Bulletin Board is a weekly roundup of education news from the Coachella Valley and beyond.
10 things to know about Palm Springs Unified School District
The district, which serves nearly 20,000 students in the western Coachella Valley, welcomed a new superintendent ahead of the 2025-26 school year.
Three Class of 2025 graduates from Desert Hot Springs High School — who trained side by side in the same platoon during Marine Corps boot camp — returned to campus this week to be recognized and speak with current MCJROTC cadets.
Their message to students looking ahead to their own futures: “You have a goal, shoot for the stars,” Private First Class Jose Diaz Jr. said. “Don’t let anyone tell you what you can or can’t do.”
Also in this week’s education roundup: The former principal of Desert Ridge Academy was recently named principal of Horizon School and Amistad High School in La Quinta.
Did we miss a noteworthy education story? Raise your hand and send it my way: jennifer.cortez@desertsun.com.
Desert Hot Springs High honors three alumni who became U.S. Marines
Three young men from Desert Hot Springs High School’s Class of 2025 have reached a milestone few achieve — earning the title of United States Marine. Even more remarkable, they did it together.
Private First Class Jose Diaz Jr., Jeremy Minjarez and Samuel Sosa, all alumni of the high’s school’s Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, finished training earlier this month and returned to their alma mater on Wednesday, Oct. 22 for a recognition ceremony.
The event honored the three new Marines with enlistee grants and an award from the 1st Marine Division Association, but they also spoke with current MCJROTC cadets about their experience and the transition from high schoolers to Marines.
“We wanted to come back, share what we went through and help guide the next group so they know what to expect,” Diaz said.
The three men said it was unusual but encouraging to find themselves assigned to the same platoon at boot camp.
“It’s very rare for multiple people from the same school to end up in the same platoon,” Minjarez said. “Having familiar faces there helped.”
Sosa described the shared experience as motivating.
“When things got difficult, I’d look over and see them going through it, too,” he said. “That helped me keep going.”
Boot camp included the Marines’ final test — the Crucible, a 54-hour physical and mental challenge involving hikes, obstacle courses and limited rest. Diaz said that having his former classmates nearby made a difference.
“It was tough,” he said. “Mentally, it pushed me more than anything, but knowing we were all going through it helped me finish.”
The three former DHSHS students credited their MCJROTC training at school with helping them adjust to the demands of boot camp.
“Our instructors taught us discipline and how to carry ourselves,” Minjarez said. “We already understood what it meant to meet a standard.”
For now, they are focused on the next stage of their training. But their return to Desert Hot Springs High showed how far they’ve already come and how much their shared roots still matter.
“We want the next group to see that it’s possible,” Minjarez said. “If we could do it, so can they.”
New principal named for Horizon and Summit schools in La Quinta
Desert Sands Unified School District announced the appointment of Erasmo Garcia Romo as the new principal at Horizon School and Summit High School in La Quinta, following the resignation of Jose Ramirez, now the director of classified resources at Palm Springs Unified School District.
Horizon and Summit share a campus in La Quinta. Horizon serves students from transitional kindergarten through 12th grade through the district’s virtual academy, while Summit is a continuation high school for 11th and 12th graders, as well as select 10th graders, working to recover credits toward graduation.
Garcia Romo has nearly three decades of experience in education, including 22 years as a school administrator. He most recently served as principal at Desert Ridge Academy in Indio.
A graduate of the University of California, San Diego, where he earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees, he is dedicated to “building strong relationships and creative, inclusive, student-centered learning environments,” said Joe Hyde, DSUSD’s assistant superintendent of personnel resources.
At the school board meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 22, Garcia Romo called Horizon and Summit “an absolute gem in our district” with “incredible programs and dedicated staff who make a real difference in the lives of our students.” He also shared a personal note of celebration, announcing the birth of his granddaughter just hours before the meeting.
Jennifer Cortez covers education in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at jennifer.cortez@desertsun.com.