Parents need to fill out a separate enrollment application for all those seeking enrollment as new students at the Orcutt Academy in 2025-2026.  Again this year, we are requesting that enrollment applications (also known as Intent to Enroll forms) be submitted online.  All enrollment information submitted online will be accessible to only a limited number of Orcutt Academy staff and will be kept confidential.

For those who do not have access to a computer with Internet access, office staff at Orcutt Academy High School, 610 Pinal Street in Old Orcutt, can assist applicants in getting onto a computer with Internet access.

We will begin accepting applications on Monday, November 4, 2024. All applications must be submitted online by 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 29, 2025, in order to be included in the enrollment lottery.

No.  All applications received by the application deadline receive equal treatment under the provisions of our lottery.

We request that all prospective parents attend one of the live virtual information nights/meetings we have scheduled. At these events, Orcutt Academy staff provide information on Orcutt Academy High School and the Orcutt Academy K-8 campus and outline the process for the lottery and admissions. In addition, prospective students and parents are invited to attend a campus tour at each of our sites. A full listing of information nights and campus tours can be accessed here.

This year, we also plan to post online informational videos about the Orcutt Academy for prospective students and parents. These can be accessed from the district and school websites.

Once you fill out and submit an online enrollment application, you will see a screen message indicating that your application has been submitted. Please print out this screen as proof that the application was submitted. If you have any questions about whether your application was received, please email oaenrollment@orcutt-schools.net.

Yes. All prospective students, including those who are siblings of current Orcutt Academy students, need to have an enrollment application on file.

The Orcutt Academy’s K-8 campus (OAK-8) will have six seats open for Transitional Kindergarten, eight seats open in kindergarten, and possibly one or two seats open in other grade levels.  These seats are filled first by students with lottery exemptions and then by students who are participating in the enrollment lottery.

Orcutt Academy High School (OAHS) will have 190 seats open in ninth grade and a handful of seats open in the 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th grades.  The ninth grade seats are filled first by graduates of OAK-8, then those students who have exemptions from the lottery, and then all other applicants via the enrollment lottery.  For a more complete description of the lottery event and subsequent admissions process, please attend an Orcutt Academy information night and/or see questions on lottery below.

Important note: This step is only necessary for parents who claim residency in the Orcutt Union School District and do not already have a child attending the Orcutt Academy.

With the exception of those students who are children of founders, children of Orcutt Academy staff, and siblings of current Orcutt Academy students, all applicants who claim district residency will need to submit proof of residency via the online application or email.

Proof of residency is fulfilled by the following process:

1. Submit two (2) utility bills attaching the parent/guardian to a home within the boundaries of the Orcutt Union School District
   OR
2. Submit a notarized residency affidavit and two (2) utility bills showing residency.

Some examples of utility bills include gas, water, cable, electric, or waste. Documents we do not accept include mortgage and tax statements, DMV statements, and cell phone bills.

These documents must either be attached to the enrollment application or emailed (photos or PDF format are acceptable) to residency@orcutt-schools.net.

Applicants claiming district residency who do not submit proof of residency by 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 30, 2025 will be considered a “non-resident” for purposes of the enrollment lottery. Any questions on residency or residency verification should be addressed to Deedra Garcia at (805) 960-5572 or residency@orcutt-schools.net.

Students are eligible for Transitional Kindergarten if they will have their fourth birthday by September 1st of the school year.

Enrollment applications submitted after the enrollment deadline are added to the wait list following all applications that are part of the enrollment lottery.

The burden is on parents/guardians to provide correct information on the enrollment application.  The best advice is to put care and diligence into its completion.  If parents/guardians realize before the enrollment deadline that they have submitted incorrect information, they need only contact Joe Dana, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, by email at jdana@orcutt-schools.net to correct it.

If incorrect information is submitted and not corrected, we will proceed through the lottery and admissions process utilizing the information we have available.  Unfortunately, if critical information such as a child’s grade level is incorrect on the enrollment application, there is no way to rectify the mistake following the lottery.

The lottery will occur at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 5, 2025. The lottery will be a virtual event, with public access via Zoom.

