School History Currently in its second year of operation, Our Community School (OCS) was born of the desire to provide parents and students with an alternative to the traditional public school institution. Along with an interested group of parents, Christine Ferris, current OCS principal, and another educational innovator, Brenda Buonora, founder of Buonora Center preschools, currently Director of Operations at North Valley Charter Academy, wanted to create an ethnically and socio-economically diverse learning community where children would develop a life-long love of learning and feel safe and valued within their school environment. They realized the need for a progressive, public school that nurtured the whole child, addressing the intellectual, social, emotional, creative, physical and collaborative aspects of each child's education ensuring that all students would become proficient in language arts, mathematics, science, history and the humanities, as well as the visual and performing arts. With these ideals in mind, the Our Community School Charter was drafted early in 2005 and, after meeting the district's rigorous academic expectations, approved by the Los Angeles Unified School District in May of 2005.