Why do we need help? Sign our change.org petition here

With the new school board seated and with some members who do not support charter schools, despite unanimously voting to start the charter school last year, there is uncertainty about what will happen with our charter. They would like to take funds away from OCSCS and give them to other schools in the district, not allowing OCSCS to have their average daily attendance (ADA) funds allocated to the school. With this, OCSCS will not be properly funded, and will not have the funds available for things like field trips, innovation lab materials, and more.

There are even some employees within the district office who are actively trying to make the campus look bad and are withholding support. There have been situations as recently as mid-December where OCSCS employees have reached out to district departments only to be told that they those departments have been instructed to not assist OCSCS. Additionally, obtaining funding for consumable materials for the Innovation Lab has been impossible to obtain whereas other schools are able to receive similar funds. This has resulted in the dedicated Innovation Lab teachers using thousands of dollars from their personal funds to keep the Innovation Lab running with consumable materials so the kids can keep experimenting and learning.

On November 17, Dr. Beth Fisher, the principal, asked the school board to change the school’s funding model to one that mirrors neighboring El Rancho and other charter schools in the general area, allowing all funds due to OCSCS to come directly to the school, which would not allow the district to funnel funds from OCSCS to others in the district. More importantly, this change will also allow OCSCS to be eligible for both state and federal charter school grants, opening up millions in potential funding. Without this change, OCSCS would not be eligible for these grants. Additionally, of the 47 charter schools in Orange County, OCSCS is the only one NOT with this funding model, making it the outlier of charter schools. The amendment would bring OCSCS in line with every other charter school in the county.

Sadly, the new school board majority is being pressured by the teacher’s union to reject this change, because the union clearly does not support charter schools. We need to let the school board know how much our community supports OCSCS and that they cannot let the teacher’s union dictate what they vote, because this is NOT what is best for our kids. What is best for our kids is approving the charter amendment and continuing to allow our kids to have the most unique, innovating learning experience we have in this district.

Please help save OCSCS and its amazing teachers from the union’s influence and help us! You can sign our change.org petition, email our school board members (emails below), and come speak at the next school board meeting (currently set for Tuesday, January 14 at 6pm) and tell the board in person to put our kids first, not the union.

School board members: Marilyn Anderson (maanderson@pylusd.org) and Carrie Buck (cbuck@pylusd.org) are the two that clearly do not support OCSCS. We need them and the other board members, Tricia Quintero (tquintero@pylusd.org), Todd Frazier (tfrazier@pylusd.org), and Leandra Blades (lblades@pylusd.org) to know their constituents want OCSCS to succeed and have access to their due district funding as well as additional grant funding. Additionally, Anderson and Buck brought forward for review 9/10 purchases for OCSCS that were needed to get the school running; of those they voted against 6 of them, proving again that they are trying to make the school fail, and this includes the incredible innovation lab built by Garner Holt, a leader in animatronics not only in education but in industry as well. Without that lab, the students would never have access to the engineering equipment that makes this school so special.

Here is a list of all the major advancements that Buck and Anderson wanted to vote against (all via public documents of school board meetings). It is clear they have a trend of claiming to support the school, but then not actually backing that up with their votes.

1. In March 2024, Marilyn Anderson voted against the use of Singapore math, a method of teaching math that is widely recognized as one of the best, most thorough and in depth ways of teaching math. Her thoughts were that it was too difficult for students; in reality this type of math is taught at private schools with an incredible amount of success. Why is she trying to hold our kids back and not let them accelerate and advance like they should? Because the teachers unions don’t support any kind of math except common core.

2. In May 2024, both Carrie Buck and Marylin Anderson voted against Garner Holt (https://garnerholteducationthroughimagination.com/) and the Innovation Lab. This lab is what makes OCSCS special and allows our kids to learn about a variety of STEAM subjects. Without this lab, OCSCS would just be another traditional school. For those that are interested, Garner Holt is the leader no only in bringing STEAM and animatronics to schools, the also build animatronics for such companies as Disney and Universal.

3. In June 2024, Buck and Anderson again vote against the innovation lab remodels. Given that they claim they support the school and voted for it in the first please, they sure are trying to take away what makes the school special.