Luis Valentino resigns as Coachella Valley Unified School District superintendent
The Coachella Valley Unified School District Board of Education accepted the resignation of Superintendent Luis Valentino Wednesday at a special board meeting that he did not attend. His resignation is effective June 2024.
The board voted to accept his resignation in a 5-2 vote. Valerie Garcia and Trinidad Arredondo, who were the first to re-enter the boardroom after the closed session that was held while students and staff were on spring break, dissented.
"We thank the superintendent for his service," said Joey Acu?a Jr., the board president. No further information was shared. The next school board meeting will be held on Thursday, April 11.
His departure comes at a time when the district is grappling with potential teacher layoffs, resulting from expiring federal pandemic relief grants — as well as ongoing turnover in school leadership across California according to a news report from EdSource.
"Serving the students, staff, and community of the Coachella Valley Unified School District alongside a fantastic team of educators has been one of the greatest honors of my career," Valentino said in a release. "I have the greatest respect and admiration for the dedicated staff, outstanding students, and supportive parents and community."
Prior to CVUSD, Valentino was the chief academic officer for Portland Public Schools in Oregon. In 2015, he served for three months as superintendent of Albuquerque Public Schools, the largest district in New Mexico. He holds a bachelor's degree in radio, television and film from the University of Texas at Austin; a master's degree in educational technology from Cal State LA; a master's degree in administration from Pepperdine University; and a doctoral degree in education from UCLA.
Early signs of Valentino's impending departure from CVUSD
Many first became aware of the superintendent’s potential departure at the last school board meeting on March 21 via a public comment made by Carissa Carrera, the teachers’ union president.
Veronica Duenas, a representative of the California School Employees Association union at CVUSD, mentioned Carrera’s comment during public comment before the board entered closed session. “Here we are still trying to understand. What kind of leadership are we under?” she said. “If a decision is going to be made tonight, I implore all of you, every single one of you that’s up there tonight, to make the right decision. Enough is enough. Enough with the separation. You should all be doing your best for our district. That is what you guys said when you ran for those seats.”
Duenas was the only one who made remarks Wednesday evening. Others present at the school board meeting included three representatives from the Coachella Valley Teachers Association.
More: Coachella Valley Unified faces layoffs as federal pandemic-era relief funds come to an end
CVUSD has faced a high turnover rate in recent years
Valentino began his tenure as CVUSD's superintendent on July 1, 2021. His contract of $260,000 was originally set to run through June 30, 2025. He was hired nearly five months after Maria Gandera, the district's first Latina superintendent, abruptly resigned in February 2021 after serving only 19 months in the role.
Gandera's departure came as the district was dealing with the arrest of its security director, Adam Sambrano Jr., who was among 64 people arrested during a massive anti-human trafficking and prostitution sting operation. There was no indication that Sambrano's Jan. 27 arrest was related to Gandera's resignation. Gandera is now employed with the Riverside County Office of Education as an executive director of personnel services, according to her Linkedin.
The district paid Gandera $299,485 as part of a settlement for her resignation. She had originally been hired to replace Edwin Gomez, who resigned as superintendent in June 2019 to serve as the deputy superintendent of the Riverside County Office of Education. Gomez was viewed by many in the community as a fresh start for the district. During his two-year tenure, he oversaw the expansion of restorative justice and social-emotional learning programs throughout CVUSD.
Prior to Gomez, Darryl Adams served as superintendent from 2011 to 2016, who cited health issues as the reason for his resignation. Under Adams’ leadership, the district issued 18,000 iPads in 2014 as part of a voter-approved bond measure to provide a device to every student, becoming the first school district in the U.S. to do so. President Barack Obama praised the move and Adams was invited to several White House education conferences to speak about digital learning in rural areas.
Upon Adams' departure from CVUSD, the district uncovered signs of excessive credit card spending. Gomez presented the evidence to the county, which then requested an audit from a third party.
All three Coachella Valley school districts have had leadership changes in recent years
Before long-time administrator Tony Signoret officially took on the superintendency at Palm Springs Unified School District in November 2023, Mike Swize served at the helm from July 2021 to June 2023. Swize had resigned to serve as the new superintendent of Perris Elementary School District, but stepped down after less than a month of his hiring, according to a report from The Press-Enterprise. Prior to Swize, Sandra Lyon served five years as superintendent. Her last 15 months at PSUSD were dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
At Desert Sands Unified School District, Kelly May-Vollmar, also a long-time administrator, began her term as superintendent in July 2022 after Scott Bailey announced his retirement. He, like Lyon, guided the school district through the pandemic and its 2021 reopening plan.
