Single-Sex Catholic Schools Planned For OC

ORANGE COUNTY — A nonprofit this month announced plans to open two single-sex Catholic schools in Orange County as early as the 2024-25 school year.

Just where the schools will open remains to be seen. The Camino Schools nonprofit is holding an informational community meeting Wednesday evening at the Laguna Hills Community Center, in part, to gather input about community interest.

The Camino Schools is looking to open a school that offers co-ed K-2 classes followed by all girls second-through eighth-grade classes, and a second school for boys-only from third to eighth grade, The Orange County Register reported.

There are few single-sex Catholic schools in Southern California, and several Orange County Catholic schools have struggled with dwindling enrollment, forcing merged-grade classrooms or closures. In Laguna Beach, the diocese recently shut down St. Catherine of Siena Parish School, puting the prime beach city real estate on the market.

One of only three single-sex Catholic schools in the county shut down in 2019, leaving just Rosary Academy, Fullerton's all-girls school and Anaheim's all-boys Servite High School. Lakewood's all-girls St. Joseph High School draws students from a wide swath of north Orange County. There are no single-sex Catholic schools serving South County.

According to it its website, "The Camino Schools is a non-profit organization dedicated to the cultural renewal of California through the founding of great schools. The mission of these schools is to collaborate with parents in the intellectual, moral, physical, and spiritual education of their children. Through a rigorous liberal arts curriculum and personal character formation, these schools seek to develop children into mature, confident leaders who engage the world with a spirit of freedom, adventure, and service."

Wednesday's community meeting will be at 7 p.m. at the Laguna Hills Community Center at 25555 Alicia Parkway.