🪧Landers Closure: Still No Complete Numbers, California DOJ Responds🪧

Dear Save Morongo Schools supporters,

MUSD is moving closer to possible Landers Elementary closure, but the public still has not been shown a complete decision-grade calculation of what closing the school would actually save.

At the recent Landers staff meeting, Superintendent Patricio Vargas did not present the detailed figures public were asking for. Questions remain about net savings after transportation costs, enrollment/ADA losses, receiving-school impacts, staffing changes, transition costs, and alternatives to closure.

At nearly the same time, a parent received a response from the California Department of Justice regarding a complaint about the closure process. The complaint was forwarded to the Bureau of Children’s Justice. DOJ specifically pointed back to the Attorney General’s school-closure guidance addressing legal obligations, equity, community engagement, and careful decision-making.

That makes the central question even clearer:
Before a school is closed, where is the complete analysis?

The district’s own Enrollment/7-11 Committee previously recommended that closures remain a last resort and that alternative cost-saving and enrollment-recovery strategies be implemented and evaluated first.

Yet Landers is now moving further into the closure process while major financial, transportation, enrollment, and equity questions remain unresolved. Closing a community school should be the conclusion of an analysis — not the substitute for one.

❗️Please join us for upcoming public meetings:❗️

❗️Sept. 8 · 6:00 PM — MUSD Board Meeting 
First regular Board meeting during this new phase of the closure discussion.
Address:  Joshua Tree Elementary School · 4950 Sunburst Ave., Joshua Tree

❗️Sept. 10 · 5:30 PM — Landers Elementary public hearing
Community discussion of possible Landers consolidation.
Address:56450 Reche Rd, Landers, CA 92285

❗️Sept. 22 · 5:30 PM — Yucca Mesa Elementary public hearing
Yucca Mesa is the proposed receiving school. 
Address: 3380 Avalon Ave, Yucca Valley, CA 92284

The Save Morongo Schools information hub has also been updated with a chronological timeline of the closure process — from the district’s fiscal-stabilization work and Enrollment Committee meetings through Board actions, the August study session, and the current Landers process.

👉  savemorongoschools.com → Timeline

This petition remains open, and the site includes current meeting dates, source documents, press coverage, and the committee’s final recommendations.

⏳Please keep sharing this information. The closure process is moving quickly, and the decision has not been made yet.⏳

Morongo Parents for Transparency
Save Morongo Schools