Spotlight Schools Newsletter: Dec. 2025
🤖 O.C. Districts Embracing A.I. // 💡 How to Get a $525,000 Grant // 🧒🏽 How are O.C.'s Kids Doing?
THE LATEST ON TK-12 EDUCATION IN ORANGE COUNTY
Before we get to our last newsletter of 2025, we have a quick request. Spotlight Schools started during the confusion of the COVID-19 pandemic to report on what was happening in education during a historic public health crisis.
Four years later, we're still here – more determined than ever to cover the accomplishments, challenges, and fun happening at more than 600 campuses in the 28 public school districts in Orange County.
We're committed to this work because we know there isn't anyone else delivering consistent, independent, unbiased, hyperlocal journalism on TK-12 schools in O.C. Please consider supporting our newsroom so we can continue this vital work and expand our coverage to more districts.
In 2024, donors showed up! 👏 As a result, we were able to significantly increase our coverage of the Anaheim Union High School District and the Anaheim Elementary School District, including reporting on more than two dozen meetings and half a dozen stories. Help us keep growing! Donate here today!
On to the latest newsletter:
- 🤖 How districts are incorporating Artificial Intelligence in O.C. schools
- 💡 The $525,000 Innovation Grants being offered to O.C. districts
- 🧒👧🏽👦🏾 Annual report on the Conditions of Children in O.C. released
- 🐋 See how students at one local middle school created a larger-than-life art project
👀 Discover more of Spotlight Schools outside of your inbox. We cover breaking news, school board meetings, and more on Instagram, X, and Facebook. And take time to visit our website, SpotlightSchools.com.
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Happy Holidays! ✨ See you in 2026!
Jeannette Andruss, Co-founder of Spotlight Schools
🤖 A.I. in O.C. Education 🍊
How some Orange County districts are using the technology reshaping our world
OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT first appeared for public use in 2022. An explosion of artificial intelligence products has followed. Meanwhile, educators, students, and policymakers are working to ascertain how to best harness the revolutionary technology for learning and instruction and how to avoid its potential pitfalls.
“We already know that A.I. in schools is about more than just the adoption of a new technology. It signals a transformative shift in how we educate our students, and there’s no choice but to embrace it,” Orange County’s Superintendent of Schools, Stefan Bean, Ed.D., wrote in 2024.
Dr. Bean and the Orange County Department of Education set a target of 2025 for “90 percent of local districts to adopt ethical A.I. guidelines that promote responsible use across all educational settings.”
Similarly, the 2024 Orange County Grand Jury Report on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Public Schools (K-12) concluded that local districts “should implement policies and guidelines regarding the appropriate use of A.I.” by June 2025.
As 2025 comes to a close, that effort is still developing for many O.C. districts.
The Anaheim Union High School District has been at the forefront of incorporating A.I. into education for some time. That has ramped up this year. In September, the school board adopted a resolution titled: "Prioritizing Comprehensive A.I. Readiness for All Students.”
Last week, trustees approved an A.I. Student Framework which “outlines seven core components: A.I. Literacy, A.I. Competency, A.I. Ethics, A.I. Data Privacy and Security, A.I. Workforce Readiness, as well as A.I. Community.” The student framework encourages students to use A.I. in an ethical way to build technical skills. “Think of A.I. as a partner that can help you brainstorm ideas or create something new for your schoolwork and fun projects,” it reads on page five of the document.
The AUHSD has championed the integration of A.I. in the district for students in classrooms, teachers, and career pathways. The district is co-hosting the Student and Community Voice A.I. Summit in March 2026, which is expected to draw hundreds of attendees.
Orange County’s largest school district, Capistrano Unified, convened its first A.I. Institute with teachers before the start of this school year. Two hundred educators were chosen to participate in the one-day institute where they learned “about new digital tools to keep them on the forefront of modern education.”
Wes Krisel, the A.I. Lead Educator with the Orange County Department of Education was the keynote speaker. Attendees also learned about MagicSchool A.I., a tool designed for TK-12 teachers. And just last month, Capistrano Unified announced that it will be one of the first districts nationwide to adopt ChatGPT for Teachers.
After a survey found most of its students and teachers felt uneasy about A.I., the Laguna Beach Unified School District developed a tool to help create a common understanding about expectations for using A.I. tools on assignments.
YouTube video shows how the A.I. Trust You tool can be used by teachers and students in Laguna Beach Unified.
