A group of California parents chose a charter operator partnered with a local university to take over their children’s failing elementary school, marking the nation’s first use of a law empowering parents to drive educational reform.
Parents of students at the Desert Trails Elementary School in Adelanto, located about 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles, voted between two local nonprofits that applied to take over the low-performing school next fall.
Voters opted for LaVerne Elementary Preparatory Academy, which is partnered with the University of La Verne.
The balloting was the culmination of an acrimonious, 18-month battle by the Desert Trails Parent Union against the teachers’ union and the Adelanto Elementary school district to revamp the school under California’s landmark “parent trigger” law, which allows parents to force radical change through a petition.
