Orchard Hills/Hicks Elementary Schools Situation

Legit949

Member
Per the websites of each school, the following number of classrooms are offered:

Hicks Elementary:
Kindergarten = 5 Classrooms
1st Grade = 7 Classrooms
2nd Grade = 8 Classrooms
3rd Grade = 7 Classrooms
4th Grade = 6 Classrooms
5th Grade = 0 Classrooms
6th Grade = 0 Classrooms

Orchard Hills School

Kindergarten = 0 Classrooms
1st Grade = 0 Classrooms
2nd Grade = 0 Classrooms
3rd Grade = 0 Classrooms
4th Grade = 0 Classrooms
5th Grade = 8 Classrooms
6th Grade = 7 Classrooms

Per TUSD Administration, there are not enough kids enrolled at Orchard Hills school to expand the grades. To me, it seems like they are packing K-4 at Hicks and packing Orchard Hills with grades 5 - 8. Am I missing something, or could they easily split the students and open all grades at both schools? Orchard Hills only offer 16 classrooms for K-6. I'd assume there are enough student in the Orchard Hills boundaries (Currently living in Orchard Hills community/apartment and attending Hicks) to fill the classrooms.
Any insight to the situation? Thank you in advance...
 
Legit949 said:
Per TUSD Administration, there are not enough kids enrolled at Orchard Hills school to expand the grades.

You guys at TUSD side of Orchard Hills need to produce more babies. ;)




 
that could be the problem, high cost of homes/too many ballers that live up there either have no time for kids or kids are too old
 
AW said:
that could be the problem, high cost of homes/too many ballers that live up there either have no time for kids or kids are too old

Not true...at least Capella has a TON of young kids but 50% are still too young for school. And whenever we're at the pool there are a lot of kids running around that are Elementary age. I think some have not registered their address yet (we haven't yet - I know, guilty) but we will for the new school year. And once the little ones grow to at least Kinder age I think they will start considering opening up the younger grade levels at OH school
 
It would be interesting to see the demographics. 
I think they're just waiting until more people move in and register or until groves part deux opens
 
What % of hicks canyon students live in OH?  I'm guessing a very small percentage at this point. Prob too lazy to rock the boat for a small #. Maybe ask them what the #s need to look like before they are willing to convert.
 
This means the area served by both schools young families can't afford to buy and older apartments are not attracting them to rent. Woodbridge and University Park faced similar dwindling youngster population and eventually schools were razed for infilled residential. Both Orchard and Northpark are premium neighborhoods with an expensive price tag and highly desirable thus fewer turnovers, FCBs investers and mature family qualifiers account for the absence of youngsters.
 
I found the following article that describes Orchard Hills School boundaries:

The school now feeds from the Orchard Hills apartment community, North Park and West Irvine north of Champion Way. Eventually, students that move into the planned Orchard Hills homes will also attend the school.

According to TUSD, the above communities should be filling in K-4 at Orchard Hills School. I'm sure there are enough kids to fill 2 grades of each class level to fully open the school and accommodate the New Homeowners in Orchard Hills.
 
Wonder if they'll actually change the boundaries of tusd and iusd so it can be better to accommodate residents that lives and children attending within the same city, with all these new build outs, I would think there will be more Irvine students in these schools than Tustin?
 
Legit949 said:
I found the following article that describes Orchard Hills School boundaries:

The school now feeds from the Orchard Hills apartment community, North Park and West Irvine north of Champion Way. Eventually, students that move into the planned Orchard Hills homes will also attend the school.

According to TUSD, the above communities should be filling in K-4 at Orchard Hills School. I'm sure there are enough kids to fill 2 grades of each class level to fully open the school and accommodate the New Homeowners in Orchard Hills.

Of course they can do it. But what's their incentive to change it right now?  Not enough critical mass in OH to complain and whine.
 
Below shows the increase of the studen:teacher ratio at Hicks Elementary. There's no reason not to expand Orchard Hills School to K-8 this year.

Year # Students Fulltime Teachers Student/Teacher ratio % Free/Disc Lunch
2005 545 23.0 23.7 4.6
2006 614 26.5 23.2 4.9
2007 731 31.6 23.1 8.0
2008 772 39.6 19.5 8.5
2009 894 39.0 22.0 6.3
2010 1018 37.0 27.5 6.7
2011 934 n/a n/a 9.7
2012 939 32.0 29.3 n/a
2013 961 31.0 31.0 11.0
 
You can't 'expand' Orchard Hills, it's already at capacity no?  Logistics/budget would be the biggest obstacles for this school swap.  Good luck.  Why don't you start a town hall and invite the mayor and TUSD?
 
Sorry,

Poor choice of words. Realign the Elementary side of Orchard Hills School from a grade 5 and 6 school only to a traditional K-6 school. This way, OH residents would be able walk to school and not drive 3 miles down Culver. This would also help the parking situation at OH School. Fewer parents would have to drive their kids to school.
 
All,

Has anyone heard of Orchard Hills School expanding from the current grades 5 - 8 to the intended K - 8? Thank you in advance!
 
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