A history of politically active school CVUSD board members
Jose "Joey" Acu?a Jr. has served as a trustee on the CVUSD Board of Education since 2014 (after previously serving on the board from 1992 to 2000), and his current term expires in 2026. However, he's currently running for Assembly District 36, and the March 5 primary determined that he and Republican Jeff Gonzalez are set to advance to the general election from a crowded field of primary candidates vying to replace long-time Democratic Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia.
Garcia has endorsed his campaign, along with several other Riverside County elected officials, including Riverside County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez, Coachella Mayor Steven Hernandez and former Palm Springs council member Christy Holstege.
Four of the seven board members' terms are set to end this year, including Trinidad Arredondo, Adonis Galarza-Toledo, Jesus Gonzalez and Jocelyn Vargas.
First elected in 2016, Jesus Gonzalez's second term ends in November 2024. Gonzalez formerly served as mayor of Coachella. He had been indicted on felony bribery and conspiracy charges, the result of a land deal that involved his sister and developers of the property. Years later, he pleaded guilty to a single, lesser charge, but has always maintained his innocence. He re-entered politics when he ran unopposed for a seat on CVUSD's board during his first term.
Politics also runs in the family. Galarza-Toledo replaced his older brother, Neftali Galarza, on the school board — who now serves as a councilmember for the city of Coachella, as well as a director for community engagement and partnerships for the Riverside County Office of Education.
At the March 21 board meeting during public comment, Carrera remarked on the impending disruptions within the school district. “For those of you trustees who value transparency and integrity, we thank you and we hope you will enlighten your constituency when significant changes take place within our district,” she said at the time. “For the others, we look forward to November.”
CVUSD's main issue during Valentino's tenure was school safety
Last school year, many CVUSD high school students came to board meetings expressing that they felt unsafe at school following a series of about a dozen incidents during the 2022-23 school year when administrators called the sheriff’s department to deal with reports of weapons or trespassers on various campuses.
In 2018, the district’s board of trustees voted to remove school resource officers from high schools in favor of a restorative justice program intended to create a healthier school climate, reduce suspensions and tackle root causes of behavioral issues rather than disciplining students in a heavy-handed fashion.
After that model was put in place, suspension rates dropped about 25%, and far fewer students were referred to the juvenile justice system. But many students and teachers said their safety was compromised, and expressed a desire to have officers back full time.
To make themselves heard, hundreds of students from Desert Mirage High and Coachella Valley High walked out of class in February 2023 and marched three to six miles to the district’s office to call for better safety measures, including a return of sheriff’s deputies to schools.
They marched after Riverside County sheriff’s deputies were called to the district’s schools at least 12 times in five months during the 2022-23 school year, including once in November 2022 when they ordered the mass evacuation of 3,700 students after reports of a suspicious device in a backpack found at a campus shared by three schools. Deputies were called to CVUSD campuses several more times after to investigate reports of a student with a gun at school.
Last spring, officials installed temporary fencing around Coachella Valley High and instituted mandatory backpack checks for all students entering the grounds. They also increased the use of canine detection services to detect drugs, alcohol, ammunition and firearms and provided a majority of staff with active shooter training and some with de-escalation training.
The Desert Sun confirmed that no school lockdowns occurred at CVUSD buildings due to on-campus incidents during the current 2023-24 school year. However, based on advice from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, six preventative lockdowns were implemented due to police activity in the area at the following sites:
Aug. 25, 2023: Mecca Elementary School in Mecca
Oct. 12, 2023: Desert Mirage High, Toro Canyon Middle and Las Palmitas Elementary schools in Thermal
Oct. 16, 2023: Bobby Duke Middle School in Coachella
Nov. 2, 2023: John Kelley Elementary and La Familia High schools, as well as the CVUSD district office in Thermal
Nov. 16, 2023: Bobby Duke Middle School in Coachella
Nov. 27, 2023: Palm View Elementary and Bobby Duke Middle schools in Coachella
March 20, 2024: Peter Pendleton Elementary School in Coachella
State data shows CVUSD still struggles, but absenteeism has improved
CVUSD is comprised of 14 elementary schools, three middle schools, four high schools and one adult school. The school district serves roughly 16,455 students, 98% of whom are Hispanic, 42.5% who are chronically absent (down 3.5% from last year), 43.9% of whom are English learners and about 92% who qualify as socioeconomically disadvantaged, according to state data from the 2022-23 school year. The graduation rate is 78.6%.
Geographically, the district covers Coachella, Thermal, Mecca, and the Salton Sea and Oasis areas.
This is a developing story.
Previous Desert Sun reporting by Jonathan Horwitz, Andrew L. John, Tom Coulter, Joseph Hong, Kristen Hwang and Larry Bohannan was included in this story.
Jennifer Cortez covers education in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Luis Valentino resigns as Coachella Valley Unified superintendent