The Anaheim Union High School District Board of Trustees approved the consolidation plan in 2023, citing declining enrollment and long-term financial challenges. The district has lost about 5,500 students since the 2014-15 school year and, according to district staff, expects to lose another 3,900 by 2026-27. District officials have also said average daily attendance — which determines how much funding schools receive — has dropped, while costs tied to pensions, special education and other staffing issues continue to grow.

Orangeview most recently enrolled about 650 students, while Western High had 1,660, according to the latest figures from the California Department of Education.

Anaheim Union isn’t the only district making changes. As enrollment continues to drop across Orange County, other districts are also closing or considering the consolidation of schools. Last year, the Ocean View School District shut down Spring View Middle School and move its students to other campuses, and Orange Unified has also started exploring possible consolidations in response to declining enrollment.

“K-12 enrollment in Orange County has declined steadily over the past decade, with the most recent three-year drop totaling more than 22,000 students in traditional public schools — a trend largely driven by the high cost of living and declining birth rates,” Orange County Department of Education spokesman Ian Hanigan said in a statement.

District staff and educators in Anaheim Union said the school will adopt a more personalized, community-centered education model.

“We are at the forefront of rethinking what schools should be, and can be,” Bindi Crawford, co-principal of the new Orangeview-Western school, said during an update to the Board of Trustees meeting this week ahead of the start of school on Aug. 6.

District staff said the redesign introduces new academic structures aimed at boosting both learning outcomes and student well-being. That includes an eight-period block schedule on Mondays, three days of an advisory period each week, and twice-weekly late starts on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“On Mondays there will be a single block anchor day in which students will be able to go to all of their eight classes and check in with their teachers. On the other days, they will have a four-block period,” said Sean Fleshman, a longtime history teacher at Orangeview.

“The team felt very strong that it would be important to start off the week where each teacher saw each of their students at least once,” Crawford added. “These are shorter periods, but each student will go through every single one of their periods, including advisory, to kick off the week. Each period will be approximately 35 to 40 minutes.”

The idea behind advisory, according to Yamila Castro, a Spanish teacher at Western, is to build smaller learning communities and ensure each student has consistent contact with a trusted group of teachers. At the new school, students will meet in small, consistent advisory groups multiple times a week to build relationships and receive academic and emotional support.

“It ensures every student is known by name, assets and needs,” Castro said.

Another key component of the new school program, modeled after Hillsdale High in San Mateo, is what teachers call “Kid Talk.”

“When we visited Hillsdale, one of the practices that we learned at Hillsdale is this opportunity for students, support staff, administrators, counselors to do a preliminary intervention discussion about student needs and strengths,” Castro said. “So teachers come together twice a month and discuss students that they have questions about, that they would like to learn more about, maybe they’re having an attendance issue.”

“So this is a discussion with all of the teachers and support staff before it gets to the next level of intervention,” she said. “This way, every teacher has the opportunity to discuss students in a structured way.”

On Tuesdays, staff will use the late start time for Kid Talk and advisory planning, Castro said. Thursdays will be used for staff meetings, department check-ins or committee work.

Students will also be able to start career technical education (CTE) classes as early as eighth grade.

District officials said they expect the new model to yield stronger academic, behavioral and emotional outcomes.

“We’re going to likely be doing this with other schools as we move forward,” Superintendent Michael Matsuda said. “We learn together.”

Crawford said the team is focused now on getting to opening day, but also the work won’t stop there.

“This is just Year 1. And what we told our community is that Year 1 should not look like Year 2. This is a cycle of continuous progress and improvement,” she said.

Board President Brian O’Neal agreed.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens when the school opens and then how it is at the end of this first year,” he said.

The district is also planning another major campus move. Hope School is expected to close later this year and reopen on the former Orangeview campus in the 2026-27 school year, once that site is vacated.

“We have a committee working on thinking through the process of what will happen to that property,” Trustee Katherine Smith said.

At a June board meeting, trustees took a look at recommendations for merging Imperial Elementary with Crescent Elementary, Prospect Elementary with Esplanade Elementary, Fletcher Elementary with Taft Elementary, and Portola Middle School with Yorba Middle School. The district is in the very early stages, officials emphasized, of the process and no final decisions have been made. A consolidation commssion began meeting in April.

District leaders say consolidating schools would help reduce combination classrooms — where students from different grade levels are placed in a single classroom often due to low enrollment — and create more equitable class sizes across the district.

“Our projections show an additional 3% decline expected through 2034. While this is more modest than our historical decline, it represents continued downward pressure on enrollment,” Sulema Holguin, assistant superintendent of business services, said at the meeting.

In the Orange Unified School District, enrollment in the past decade has fallen by about 4,500 students, or 15%. But the conversation around school consolidation isn’t limited to Orange Unified.

Other districts in Orange County have recently taken similar steps as enrollment continues to decline. Between 2014 and 2024, student enrollment countywide dropped by 14%, or about 68,000 students, according to data from the California Department of Education. Holguin noted that’s roughly the combined enrollment of the Placentia-Yorba Linda, Tustin and Orange school districts.

