost of transportation, was over $1 million.
Q. There have been at least one petition started for help with transportation for students. What other means can families resort to to get transportation back?
A. Contact the State Representative to bring back funding which would increase the revenue from the State for transportation.
Q. Is there a central place where families can look to for updates regarding carpools before and after school programs with transportation so they can get the help they need before school starts in 3 weeks?
A. We are working to see what we can do in this regard. The Board is communicating with the City of Menifee regarding before and after school daycare programs to help find solutions to this issue. Stay tuned to the Menifee Buzz for updates in this matter.
Most of us want to help and do understand how financial impacts change our lives everyday. Is it possible that those of us who live closer to the schools can work with each other on carpooling or other means of travel such as Menifee Valley Boys and Girls Club before and after school care? Does the District still considering to provide transportation for those who live in very rural areas? The busing in place in 2016-17 did contain restrictions for riding the bus so that those who live close to the site were restricted from riding the bus. There is nothing prohibiting parents from carpooling with one another.
