We bought a new house in Tustin Ranch in May of 1989 (probably the day the market peaked, lol). My oldest daughter was going to be in Kindergarten in the fall and soon as we moved in the neighbors wanted to know where my daughter would be going to school. I said, Tustin Memorial and they told me oh no....... if you are going to public school she'll have to go to Marjorie Veeh and it's bad!
I thought well no, that can't be. I asked about the school and the sales office told me there are two schools equal distance so take your pick.
I moved from low house payments, no mello to having to go back to work to pay for the house and get a nanny to watch my three young kids so I could sleep (I worked night shift) and I have to have a crummy school?
Neighbors told me they tried and it was a no go for anything but Veeh so they put their kids in private school, which for me just wasn't going to happen.
I went to tour Tustin Memorial and told the principal that I was thinking of moving to the area and wanted to know about the school. He was nice, gave me a tour of his school which was only 2/3 full (Veeh was so full they had to bring in trailers) but he told me to make absolute SURE that I didn't buy in Tustin Ranch (which I already had) because Dave Andrews (head of TUSD) told me there would NEVER be any students from Tustin Ranch at that school.
I was livid, paying those taxes, going back to work night shift, sleeping in the daytime and having a nanny just so I could put my kids in a worse school than they would have been in had I never moved (and then house prices dropped, which probably not many on TI even remember, but the last move down was not my first experience with that problem....... our house lost 30% from the time we bought till the bottom after the county bankruptcy).
The neighbors were also upset so we all went to a school board meeting to let our voices be heard and finally Mr. Andrews said that WHEN the new school was built (the area near our house eventually became more homes so we would have had to drive our kids a few miles away), those who were in TR would be "allowed" to go (but not the first phase of TR because for some reason they didn't pay the mello) but "he didn't know WHY anyone would want to drive their kids somewhere else when they could walk to Veeh). I knew this district was trouble with a capital T.
I had 4 months to figure out what I was going to do. I KNEW I would not put my kids in Veeh, so for the first year we drove my daughter to a fundamental school in Santa Ana and used a friend's address.
The next year we applied to be in the IUSD because my hubby worked in Irvine (at that time if you worked in the area that another school district covered you could transfer).
I think my youngest (who was only 8 months old when we moved in) would have missed going to the middle and high school had we stayed and wouldn't have even started elementary school in a new school had we stayed.
26 years ago we moved into TR and after all these years it's pretty sad to see TUSD still trying to pump up school scores by forcing new home owners to attend the worst schools, all the while taking in the mello they refuse to spend until they absolutely have to.