Lottery procedures differ for the K-8 and high school campuses. Descriptions follow:

Description of lottery for Orcutt Academy K-8 campus (OAK-8):

After preferential exemptions (children of founders, children of staff, and siblings of current Orcutt Academy students) are accounted for, all available TK-8 vacancies are filled and the wait list established via public enrollment lottery.  In this lottery, district residents will have a 3-to-2 lottery weighting advantage over non-district residents.  (Note:  If there are more applicants in any preferential exemption category than capacity in any particular grade level, applicants in that category will be put in a separate, equally-weighted random drawing to fill the grade level and begin the wait list.)

Following the lottery, applicants selected in the lottery will be required to complete registration documents and submit proof of meeting age requirements (i.e., minimum age for public school admissions) by a published deadline.  Once the requirements are verified, and registration and the necessary paperwork completed, candidates are officially admitted to OAK-8.

Description of lottery for Orcutt Academy High School (OAHS):
Admission to OAHS features several steps:

• Graduates of the K-8 campus will matriculate to OAHS provided they meet the OAHS admissions requirements.
• Immediately prior to the enrollment lottery on February 5, preferential lottery exemptions will be applied.  First, children of founders, children of staff, and siblings of current Orcutt Academy students will become candidates for admission.  The district resident preference will come next; however, since the number of district resident applicants likely will exceed the number of vacant seats, a separate, single-weighted drawing for district residents only will determine who become candidates for admission and the sequenced order of the wait list.
• After the drawing for district residents, an equally-weighted lottery for all other applicants to the high school will be held. This lottery will determine the order of the remainder of the wait list.
• Following the lottery, OAHS Principal Rhett Carter and his staff will hold registration events at which candidates will submit proof of meeting admissions requirements.  Once the requirements are verified, and online registration completed, candidates are officially admitted to OAHS.

This is a complex process, and procedures for admissions and the lottery will be specifically explained at all information nights and immediately prior to the enrollment lottery.

For the 15th year, the lottery will be conducted using a lottery software program.  The program randomizes selection of students and makes possible differential weighting for residents and non-residents (for the K-8 lottery).

The lottery is a public virtual event, and anyone may attend.  That said, we recommend that children not attend.  Based on past experience, we believe it is best that parents/guardians be the ones to communicate the outcome of the lottery to their children.

The evening of the lottery, we will send an email to each parent/guardian with the result for their student.  The email will be sent to the email address provided in the enrollment application.

The morning following the lottery, we will make print copies of the lottery results available in the offices of Orcutt Academy High School (610 Pinal Street in Old Orcutt) and the Orcutt Union School District (500 Dyer Street in Old Orcutt).

Our definition of residency is aligned with the California Government Code Section 244 definition of residency, which essentially states that residents are those who live within the school district boundaries.  It is important to note that under this definition those who are employed, but who do not live, within Orcutt Union School District boundaries are not considered residents.

All applicants who claim residency are required to submit proof of residency through the methods described in the “Enrollment” section.

No, they are not.  As mentioned above, a student must be living within district boundaries in order to be considered a “resident”.

Not necessarily.  District residents have a preferential exemption in the lottery.  However, as mentioned in the description of the lottery, OAK-8 graduates will become candidates for admission and other students with preferential exemptions (children of founders, children of staff, and siblings of current students) will become candidates before children of district residents who do not fall into one of the above categories are considered.  Accordingly, it is possible that there will be more district resident applicants than there are seats available for them.  If this is the case, a drawing of district resident applicants will need to be held to determine which applicants become candidates for admission and which go onto the wait list.

This being said, we are pleased to share that the outlook is quite hopeful for all district residents to be able to attend OAHS. Because we have expanded the number of ninth-grade seats available, in the past five years we have been able to accommodate all district residents in our lottery.

The definition of sibling we are using is “each of two or more children having one or both parents in common through birth or legal adoption.”

Children of founders are defined as children of the persons who were members of the original Orcutt Academy Steering/Advisory Committee.  Children of staff are defined as the children of all teaching, Classified, and administrative staff who work at the Orcutt Academy on a daily and/or regularly scheduled basis and are considered part of the school staff.  Staff of other school sites in the Orcutt Union School District are not considered Orcutt Academy “school staff”.

