Plan B

What do you do when you believe your preferred plan of action is likely to fail? You create a Plan B.

But if the response to the top choice is highly uncertain, most people would develop a fall back position before actually initiating Plan A.

However, the Orange County Board of Education seems perfectly willing to initiate its "Big Plan" for CES and HES, and only consider what to do if parents resist as an afterthought.

To the Board's credit, they built into the "Big Plan" the understanding that parents will make the final decision on what to do about their children's education.

Parents will be sent a letter this fall that asks them if they are willing to send their children to the newly merged (but geographically divided), "modified" year-round school.

If not enough lower income parents are willing to adopt the year-round calendar, or not enough higher income parents are willing to send their children to the divided campus, the "Big Plan" will have to be scrapped.

But, what will the Board do then to hide its failures?

According to the Board's agenda for Monday's meeting:

"the Board approved Whitling’s plan – with the stipulation that the Board may need to act on a redistricting plan if year-round enrollment falls short of expectations and requirements."

At Monday's meeting, "Board members will have an opportunity to discuss the potential options for ensuring socioeconomic balance in the district if the upcoming parent intent responses indicate that year-round enrollment would be insufficient to support the program."

Unfortunately, the Board does not expect to make any decisions about "potential options"; this discussion is merely "informational." But they need time to talk about what to do if those pesky parents think they know better than the Board what is good for their children.