District leaders also emphasized that consolidation could unlock new academic offerings.

“The more students you have, the more options you can provide so that students can pick from a larger menu when they’re looking at ranking their elective choices, their pathway choices, to go further in things that interest them specifically,” said Tracy Knibb, assistant superintendent of human resources.

Officials said Crescent Elementary is already a popular choice for families in the area. Of the 52 students who live in Imperial Elementary’s boundary and attend Crescent through open enrollment, 32 are in the district’s GATE program, Holguin said.

In the case of Prospect and Esplanade, Holguin said both schools offer similar programs, but Esplanade has been modernized “from the studs up,” and would be eligible for more modernization funding.

“Merging would allow for a larger number of enrollment, which means we would actually have a higher enrollment count to be eligible for those funds,” she said.

State modernization funding is based on student enrollment, which means the more students at a school, the more funding it qualifies for, officials said. For example, a school with 2,000 students would receive twice as much in state modernization dollars as one with 1,000 students.

Currently, 45 students from Prospect attend Esplanade through open enrollment, while 29 students from Esplanade opt into Prospect, Holguin added.

Esplanade has also struggled with combo classes, officials said.

“We had seven combo classes there. We were able to bring that down, but because we don’t have enough classes at each grade level, we have very little flexibility, and ultimately more combo classes are a result,” Matt Witmer, assistant superintendent of educational services, said at the meeting.

For Portola Middle School, district officials cited facilities as a key reason for merging with Yorba Middle.

“Yorba was also one of the schools that was modernized from the studs up, while Portola was not,” Holguin said, adding that the combined enrollment of both schools would be around 800 students.

“When you have more students, 800 to 1,000 students at a school, you can provide more program opportunities,” Witmer said.

But not everyone supports the changes. Parents and teachers voiced concerns at the recent school board meeting, especially around Imperial Elementary’s special education program. Some expressed concern that the close-knit community at Imperial couldn’t be replicated at Crescent, which is a much larger school.

One speaker said her son had been bullied at a bigger school and found safety and community at Imperial. If the school closes, she said she would pull him from OUSD and enroll him in private school instead.

District officials said multiple combination classes at Imperial prompted the district to provide an extra teacher earlier this year to ease the situation.

Holguin said many families in OUSD already take advantage of open enrollment and that flexibility would continue to be prioritized.

“We definitely want to continue to do that as a part of consolidation,” she said.

At the board meeting, trustees directed staff to return with more information at a future date.

“Drivers returned to work today at all three Orange County locations affected by picketers, and we are working as quickly as possible to resume regular service,” Republic Services officials said in a statement, adding that the company has brought in additional employees to assist with the recovery.

Residents are being asked to continue leaving their containers out until they are serviced.

The work stoppage, which stemmed from local workers honoring an East Coast union strike, led to service delays across multiple cities.

Related: Cities offer temporary drop-off sites as trash collection delays continue across Orange County

In Anaheim, officials said Republic drivers are working from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily to complete missed pickups, focusing first on routes missed July 9–11.

City officials said downtown pickups from July 9 should be completed by Monday afternoon. Central-east Anaheim pickups from July 10 are expected to be made up Monday evening into Tuesday, July 15. Anaheim Hills pickups from July 11 are expected to be completed Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday, July 16.

Routes may see a one- to two-day delay, officials said. Residents are asked to leave bins at the curb until serviced, and overflow trash should be bagged and placed next to carts.

Officials said Republic Services is expected to return to its regular pickup schedule in Anaheim starting the week of July 21.

In Santa Ana, officials said Monday that more than 30 Republic trucks are now working residential routes, and additional drivers and trucks from other cities are on the way to help. Residents are asked to keep their trash carts at the curb until they’re emptied.

Fullerton officials said crews are starting with the areas that missed pickups first and one- to two-day delays are expected early in the week. Street sweeping will continue, but the city has paused enforcement for trash bins and street sweeping violations through the end of the week.

Villa Park residents with Monday or Tuesday collection days may also see one- to two-day delays, officials said Monday.

Republic Services, the second-largest residential waste hauler in North America after Waste Management, operates in multiple Orange County cities, including Anaheim, Brea, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Placentia, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, Villa Park and Yorba Linda.

The work stoppage stems from a strike at a Republic Services facility in Boston, where more than 400 workers walked off the job last week demanding higher wages and better health benefits.

Update: Trash pickup recovery underway in OC as local sanitation drivers return to work

While there is no strike in Orange County, “local union members are continuing to honor the picket line,” said Adan Alvarez, spokesperson for Teamsters Local 396, which represents around 3,000 Republic Services workers in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Republic Services officials said Friday afternoon they did not have an update on the anticipated timeline for full service restoration.

To manage the growing backlog, several cities have opened temporary drop-off locations for residents to dispose of bagged trash. Here’s the latest by city:

Anaheim

City officials said crews were making up service for downtown Wednesday routes and central-east Thursday routes on Friday. Friday pickups in Anaheim Hills were also likely to be delayed.

Drivers have been focusing on collecting waste and organics first, officials said, and “you may see one truck picking up all of your bins. … This is to ensure service is made up quickly for all those impacted across our city.”

