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OC Dept. Of Education Recommends Approving OCSA Charter -- With Conditions
Hundreds of OCSA supporters packed into a Feb 5. meeting of the Orange County Board of Education in Costa Mesa. Chava Sanchez / LAist
We've been telling you all week about the battle between the Santa Ana Unified School District and the Orange County School of the Arts over the terms of the prestigious school's charter renewal.
Now, the staff of the Orange County Department of Education has weighed in -- and it's not entirely good news for OCSA.
OCSA appealed to the county Board of Education when Santa Ana Unified said in December that it would renew the school's charter on the condition that it address concerns over admissions policies and fundraising practices. OCSA took that conditional renewal as a denial of its charter and asked the county to become its charter authorizer.
On Friday, the county Department of Education staff recommended to the board that it should become the new authorizer of OCSA's charter -- on the condition that it address concerns over admissions policies and fundraising practices.
In other words -- new charter authorizer, but the same conditions that OCSA had objected to in the first place.
The board will vote on the recommendation at its next meeting on March 4.
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