COD should expand in 'easternmost' Coachella Valley, CVUSD school board urges

The Coachella Valley Unified Board of Education became the latest government agency to urge College of the Desert to expand its facilities.

The board approved a resolution Thursday asking the college to "establish a branch in the eastern-most part of the Coachella Valley."

Whereas other agencies have been critical of COD's current administration, members of the CVUSD board expressed their support for COD Superintendent/President Martha Garcia, and said this resolution should be seen as a reminder of the east valley's need for better access to higher education.

The college already has a campus in Thermal, but it's underutilized and not connected to sewage infrastructure. It does have clean water, and facilities are connected to a septic tank.

The college is offering two general education classes Monday through Thursday afternoons in Thermal this fall with about 50 students enrolled between them, according to college spokesperson Nicholas Robles. Administrators only work there on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

CVUSD Trustee Trinidad Arredondo voted against the resolution, saying his responsibility is to focus on that district's facilities rather than those of another agency.

Trustees Jesus Gonzalez and Adonis Galarza-Toledo responded that it was their "moral obligation" as school board members to support access to higher education in their community. Board President Blanca Hall and Trustee Joey Acuña supported the resolution, as well.

Trustee Jocelyn Vargas abstained because she works for COD as interim director of East Valley educational centers. She expressed her support for improved access to COD facilities throughout the valley in a comment before the vote.

Sylvia Paz was absent.

The trustees who voted yes said they did not want to detract from other efforts to have COD expand across the valley, and they stated their support for a Palm Springs campus.

Where COD should invest approximately $500 million remaining from two bond funds totaling nearly $1 billion has become a political flashpoint.

Of particularly intense debate: whether the college should spend a majority of that money on a planned $345 million campus in Palm Springs.

Galarza-Toledo is one of several elected officials who have criticized that approach. He and his brother, Coachella City Councilmember Neftali Galarza, each called into the Sept. 15 COD board meeting to question the need to spend that much money on a Palm Springs campus when communities in the eastern Coachella Valley also lack access to higher education facilities.

At least two COD trustees, Board Chair Ruben Perez and Bea Gonzalez, have raised similar questions, but neither objected to the $345 million Palm Springs campus budget at COD's last board meeting when an in-depth project update was given.

The bond language for Measure CC, the college's more recent bond passed in 2016, does not call for investment in any particular cities except Palm Desert and Indio, plus a "west valley campus," an "east valley campus," and "community centered sites throughout the Coachella Valley."

However, "Yes on CC" campaign flyers distributed before the 2016 election told voters the money would be used to "revitalize the Palm Springs Mall site & complete the West Valley Campus!"

"I'm sure every single city here that was promised a campus would love to see some of the bond money used to revitalize some of their downtown areas,” Bea Gonzalez said at a board meeting in March.

She also is an employee of CVUSD, and earlier Thursday evening, the board voted in closed session to promote her to director of expanded learning, effective Friday. She has worked at the district for about two decades, most recently as the coordinator for expanded learning programs.

A campus 'abandoned'?

CVUSD trustees said COD has "abandoned" the Mecca/Thermal campus, which was opened in 2009 and slightly expanded in 2018.

Albeit small, with just a few single-story buildings, it is already at the maximum size that the septic tank beneath it can handle, Robles said.

The campus has a student commons, but no one was there Thursday morning except a college security guard.

From above, its vast, empty parking lot looks like an asphalt island in a sea of farmland and desert.

When COD opened the campus 13 years ago, it was supposed to become a centerpiece of a thriving community.

But a developer that had big plans for Mecca and Thermal went bankrupt after the 2008 recession, Robles said.

COD opened the campus, but the promise of infrastructure from the surrounding community never arrived.

In May, Riverside County and the Coachella Valley Water District announced plans to jointly fund the expansion of sewer infrastructure in Mecca with a project that would total $6.2 million.

Officials said that project could eventually support 600 to 700 homes. County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez said it could also accommodate expansion of COD's east valley campus.

To date, the college has invested $3.7 million of bond funds into the site, according to a September capital projects report to the COD Board of Trustees.

COD continues to earmark another $22.5 million dollars for future development of the Mecca/Thermal campus, according to that report. Robles said he is unaware of any active plans to improve the campus.

Deciding where to spend

Jesus Gonzalez proposed Thursday that COD should decide how much to spend on projects based on the amount that taxpayers in each area are paying toward the bonds.