Residents can drop off trash for free at the following Anaheim locations on Saturday, July 12, with proof of residency:

• Anaheim Public Works Yard, 400 E. Vermont Ave., open until 4 p.m.

• Republic Services CVT Disposal Center, 2740 E. Coronado St., open until 2 p.m.

They can also visit the Republic disposal center Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. and another Republic facility at 2275 N. Blue Gum St., open from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Officials said waste pickups will continue through the weekend to make up for service delays.

Brea

City officials said Friday’s trash pickup could be delayed, and “if your trash was not picked up, leave your bins out for pickup that may be carried out over the weekend.”

Republic Services has placed five roll-off bins for trash drop-off, available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., at:

• 120 Olinda Pl. (Carbon Canyon/Olinda Village)

• 3333 E. Birch St. (Brea Sports Park)

• 3450 E. Santa Fe Rd. (Wildcatters Park)

• 500 W. Imperial Hwy. (Arovista Park)

• 1390 Site Dr.

Trash bags are available at the Brea Community Center during business hours.

Fullerton

“Focus is being placed in the highest-need locations to recover missed commercial pickups from days prior while managing today’s scheduled routes,” city officials said Friday.

Collections are prioritizing trash first, followed by green waste, then recycling. Residents should leave carts out “unobstructed” until they’re emptied. Officials said street sweeping will continue, but no one will get ticketed for leaving their bins out or for street sweeping parking violations during the delays.

Garden Grove

The Garden Grove Sanitary District added four more free, temporary trash drop-off sites starting Saturday, in addition to the eight that opened Friday. The locations are:

• Clinton Elementary, 13641 Clinton St.

• Brookhurst Elementary, 9821 William Dalton Way

• Riverdale Elementary, 13222 Lewis St.

• Morningside Elementary, 10521 Morningside Dr.

• Eastgate Park, 12001 St Mark St.

• Chapman Library, 9182 Chapman Ave.

• Garden Grove Park, 9301 Westminster Blvd.

• West Haven Park, 12252 West St.

• Garden Grove Courtyard Center, 12732 Main St.

• Harvest Lane and Ball Rd.

• Sanitary District Maintenance Office, 11700 Knott Ave.

• Garden Grove Blvd. and Nichols Dr.

City officials said only regular, bagged trash will be accepted, which means no recyclables, organics, hazardous waste, bulky items or construction debris. Residents are advised to “place items as far back as possible” to maximize space.

Street sweeping was canceled Friday. A map of the drop-off sites is available at ggcity.org/pw/trash-recycling.

Huntington Beach

Trash and recycling collection continued to be delayed, and city officials said Friday, “We anticipate the union activity may continue over the coming days.”

“Residents in impacted areas are advised to leave their trash containers out until they have been serviced,” the city said in a statement. “Street sweeping will continue as scheduled, even if trash and recycling containers have not yet been emptied.”

Republic Services customers can drop off bagged trash for free at the company’s facility at 17121 Nichols Lane using entrance gates 4 and 5, from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Saturday. An additional temporary drop-off site will be open Friday from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Public Works Yard, 17371 Gothard St.

Placentia

City officials said residents should leave their trash, recycling and yard waste bins at the curb for potential weekend pickup.

Placentia residents can also drop off bagged household trash only at a temporary roll-off bin at Kraemer Memorial Park, or the Republic Services facility at 2740 E. Coronado St., open Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m.

If necessary, Republic Services may prioritize service in the order of trash carts, yard waste carts and then recycling carts, city officials said.

Santa Ana

In Santa Ana, officials said residents should leave trash carts on the curb, not on the street, until they’re picked up.

“Street sweeping will occur as scheduled this week, even if trash and recycling bins have not been emptied,” officials said.

Seal Beach

Service is delayed in Seal Beach, except for Leisure World, which uses a different hauler.

“Residents in impacted areas are advised to leave trash carts out at the curb with lids closed until they have been serviced,” officials said Friday. “While the situation is being tracked closely, it is uncertain when service will resume.”

A 40-yard roll-off container was delivered Friday to the Public Works Yard at 1776 Adolfo Lopez Dr., for immediate trash disposal needs. Residents can also drop off trash at the Seal Beach Tennis and Pickleball Center at 3900 Lampson Ave.

Street sweeping enforcement was being relaxed in areas affected by the delays.

Yorba Linda

City officials said Friday afternoon residents can drop off bagged trash at two temporary sites, the Phillip S. Paxton Equestrian Center at 18661 Buena Vista Ave., and Eastside Community Park at 5400 Eastside Circle. The bins will be open daily from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and will remain in place until regular service resumes.

Yorba Linda residents can also throw away bagged trash for free at 2775 N. Blue Gum St. in Anaheim, from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday and from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Proof of Yorba Linda residency is required.

City officials said no bulky items, green waste, hazardous materials or electronic waste is allowed. Residents must unload their own trash and should not leave bags on top of, or outside, full bins.

Officials said to keep trash carts at the curb until they’re emptied.

