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Influx of crime leaves private school in danger of losing business license

Daily Press - 4/23/2017

April 23--APPLE VALLEY -- A riot, gang activity and sex crimes represent a sample of incidents at a private school now in danger of losing its business license, which would displace 78 students and some 30 employees.

Between Dec. 28, 2015, and March 11, 2017, San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department deputies in Apple Valley responded to 132 calls for service at Bright Futures Academy, according to Capt. Frank Bell.

Bell said he presented a report on the calls to town officials during closed session of a recent Town Council meeting, and requested the academy's license be revoked when it comes up for renewal.

The town instead announced its intent to revoke the license posthaste, Bell said. Bright Futures, which serves many students with intellectual and emotional disabilities, has appealed the decision.

The service calls "ranged from audible alarms, (Absent Without Leave/Runaway Juvenile), gang activity, medical aids, riots, simple assaults, assaults with significant injuries, sexual batteries, thefts and unlawful sex with minors," according to a memo attached to the report.

Deputies also responded to reports of burglary, vandalism and students threatening to jump from rooftops, Bell told the Daily Press.

"The problem isn't so much the kids," Bell said. "We understand these are kids that need a unique learning setting. We're all for that. But there are other schools that serve these type of kids without any issues. The problem seems to be the staff can't control the kids.

"So they call us ... That's why we're here, but we don't see that type of volume anywhere else. It's a drain on our resources."

Twenty-two criminal reports were filed and eight arrests were made during the nearly 15-month span, according to Bell.

On April 14, during a meeting with Bell and Deputy Chief Lana Tomlin, Bright Futures officials received the report and a letter from Town Manager Frank Robinson detailing reasons for the revocation, including failure to provide a safe school environment.

Bright Futures Chief Operating Officer Pamela Lamberth called the report misleading, however.

"I'm not saying there aren't issues," she said, "but the copy (of the report) we got doesn't tell much of anything. Follow-up calls are added as individual calls and it also counts 39 false alarms. It looks like there's more calls. The report is a bit inflated."

Bell disagreed: "If the problem was false alarms, we wouldn't have had that meeting (with Bright Futures officials). That's not the purpose for the license being revoked. It's the criminal activity and the lack of control."

Citing the academy's use of local vendors for school supplies, repairs and short-term housing for teachers, Lamberth and President Betti Colucci urged the town to keep the business license active and proposed a plan to "reduce calls to the Town's police department" in an appeal letter.

Hiring a full-time deputy for the campus (which would cost about $204,000 annually, according to Bell), as well as an after-hours security guard, and attending meetings with the Council and Sheriff's Department were included in the plan.

In addition to forcing the academy out of Apple Valley, the revocation would short St. Timothy's Episcopal Church -- which leases the facility to Bright Futures -- $1.8 million, according to Lamberth.

"This is going to close that church down," she said. "That's really bothersome to me."

St. Timothy's Clerk of the Vestry Jeanne Bryson told the Daily Press a contract with the academy provides 60 percent of the church's operating budget, but she stopped short of agreeing the church would close as a result of Bright Futures losing its business license.

"The church would have to find another tenant for sure," she said. "Exactly how long that would take is hard to say, but it would cause some hardship because that source of income would be gone until we found another tenant."

Bright Futures contracts with Apple Valley Unified School District, among others, to provide year-round care, special education and behavioral services to students "with exceptional needs that can't be met in a public school setting," according to the appeal letter.

The academy has operated in the High Desert for 25 years, first in Victorville before relocating to Apple Valley in December 2015. Two other campuses exist in Riverside and Twentynine Palms.

"Of the 78 students enrolled at Apple Valley, about 65 attend daily," the appeal letter shows. "Approximately half of these students have autism and intellectual disabilities, and the remainder have emotional disturbance or learning disabilities ... We have never had a citation or license issue."

Those enrollment numbers made the situation "more severe" for Bell.

"They're open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday," he said. "(That's) 30 hours a week, and we're getting these types of calls for service. I thought they'd have a couple hundred kids."

But Bryson defended the academy, which moved into its current location following the abrupt shutdown of St. Timothy's Preparatory School in 2015 after 48 years.

"(T)here seems to be a movement to force (Bright Futures) to leave Apple Valley because of the kids they serve," Bryson wrote in an email. "The school has the complete support of the Desert/Mountain Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA), as well as the Special Education Departments at the local schools. The students they serve are all local students, including residents of Apple Valley."

Lamberth said a request was made to have deputies speak with students in an attempt to mitigate service calls, but was told the visits wouldn't be possible due to low staffing at the Apple Valley station.

Bell challenged that claim.

"We told them absolutely, but we'd have to work out the timing," he said. "In Public Affairs we have deputies whose job is to go to schools and talk about anti-bullying and staying out of gangs. That's a resource available to them, but this request came only after they got word from the town that they would revoke the business license."

Town spokesperson Kathie Martin said the Council is aware of the matter, but has taken no action or position on Bright Futures' business license.

"The next step is the appeal to the Town Council," Martin said.

An appeal hearing has not yet been scheduled.

Matthew Cabe can be reached at MCabe@VVDailyPress.com or at 760-951-6254. Follow him on Twitter @DP_MatthewCabe.

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