Families & the Community

Charter-Campaign Aftershocks Continue

By Karla Scoon Reid — October 15, 2013 4 min read
West Creek Elementary School is just a few miles from the California school converted to a charter at the insistence of parents. That school's former principal now runs West Creek.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

West Creek Elementary School is quietly trying to forge its own path, free from the national spotlight and controversy that dogged its new principal in his last post.

David Mobley was the principal at Desert Trails Elementary School in the neighboring city of Adelanto for less than two years before parents there successfully petitioned to hand the school over to a charter operator, under California’s parent-trigger law.

“We have a great little school here,” Mr. Mobley said recently, as he walked around the campus of West Creek, also part of the Adelanto School District. “But the pressure doesn’t change, to be honest. The pressure is: Are we doing the right thing for our students?”

Continued Divisions

In one sense, West Creek Elementary is emblematic of the divisions that still exist in these Mojave Desert communities following the parent-trigger campaign that closed Desert Trails: The former Desert Trails school’s homepage still features a poster with a giant hand pointing at the site’s visitors and the message “We Want You,” urging parents to follow Mr. Mobley to West Creek, just four miles from Desert Trails.

Some students and teachers did just that, while others chose to stay at Desert Trails or move on to other campuses in the Adelanto Elementary School District.

Now the Adelanto district is searching for ways to bring the community back together to work on reviving all of its low-performing schools so that more parents don’t seek to use the state’s parent-trigger law to mandate changes.

Some people here believe a transparent, collaborative approach is missing from the parent-trigger process, and blame the law and the campaign for forcing Desert Trails staff members to find jobs elsewhere and driving some parents to enroll their children in different schools.

“We got kicked out of our house,” said Lori Yuan, the parent of two former Desert Trails students. “It hurt.”

Many parents and educators who opposed the parent-led overhaul of Desert Trails are reluctant to relive the contentious two-year campaign. They believe teachers were ignored throughout the power struggle, and several former Desert Trails teachers declined to discuss their former school at all.

“To have your hand extended out to the community and to be rejected in such an aggressive manner can really break your spirit,” said La Nita Dominique, the former president of the Adelanto District Teacher Association and a 5th-grade teacher at another school in the district.

National Spotlight

The struggle in Adelanto made national headlines, led to a court battle, and resulted in a parent takeover at Desert Trails that “ripped the community apart,” in the view of many people here.

“There were a lot of good people on both sides,” Mr. Mobley said, adding that changes he made in his final year at Desert Trails had promise.

“They waited a long time for some changes,” he said of the parents who were unhappy with the school. “I was just a little too late.”

The urgency to improve the district’s schools remains.

The district’s score on the state’s Academic Performance Index for the 2012-13 school declined to 711 from 736 the previous year, on a scale of 200 to 1,000. Every one of Adelanto’s 13 elementary schools saw its API scores drop.

Only 23 percent of the district’s 3rd graders scored proficient or above on the state test this past school year—just half the statewide proportion of 46 percent. And eight of its schools are on the federal watch list for low-performing schools.

Some of the same parents who formed the Desert Trails Parent Union to mandate change at that school are hoping to help initiate changes at other, still-unspecified Adelanto schools without activating the parent trigger.

So far, there have been no discussions between Superintendent Lily Matos DeBlieux and the parent union. But Ms. DeBlieux met this month with Ben Austin, the executive director of Parent Revolution, the Los Angeles-based advocacy group that helped organize and train Desert Trails parents to use the trigger law. She said Mr. Austin assured her that there were no plans to mount another parent-trigger campaign in Adelanto.

“Nobody wants that to happen again,” said Ms. DeBlieux, who took the helm of the 8,400-student district in March. “We want to work collaboratively.”

(Parent Revolution is funded in part by the Walton Family Foundation, which helps to support Education Week coverage of parent-empowerment issues.)

District Outreach

Even before Desert Trails Elementary School closed its doors in June and prepared to reopen as a charter school in July, the district started to reach out to parents through communitywide open houses. Adelanto parents also are taking part in training programs to help them navigate the education system and support student learning at home as well.

Ms. De Blieux said she believes parents will be more patient as long as they stay informed and are included in the schools’ decision-making process.

“We have to empower parents and give them hope,” she said.

Rebuilding trust in Adelanto may prove to be the biggest hurdle.

Matthew Carlson, a former Desert Trails teacher who now teaches at another Adelanto district school, felt strongly that the parent-trigger was the wrong way to force changes, but believes it could end up being used in the future.

“I think what happened here made it very clear that it could happen again,” he said. “I think that in the future, schools, district offices, and the establishment will take people much more seriously when they come to them and say, ‘We really are not happy as parents.’ ”

Coverage of parent-empowerment issues is supported by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation, at www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org. Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage.
A version of this article appeared in the October 16, 2013 edition of Education Week as Charter-Campaign Aftershocks Continue

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Families & the Community Leader To Learn From A Former Teacher Turns Classroom Prowess Into Partnerships With Families
Ana Pasarella maximizes her community's assets to put students first.
8 min read
Ana Pasarella, the director of family and community engagement for Alvin ISD, oversees an activity as Micaela Leon, 3, a student in Alvin ISD’s READy Program, draws on a piece of paper on Alvin ISD’s STEM bus in Manvel, Texas, on Dec. 8, 2023.
Ana Pasarella, the director of family and community engagement for the Alvin Independent school district in Texas, oversees an activity as Micaela Leon, 3, a student in the district's READy Program, draws on a piece of paper inside the district's STEM bus in Manvel, Texas.
Callaghan O’Hare for Education Week
Families & the Community Parents Trust School Librarians to Select Books, But There's a Catch
A new survey shows what parents think of school libraries and librarians following efforts throughout the country to remove books.
5 min read
Books sit in a cart and on shelves in an elementary school library in suburban Atlanta on Aug. 18, 2023.
Books sit in a cart and on shelves in an elementary school library in suburban Atlanta on Aug. 18, 2023.
Hakim Wright Sr./AP
Families & the Community A Side Effect of Anti-CRT Campaigns? Reduced Trust in Local Schools
The calls to ban CRT had little evidence behind them, but they were powerful enough to change people's perceptions of their local schools.
6 min read
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis publicly signs HB7, "individual freedom," also dubbed the "stop woke" bill during a news conference at Mater Academy Charter Middle/High School in Hialeah Gardens, Fla., on Friday, April 22, 2022.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs HB7, the Individual Freedom Act, also dubbed the Stop WOKE Act, during a news conference at Mater Academy Charter Middle/High School in Hialeah Gardens, Fla., on Friday, April 22, 2022. The bill is intended to prohibit the teaching of critical race theory in K-12 schools. New research finds that the public calls for bans on the instruction of critical race theory diminished the general public's trust in local schools and teachers.
Daniel A. Varela/Miami Herald via AP
Families & the Community Opinion I Thought I Knew Parent-Teacher Conferences. Then My Own Child Started School
Parent-teacher conferences are a different experience from the other side of the table, writes one experienced educator.
Marissa McCue Armitage
4 min read
Hands holding red circle. Sensing energy between palms. Concept of human relation, togetherness, partnership, connection, contact or network
iStock/Getty + Education Week