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Author Fermin Leal

Fermin Leal

Fermin Leal serves as a communications specialist for Orange County Department of Education's Communications and Media Services Department where he works to highlight news and successful education initiatives at OCDE and at public schools across Orange County. Before joining OCDE, Fermin worked as an education journalist for 15 years, most recently at the nonprofit education news site EdSource. Prior to that, he worked for the Orange County Register. In this role, he wrote features and news articles about career and college readiness, the state’s implementation of the Common Core and Smarter Balanced exams and challenges facing students in higher education.

An image of a student working on a computer in the Brea Olinda Unified School District

Ready for CAASPP scores? Here’s a primer for the upcoming release

Fermin Leal
August 24, 2017
The California Department of Education is getting ready to release the latest round of scores for the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, or CAASPP, the state’s series of standardized tes... Read More
A partial solar eclipse

Ready for the solar eclipse? Watch a live stream here

Fermin Leal
August 21, 2017
One of the most exciting astronomical events in a long while will sweep across the sky today. We're hosting some live streams from NASA and The New York Times here (no safety glasses or sun funnels necessary... Read More
An image of paper in a typewriter with the words "Orange County Education News"

Weekly roundup: Foreign exchange students reunite after 45 years, new school year kicks off, and more

Fermin Leal
August 11, 2017
The last time these people from far-off places - including Lebanon, Argentina, Ecuador and Iran - were all together, Richard Nixon was president and "The Godfather" just hit the theaters. This week, nine for... Read More
student sleeps on her desk in a classroom

Health experts warn teens lack enough sleep, call for later school start times

Fermin Leal
August 10, 2017
Everyone can appreciate a few extra minutes of sleep each morning, especially teenagers heading off to school. Now, a growing number of health groups, educators, parents, and others are concluding that the s... Read More
Oxford Academy students pose with a "welcome back to school" sign

Set those alarms, Orange County schools opening for new year

Fermin Leal
August 9, 2017
It’s still early August, but thousands of students across Orange County are already back inside classrooms. Anaheim Union High School District, Centralia School District, Cypress School District and Savanna ... Read More
News graphic

Weekly roundup: Former student returns as principal, internships for OC high schoolers and more

Fermin Leal
August 4, 2017
As a student at Anaheim High School in the 1990s, the principal's office was probably not where Robert Saldivar wanted to spend most of his time. When classes start next week, the same office will have a new... Read More
Laboratory technician Tony Figueroa helps El Toro High student Mason Maragon work design an experiment to test the integrity of a pad lock.

OC high school students learning job skills from industry pros through summer internships

Fermin Leal
August 1, 2017
Mason Naragon, an incoming senior at El Toro High, landed an internship this summer working alongside engineers and manufactures at Hampton Products, an industry leader in home and commercial security systems. ... Read More
Water running from a hose

Governor signs conservation law inspired by Sonora High’s ‘Water Guardians’

Fermin Leal
July 24, 2017
Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law a water conservation bill that a group of Sonora High School girls, known as the Water Guardians, helped introduce. The new law allows water suppliers that offer water ef... Read More
News print

Weekly roundup: learning English through fun projects, a schools safety conversation and more

Fermin Leal
July 21, 2017
Learning English doesn't have to be just about classrooms and books. A summer camp in Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District is showing students can also pick up the language through art projects, music,... Read More
An engineer exams in a lab a scale model of the Mars Curiosity Rover

OC students learn about careers in space exploration during JPL visit

Fermin Leal
July 14, 2017
A group of Orange County high school and college students spent a day this week at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory watching a test drive of a replica of the Mars Curiosity Rover, examining the Mission Control ... Read More
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Credits

Orange County Department of Education
Al Mijares, Ph.D.
County Superintendent of Schools

Contact

Thanks for visiting the OCDE Newsroom. Questions and story suggestions should be sent to communications@ocde.us.

And if you’re a member of the media in need of information about the Orange County Department of Education, you can contact Communications Officer Ian Hanigan at ihanigan@ocde.us or 714-966-4008.

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