The Orange County School of the Arts will enter a new act, following a vote Wednesday, March 4 by the Orange County Board of Education to take the popular charter school under the county umbrella and grant it a five-year renewal.
The vote was greeted with a standing ovation from some 150 parents and other school supporters who showed up a board meeting in Costa Mesa. Many had become frustrated in recent months during a dispute between the school and its home district, Santa Ana Unified.
The new arrangement “makes more sense because we’re a regional program,” said Ralph Opacic, the school’s founder and director. Opacic noted that the charter school is attended by students from more than 100 cities in Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and Orange counties. More than 200, he said, travel by train to Santa Ana every day to attend.
But the move was not welcomed by Santa Ana Unified, which has served as home district for the school known as OCSA for 20 years.
The move out of Santa Ana Unified was approved without conditions, despite recommendations from Orange County Department of Education staff members who agreed with some of Santa Ana Unified’s concerns. These include questions about the school’s admission requirements, parent contributions, fundraising and how the charter school is governed.
“I think you have done a great job,” trustee Ken Williams told school director Opacic, who has guided the arts school since its inception in 1987, when it was known as the Orange County High School of the Arts, or OCHSA, and was part of the Los Alamitos Unified School District.
Williams joined fellow trustees Lisa Sparks and Mari Barke in approving the move to take in the charter school. Trustee Rebecca Gomez, who wanted to see conditions attached to an approval, voted against it after questioning whether the school offers equal access to children of all economic backgrounds. Trustee John Bedell, who also raised concerns, abstained.
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Santa Ana Unified and OCSA have been at odds since early last year, when the district told the school that it owed some $19 million for special education services provided by the district since the early 2000s. The school denies it owes the money and took the district to court, where the issue is pending.
In December, after OCSA submitted a five-year charter school renewal application, the district approved the request but imposed several conditions. These included changes in admissions and fundraising policies that district officials described as “exclusive.”
Officials at OCSA viewed conditional approval as a denial of its application, and in January asked the Orange County Board of Education to consider a takeover from the Dept. of Education.
Santa Ana Unified officials, however, said they never denied renewal or threatened to close the school. Instead, they wanted the school to stay in the district but adjust some of its operations.
“This appeal appears to be an attempt to avoid oversight,” Sarah Sutherland, an attorney for the district, told trustees.
The Orange County School of the Arts provides more than 2,200 students in grades seven through 12 pre-professional arts training in 16 different conservatory programs. These include acting, creative writing, dance and culinary arts. Last month, parents, teachers and students praised the school’s academic and arts programs during a public hearing, describing a warm and caring environment.
The school has won numerous awards.
But recently, Santa Ana Unified officials and Orange County Department of Education staff have raised questions about the school’s pre-admission practices, which they say are “inconsistent” with state law that specifies charter schools have to be open to all students. The school, they said, is enrolling few local Latino students and the demographics of the student body don’t match up with other campuses in the heavily Hispanic district.
Opacic said that the school is and has been a regional school.
“We are the Orange County School of the Arts, not the Santa Ana School of the Arts,” he said after the meeting.
“The blame for not serving more Santa Ana students is misplaced,” Opacic said. “Santa Ana Unified should be working harder to provide more arts-rich experiences for kids, so they discover and follow that pathway.”
Still, the school has changed some of its procedures to comply with new state laws affecting charter schools.
The school’s admissions process has been updated for the 2020/21 school year. Auditions, for example, are being replaced with “placement activities” to see which conservatory the students would best fit in. Also, if they get too many applications, admissions will be determined via lotteries – to be done by school grade, conservatory and placement level, Opacic said. Every student, regardless of ability, is placed in the lottery, he said. (For the upcoming school year, for example, some 1,500 students applied for about 400 spots.)
Another concern revolved around parent contributions and fundraising. The school’s conservatories are partly funded by parent contributions that range from $5,200 to $5,950 per student, according to a staff report.
School officials insisted the donations are voluntary.
The school, Opacic said, has created new materials “to more clearly communicate with families that all requested donations are completely voluntary and anonymous.” Also, attending a preview day and signing a donation “pledge” form will no longer be a requirement for enrollment.
The school will be connected to Santa Ana Unified through June 30. The Orange County Department of Education will take over on July 1.