The Santa Ana Unified School District board voted unanimously recently to rename John C. Fremont Elementary School as Virginia and William Guzman Elementary School, after one of five families behind the 1947 federal court case Mendez v. Westminster. The ruling in that case declared school segregation unconstitutional in California, a precedent later cited in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education.

The Mendez family has long been recognized for its role in the historic lawsuit, but the case included the Guzman family of Santa Ana, the Thomas Estrada family of Westminster, the Frank Palomino family of Garden Grove and the Lorenzo Ramirez family of Orange. Their collective efforts helped desegregate California schools nearly a decade before the U.S. Supreme Court did the same nationwide.

“The story of Virginia and William Guzman is a story that should be taught in every classroom in our district and across our state,” school board President Hector Bustos said. “For far too long, the Santa Ana family’s critical contribution to one of the most consequential civil rights battles in U.S. history has been overlooked and minimized.”

Virginia Guzman, a Santa Ana native, had attended Fremont Elementary herself, a school once designated for Mexican children. Remembering the punishments that faced students who spoke Spanish in class, she refused to have her son, Billy, attend the same school in 1943.

Franklin Elementary, a school for white students, was closer to their home and had newer textbooks and better resources than Fremont. But when Guzman and her husband, William, tried to enroll Billy in Franklin, they were denied by the school board.

The Guzmans became the first family to file suit challenging school segregation in Orange County in the 1940s, but their case against the Santa Ana Unified School District was ultimately unsuccessful. Undeterred, they joined other parents in Orange County to file the historic class action lawsuit, Mendez v. Westminster.

In Mendez v. Westminster, the five families successfully argued that separating Mexican-American children into “Mexican schools” violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The federal court agreed, and in 1947, the decision helped make California the first state to officially desegregate its schools.

“I think this is so timely with everything that’s going on in our community and so my hope is that our students, our families and our community can gain an even deeper sense of belonging and know that they’re appreciated, that they deserve to take up space and they belong here,” Trustee Katelyn Brazer Aceves said.

According to the district, a survey conducted earlier this year found that more than 63% of 517 respondents supported renaming the school. While the name Virginia and William Guzman Elementary School became official on June 25, the updated signage and listing in the SAUSD directory will take effect at the start of the school year on Aug. 11, district spokesperson Fermin Leal said. The district has set aside about $40,000 from its general fund to cover the cost of new signage.

A renaming ceremony with the Guzman family and community members is planned for late August or September, Leal added.

“What’s often overlooked is that the Mendez family didn’t stand alone. There were five courageous families from Orange County … who all challenged the discriminatory practice of separating children into Mexican schools and white schools. It’s important that we honor the collective effort that made this victory possible,” said Trustee Valerie Magdaleno.

The legacy of John C. Fremont, the school’s former namesake, drew criticism last year when community members voiced concerns at a school board meeting about his history and called for a name change. Fremont, a Civil War general, was known for being an outspoken critic of slavery and issuing an emancipation order in Missouri. However, as a famed explorer nicknamed “The Pathfinder,” his expeditions across the American West and Plains states involved violent encounters with Native American tribes.

Officials emphasized that the renaming was more about uplifting local figures who shaped civil rights history.

“It is our responsibility as educators, as trustees, as community members,” Bustos said, “to make sure that every child who walks through the doors of William and Virginia Guzman Elementary knows who they are, knows what they fought for, and knows that they too, have a power to stand up, speak out and change history.”

The heat wave expected to bring triple digits temperatures to some parts of Southern California this week has everyone looking for ways to stay cool.

Perez, who has worked in the downtown Long Beach area for about five years, travels from Fontana with other ice cream vendors to sell. Though the coast is typically cooler than her hometown, she says she prepares for the heat.

“We prepare ourselves in the morning with our hat, our chair, our cart,” Perez said in Spanish. “And then we’re ready to go for the day.”

Highs above 100 degrees in some parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties are expected Thursday and Friday, according to the National Weather Service, which issued a heat advisory for the region in effect through 8 p.m. Thursday, July 10.

Areas in Los Angeles County’s deserts may reach the mid- to high 90s, meanwhile, with Downtown Los Angeles expected to reach 90 degrees on Thursday. Temperatures along the coast are expected to be mild.

“The mountains won’t be a cool spot, they are expected to be quite warm into the 80s,” said Casey Oswant, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. “The coast will probably be the coolest place if people are looking to cool off.”

With few clouds lingering at the beach Thursday making for sunny conditions, temperatures along the coast will be mid- to upper 70s. Be warned – beachgoers could get a toe-numbing cool down if they dip in the water, with ocean tempertures on Wednesday showing in the low 60s due to a strong northwest wind earlier in the week that churned up colder water and displaced warmer surface water, Oswant said.

While waves got up into the 4-foot range on Wednesday, the swell should be dropping to 2 to 3 feet the next few days. Still, beachgoers should be aware of rip currents, she noted.

“People should always make sure they are talking to lifeguards before they get into the water,” Oswant said.

Coastal temperatures will be slightly cooler into the weekend and low clouds could make a return.

