Murrieta Will be Home to K-6 School Next Year

Parents in the Murrieta Valley Unified School District now have a choice of whether their child enters middle school as a sixth-grader, or takes in another year of elementary school.

The school board unanimously approved Elementary School in 2011-2012.

The population at the school has consecutively gone down over the last few years, according to Principal Kerry Wise, because the families who live near the school are maturing in age.

That prompted Wise to take Superintendent Stan Scheer's challenge to principals to offer creative education choices.

Wise said he got immediate response from parents. parents showed 47 percent would be interested in enrolling their sixth-graders; a district-wide survey showed 35 percent were interested.

Scheer said it will add to the district's goal of offering education choices, something that he is an advocate of.

"I like the concept of choice. I like students to have the choice, and parents to have the choice," Scheer said after the board approval Thursday night.

He used and as examples of the choices the district already offers. The schools are open enrollment for all district students.

"It is about localizing the education opportunities," Scheer said, adding that it demonstrated the district's flexibility to the community.

Rail Ranch has opened pre-registration to students already attending the school as fifth-graders. Wise said 37 parents out of 52 parents have returned those, and that the interest list from the district as a whole could be as large as 400.

For more information about intra- and inter-district transfers to Rail Ranch, visit the district website.