The A.I. Trust You Google Chrome extension gives teachers a way to tell students what A.I. tools they are allowed to use on assignments and how they can be used. Students can use A.I. Trust You to share if they used ChatGPT or another tool on an assignment and for what purposes. The tool is accessed within a student or teacher's Google document with a click on the toolbar.
“A.I. Trust You helps everyone understand what’s okay, what’s not, and how to use A.I. in ways that support learning,” LBUSD Chief Technology Officer Michael Morrison said in a press release.
This week, the Los Alamitos Unified School District held the first meeting of its A.I. Task Force that will have teachers from the elementary, middle, and high school levels, as well as administrators and school board members. Their goal is to develop an A.I. policy for the district's nine campuses.
“The focus of our work is how teachers and students can appropriately use A.I. tools,” Superintendent Andrew Pulver, Ed.D., told attendees at a PTA District Council meeting last month.
This comes as Spotlight Schools Editorial Intern Amelia Gutierrez reported that many students and teachers are seeing a lot of variation in how A.I. is used at Los Alamitos High School. A recent poll of 50 LAHS students conducted on the The Griffin Gazette's Instagram account showed 44% percent of those polled said they used A.I. on an assignment while 33% said that they have seen other students use A.I. on assignments. (Read Amelia's entire story at SpotlightSchools.com.)
At the state level, the California Department of Education formed an A.I. in Education working group this year which has members from at least three Orange County school districts. It is also surveying districts about the use of A.I. in their classrooms.
For a more expansive look, check out the Center for Reinventing Public Education’s database that is tracking how school districts locally and nationwide are adopting and implementing A.I.
In 2026, Spotlight Schools hopes to offer more coverage of how A.I. is being used at O.C. schools. Want us to come to your campus? Email: hello@spotlightschools.com.
Related past coverage:
Jeannette Andruss
O.C. Districts Can Now Apply for up to $525,000 in Innovation Grants from the O.C. Department of Education
Deadline to apply is January 30
In a new venture, the Orange County Department of Education is now offering the region's 28 public school districts a fresh stream of funding to develop creative programs.
The Innovation Funding Initiative officially launched on December 3. Orange County school districts serving TK-12 grade students can apply now through January 30 for grants of up to $525,000. The awards can be used to fund three-year projects that “address unmet needs and strengthen student engagement and achievement.”
The initiative is part of O.C. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Stefan Bean’s 5-3-1 Strategic Plan and “is designed to help districts move promising ideas from concept to practice.”
A maximum of six districts will be awarded grants in the first round for a project period from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2029. The award winners are expected to be announced in early March.
The OCDE is holding an informational webinar on the program Wednesday, December 17, from 2-3 p.m.
“Through this initiative, districts will have the opportunity not only to implement effective practices but to learn from one another,” Dr. Bean wrote recently. “Our goal is to build a countywide network where educators can share strategies, explore what works and strengthen outcomes together.”
For more information visit: ocde.us/InnovationFunding.
Editor's note: this story was updated to reflect a change in when award winners would be announced.
Ian Hanigan
31st Annual Report on The Conditions of Children in O.C. Released
Report offers district-and city-level data in the areas of health, economic well-being, educational achievement, and safety.
The 31st Annual Report on The Conditions of Children in Orange County is out now. Produced by the County of Orange, the report is described as "a valuable tool for the Orange County community to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges facing children and families in the county and to develop effective solutions to address these challenges."
While some of the data on standardized test scores is outdated, the report offers a useful snapshot on the trends impacting children, families, and students in O.C. compared with the past ten years.
The report summarized the situation for educational achievement this way:
Getting Better: "More students from socioeconomically disadvantaged families are meeting reading standards in third grade and their math scores continue to improve. Orange County students are doing better than the state average on reading and math achievement. More high school graduates are ready for college and fewer students are missing school since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic."
Needs Work: "While most areas of kindergarten readiness improved, emotional maturity recently declined. Also, the high school dropout rate is rising again, nearly reaching pre-pandemic levels."
The report offers a lot of information at the city and school district level so readers can see what's happening in their immediate community. For example, the graphic below shows up-to-date immunization rates for kindergartners by district.
Another graphic shows the percentage of children living in poverty based on 2023 data. According to the report, 55.2% of O.C.'s students in the 2024-25 school year qualified for free or reduced lunch, an indicator of family income. That's a 6.9 percentage point increase from the 2015-16 school year.
