As of Aug. 19, 2024, Aliso Niguel High School’s campus is officially being shared with Orange County Academy of Sciences and Arts, a charter school that is also known as “OCASA College Prep.” ANHS teachers no longer occupy portables 21 through 25; they are now occupied by OCASA College Prep.
Teachers from ANHS who had their classrooms in the portables were relocated to classrooms on the main campus towards the end of the spring 2024 semester after the decision for OCASA to be on the ANHS campus was confirmed.
The decision to share the Aliso Niguel campus with OCASA College Prep was made at the trustee board level. Prior to this arrangement of sharing a campus with Aliso Niguel, OCASA College Prep was located in El Camino Real, San Juan Capistrano.
OCASA College Prep is a charter school program that focuses on project based learning, with evidence-based instructional activities and emphasizing well-rounded development. They integrated the “Summit Learning Program” and “Project Lead the Way” in their educational model, aiming to meet the needs of each individual student.
Ms. Huynh, a math and computer science teacher at OCASA College Prep, said, “We want our students to be successful and explore their potential as they are learning.”
OCASA students primarily stay within the area of the portables during school hours. Along with the five portables that are used as the classrooms of OCASA, they share the science building bathrooms at Aliso Niguel High School. Students from OCASA will cross the street onto the ANHS campus to access the bathrooms as well as the locker rooms for physical education. The staff at OCASA also have a small portion of the parking lot near the surrounding portables.
ANHS students and OCASA College Prep students both start school at 8:30 a.m. for the majority of the week. Instead of having a late start schedule on Mondays at 9:10 a.m. like Aliso Niguel, OCASA has early dismissal at 1:30 p.m. on Thursdays. On most days, OCASA dismisses at 3:45 p.m., which is 30 minutes after Aliso Niguel’s dismissal at 3:15 p.m.
Although the students from both schools use the same amenities, such as the bathrooms, crosswalks and vending machines, there is very little interaction between the ANHS students and OCASA students.
Mr. Brosamer, an assistant principal at ANHS, said, “We are hoping that things work out nicely for them and everything goes smoothly as they start the school year.”
ANHS and OCASA College Prep are not affiliated with each other in any way, but Aliso Niguel is happy to welcome them onto our campus.