In the Inland Empire, the weather service warned temperatures will be in high 90s to low 100s on Thursday and Friday before cooling slightly this weekend.

The city of Riverside has nearly 20 cooling centers active in the area to assist with the heat wave. Public pools in the area opened up last month and remain open until Aug. 14 with several of them open on weekdays and Saturdays.

With San Bernardino County at a higher heat risk, officials warned that extreme heat can cause power outages and urged residents to be prepared. The increased risk of wildfire, meanwhile, led Southern California Edison last week to warn about potential public safety power shutoffs.

Temperatures are expected to hit the 90s in north Orange County this week, with inland cities such as Yorba Linda seeing some of the hottest conditions. The heat can take a toll on outdoor workers, especially greenskeepers tasked with maintaining massive stretches of grass under the sun.

At the Yorba Linda Country Club, where the par-71 course spans more than 6,800 yards, towering trees offer some shade, but it’s still grueling work.

Course superintendent Daniel Schubert, who manages the 20-person maintenance crew, said the team adjusts their schedule on hotter days to beat the worst of the heat.

“We’ll start our day around an hour earlier, around 5 a.m., to get the course prepped for play,” Schubert said.

To stay safe, Schubert said workers are encouraged to take frequent breaks and drink plenty of water. The crew also wears breathable uniforms designed for high temperatures — long sleeves made of performance fabric that cools the body while providing sun protection.

“I think you can clock it up to somewhere around three to three and a half to four miles worth of walking when we mow green. And just honestly, being in the elements, working outside, getting dirty,” he said.

To help manage the heat, he added, “We also schedule the guys in the afternoons, when the heat is stronger, doing jobs that might be a little less stressful. We try to get them in shades and obviously just continue to remind them to stay hydrated and take the breaks. It’s a tough job.”

To keep cool and stay safe during a heat wave, the NWS advises residents to drink plenty of fluids and offers the following tips:

• Opt for an air-conditioned room to stay comfortable.
• Stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors.
• Do not leave young children and pets unattended in vehicles when car interiors can reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes.
• If working or spending time outside, be sure to take additional safety measures.
• When possible, reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening.
• Learn the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
• Wear lightweight and loose-fitting clothing.

For information about cooling centers operated by Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, see LAcounty.gov/heat/, OCgov.com/cooling-centers, CAPRiverside.org/cool-centers and DPH.SBCounty.gov/extreme-heat-information-and-resources.

The work stoppage stems from a strike at a Republic Services facility in Boston, where more than 400 workers walked off the job last week demanding higher wages and better health benefits. That strike has now reached California, including Orange County.

See also: Cities offer temporary drop-off sites as trash collection delays continue across Orange County

“There is no strike in Orange County, but these workers have contract language that allows them to honor that picket line,” said Adan Alvarez, spokesperson for Teamsters Local 396, which represents around 3,000 Republic Services workers in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Republic Services, the second-largest residential waste hauler in North America after Waste Management, operates in multiple Orange County cities including Anaheim, Brea, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Placentia, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, Villa Park and Yorba Linda.

Alvarez said “hundreds” of sanitation workers in Orange County are currently honoring the picket line.

In three of those cities — Villa Park, Brea and Santa Ana — local officials sent out notices to their residents on Wednesday, July 9, that Wednesday pickups could be delayed by a day or more.

Villa Park officials said residents should leave bins out for “potential” makeup service on Thursday, “similar to a holiday week.” Local crews were not on strike, they added, but were picketing in support of their East Coast colleagues.

Brea city officials said some customers may also see delayed trash and recycling collection this week. “If your trash was not picked up, leave your bins out for potential makeup service on Thursday,” city officials said in a notice.

“If you are in an association community, check with your management for any guidance,” they added. “Republic is working on contingency plans in Brea.”

In Santa Ana, officials confirmed that Republic Services had delayed the pickup scheduled for July 9 and would be working through the weekend to catch up. They advised residents to leave trash carts out at the curb “until they have been serviced.”

“Republic Services will implement an accelerated recovery schedule that includes working through the weekend to catch up on any missed collections as quickly as possible,” the city said in a statement.

Alvarez said it’s unclear when services will return to normal.

“The majority are honoring the picket line. When services will go back to normal is unforeseen. Republic Services can end this today if they bargain in good faith,” he added.

Republic Services officials said three Orange County facilities were affected by employees participating in the work stoppage related to the contract negotiations with the union representing employees in the Boston area and four other locations.

“We are making adjustments to our operations and working to resume regular service as quickly as possible,” company officials said in a statement. “Residents are advised to leave their containers out. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”

The strike has also impacted cities in the Bay Area, where union workers are also refusing to cross the picket line in solidarity.

Park’s show, “Of Our Own,” now on view at the Various Small Fires gallery in Tustin, explores the textures of Korean American immigrant life through colorful but quiet still-life paintings pulling images from her own childhood. But Park says the works are more than nostalgic. They’re pointed meditations on survival at a time when immigrant communities once again find themselves under siege.

“I was finishing the show while the raids were happening,” Park, 39, said in an interview. “It just kind of doubled down on the reason I chose to share these stories.”

