Orange Unified School District trustees heard a high-level review of the district's Facilities Master Plan on Monday, including the plan's tiered approach to improvements, stakeholder-driven priorities and a planning-level cost estimate intended to guide future projects and funding decisions.

LPA consultants who authored the master plan described a three-tier model: Tier 1 for feature sites (magnets or academy campuses designed to attract students districtwide), Tier 2 for transformative modernizations (comprehensive renovations and some new construction), and Tier 3 for more modest, state-match modernization projects. The consultants cautioned that tiers indicate scope types, not implementation priority.

"We landed at a cost of just shy of $1,000,000,000, and that is in $20.21 dollars," one presenter told the board, describing the aggregated cost for elementary and middle school needs identified in the plan. The consultants noted high-school work was handled separately by earlier master plans.

Presenters reviewed the planning process (stakeholder committees, surveys, site assessments and demographic analysis) and said the master plan organized needs into chapters that include educational specifications, per-site condition reports and cost summaries. They emphasized the master plan is a programmatic road map and that implementation depends on identifying funding sources.

Trustees and presenters discussed how the district should update the plan to qualify for state matching funds under newly announced Prop 2 requirements. Presenters recommended amending the master plan where needed to add components Prop 2 requires (deferred-maintenance inventories, capital budgeting and additional documentation) and to incorporate recent high-school work and any surplus-site analyses.

Board members pressed for clarity on next steps and urged the district to convert the plan's findings into smaller, actionable projects tied to available funding. Trustees noted past delays and changes in board composition since the plan's adoption in 2021 and asked staff for a deferred-maintenance status update and a prioritized implementation approach. Staff said the board recently committed funds and that deferred-maintenance recommendations will be presented at an upcoming meeting.

The presentation left open the timing of specific projects. Consultants and trustees agreed the district now has a comprehensive resource to inform prioritization and that updates and targeted studies should proceed "so that we can move forward," as one trustee put it.