The Adelanto, Calif., school board voted unanimously last week to approve the recommendation of a local parent group to transform Desert Trails Elementary School into a charter school operated by LaVerne Elementary Preparatory Academy.
The vote is thought to make the 8,300-student Adelanto district the first in the country to approve a provision under a parent-trigger law which allows schools to be restructured through a majority vote of parents, according to Parent Revolution, a Los Angeles-based organization that has advised parents on the policy. Voters in November ousted school board President Carlos Mendoza, who had opposed the parents’ effort. In the same election, Teresa Rogers, a member of the Desert Trails Parent Union, was elected to the school board.