Her parents, immigrants from South Korea, raised Park in Cerritos after first arriving in Koreatown. Like many Korean American children of the 1980s and ’90s, Park spent weekends at swap meets, served as an interpreter before she could even spell the word and carried the burden of bicultural navigation early on. For many immigrants, swap meets offered low-cost entry points into entrepreneurship, particularly for newcomers facing language barriers, limited capital or racial discrimination that kept them out of more traditional, high-cost business opportunities.

“A swap meet is an open place where anyone can come and start a living, they can sell or provide whatever they have. It’s also a place where people who don’t have that much money can come and get things at a bargain,” Park said.

Her memories — of swap meet stalls, junk drawers and family hustle — form the scaffolding of the exhibit and current events its backdrop. The recent raids, which have targeted immigrant-heavy workplaces including swap meets, small garment shops and restaurants, have sent fear rippling through communities.

For many Koreans, Park said, seeing Latino workers who are now essential to their businesses being detained feels retraumatizing. The chaos and turmoil bring back memories familiar to a community still haunted by the 1992 riots in Los Angeles, which significantly impacted Koreatown.

“This fear is familiar,” she said. “It’s not just economic. It’s deeply emotional. I think about what it felt like for our parents, to have left everything behind, to get here and build something, and then to watch it collapse in an instant.”

In “Korean Daily,” one of the show’s standout works, Park renders a Koreatown sidewalk where a cobalt-blue laundry cart sits beside a newsstand displaying The Korea Daily in Hangul, the Korean alphabet, next to one labeled Daily News. The objects may seem mundane, but for Park, they’re layered with meaning, meant to evoke the analog era of Korean-language journalism and gesture toward the 1969 arrival of The Korea Times in Los Angeles, which helped connect Korean Americans to news from home and each other.

“They’re monuments,” she said. “Little monuments to how we survived here.”

That survival, she said, depended, and still depends, on community. Swap meets weren’t just businesses; they were ecosystems. Spaces where Korean vendors built livelihoods serving diverse immigrant families, and where language barriers didn’t stand in the way of connection or commerce.

“It’s community where you see each other every single day and you know each other’s families and they’re all there to support each other. It just brings a space for anyone,” Park said.

Park’s own father ran the Compton Fashion Center swap meet, a once-bustling Korean-owned market housed in a former Sears building. In “Go Swan,” Park draws from memories of her father’s plant stall at the swap meet, where swan-shaped planters doubled as hiding spots for a curious child. The painting places those same planters alongside a beer can, a lit cigarette, and a Korean board game, a nod to long workdays and the quick breaks in between.

Her mother, Park said, still wonders why her daughter would bother painting these “ugly” things.

Because they’re simply “a part of our story,” Park said.

As ICE raids show no sign of stopping, immigrant communities in neighborhoods such as Koreatown — a densely packed district of Los Angeles where immigrants live, work and rely on each other — are experiencing what some locals have called a “second Sa-i-gu,” a Korean American reference to the 1992 unrest. That year, Korean-owned stores were looted and burned and some Koreans famously took to their rooftops with firearms to defend their shops, birthing the “Rooftop Koreans” meme now revived by some right-wing figures online. Park’s father was among those armed shopkeepers during the unrest.

Park bristles at the memeification of that trauma.

“The protests now are completely different. Comparing them to the LA riots is just laughable,” she said. “And disrespectful.”

Through her art, Park said she wants people to understand that many of the same anxieties, about being unprotected, unheard and unseen, persist today.

“The biggest thing is empathy,” Park added. “I hope people see a little bit of themselves through my family’s story.”

Without a director, the Police Oversight Commission, made up of seven Santa Ana residents appointed by the City Council, has been largely unable to fulfill its duties. The ordinance tasks the director, now Morse, with investigating serious misconduct at the commission’s direction, including deadly police shootings, in-custody deaths and allegations of bias or excessive force, and recommending policy changes. But his role — and what the commission is allowed to do — could soon be reduced under changes the City Council is considering.

Morse, a longtime civil rights attorney and active reserve officer with the Los Angeles Police Department, says his position isn’t about shifting power away from police, but about making their work more transparent to the public.

“Oversight is more than just investigating individual officers,” he said. “Progress in policing comes from looking at the police department as a whole, looking at policies, looking at training.”

Morse says his job is to hold the police accountable, not just by reviewing misconduct complaints, but by identifying systemic failures in how officers are trained and policies are written.

“Problems in police departments are often not rooted in individual investigations,” he said. “They are grounded in poor policies and training, and Santa Ana’s Police Oversight Commission is poised to address those issues.”

“It’s my expectation that we will be reviewing police department policies, protocols, procedures, practices,” he added. “We’ll be identifying any problems that currently exist within the police department, and we’ll be making those issues public.”

Morse, a senior attorney at Oppenheimer Investigations Group, was appointed Tuesday, July 1, under a two-year contract worth up to $250,000. His hiring — a long-awaited milestone in the city’s push for police accountability — comes after the Santa Ana City Council approved the commission in 2022 to provide civilian oversight of the city’s police force. The commissioners were chosen and started meeting last year.

