Solana Beach Board of Directors Considers School Buses for Pacific Highlands Ranch Students

The Solana Beach School District continues to explore the possibility of providing temporary transportation for Pacific Highlands Ranch families who have to deal with difficult commutes to school. At a board meeting on January 19, they reviewed options for two bus routes: one from Rancho Pacific Highlands to Solana Santa Fe School on Rancho Santa Fe, and the other to Carmel Creek/Solana Pacific Schools in the Carmel Valley.

After the board of directors made a decision in 2019 not to build the district’s eighth school on Pacific Highlands Ranch, PHR children were placed in schools outside of their neighborhood as the district experienced a surge in enrollment from new homes. A pilot transportation program for these students was originally developed for the 2020-21 academic year.

John Leland, the county’s chief technology officer, said the county has been unable to obtain transportation quotes from companies as suppliers face challenges such as staff shortages, equipment shortages and rising fuel prices. In 2021 numbers, two buses will cost $645 per day, or $116,100 per year, 17% more than estimated 2018-2019 costs.

SBSD Superintendent Jody Brentlinger said the board may revisit the topic at its March meeting pending updated quotes from transport companies. The Board will also need to take into account considerations such as cost, fees passed on to families, sources of funding, location of bus stops and impact on the area.

Congestion at the Pacific Highlands Ranch has been a problem for the past few years. The Del Mar Heights-Carmel Valley Road corridor is suffering from a bottleneck due to several schools being fed from it. Canyon Crest Academy and Torrey Pines open at 8:30 AM. Schools such as Pacific Trails, Solana Ranch, Sycamore Ridge, Ashley Falls, Carmel Creek, Solana Pacific, and Cathedral Catholic High School start at the same time or at intervals of 5 to 20 minute windows.

The parents told the board of directors that four miles could be walked in 40 to 45 minutes, one way to drop the kids off the Pacific Highlands Ranch.

The district surveyed parents in November 2022 and found that 51 students would be interested in taking the bus to Solana Santa Fe and 54 to Carmel Creek/Solana Pacific.

The most interested families resided in the Vista Santa Fe Highlands Collection, where 29 students requested transportation to Solana Santa Fe.

SBSD trustee Julie Union went out last week to get a glimpse of the “PHR experience” by riding to the summit of the Aurora Trailhead to map out morning routes to Solana Santa Fe, Carmel Creek and Solana Pacific, finding it would take 11 – 12 minutes to get to each school with your Apple app. She found that across the area, travel times were the same for Morgan Run to the Skyline in Solana Beach or from the Crosby apartment complex to Solana Santa Fe.

“Being in a car isn’t easy, and I just want to make sure that when we make these decisions, we’re really thinking about parity in our district and really counting the numbers,” Union said. “That’s a big fiduciary expense that we could incur.”

SBSD President Debra Shade said she is interested in buses as one way to get cars out of the way, and other ways to encourage car sharing and cycling or walking to school.

Sade said there are many outstanding issues, but most board members would be willing to help families by offering buses for a period of time if they could get a firm and reliable commitment from the transport company and if there was funding to do so. made it an affordable option for the area.

The Solana Beach School District is seeing a decline in enrollment across the district. Brentlinger said the district has committed to review housing estates at Pacific Highlands Ranch for possible school reassignments for the 2024-25 school year.

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