Exit interview: Luis Valentino on stepping down as Coachella Valley Unified superintendent

The job of a superintendent has never been easy.

After over 35 years in public education, Luis Valentino realized it was time to prioritize his own well-being when he resigned from his role as superintendent of Coachella Valley Unified School District in April 2024.

He had been appointed in May 2021 to take the helm of a school district that serves more than 16,000 students in the eastern Coachella Valley, months after his predecessor abruptly resigned with little explanation for her departure. His first full year marked students' return to campus since March 2020, as CVUSD was the only K-12 public school district in the Coachella Valley that did not re-open its schools in the spring of 2021.

Valentino admits pushback from some CVUSD board members contributed to his resignation

One year into his superintendency, Valentino previously told The Desert Sun that his priorities included bettering student outcomes, improving workplace culture and bringing stability to a district that had faced frequent superintendent turnover.

He realized about a year-and-a-half into his tenure that the role would be much more challenging than he originally thought — and that he likely wouldn’t be able to serve the entirety of his four-year contract in the way he had envisioned.

“You’re always going to have those board members who don’t appreciate what you do, don’t care about you, will work against you,” Valentino said. “It is difficult enough when you have the support of the board to do the work. It becomes even more difficult because you’re always being second guessed or being questioned or being challenged.”

He admitted there was a lot of pushback from the board and some staff. Eventually, he decided to focus on what he could achieve during his superintendency. His three priorities for the district were students’ mental health, English language learners and special education.

Mental health and wellness is crucial and will continue to be integral moving forward, he said. The main focus, however, was to refocus instruction, given that there was widespread impact on students' academic achievements.

“Some districts had students who suffered even more and we were one of those. One, there were a lot of deaths from families. There was a lot of separation, a lot of anxiety, a lot of anger, a lot that required support,” Valentino said. “That was going to be a critical goal. So whatever we had started when I began, it was going to continue whenever I was going to leave.”

And, in 2023, there was a height of aggression that was translated into violence, Valentino said. At the time, some students from Coachella Valley High School in Thermal pleaded with the school board to improve school safety after a series of lockdowns at schools and incidents involving weapons on campus.

CVUSD's board was progressive and adamant, he said, in that they did not want law enforcement or metal detectors on campus. They feared the metal detectors would make the school resemble a jail, and that because of the way law enforcement has historically treated its youth, on-campus law enforcement would only make matters worse.

More: How a rural California district became a hotspot in the nationwide debate about school policing

"I believe it. I grew up in a similar community in El Paso, Texas, and so that's true," he said. "But then my question was, if not this, then what?"

He understood the board's decision to instead implement counseling and restorative justice, but that was a long-term solution. As Valentino explained it, CVHS was "like a sieve," in that the nearly century-old institution had several exit and entry points. "You need to triage this thing, what's urgent now. For me, there was a lot of frustration," he said.

The turning point came when he decided, without approval, to install a fence as a symbolic gesture to demonstrate that in the absence of other support systems, steps would be taken to protect kids. The other part required transparent communication with the public and the media and consistently reiterating the district's three priorities.

“In prioritizing (marginalized student populations), that became my direction, while at the same time knowing, there were going to be upset board members ... on how it was being done,” he said. “By the third year, I made the decision that I was going to complete my three years and not stay through the fourth, that it was probably time for someone at the end of my third year to come in and take over the responsibility of continuing the work."

He said he could have technically retired after his second year as superintendent, but he had hoped to surpass the typical tenure of previous superintendents by staying for three years. He didn’t quite make it the full third school year, alleging that some board members were grasping at straws to find reasons to not support him.

“I’m like, ‘Why would I want to continue to deal with this when I can actually retire, right?” he said, adding that he does not intend to paint the seven-member board in a broad brush.

With the support of a couple of the board members, they figured out a process in which he could retire earlier.

"Retiring on paper, legally, would require a resignation and a contract of separation because I still had a little more than a year in my contract,” he said.

The attorneys managed the separation and drafted language that enabled his resignation from the school district and retirement — which became effective on Friday, June 30. "It was just easier that way, emotionally," he said. "A separation like that, you can imagine, I think, there's a sense of, 'I failed at this.'"

Leaving CVUSD helped Valentino better his health

Upon his resignation, he recognized how vital it was to now prioritize his mental health and physical well-being.

"I knew I needed to get healthy again, and so I really needed to just take the time to recover," Valentino said. "It took its toll. It took its toll on me. It took its toll on my family."

Since then, he hired a nutritionist, takes early morning walks before it gets too hot, goes to the gym daily and practices transcendental meditation twice a day. He's in a good place, he said, to begin to reflect on what he's going to do next. Writing and storytelling has certainly helped with that process. (In another life, Valentino formerly worked for Paramount Pictures with ambitions of becoming the next Steven Spielberg.)

In fact, he's already published a book on Amazon titled "The Edupreneurs' Foundation," a guide that explores the intersection of education and entrepreneurship.

"In learning from people who do the work, an 'edupreneur' is anyone who applies the knowledge, skills, natural talents and abilities towards improving education," he said.

He is already working on his second book, which will examine the concept of thought leadership and the type of leadership needed to tackle the challenges districts face amid political polarization and board anxiety. Through his passion projects, he's intent on seeking nontraditional methods to positively transform the public education system.

"Education has a core body of people whose primary responsibility it is to directly work with students, parents and communities, but you can't do it alone. You just can't," he said. "There are a lot of people who mean nothing but the best for public education and are doing it from the role they play and we need to acknowledge that, celebrate that and embrace it as part of the support system."

Valentino says the work of a superintendent is 'about people'

"I can put in all the systems and structures. I can have policies and procedures. I have all of that," he said. "But at the end of the day, the work is about people."

With experience in three states and five school districts, Valentino acknowledged that each educational community is unique and pointed out the importance of understanding the specific context in which each one works. Although part of the larger Coachella Valley, CVUSD, he said, is especially unique.

"I think part of what happened was that I didn't fully learn what those (differences) were and so, I've made some mistakes along the way," he said. "At the same time, no matter what I would have done, it would have upset someone, so it was about doing the right thing for the right reason to support our students."

With the information and support available to him, he believed it was critical to implement the necessary changes to move the district forward, despite the challenges that made it difficult to fully focus on the students. And as challenging and "heart-wrenching" as the job was, Valentino said he appreciated the "well-intentioned people" who do great work for the students of the eastern Coachella Valley.

"At times, they do it while at odds with what the system is seeking to do, but folks keep pushing forward and I certainly appreciated the resilience by many, the focus by many and the passion by many because there's a lot there," Valentino said. "I think the district, when it figures out how all of those things kind of work well together, will begin to turn itself around in a positive way."

Jennifer Cortez covers education in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at jennifer.cortez@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Luis Valentino explains why he left job as CVUSD's superintendent