OC Charter school failure watch: OC Board of Ed-authorized charter Unity Middle College High School will dissolve its board next week during its board meeting pursuant to permanent closure on 30 June. This one was a pet project of OCBE trustee Ken Williams through its years of struggles to survive.

Explore Academy, a struggling OC Board of Ed authorized charter school, continues its tradition of putting failed political candidates on its board.
New members Lloyd Boucher-Reyes (lost Santa Ana Unified 2024) and Sal Tinajero (most recently lost SA mayor 2022, previously served on city council.)

2024-24 CA enrollment data were recently released by CA Dept of Ed. Let's look at OC Board of Ed authorized "classical" education charter schools.

Hint: Orange County Classical Academy and California Republic Leadership Academy's demographics are NOT representative of surrounding districts. (1/4)

CA AB84 will crack down on non-classroom based (NCB) charter school abuses and fraud in return for lifting moratorium on authorization of NCB charters. Lots of good content from the attachment to the 4/30/25 Assy Ed Committee hearing:
aedn.assembly.ca.gov/system/files...
Next stop is Appropriations

OC Board of Ed 5/7/25 Board Meeting Preview:
Trustee Valdes' proposes to amend OC Dept of Ed's MOU for charter schools to limit DEI and "anti-American, subversive, harmful and false ideologies such as...Critical Race Theory." So much for charter school independence and parental choice!

If your school fundraisers didn’t feature right wing political commentators like Hugh Hewitt then you probably didn’t go to an OC Board of Ed authorized charter school focused on “classical education” and “servant leadership” like California Republic Leadership Academy.

Schedule for Saturday April 5
- 6 mile run ✅
- 10 minute abs ✅
- pay my DMV renewal ✅
- Attend #Handsoff #LagunaHills ✅

At the Feb OCBE mtg, Trustee Jorge (pronounced “George”) Valdes touted his OC Independent column in which he criticized Santa Ana USD board for including a land acknowledgment in their meetings. Will he see fit to criticize a Capo board member?

OC Board of Ed 3/5/25 mtg prevue:
1) CHARTER SCHOOL CLOSURE!!: low enrollment, poorly managed Unity College Middle HS will close at the end of this year
2) Election denier Joe Pedick will give invocation
3) Public hearing for previously denied Tustin Mandarin immersion charter school

In the unsurprising news category: New OC Dept of Ed associate superintendent is a charter school veteran, selected by charter school veteran OC Superintendent of schools appointed by charter-school funded OC Board of Ed after he lost 2022 election by 10%.

newsroom.ocde.us/ocde-announc...

Never thought there would be a (tenuous) link between an OC charter school and a crypto currency scam like El Salvador's Bitcoin Beach, but Orange County Classical Academy board member Matthew Smith is founder of new OC Christian college Hildegard College (in office park in Costa Mesa)... (1/2)

A lawyer from this firm represented the Orange County Board of Education in its lawsuits against Newsom over pandemic restrictions.

OC Reg recently published a column on CA Dashboard results of OCBE-authorized charter school Orange County Classical Academy by Will Swaim. Here is why the claims suggesting OCCA outperforms district schools are dubious. (1/7)

www.ocregister.com/2024/12/02/o...

2024 CA Dashboard results were just released. Once again, they show that OC charter schools do NOT exceed district schools in student achievement. The strongest predictor of student outcomes is (as usual) socioeconomic status.
(Results are for individual charter schools but full districts)

With RFK Jr. in the news, it's worth reminding that Orange County Board of Education joined with his anti-vaccine org Children's Health Defense in litigation against the State of CA over COVID related restrictions.
www.latimes.com/socal/daily-...

"all my means are sane, my motive and my object mad." Moby Dick Chapter 41

OC school board elections as of Friday Nov 15 5 pm by party endorsement.
OCGOP: Endorsed 17, 7 won/winning
DPOC: Endorsed 27, 15 won/winning (21 contested races)
Head to Head: DPOC endorsed won 5, OCGOP endorsed 2 (includes Ocean View at large, DPOC candidate won one seat, 2 OCGOP candidates lost)

OC School board races through Friday Nov 15 5 pm:
27 incumbents won/winning
8 incumbents lost/losing (Buena Park 3; Capo 1,2; Fullerton 2,5*; Cypress E*; Laguna Beach; Santa Ana 1*)
*- still really close (Huntington Beach City open seat district 1 also very close)

OCBE-authorized Irvine Intl Acad charter school board member Felipe Delgado finishes in 5th place in Irvine mayor race. IIA-affiliated candidates' streak of election losses continues.
OCBE-authorized Explore Academy charter school board member Mike Tardif loses (again) in AD68 race.