Desert Sands Unified board denies Altus Schools Coachella Valley charter renewal, 5-0

The Desert Sands Unified School District Board of Education voted 5-0 on Feb. 18 to deny a charter petition from Alta Schools Coachella Valley, a petition that sought to renew and convert a resource-center program operating in the district.

District counsel Sue Ann Evans presented staff’s recommendation to deny the petition, saying the document lacked key elements and that the petitioner was “demonstrably unlikely to successfully implement the program, and the petition does not contain a reasonably comprehensive description of all the Charter elements.” The board adopted the staff report as its statement of findings and then approved the motion to deny.

The staff report identified several concerns: unclear scope (the petition mixed corporation-level material with a single-site petition), missing or incomplete descriptions of the Dashboard Alternative Status (DOS) criteria the school would use, no clear demonstration that average daily attendance (ADA) and enrollment projections were reasonable, and a fiscal analysis that staff judged insufficient to show the charter could sustain operations. The report also said the petition overstated how many students had been redirected to district schools.

Petition representatives disputed staff findings during the public hearing. A petitioner representative said the resource center has operated under Hesperia Unified School District authorizing agreements and that Alta Schools Coachella Valley intended to continue those practices if authorized locally. The petitioner emphasized independent financial audits and said the program serves a high‑risk student population that benefits from nontraditional supports.

Alta Schools’ counsel Lee Rosenberg told the board the staff report contained “so many glaring misstatements and mischaracterizations” and urged trustees to approve the petition, saying the Palm Desert Resource Center had served local students since 2013 and that the petition sought approval for a single continuing charter school.

After questions and brief discussion, Trustee Forrest moved to deny the petition; Trustee Alvarez seconded. The motion passed 5-0.

The district’s staff report cited Education Code Section 47605 and recent Assembly bills addressing charter authorization and renewal (AB 1505 and AB 1507) when describing the board’s legal standards and the limits of its discretion. The petitioner noted that Mira Secondary — the charter’s authorizer in Hesperia — was recently renewed by that authorizer and that Alta sought to continue serving students at the Palm Desert resource center.

Board President called for the vote after concluding the public hearing and after both district staff and petitioner had presented their cases. The denial means petitioners may appeal the district’s decision to the County Office of Education and, if necessary, to the State Board of Education under the charter appeal process defined in state law.

The board took no further action on the petition beyond the denial vote at this meeting.