News & Announcements

I hope you all had a wonderful week and an amazing Spring Break! As some of you may have heard, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) released a statement today regarding the timeline for COVID-19 vaccination requirements in schools. Because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not yet fully approved COVID-19 vaccines for individuals of all ages within the 7-12 grade span, COVID-19 vaccinations will not be required for the 2022-2023 school year. Therefore, the CDPH will not initiate the process to make the COVID-19 vaccination part of the vaccinations required for in-person attendance until full FDA approval and no sooner than July 1, 2023.

I am very excited to announce that both OPA - Saddleback Valley and OPA - South Orange County were selected to receive the 2022 California Pivotal Practice (CAPP) Award. Yesterday, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond, announced the recipients of the Award, which was given to only 727 California schools. “I’m incredibly proud of these schools and districts for their creativity, dedication, and innovation in the face of adversity,” Thurmond said. “These schools led incredible efforts to engage students, distribute technology, provide meals, and support the social and emotional well-being of students during an incredibly difficult time for schools and families.”

Dear OPA Families,
I hope you had a great weekend with your loved ones! This weekend OPA students, parents and staff made a difference in our community at OPA’s 3rd Annual Day of Service. We collaborated with the city of Mission Viejo’s Earth Day/Arbor Day celebration. Volunteering improves mental health for all. It reduces stress, strengthens the immune system, and increases happiness.
Volunteering isn’t only good for your child’s mental wellbeing. It is an enriching educational activity that helps them grow in 4 key areas: social skills, empathy, self-efficacy, and civic engagement and responsibility.

Dear OPA Families,
We hope you are enjoying your weekend with your loved ones! Please join us tomorrow, Monday, April 18th for our S.T.E.A.M. Showcase. We will begin our event at 4pm in Honour Hall with a warm welcome and a special presentation to learn more about our Champion Profile.

Dear OPA Families,
We hope you had a wonderful and relaxing Spring Break! On Monday, April 11th, we will have Antigen Rapid COVID tests available to any OPA family who would like to test their student(s) before school. Please join us on Tuesday and Wednesday to view the Trimester 2 Awards Ceremony on Zoom. We are also excited to announce and invite all of our awesome OPA families to our S.T.E.A.M. Showcase on Monday April 18th 4:00-6:30pm.

We hope you have a wonderful Spring Break! There will be no school and our offices will be closed Monday, April 4th - April 8th. Our professors will also be on their much needed break and will not be available during this time, but we will be back on Monday, April 11th.

We hope you are having a wonderful and relaxing weekend! The Second Trimester has ended and final grades have been calculated. Parents/guardians will be able to view report cards on the afternoon of Monday, March 28th in
Aeries. We are thrilled to begin welcoming parent volunteers back on campus. We hosted a Volunteer Meeting on Thursday, March 24th. You may visit our volunteer section on the website to view the documents that were reviewed during our meeting and for more details.

We are happy to announce that on Saturday we installed the butterfly learning garden on campus. This was made possible with the support from our wonderful OPA families. We have two more gardens to build and we will invite our OPA community to help us with the next two projects.

I am excited to announce that last night at the OPA Board of Directors meeting our charter petition for a new OPA middle school was unanimously approved. The petition will be submitted to Saddleback Valley Unified School District on April 7, 2022, for approval to open a new middle school in Fall 2023. We are so excited about the new opportunities that this will allow us to offer both our elementary school and middle school Champions. We will be having a virtual Town Hall to discuss the middle school proposal on Wednesday, March 23, 2022, from 5:30-6:30 PM.

On Monday the new mask policy will take effect. It will move from requiring students, staff and visitors on school campuses to wear masks indoors to “strongly recommending” masks indoors. OPA will continue to implement multi-layered health and safety strategies such as cleaning and disinfecting protocols, hand washing, free COVID-19 testing for students, and staff and health
and safety protocols to keep sick students home.