But within hours of his appointment, the City Council was set to debate a rewrite of the very ordinance that created the commission.

The item was ultimately postponed to the July 15 meeting due to time constraints.

Among the proposed changes, the word “independent” is struck throughout the ordinance, including from the title of the police oversight director. The commission would only be allowed to review cases involving in-custody deaths or potential violations of First Amendment rights. Any other complaints would be sent directly to the police chief, bypassing the commission, if the changes are approved. The commission would also lose the ability to investigate any cases that haven’t already been reviewed and confirmed as misconduct by the police department.

The changes, city officials say, are designed to ensure legal compliance with state law and streamline oversight procedures. But critics say they come at the cost of transparency and public trust.

“I cannot help but think, is this a coincidence that the City Council is voting to hire an oversight director, and we’re now seeing these amendments pop up,” Commission Amalia Mejia said. “These do not improve transparency, rather turn the commission into a symbolic act for the council to say, ‘Hey, we established one,’ without any actual Santa Ana PD accountability.”

Morse said, regardless of the exact oversight model the city adopts, “effective oversight will occur.”

“Change comes from transparency,” he said the morning after his appointment. “And based on the oversight structure that the City Council envisions with these proposed revisions, the Police Oversight Commission will be releasing public reports assessing and analyzing the police department’s Internal Affairs investigations.”

“Where those investigations are deficient,” he added, “we, as a police oversight commission, and I as oversight director, will document why they are deficient, and we will provide clear recommendations as to how those deficiencies can be addressed.”

Morse said it’s not unusual for oversight bodies to only review cases after the police department has completed its own investigation.

“If you look at the LAPD, the inspector general uses the exact same model. LA County sheriff, same model. Long Beach, Pasadena, Orange County, those oversight bodies use the Internal Affairs auditing model,” he said. “And one reason for that is you want to build the community’s trust in the police department. The goal is not to build the public trust in the oversight commission.”

The idea, he said, is not to displace the police department, but to build public confidence in its operations.

“Think about the police department as a whole,” he said. “Police departments write their own policies, police officers train other officers, and so it’s impractical to think that we can outsource all of those things to an outside entity.”

“If you’re taking responsibility away from the police department and essentially saying the police department can’t do this, the police department can’t be trusted to do that, that can be counterproductive,” Morse continued. “So I think in order to build public trust in the police department, you work with the police department to make whatever changes are necessary so that the police department is trustworthy.”

Morse acknowledged that Santa Ana, like many communities across the country, continues to experience deep distrust between law enforcement and residents.

“Communities do not trust the law enforcement officers who police them, and law enforcement officers often feel unwelcome by the people they are sworn to protect, and maybe they are unwelcome,” Morse said. “It can be difficult to bridge that gap … and I’ve lived in both worlds.”

Morse spent nearly eight years in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, investigating police departments, jails and other government institutions under both Obama administrations and the first Trump administration. He later led investigations into the Orange County Sheriff’s Department while working for the county’s Office of Independent Review. Still, his identity as an active LAPD reserve officer has raised some eyebrows in Santa Ana, a city with a long and often tense relationship with its own police force.

But Morse said he hopes to use those experiences to foster understanding.

“I think those experiences can help me facilitate trust and communication between the police department and the community that it serves,” he said.

But some commissioners and community members say the proposed ordinance amendments undercut the very purpose of civilian oversight.

Carlos Perea, another commissioner, called the revisions “a troubling effort to centralize power within City Hall and SAPD, shield the department from accountability and silence community voices.”

“The commission would be relegated to a passive role with no power to act, effectively turning it into a rubber stamp,” he said.

Community advocate Bulmaro Vicente, with the group Chispa, said that the original ordinance had already been vetted to comply with state law.

“These proposed changes aren’t about legality, they’re about politics,” he said.

Commissioner Mejia questioned the idea of spending hundreds of thousands on an oversight director while proposing to strip the commission of its teeth.

“How unreasonable is it to be willing to pay $250,000 on salary for an oversight director but not have a proper commission working to actually address the issues it was intended to?” she asked.

Councilmember Jessie Lopez said she believes Morse is well-positioned to serve as a watchdog, as long as the council allows him to act independently.

“We should keep the director independent and respect the spirit of the ordinance,” Lopez said in an earlier interview. “Our community deserves real accountability and transparency. Now that the independent director is essentially being offered a contract to take on this role, I hope the commissioners are willing to learn and work with him.”

Perea echoed that sentiment.

“I’m hoping the director is able to maintain unbiased judgment when engaging with all the stakeholders,” he said. “He’s going to have a critical role in bringing all voices together. The main thing here is accountability.”

Morse, for his part, said his job will be to bring that accountability into public view.

“As that police department becomes more trustworthy and gains that public trust,” Morse said, “that’s when the Police Oversight Commission is really serving its function.”

While councilmembers unanimously approved a resolution denouncing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s presence in the city and a formal request for federal records on enforcement activity in Santa Ana, a separate proposal to redirect $1 million from community events to support families impacted by enforcement actions sparked sharp disagreements, and also accusations of political sabotage.