But that approach appears to run counter to the CVUSD trustees' call for more investment in the easternmost valley. It would favor developments in already wealthier areas in the west and mid-valley because the taxes are based on assessed property value.

Indian Wells, with 4,700 residents, accounts for more than 7% of the college district's assessed value while the City of Coachella — despite having 42,000 people — accounts for just over 2%. La Quinta accounts for 16% of the college district's assessed value while Indio accounts for 10%, even though Indio has more than twice as many people and is the valley's largest city at 90,000 residents.

A disproportionate amount of bond money would also go to Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage.

Meanwhile, unincorporated areas in Imperial County account for a fraction of a percentage point of the assessed value in the COD district, but CVUSD trustees agree there is need for better access to higher education nearer to the Salton Sea.

CVUSD trustees in favor of the resolution agreed that although COD has invested over $100 million in educational facilities in Indio, about four miles from downtown Coachella, the college needs to extend accessibility to prospective students that live further southeast in places like North Shore, Oasis and Salton City.

They say resuming investments in the Mecca/Thermal could be the answer.

Politics and pressure

Tensions about where to spend COD bond funds escalated this week on multiple fronts, driven in part by the upcoming November election, in which two incumbent college trustees are being challenged:

• Larissa Chavez Chaidez, who is trying to oust Ruben Perez from his seat as COD's east valley trustee, accused him of "double-dipping taxpayers" by simultaneously taking pay for two jobs: as trustee and as field representative for state Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia. Records she cited, which were reviewed by The Desert Sun, were inconclusive. Perez called the accusation political, noting the records were obtained by the husband of another person challenging a COD trustee: Joel Kinnamon, who's a former president and superintendent of the college. Kinnamon is challenging Trustee Aurora Wilson and supporting Chavez Chaidez's campaign. Jesus Gonzalez, the CVUSD board member, flippantly referred to Kinnamon as "Mr. Kinnamon or Mr. Cinnamon or whatever" on Thursday.

• Palm Springs Councilmember Christy Holstege and Coachella Mayor Steven Hernandez traded accusations that the other was involved in "backroom" real estate deals potentially related to COD developments in their respective cities.

• Hernandez also referred to Holstege on social media as “the real house wife of Palm Springs,” a label she and a women's activist group — one she's involved in and that has endorsed her run for state Assembly — referred to as a "misogynistic trope."

Voices across the valley

CVUSD became the latest government agency Thursday to take a position on where COD should invest in educational facilities.

So far this year, officials from Cathedral City and Palm Springs have publicly pressured the college to proceed with plans to build in their cities.

Cathedral City officials even sponsored a rally in April to protest a college proposal to consider moving a planned automotive education center to Indio. Later, COD officials voted to keep the project in Cathedral City.

More: Amid pressure from city, COD board chair vows 'Cathedral City Roadrunners project will happen'

More: Photos: 'Build It Here' rally urges COD to keep auto technology center in Cathedral City

More recently, the City of Palm Springs sued the college for what it alleges to be a failure to comply with the California Public Records Act.

The city also is in a real estate dispute with COD for land it gifted to the college in north Palm Springs.

More: Will city rezone the north Palm Springs property COD wants to sell to home builder?

More: Palm Springs offers $5.7M for north end land, if COD builds campus at mall site as planned

In addition, Visit Greater Palm Springs, a joint power authority, purchased an ad in this newspaper this April to call on the college to proceed with plans for a learning hotel in Palm Springs. Later, the agency commissioned an independent study to examine similar programs across the U.S., then, based on the results of that study, called on COD to build a smaller hospitality school in Palm Springs. Those plans are more or less in line with what COD has recently proposed after its own study. 

And a self-proclaimed watchdog group has launched a print and digital media campaign against Garcia and the board members that voted to hire her: Perez, Bea Gonzalez and Wilson.

This month the college proposed planning Phase I of the Palm Springs campus with 142,000 gross square feet of buildings at a cost of about $290 million, with the option to add additional phases after Phase I is scheduled to open in 2026. That is about 30,000 square feet larger than the college proposed at a community forum in August, but smaller than a 330,000-square-foot plan discussed before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jonathan Horwitz covers education for The Desert Sun. Reach him at jonathan.horwitz@desertsun.com or @Writes_Jonathan.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: CVUSD urges COD to build branch in 'easternmost' valley