The wait list is an ordered list by grade level, with the order established by a drawing at the enrollment lottery event.  In other words, the student who is No. 1 on the wait list will be the first person contacted if/when there is an available seat at his/her grade level.

OAHS typically does go onto its wait list to admit students.  Students admitted to OAHS sometimes opt to enroll at other high schools, in which case OAHS staff contact students on the wait list.  Also, if vacancies emerge during the school year, OAHS will go onto its wait list to fill them.

OAK-8 typically goes onto its wait list a handful of times during the school year.  Because the school is relatively small (total enrollment of 140), there is not as much student movement in and out of the school.

For the current (2024-2025) school year, OAHS admitted all students who were entered in the enrollment lottery. For 2025-2026, there is no way to predict how many students on the wait list will be admitted, but we are hopeful that we will be able to accommodate all students in the lottery.

Students retain their position on the wait list for the entirety of the upcoming school year.  In other words, a student who is drawn onto the wait list at the lottery event will hold his/her position for the entire upcoming school year.

The wait list is an ordered list by grade level, with the order established by a drawing at the enrollment lottery event.  In other words, the student who is No. 1 on the wait list will be the first person contacted if/when there is an available seat at his/her grade level.

To recap, the Early College Cadre Program is a partnership with Allan Hancock College that enables participating students to earn an associate’s degree from Allan Hancock by the time they graduate from OAHS. Students need to land a seat at OAHS in order to be eligible to apply for the Early College Cadre Program. The application process takes place in the spring, well after the lottery, and students are selected in time to register for a summer Success in College (PD 101) course. Needless to say, this is a wonderful opportunity for students willing to take on the extra work involved.

The OAHS Virtual Learning Academy offers two options: a fully virtual experience as well as a hybrid option that is a blend of virtual courses and up to two classes taken in person at OAHS. For both options, students need to be enrolled in the lottery. For more information on the OAHS Virtual Learning Academy, please visit the Virtual Learning Academy information page.

OAHS does not have admissions requirements.  All students admitted via the lottery will have the opportunity to enroll at OAHS provided that they do not exceed the maximum age requirements set by law.  (If an applicant is 19 years of age at the time of application, his/her parents should contact OAHS Principal Rhett Carter at (805) 938-8590 to discuss whether the student will exceed the maximum age limitation.)

Although OAHS does not have admissions requirements, parents are advised to attend an information night and campus tour to make sure that OAHS is the right fit for their child.  OAHS has a rigorous program with a focus on college preparation and accomplishment of the University of California’s a-g requirements.  Additionally, OAHS’ graduation requirement of 240 credits means that students must take the equivalent of six courses per semester for all four years of high school.

It should be noted that students are required to maintain a 2.0 grade point average while enrolled at OAHS.  If they fail to have a 2.0 grade point average at the end of a given semester or fail to make meaningful progress toward obtaining sufficient credits to graduate, they are required to participate in the school’s academic intervention program or credit recovery program. Those programs will be made available for at least three semesters.  If a student fails to make up the required credits or to bring up their grade point average after three semesters of participation in the academic intervention or credit recovery program, then they will be notified by the high school that they may not be eligible to continue at OAHS.

Four seats have been added at the K-8 campus to bring the school’s enrollment to 140. Orcutt Academy High School is working toward an enrollment of 675 in 2025-2026.

With regard to enrollment, the Orcutt Academy is legally and ethically bound to adhere to the lottery and admissions guidelines established by Element Eight of the Orcutt Academy Charter. The Academy is not able to supercede these guidelines in order to admit a child facing special circumstances.

As mentioned earlier, the Academy is legally and ethically bound to follow its lottery and admissions guidelines. It is not able to bypass these guidelines for any student.

The following persons can provide more information on enrollment for their campus.

• OAHS Principal Rhett Carter: 805-938-8590 or rcarter@orcutt-schools.net
• OAHS Office Manager Vannessa Gonzales: 805-938-8582 or vgonzales@orcutt-schools.net
• OAK-8 Principal Jared Banks: 805-960-5530 or jbanks@orcutt-schools.net
• OAK-8 Office Manager Kathleen Stevenson: 805-960-5530 or kstevenson@orcutt-schools.net