“Unfortunately, because the mayor proposed something, we’re seeing politics rear its ugly head,” Councilmember Phil Bacerra said after Mayor Valerie Amezcua’s proposal to provide relief funds was challenged because of concerns she was “defunding” cultural events.

The debate unfolded as Santa Ana grapples with what some councilmembers described as the visible impact of immigration enforcement: empty bus stops, empty car washes, grocery stores without customers and frightened residents. They said the recent raids have spread confusion and fear in one of California’s most immigrant-rich communities.

The latest spate of immigration sweeps by federal agents began in early June and shows no signs of slowing across Orange County. In Santa Ana — where more than 75% of residents are Latino and an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 are undocumented, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics — the National Guard has been stationed downtown, and some businesses are reporting steep drops in sales and foot traffic. Recent public events and summer field trips have also been canceled.

Aid proposal sparks clash

The most heated discussion of the night came over Amezcua’s plan to establish a temporary aid program for families impacted by immigration enforcement, using up to $1 million from the city’s FY 2025-26 budget. The proposal follows a similar move by neighboring Anaheim, where the city is partnering with the Anaheim Community Foundation to launch a donation-driven relief program.

The funds, allocated for city events including Fiestas Patrias ($498,000), Fourth of July ($115,000), Chicano Heritage ($127,000) and the Tet Festival ($80,000), would have been redirected to help families pay for rent, food, utilities and legal aid if a primary income-earner is detained.

After heated back-and-forth, the council unanimously backed a compromise from Councilmember Thai Viet Phan to allocate 10% of the budget for all identified city events to start the program and revisit it in 90 days or sooner for broader discussion. It will raise about $100,000.

“The reason that I brought this forward was because we are currently in a crisis,” Amezcua said. “I do not want to have any large events where they can come and harm and take our families.”

But Councilmember Johnathan Ryan Hernandez opposed cutting cultural programming.

“I don’t support placing mutual aid against the celebration of culture,” he said. “These are events that families look forward to. I don’t think it is the right thing to defund these events.”

Instead, Hernandez proposed using salary savings from vacant Police Department positions. Amezcua pushed back, saying she wouldn’t support taking funding from law enforcement and that Hernandez’s proposal was reckless.

Council calls for ICE, military to leave

Councilmembers also all agreed to call on federal lawmakers to advocate for the removal of ICE, military, and other federal enforcement personnel from Santa Ana.

Citing raids at schools, homes, places of worship, swap meets, medical facilities and other public spaces, they argue ICE’s tactics have disrupted public safety, have had a negative impact on the economy and have damaged trust in the community.

“We’re asking our federal legislators to do their job,” City Manager Alvaro Nuñez said. “This is our statement as the city of Santa Ana that we stand in a moment of frustration … that we stand with our community.”

Bacerra said the adopted resolution should be sent to all federal officials with jurisdiction in Orange County, not just those representing Santa Ana.

“Because the fact of the matter is, there is no federal courthouse in Brea. There is no federal courthouse in San Clemente, which means there is no National Guard posted outside in their cities,” he said.

FOIA request seeks transparency

The council also voted to formally request data from ICE through a Freedom of Information Act request, seeking records of enforcement activity in Santa Ana between Jan. 20 and July 1.

The request includes asking for the time, location and basis for each enforcement action, the names and immigration status of detained individuals, and ICE’s internal guidance on the use of race, ethnicity, national origin or physical appearance in initiating contact with or arresting individuals.

Councilmember Benjamin Vazquez said he wants to know who got arrested, the number of people taken by ICE and where they were taken to best assist family members who are left behind.

But the discussion quickly turned to how — and whether — to share that information publicly. The council’s vote on Tuesday simply gave city staff the go-ahead to submit the FOIA request.

“I think we need to make this request, I’m not in any way opposed to the request,” Bacerra said. “But once we get that, I think we do need to think about what we do with it. I just want to make sure we don’t do anything that accidentally goes against our sanctuary city status.”

Police Chief Robert Rodriguez said publicizing names or arrests could put families at risk.

“Families could be exploited,” he said. “Maybe family members could be collateral damage to some of these federal ICE raids.”

Carvalho noted that the federal government will likely reject the request by claiming an exemption.

Vote on officer ID rule delayed

One final measure, an ordinance proposed by Councilmember Jessie Lopez requiring law enforcement officers to wear visible identification and banning face coverings during public interactions, was delayed until a future meeting.

Lopez warned that agents operating without identification create fear and confusion.

“When we blur the line between legitimate policing and covert intimidation, we all become less safe in our community,” she said.

But staff said the city likely cannot enforce such rules on federal agents. There are efforts at the federal and state levels to pass legislation to force ICE agents to unmask and more clearly identify themselves.

“If we’re giving direction to any of our staff that says you shall enforce this law or you shall interfere, they may view that as obstructing a federal investigation,” City Attorney Sonia Carvalho said.

Bacerra said he supports a resolution backing similar state legislation, but added: “Having our staff put together something that we know before pen meets paper cannot be enforced seems like … a waste of time.”