Painted Desert Demonstration Projects, Inc.

Painted Desert Demonstration Projects, Inc., doing business as The Star School, is a tax-exempt nonprofit organization based in Flagstaff, Arizona that operates as a federal grant recipient, delivering K-12 education, water infrastructure training and technical assistance, and community development services to Native American and rural communities across the southwestern United States, with particular focus on the Navajo Nation and the four-state region of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.

The Star School operates exclusively as a grant recipient (93% of recent awards as prime recipient, 7% as sub-recipient under pass-through grantees including the Arizona Department of Education and the University of Arizona) rather than as a federal contractor. The organization's capability portfolio spans K-12 educational services, water and wastewater systems training and technical assistance, agricultural training for military veterans, farm-to-school programming, and rural community development. Representative prime grant work includes a $835,666 Impact Aid Program project grant from the Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (October 2025 through September 2031) delivering educational services to federally connected children in Flagstaff; a $600,000 Community Services Block Grant from the Department of Health and Human Services (September 2025 through September 2030) providing water and wastewater treatment training, technical assistance, and operator certification across tribal communities; a $749,952 USDA grant supporting veterans' agricultural career training and apprenticeships with online curriculum and farm-host networks; and a $314,096 Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program cooperative agreement from the Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service (March 2026 through February 2029) funding local food system development and direct producer-to-consumer markets in Arizona. The Star School also receives recurring formula grants for small rural school achievement and Indian education, as well as technical assistance grants for water infrastructure from the Rural Utilities Service.

Customer concentration sits heavily with the Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, which accounts for 72 of the 101 awards in the source dataset (62% of all awards), reflecting the organization's core role as a K-12 education recipient. The Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service represents the second customer by award count (12 awards), while the Department of Health and Human Services Indian Health Service carries the highest combined potential value at $308 thousand across 8 awards. The vendor serves 13 distinct federal agencies, with the top five accounting for 87% of recent awards.

Activity has remained relatively flat to declining over the past five years—eight awards in 2022, declining to five in 2026—with four awards reaching ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months and therefore facing recompete or renewal cycle. The Star School's sub-recipient work flows through pass-through agreements with the Arizona Department of Education (Title I and ESSER III programs), the University of Arizona (NSF INCLUDES Alliance research on food, energy, and water systems in Native American communities), and the Reinvestment Fund, Inc. (HFFI Food Access and Retail Expansion Fund). The organization's grant footprint spans eight federal grantor agencies across education, agriculture, water infrastructure, health, and community development—a broad but noncontract federal footprint that excludes procurement vehicles, GWACs, BPAs, and IDIQs.