Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District to supply lunches to students at California Republic Leadership Academy Yorba Linda campus

 An agreement for the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District to supply breakfast and lunch meals to the California Republic Leadership Academy for students on the academy's Yorba Linda campus has been approved by trustees of the Placentia-Yorba Linda district.

Income from the meals for the charter school's students “will create a new revenue stream for the district,” according to a presentation at a recent district trustee meeting. Meal costs are $3 for each breakfast and $5 for each lunch, plus a $1,000 monthly administrative fee.

The meals will be prepared and packaged at Yorba Linda High School and picked up by charter school staff. The lunches will be served to academy students on the pick-up day, with breakfasts served the next day.

All meals will meet federal and state nutritional standards. The California Universal Meals Program requires the charter academy to provide the two free meal during each school day to students requesting the meals.

The academy can request and pay for services “outside the norm,” according to the six-page agreement, and meal service to the academy continues when the academy is in session, but the district is not. Sack lunches will be provided when academy students are on field trips.

Yorba Linda's campus for the free public charter school at 23705 Via Del Rio opened in August for the inaugural 2024-25 school year, with sections for transitional kindergarten through third grade students and a projected revenue of $1.1 million.

An open enrollment period for the 2025-26 school year runs through Jan. 29, and an information session and facilities tour is scheduled for Jan. 28 at 4 p.m. The school plans to add a fourth grade class for the 2025-26 school year. Enrollment information is on the school's website crlayorbalinda.org.

The school currently runs morning and afternoon transitional kindergarten/kindergarten classes, while day-long first through third grade classes run from 8:50 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Students entering transitional kindergarten must have birthdates between Sept. 2, 2020 and Sept. 1, 2021.

The school's teachers meet state credential requirements, and the school's students meet the same vaccination requirements as all of the state's public school students. Another campus is located in San Juan Capistrano.

In August 2023, the Placentia-Yorba Linda district trustees denied the California Republic Leadership Academy petition to open a charter school in the district on a 5-0 vote, after a staff report cited concerns over financing and curriculum.

However, the charter petition was approved later on a 5-0 vote by the Orange County Board of Education to become one of the current 28 charters that have been approved for students in the county by the board.

The Placentia-Yorba Linda district opened the district-affiliated Orange County School of Computer Science charter on the Bernardo Yorba Middle School campus in August 2024.