Message from the Superintendent

Upcoming Events

• January 17: TK/New Student Enrollment Begins
  

• January 18: Board of Education Meeting; Cerro Villa MS Open House; Santiago MS Showcase/Open House

• January 24: Orange HS Showcase/Open House

• January 31: Villa Park HS Showcase/Open House

• February 7: El Modena HS Open House/Showcase; Legislative Coalition Meeting

• February 8: Board of Education Meeting

• February 16: Lincoln Day (observed) - All Sites Closed

• February 19: Washington Day - All Sites Closed

• February 21: Canyon HS Showcase/Open House

In this Message

• Message From Superintendent Gonzalez
• Open Enrollment & New Student Enrollment
  
• High School Showcases & Community Open Houses
• The Palmyra Press
• Attendance Award Winners
• A Peek into Our Schools
• Spartan Author Published on Amazon
• Villa Park Student Recognized as Top High School Musician
• Nominations Open for The Orange County Register's Artist of the Year
• CIF Polls, Winter Season of Sport, Polls 1/16/24
• Employment Opportunities
• OUSD App

Dear OUSD Community,

It’s hard to believe how quickly January has flown by. The start of a new year brings with it a sense of hope, renewal, and endless possibilities. It is also a time for reflection and setting new goals. As we look ahead to the coming months, I want to express my gratitude for the continued support and partnership that you - our parents, guardians, staff, and community - provide to our students and schools.

I encourage you to actively engage in your child's education, participate in school events, and reach out to our teachers and administrators whenever needed. Your involvement plays a crucial role in the success of our students.

As we face the challenges and opportunities that the new year brings, let us continue to work hand in hand to ensure the best possible educational experience for each and every student in our district.

Sincerely,

Ernie Gonzalez
Superintendent of Schools

We are currently accepting new student enrollment and open enrollment applications! Open enrollment will close on January 29 for the lottery process, reopen on February 5, and remain open through the remainder of the 2024-25 school year. Please click here to get started with the enrollment process: https://www.orangeusd.org/enrollment

If you have any questions, the Office of Student and Community Services can be reached at 714-628-5424 or scs@orangeusd.org.

Interested in seeing what our schools have to offer? Check out our upcoming School Showcases and Community Open Houses: https://www.orangeusd.org/our-schools/school-showcases

We invite all OUSD families and community members to our High School Showcases & Community Open House events. These events are great opportunities to see everything our schools offer our TK-12th grade students and allow our greater community to tour our new state-of-the-art STEM buildings.

Our first event is at Orange High School on January 24. Elementary and middle school performances will begin at 5:00 p.m., with the high school showcase event to follow at 6:00 p.m. We hope to see you there!

For the past year, fifth and sixth-grade students in Palmyra GATE Magnet’s Newspaper Club have been publishing the monthly Palmyra Press. Started by fifth-grade teacher Vivian Koo around this time last year, the club has grown from 13 to 28 students.

The Palmyra Press is student-run, with participants brainstorming article ideas, creating the design of the paper, taking photographs, and conducting interviews. The students work on their informative writing and opinion style writing and can be creative with making images and comics for the paper.

“I thought the newspaper club would be a perfect way to practice their writing skills while being able to share their work with a broader audience,” said Koo. “One thing I've enjoyed experiencing is seeing the newspaper club students get excited and proud seeing their name in the paper!”

Palmyra’s Newspaper Club allows students the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than themselves and is open to any 5th or 6th-grade student as a weekly extracurricular activity. Club members hone their communication skills through conducting interviews with students and staff members and learn organization and timeliness as the papers have a hard deadline for print.

Every Palmyra student in second grade and above gets a copy of the paper to take home. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with teachers and students sharing that they love getting to read the paper.

Our district-wide attendance continues to be strong! Please continue to encourage your students to attend school daily. Congratulations to the winners for December:

Highest Attendance

El Modena

Canyon High

Chapman Hills

Nohl Canyon

Most Improved

Olive

Canyon Rim

La Veta

Esplanade

Keep up the fantastic attendance!

Check out these recent images from inside our school sites!

Villa Park High School alumna Morgan Shaffer wrote a book called Living with Parkinson’s Disease: A Guide for Kids and Teens. The book is being sold on Amazon and was at one point the #1 book in Books for Kids and Teens.

When her father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at age 50, Morgan decided for her Girl Scout Gold Award that she would write a book about Parkinson’s Disease so others could understand what she was going through. Thank you for sharing your story, Morgan!

Congratulations to Villa Park High School Junior Francis Samson on being accepted into the California-All State Symphonic Band as well as the Southern California Band and Orchestra Association’s All-Southern Symphony Orchestra. Both are highly selective audition-only groups that accept the top high school musicians from the entire state of California and Southern California, respectively.

Francis plays the French Horn at Villa Park High School and, last year, he was the first student from Orange Unified to have been selected to perform in one of the California Band Director’s Association All-State Ensembles at the 2023 California All-State Music Education Conference. That’s music to our ears – congratulations, Francis!

Villa Park High School has previously been honored for its outstanding commitment to music education with the SupportMusic Merit Award from The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation.

The new year is here! And with the new year comes the final push to nominate students for The Orange County Register's Artist of the Year. Any high school junior or senior who lives and/or attends school in Orange County may be nominated for the Artist of the Year program. All students nominated are honored by being listed in the paper and the top students will have profiles written about them.

Teachers may nominate five juniors and five seniors in each of our seven disciplines. (ANY teacher may nominate a student in ANY specialty.) Nominations are due February 2.

Canyon High School:

Girls’ Basketball, #3, Division 4AA

Girls’ Water Polo, #4, Division 2

El Modena High School:

Girls’ Water Polo, #2, Division 6

Villa Park High School:

Girls’ Basketball, #8, Division 3A

Girls’ Soccer, Top 20, Division 1

Girls’ Water Polo, #12T, Division 3

**Girls Varsity and Boys Varsity Rivalry Basketball Games, Tuesday, January 23, Canyon HS at Villa Park HS, 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

**Conference contests have started for winter sports with the final contests Jan. 27-Feb. 3. CIF-SS Playoffs commence the first full week of February 2024 with most championship rounds being played on February 23-24

Are you interested in a profession that makes a positive impact on the community? If so, please visit our website at www.orangeusd.org/jobs to view a vast array of employment opportunities that span from entry-level to upper management, classified and certificated. Join the Orange Unified family and Inspire our learners of today to be purposeful leaders of tomorrow.

New for this school year is the OUSD App, which is available for download in the Apple App and Google Play stores. Free for our families, the app allows users to see District-level news and events as well as customize their experience by selecting their school(s) of choice to follow to receive news and calendar information directly to their phones. If you haven’t checked it out yet, please do.

• iOS (Apple): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/orange-unified-school-dist/id6446125598
• Android (Google): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.finalsite.orangeusdorg

Email: communications@orangeusd.org
Website: www.orangeusd.org
Location: 1401 North Handy Street, Orange, CA, USA
Phone: 714-628-4000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OrangeUnifiedSchoolDistrictCA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orangeusd
Twitter: @orangeunifiedCA

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@OUSD

We invite you to take a moment to follow Orange Unified on social media to receive the District’s latest news and announcements. Social media may also be a critical line of communication during emergencies and will be an excellent place for you to get up to date information.