The Board Brief

The Board Brief will be published by the central office following each regular meeting of the OPA Board of Directors. The Brief is designed as a reasonable summary of meeting content to keep the OPA community informed and is not an official record of meetings. To view official meeting minutes, please visit BoardDocs and click on the specific meetings of interest. Each meeting's minutes are presented to the Board for approval at the following meeting. For questions or comments about this Brief, please contact communications@opaschools.org

Dr. Samir Shah was appointed to the Board of Directors, with his term ending in June 2027. Although Board terms run two years, the Board voted to appoint Dr. Shah with an extended term, aligning all Board member terms to begin and end in June. This alignment allows for better organization of training, committee assignments, and the conducting of Board annual work.

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2023-2024 Financial Audit was approved.

Approved SARCs were submitted to the California Department of Education. Links to the reports can be found on the OPA website here: https://www.opaschools.org/apps/pages/accountability

Approved the interagency reimbursement of Expanded Learning Opportunity Program (ELOP) expenditures from OPA South Orange County (SOC) to OPA Middle School (MS).

Dr. Fricker presented an overview of the School Accountability Report Cards (SARC). SARCs share performance data with the public, allowing for a public comparison of student achievement, environment, resources, and demographics. SARCs are updated annually and once Board approved are posted on the California Department of Education website with links also posted on the OPA website.

OPA is proud of the outcomes reported on each SARC and encourages the OPA community to review them. Links can be found on our website: https://www.opaschools.org/apps/pages/accountability

Annually, OPA has an independent third-party auditor (Christy White Inc.) review the financial statements of the prior fiscal year. They review our financial statements for accuracy, State/Federal compliance in accordance to how funds were granted, adherence to accounting standards, and internal controls (separation of duties).

In OPA’s FY 2023-2024 Financial Audit, we did pass all State/Federal compliance testing, and also internal control testing. However, it was discovered that we had improperly coded restricted

State expenditures (Expanded Learning Opportunities Program) to OPA-SOC for OPA-MS, when OPA-MS was not eligible for funding.

In this discovery it was self-reported to the auditors who determined that it was a violation of how the funds could be spent; the auditor decided against issuing an internal control finding since we were able to catch the misappropriation and self-report.

To remedy the error, we will be reimbursing OPA-SOC in the amount we’ve identified via Board resolution, approved at the January 9th, 2025 regular meeting.

The location of meetings rotates between the school sites. Meetings can be attended in person, viewed via Zoom, and live-streamed on our District YouTube channel.

• February 20, 2025 - Regular Meeting - South Orange County - 6:00 p.m.
• March 20, 2025 - Regular Meeting - Saddleback Valley - 6:00 p.m.
• April 17, 2025 - Regular Meeting - South Orange County - 6:00 p.m.