Board approves material revision for Orange County School of Computer Science to change bell schedule and professional collaboration days

The Placentia‑Yorba Linda Unified School District Board of Education on July 22 approved a material revision to the Orange County School of Computer Science (OCSCS), adopting board resolution No. 2504 and making the change effective July 22, 2025. The motion carried 5‑0.

The revision, presented by lead petitioner Mr. Seitz and staff, restructures OCSCS to a six‑period day with classes of roughly 55 minutes on four days and a shorter period on Wednesday, resulting in 266 instructional minutes per week. Under the proposal, teachers receive a weekly professional collaboration day during which credentialed staff and a resident substitute will "push in" to classrooms so regular teachers may collaborate, plan and design assessments. Staff estimated the incremental cost of the model at about $198,000, reduced from an earlier projection that could have been roughly $1 million.

Mr. Seitz told trustees the model is intended to create true professional learning communities: "We use assessment data to design lesson plans that specifically target skills," he said, describing weekly collaboration time, common assessments and shared grading as core components. He and staff said roughly 86% of surveyed school staff supported the plan.

Public commenters were split. Dave Radlauer urged the board to reject the revision, saying district funds were already strained and characterizing the change as an unfunded expansion of charter services. "If the documentation shows a consistent encroachment on the district, the charter will simply fail," he said. Other commenters, including current and retired educators, defended the collaboration time while urging fiscal caution.

District staff and legal counsel explained the procedural steps for material revisions and clarified that, as a dependent charter, the OCSCS governing board (the charter board) remains the primary decision maker but the district — as authorizer — can request further revisions or impose conditions in future years. Several trustees asked for safeguards: some urged limiting the revision to the 2025–26 school year so the board could review fiscal and operational outcomes before committing long term.

Board members also discussed the district’s broader fiscal condition. The board president read a letter from the Orange County Department of Education cautioning the district about increasing obligations while operating in a deficit pattern and urging a plan to return to a balanced budget. Trustees said that staff will bring back monitoring data and that staffing allocations and enrollment fluctuations will affect future costs.

The board approved the material revision as drafted; trustees and staff agreed to return with more data and, if needed, additional material revisions. The action did not immediately change other charter programs or the school's educational model beyond the schedule and collaboration-day structure.