Pardue confident new boundaries will avoid ‘disruption’
1TVPAC Team
The Murrieta Valley Unified school board approved new school boundaries Feb. 13 without answers to many questions posed by community members and other board trustees.
Board discussion focused on avoiding disruption for current MVUSD families. After the board unanimously approved the redrawn boundaries for new families to help ease the overcrowding from additional housing on Murrieta’s west side, trustee Yvonne Munoz wanted to take more time to evaluate the redistricting impact on existing families.
“Why disrupt current residents until we have all the facts?” Munoz asked.
Board president Nick Pardue, along with trustees Christine Schmidt and Eleanor Briggs, expressed confidence in the district proposal.
“I don’t see this as a disruption. There will be no need for us to make any changes,” Pardue said. “It wouldn’t serve our community very well to then have to go through this process again later at a later date just to see what’s happening.”
“It’s kind of blowing my mind that just now there is a problem with it,” Schmidt said. “This issue hasn’t come up before.”
Munoz had to remind Schmidt that there are still unanswered questions for existing families.
“The same questions that I don’t have answers to today are the same questions I asked at our last board meeting,” Munoz said. “I’m still asking those questions and I still don’t have answers.”
“The same questions that I don’t have answers to today are the same questions I asked at our last board meeting. I’m still asking those questions and I still don’t have answers.”
Those questions involve shifting school programs, transportation and the grandfathering of student siblings, Munoz added. She said since they have already approved the new boundaries for new families, they could afford to take a little more time to review what is best for existing families until more information could be shared about implementation.
“New families coming in would go into the new pattern,” Munoz said. “And from everything that we’ve been told in our preparatory sessions, it’s that new growth that would be causing the overcrowding.”
The possibility of delaying action for existing families was welcomed by trustee Nancy Young, but immediately met resistance from Pardue and the two other board members.
“Maybe because I’m new, maybe because I’m blonde, I’m not sure why we’re going to table this after all the work that’s been done with the committees and the parents and the community,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt failed to mention the board disregarded the committee’s elementary boundary recommendation and instead approved the district’s proposal.
Pardue and Schmidt both expressed eagerness to act even though, as it stands, the district's new boundaries will not impact current families for several years. Elementary students in grades 3-5 stay in their current boundaries until high school and the high school boundaries do not change. Current students in TK-2 grades will attend their new middle schools, unless they are grandfathered into their sibling’s school - a process that is yet to be determined.
Even Pardue admitted to being confused about the grandfathering process.
“There are two different versions of grandfathering being discussed and the language being used becomes contradictory,” Pardue said.
“That’s why I think we need more time to work this through,” Munoz responded. “I haven’t gotten clear answers on grandfathering and I haven’t seen a written policy on how it’s actually going to get implemented.”
“What’s the harm in tabling this until next month so we can get those answers?” she asked.
Despite the lack of clarity, Pardue was confident they had enough information to proceed.
“I think we should stick with what we have all studied and looked at,” he said.
The board ultimately approved the new boundaries for all residents. The next regular board meeting is scheduled for March 13 at 5 pm.
