Transportation, traffic concerns top list as MVUSD finalizes redistricting

1TVPAC Murrieta Team

MURRIETA - As the new Murrieta Valley Unified School District board wrestles with its first major action, a few board members are raising legitimate concerns from their constituents about traffic congestion and student bus ride time. 

While discussing new boundaries and overcrowded schools at the Jan. 23 meeting, board members agreed with trustee Nancy Young’s proposal as she suggested the high school boundaries could remain unmoved. However, the drastic adjustment of all elementary school and middle school boundaries raised the most concerns. 

Trustee Yvonne Munoz brought up the traffic issues she is starting to see increase in her area. 

“We are already seeing the impact of the apartment complex being built on Whitewood and the impact it is having on traffic,” Munoz said. “Now you sit in traffic on Whitewood and nobody lives there yet.” 

Munoz wondered if the current city infrastructure would be able to manage the influx of new residents and MVUSD students after the new apartments are complete. 

“Once they are actually populated, the prospect of people coming down Whitewood to attend Rail Ranch, I don’t know if that windy road neighborhood could absorb that.”

One major concern Munoz expressed was the amount of time middle school students would spend on a bus. 

“You are talking about kids in my immediate neighborhood spending four hours to go to Dorothy,” she said.

District staff did not have easy transportation solutions and Munoz acknowledged there are only a limited number of schools. Any possibility of adding additional facilities to assist with overcrowding was squashed last summer when trustee Nick Pardue refused to let parents vote on a bond. He has since been attempting to distance himself from that decision. 

The final elementary proposals would still have up to four schools at or near capacity within the next five years. District staff shared the ideal numbers for elementary campuses would be well below 1,000 students, yet new trustee Eleanor Briggs acknowledged that isn’t realistic. 

“We can dream,” she said. “We can dream.”

To add to the financial restrictions limiting the redistricting, board members are also considering laying off K12 Therapists due to “financial projections”. According to the action item on the agenda, trustees will determine whether to lay off at least three full-time therapists, “absent other solutions”. 

The board is scheduled to meet Thursday, Feb. 13 at 5 pm.