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Today, 100 parents gathered at a small park next to Desert Trails Elementary School in Adelanto, CA and made history. In this little, rural community, minutes away from Victorville, over 70% of Desert Trails Elementary parents signed a petition to change their underperforming school. 

Here, parents took a stand against a status quo where only a third of the students are at their grade level for reading and less than a third of kids are at grade level math when they leave school and now parents are demanding a real change. Today, Desert Trails Parent Union  (DTPU) turned in their historic Parent Trigger petitions. 

The parents organized for weeks, going door to door, and found fellow parents eager for change. All too often, parents were invited into homes, acted as shoulders to cry on and were named "angels" by their fellow parents. Too many parents had felt alone and helpless and, for the first time, they felt empowered through a law that puts parents and their children first.

Now, after the parents turned the petitions in, DTPU has become the second group of parents in history to turn in Parent Trigger signatures. Empowered with parent-friendly regulations, DTPU parents are giving the district 40 days to negotiate with parents on real Kid-First reform: make a school where children are proud to succeed, give the principal real authority over the teachers and give teachers real accountability. If they don't, parents will make Desert Trails a good school through their law that gives parents a real voice. 

Parents have been eager for change and want to work with the school district to achieve it.  For years parents have tried unsuccessfully to meet with district officials toward real change in their community school. But only after parents received signatures representing over 450 students (an overwhelming majority) did the district agree to meet. Now parents are hopeful that school district and union officials will be willing to turn meetings into negotiations and work with parents to make a better Desert Trails. But no matter what, parents have real power through this petition that they submitted and will get the school their children deserve.