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Home > Desert Oracle Radio > MUSD announces YVHS as new tech academy, provides updates on school closures including Palm Vista Elementary
Podcast: Desert Oracle Radio
Episode:

MUSD announces YVHS as new tech academy, provides updates on school closures including Palm Vista Elementary
Category: Society & Culture
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2026-04-22 16:42:08
Description:

Last night, the Morongo Unified School District Board of Trustees held their regular meeting at Joshua Tree Elementary, rescheduled from last week. Reporter Gabriel Hart was in attendance and has this recap.

Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Amy Woods recognized Yucca Valley High School and Twentynine Palms High School for their recent awards for California Exemplary Dual Enrollment. Schools selected for this award demonstrate quality, equity driven opportunities for students to earn college credits while finishing high school.

Area 2 Trustee Bianca Stoker and Board President Christopher Claire reported on their recent trip to Washington D.C. where they met with Representative Jay Obernolte to advocate for funding. Stoker said “things are so uncertain now and a lot of federal funding has gone away,” but that “things are in the works,” including the Individuals with Disabilities Act, which she said “has been promised since the 70s but never fully funded.”

President Christopher Claire added that because Obernolte is a “big AI guy,” he advocated for AI funding for teachers and staff to where AI isn’t a threat but instead embraced into the curriculum. 

Regarding artificial intelligence (AI), Amy Woods announced that CISCO Networking Academy, one of the largest tech companies in the world, will be established as part of the curriculum at Yucca Valley High School where students will learn trade in cybersecurity, information technology, and artificial intelligence with fast tracks to job placement ranging from $60,000 to $150,000 a year. Woods said these certifications don’t require a college degree and that many students could be earning up to $80,000 a year by the age of twenty and gradually scale up with experience.

Yucca Valley and Twentynine Palms High School staff recognized for their California Exemplary Dual Enrollment Program

Yucca Valley High has received “hundreds of thousands” in full funding for the CISCO program and will start with a 25 student class Woods says must “prove worthy” before expanding to Twentynine Palms High. 

Onaga Elementary Principal Carly Buchanen gave an update on the Enrollment Committee. At their April 9 meeting, the Committee reviewed a range of potential scenarios, from maintaining all current school sites to closing three sites. Buchanen said they are considering boundary adjustments and alternative school models including K-8 academies and magnet school programs. While other options are being explored, public comment was overwhelmed with passionate advocates for Palm Vista Elementary, the latest MUSD school they claimed was “on the chopping block.”

The post MUSD announces YVHS as new tech academy, provides updates on school closures including Palm Vista Elementary appeared first on Z107.7 FM Joshua Tree.
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