👀 Spotlight Schools hopes to dig deeper into the report to analyze what's impacting our communities. 🤔 What do you want us to cover? Let us know by emailing hello@spotlighschools.com.
Read the press release on the report on SpotlightSchools.com.
Campus Collaboration: Larger-than-Life Art Project Allows Entire School to Participate
A drone whirred overhead as nearly all of Mesa View Middle School’s roughly 850 students merged onto a field, filling an area marked off by mulch.
“We are going to create the largest animal on Earth,” photojournalist and Art for the Sky founder Daniel Dancer told the sixth, seventh, and eighth graders at the Ocean View School District campus on Nov. 13.
Some students wore white shirts. Others wore dark blue shirts. They stood up on command and crouched on command. A few minutes later, they erupted in cheers. The activity may have looked odd to a passerby, but it was all a matter of perspective and that’s the point.
Mesa View was participating in Art for the Sky, an interactive art project where students come together to form a “gigantic living painting colored and shaped by the living forms of participants,” visible only from above. It’s also a creation that accomplishes something few school art projects can: campus-wide collaboration at the same time.
At Mesa View, students huddled together and formed a blue whale that measured more than 132 feet in length. “You guys were part of a masterpiece,” Mesa View Principal Isis Ortiz told the students after they saw the final aerial image of the blue whale they created. “This was great because everybody at the school site was involved,” Ortiz said in an interview. She said she tapped into her school's Proposition 28 funds, which must be spent on art programs, to bring the project to Mesa View.
Art for the Sky is the brainchild of Dancer, an author and artist who travels across the country to teach students about “skysight” and using their imagination to make sense of the world. “It’s about seeing the whole picture,” Dancer explained in an interview.
Read the whole story at SpotlightSchools.com.
Other Stories We're Reading
Note: some links may have a paywall or require a subscription to read.
- Anaheim High School student-athletes injured by suspected DUI driver // The Orange County Register
- Newport-Mesa USD Trustee addresses 2022 hit-and-run crash as people call for her to resign // Daily Pilot
- Jose Paolo Magcalas appointed to vacancy on Anaheim Union High School District Board of Education // The Orange County Register
- Vigils held for Capistrano Unified student killed in hit-and-run on way to school // The Dana Point Times
- Preview of California's 2026-27 budget shows A.I. boom providing one-time boost to funding for TK-12 schools // EdSource
- High School football moms in O.C. invent 'PomBell' for super sports fans // Daily Pilot
- Orange County’s top teachers celebrated at the Disneyland Hotel // The OCDE Newsroom
STUDENT REPORTING
- Los Alamitos High School launches 'Griffin Bucks' to increase participation // The Griffin Gazette
- Summer school scam? How students breeze through online courses to fullfill graduation requirements // The Griffin Gazette
- Fullerton High School adopts process to replace mascot // The Tribe Tribune
- Brea Olinda High School's "Words of the Year" // Brea Olinda Wildcat
- Retiring AUHSD Supt. Michael Matsuda reflects on his career // The Gamut
One more thing...
🇺🇸 Meet the High School Students Named to the U.S. National Junior Pom Team
The Los Alamitos High School Song Team is celebrating a huge honor. For the first time in school history, the team was named by USA Cheer as the U.S. National Junior Pom Team to compete at the 2026 International Cheer Union (ICU) Junior World Championship Finals.
Each year, USA Cheer, the national governing body for cheer and performance cheer in the United States, selects only one high school team in the nation to serve as the U.S. National Junior Pom Team.
“To be selected as part of the U.S. National Junior Pom Team is truly a dream realized for these athletes,” said Jennifer Ramirez, Los Alamitos High School Cheer and Song Head Coach.
The ICU Junior World Championship Finals are April 22–24, 2026, in Orlando, Florida. The event brings together the best junior teams from around the world in the Performance Cheer divisions, where athletes ages 15 to 18 showcase their precision, artistry, and athleticism.
As the sole U.S. team in this division, the Los Alamitos High School Song Team will compete for a gold medal among teams from more than 70 nations in what will be the 18th anniversary of this global event.
Now the team needs your help getting there! The girls are currently fundraising and accepting donations via check or Zelle. Checks can be made out to Los Alamitos Song & Cheer, Inc. and mailed to P.O. Box 84, Los Alamitos, CA 90720
For Zelle, use lahsscmoney@gmail.com.
Read the Press Release on SpotlightSchools.com.