Morongo Unified School District is still looking for enrollment answers

On September 22, Morongo Unified Superintendent Dr. Patricio Vargas recommended that Landers Elementary remain open and urged the district and community to help maintain and increase enrollment.

At the time, Landers had approximately 107 students.

One possibility discussed that night was ACCE, the Academy of College and Career Excellence, Morongo Unified’s independent-study program. 

ACCE offers fully virtual and hybrid options. In the hybrid program, students primarily work at home and meet regularly with district teachers.

District spokesperson Jene Estrada explained why the program matters to district enrollment.

“So if you’re enrolled in ACE, you are a MUSD student still. So you would count as a student in the district… If you homeschool through an online program, a virtual academy, or whatever that is not associated with the district, then you would be a student of that school.”

Cordelia Reynolds, a Landers resident and treasurer of the Homestead Valley Community Association, has formed a Save Landers Elementary committee. She also belongs to a Morongo Basin parents’ group of about 80 members and says many of the families she knows homeschool through public charter programs outside Morongo Unified.

She says those programs can offer significant incentives.

“I was just talking to a mom at the Orchid Festival. She gets about two thousand dollars a year from her charter homeschooling program, so the school district has to compete with that.”

Reynolds says some families do not know ACCE is available.

Estrada says ACCE is a longstanding yet relatively small program. The district is now considering how much to expand the program and how to reach families who may not know it exists.

For Landers, enrollment remains especially important. At the September meeting, Vargas said the school can remain viable with combination classrooms that include two grade levels. If enrollment drops enough to require combining three grade levels, the district may have to reconsider the school’s future.

The Morongo Unified School Board is expected to take a closer look at ACCE during an upcoming study session on Tuesday, October 27.

You can learn more about the MUSD’s ACCE program on their website.