The October School Board Meeting, held on Oct. 16, focused on student, parent and administrative opinions regarding the Orange County Academy of Sciences and Arts.
The first public speaker was Brock Brenner, an eighth grade student at OCASA. He spoke of the school policy of having to walk across the street to access Aliso Niguel High School’s bathrooms. He noted that when the high school gets out, the students create a “mosh pit.” Brenner also called attention to weird handprints on the bathroom mirrors and multiple people being in the bigger stalls at once. Lastly, he recalled not being able to change out for physical education due to the condition of the lockers.
The next speaker was Veronica Brenner, Brock’s mother. She spoke on how OCASA is a great school for students to be taught “by their abilities instead of by their grade or age.” Public school is not an option for her son because he tested for Mensa, the High IQ Society. Brock was previously homeschooled and attended John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, Northwestern University and Saddleback College. She feels OCASA is a great opportunity for her son, however, feels it is a shame the school lacks basic aspects such as a reasonable bathroom situation.
The following speaker was another eighth grader at OCASA, who highlighted the lack of access to ANHS’s theater. She recalled having to perform a play outside last year, where all of the sets were ruined by rain. Now that OCASA is at ANHS, the students hoped they would have access to the theater facility. The students also wanted running water for their science experiments, which is promised in their school contract, however, they don’t have access to that either.
The next speaker was the Community Outreach Manager for OCASA, who began by stating his appreciation for the amount of funding allocated towards this charter school.
He then shared, “I’m not understanding how it’s reasonably equivalent if, for example, we don’t have access to running water, we don’t have our own bathrooms as you heard and our students need to get escorted by teachers just to feel safe to go to the restroom. I don’t understand how it’s reasonably equivalent when we have no designated space for our special education. We have a room that we get to share but it’s shared with detention people. There’s even a sign on the door that this is the space for detention kids, but that’s where we have our special education kids go and just the message that it sends to them is confusing.”
He further brought up how students eat lunch in a parking lot “one inch” away from cars with no borders. If someone were to slip up and hit the gas instead of the brake, it would be catastrophic. Additionally, there is a nursing mother on the staff who was told she can’t have a space to take care of what she needs to privately because she’s not an employee. Instead, she must resort to using a bathroom stall.
The last speaker began by calling attention to the restroom situation and the designated hours the children are allowed to go.
“How ridiculous does it sound when a 12-year-old kid needs to go to the restroom outside of those hours and the teacher, and I don’t blame the teacher for that, is saying you have to wait until the correct hour or time? How is it possible to explain to a 12-year-old kid that now is not the right time to go.”
He mentioned that his child texted him while he was at work with his boss regarding the bathroom situation. Luckily, his boss was understanding and let him step out of work to find a solution for this situation.
Students and parents are unhappy with the rules regarding OCASA’s new location and hope to encourage the school board to take action for the betterment of their education.
