Year in Review: Changes, challenges in education

Dec. 23--From several month-long disputes over charter schools to allegations of racism, school boards in the High Desert have been through many heated discussions in 2016. These events, along with an unexpected school closure and the development of several new career-prep academies have made the past year an eventful one for education.

Beauty college breakdown

On Feb. 4, about 4,300 students were left high and dry when the Department of Education busted all 56 Marinello Schools of Beauty across the country -- including the Victorville campus -- for falsifying student federal aid records.

Local Marinello students said they were left with two options after the shutdown: Seek loan forgiveness and forfeit any acquired hours (credits), or keep the hours they'd racked up along with their loans. With tuition as costly as $22,000 to complete the 1,600-hour program, neither option was attractive.

In August, Marinello's insurance carrier paid $8.6 million to resolve its civil allegations that the school illegally obtained federal student loan funds.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Company paid $8,631,000 to the U.S. to resolve its "whistleblower" lawsuit of improperly assisting adult students who did not have high school diplomas to obtain bogus ones.

Although efforts to increase accountability of for-profit education came too late for Marinello students, a Student Aid Enforcement Unit has since been formed to "protect students and taxpayers."

Challenges with charters

Thousands of local charter school students and their families were caught up in disputes during the first half of the year, left in suspense while school boards debated whether to approve or deny charter renewals.

The first charter school to be converted by the parent-trigger legislation four years ago, Desert Trails Preparatory Academy, was denied its charter through Adelanto Elementary School District in November 2015. This past April, DTPA supporters received the news they'd been hoping for -- their school was rechartered and is now overseen by the San Bernardino County Board of Education.

When the Victor Valley Union High School District was faced with a similar decision in May, to approve or deny Options for Youth's charter, the board had a split vote, 2-2.

Despite their 26-year-strong partnership with the charter, the district said OFY had not satisfactorily met academic criteria, citing its poor graduation and dropout rates.

If the charter had been denied, about 2,300 students would have been displaced, but after two months of dispute, the deadlock vote was overthrown by a decision to "auto-renew" the charter agreement in June.

Scores still slumping

California schools were dealt their second-year results on new, Common Core-aligned standardized tests, and despite overall state improvement, still less than half of students passed.

The California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress results showed that 49 percent of California students met achievement targets in English and 37 percent met targets in math, up slightly from last year's results of 44 and 34 percent, respectively.

Scores of local schools varied from as low as 0 percent meeting targets to more than 80 percent. The 11 total High Desert school districts averaged 37 percent passing English and 24 percent passing math.

Slurs and swears

With election fever gripping officials across the High Desert this year, several school board officials were accused of making racial remarks and other inappropriate comments.

A Victor Valley College board task force is investigating whether trustee Joseph W. Brady used a racial slur in reference to President Barack Obama at a private country club here in late July. Brady wholly denied accusations, saying the complaint was politically motivated. Brady has since been re-elected to the VVC Board, while the college has added a third-party investigator.

Despite calls for his resignation or censure, an Adelanto Elementary School District trustee denied allegations that he made "threatening" statements. Trustee Jayson Hughes was the subject of two failed items at a September AESD meeting, both of which are in full, uncensored detail on the district website. The statements attributed to him included threatening comments, including a few racially insensitive remarks. Hughes denied ever saying any of the quoted text and the discussion was later dismissed.

Most recently, a Victor Valley Union High School District board member alleged racism among the board, saying she often ends up defending district staff members who are African American. Trustee Barbara Dew declared there was "a lot of racism in here" at a December VVUHSD board meeting during a heated discussion between trustee Penny Edmiston and a district employee. Dew claimed Edmiston showed bias toward the employee, but Edmiston said the discussion had "nothing to do with race."

Cultivating careers

High Desert schools took college and career readiness to the next level in 2016, advancing academies and programs focused on preparing students with real-world experience.

Sultana High School showcased its new Sports Science, Physiology, Anatomy, Nursing Academy (SPAN) in October. The Regional Occupational Program includes immersive classrooms, equipped with lab equipment and interactive mannequins. Several students who've gone through the program have already found paying internships at Desert Valley Hospital, and Sultana staff have goals of eventually including an actual working clinic on campus.

Oak Hills High School's Cisco Academy is not just the only such academy in the High Desert, but was the first in San Bernardino County when it opened last year. The academy has continued to advance, allowing students to practice real IT work, their most recent project being to build computers for the school's lab. Cisco students prepare for computer-related certifications and after just a couple semesters in college, students can be ready to enter $40,000 salary jobs.

Hesperia High School students have the opportunity to expand their learning through the school's new career pathway, DEMA, which stands for design, engineering and manufacturing academy. DEMA is designed to prepare students through hands-on experience for 21st century careers, with departments for students to choose from like graphic design, ceramic art, journalism, automotive, robotics and more.

Charity Lindsey may be contacted at [email protected] or 760-951-6245. Follow her on twitter @DP_Charity.

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