Questions on Unification

By Carolyn Twyman

The 3 to 5 year Unification process should have started in 2002 or before. The 1996 study gave specific guidelines but unfortunately the Perris Union High School District and its feeder districts have failed to follow these guidelines. The process must begin immediately.

The biggest obstacle to unification is the unwillingness of the incumbent board members to begin the process. All board members will be up for re-election when unification happens. It will take 3 board members from each district to vote in favor of beginning the process. If Mr. Hulstrom and I are elected we will, together with Ms. Cooley, sign a resolution to start the process. Our expertise in education will insure that unification is done so that all students and communities benefit just as in Elsinore, Murrieta, and Temecula.

The second obstacle is the constant misinformation concerning the so called debt. Debt will not increase because of unification. The taxpayers already pay the debt. The only thing that will change is the custodian of the debt. Instead of paying taxes to the Perris Union High School District we will pay our local unified district.

What people don't understand is that the PUHSD Board purposely structured the debt on Paloma Valley High School to ward off unification efforts. Their plan was to make the payments so high that the Menifee community could not generate enough tax revenues to make the payments. Fortunately they did not account for the explosive growth in the area. Visit UnificationNow.com for more information.

2) Whether unification takes place or not, how can the high school district work better with its "feeder" elementary districts?

This would not be a question if unification had already taken place.

Firstly, since unification will occur sooner or later, the Perris Union High School District should include members of each of the feeder school boards and communities in any plans to build new schools and update academic and vocational programs. Unfortunately, this is far from standard operating procedure. The new high school in Romoland has been designed with little or no input from the Romoland School District or community members. The PUHSD board went so far as to name the school before the parents and students that will be attending have any say in the process. PUHSD is in the process of choosing another school site in the Menifee area and they have not yet asked the Menifee District to collaborate on its placement or design.

Currently student data is not being transferred seamlessly between the high school district and its feeder elementary districts. Unified districts have meetings in which the high school teachers meet with prior grade teachers and outline what skills are needed to be successful in high school. Middle school teachers do the same for the elementary teachers. These meetings do not happen between PUHSD and its feeder districts.

Romoland and Nuview need not unify at this time, however if they did. it would be a great advantage for both their districts. In a time when the state is cutting back on school funds, each district would increase their student revenues by at least five percent.

3) How should the district manage the effects of the region's explosive growth?

The county has allowed developers to run amuck. Menifee/Sun City development fees are the highest in the county however much of this money is used to build infrastructure out of the area. We need schools and streets. Our taxes need to be used in the communities that pay them.

Perris should work together with its feeder districts to petition the state to receive additional hardship facilities funding as did Elsinore UNIFIED and Temecula UNIFIED. Elsinore received more that 100 million is state aid. Overcrowding occurs when houses are built before schools.

Developers should not be allowed to build their developments until after the schools are completed, just as they should not be allowed to build a single home until the streets are completed.

Vista Murrieta High School in Murrieta, West Valley High School in Hemet, Temescal Canyon High School in Elsinore and Chaparral High school in Temecula are all neighboring schools in nearby UNIFIED school districts and each of them has a state of the art swimming pool, tennis courts, and a regulation track and field- something you will not see at Paloma Valley High and likely not at Heritage High School either. I will do all I can to ensure that we have complete schools before the students arrive.

Surrounding districts have unified successfully in times of growth to maintain local control. PUHSD is the last high school district in the county because other communities have realized that unified districts are more financially stable and able to handle growth.

4) What other issues not mentioned here do you believe need to be addressed by the board?

Another reason I decided to run for school board is that I want my children and all the students in our communities to have the best educational and extracurricular opportunities possible. The facilities in the Perris Union High School District are sorely lacking. The classrooms are poorly maintained at all schools because the board fails to hire adequate personnel to do the job. The number of classrooms assigned to each custodian is much higher than that of surrounding unified districts. The number of maintenance personnel is insufficient to keep the grounds and facilities in good shape. Just visit any of the schools in the county and compare them to the condition of the PUHSD schools. The number of campus supervisors per student is fewer than those at high schools in neighboring unified districts.

The school board has leased away the portion of Paloma that was to be used for auto shop and wood shop to the county for a second library on Bradley road. Now Paloma High School has two libraries and almost no vocational programs. They plan to do the same with Heritage High School.

PUHSD has the highest operating expenses in the county while Menifee has the lowest. The percent of first year teachers in PUHSD is around 12% while the surrounding unified districts are about 5%. I am concerned that our students are not getting the best education possible because of the high teacher turnover. Please go to www.ed-data.k12.ca.us to see for yourself or visit UnificationNow.com.