Parents Vote Against Petition To Take Over Elementary School

ADELANTO (CBS) — Parents of an under-performing elementary school in Southern California Tuesday night voted against a petition to take over the school using the new Parent Trigger Law.

More than 100 people packed into the Adelanto Elementary School District board meeting to deal with a Parent Trigger petition concerning Desert Trails Elementary School.

"I was like bullied the whole school year," one student said at the meeting.

"Broken. Un-functional. In a way I can say unprofessional sometimes," a woman said.

Last month supporters submitted a petition that represented signatures 70 percent of the 665 students to convert the under-performing school to a charter school.

Charter schools are mostly made up of non-union employees, are publicly financed and independently run with input from parents.

"I have my college education and I feel like I'm a well-rounded individual and I would not be comfortable if someone handed me the keys to a school," a parent said.

Sandra King said that a charter school would eliminate programs that are currently being offered to her son.

"He will lose speech therapy, he will lose the GAIT program and possibly band," she said.

But before things could get that far, the board would have to determine whether the signatures were valid.

Organizers also collected a second petition that was not submitted. In that version, they did not call for a charter school, but instead for the school to remain with the district with modifications made to the union contract with teachers.

But the more severe petition was submitted.

The petition represented the second attempt by a group of parents in California, who tried to enact the Parent Trigger Law.