An annual camping program for fifth- and sixth-grade students in all of Orange County’s school districts has been canceled, marking the end of a beloved but expensive 40-year tradition.

Amid budget shortfalls and the recent loss of a $5 million benefactor, the Orange County Department of Education said it can no longer afford to operate the overnight trips. The program typically took thousands of children to the nearby mountains each year to learn about ecosystems, environmentalism and biology.

“The Orange County Department of Education is the donkey with 10 boxes on its back, and we just can’t do that anymore,” Orange County Department of Education Superintendent Al Mijares said during a county school board meeting Wednesday.

This school year, about 10,000 students attended the camp, known as Outdoor Science School, from districts around the county.

Kelly Asch, a 39-year-old Orange resident, remembered going to the camp in the late 1980s, panning for gold, sleeping in bunks and enjoying the tantalizing taste of freedom that came with a week away from parents.

It made such an impression, she was excited for her son Dean, a 10-year-old at Villa Park Elementary, to do it next year. She thought it would be a good experience for him.

“He doesn’t like to get his hands dirty. I was hoping this would get him out of his shell,” Asch said. “He’s more of an indoor boy. He likes his video games, but we wanted him to get outside. Get a little dirty.”

It was also the first time many of the students who attended the camp had spent time away from their parents. Abigail McCormick, now a freshman at Mission Viejo High School, said she didn’t care for the camp but it made her appreciate home more.

“Overall, it was an experience where you go and then you’re so happy to get home because you missed your parents,” McCormick said. “It’s hard to be thankful for what you have until you don’t have it.”

Though the county covers some of the costs of attending the camp, school districts were asked to provide about $400 per student to send groups to the camps, much of it raised by families. The fundraising often would occur over several years for some students, said Garden Grove resident Christopher Shields.

“Parents are really frustrated,” he said. “You work real hard, the kids were looking forward to it, and then they get the rug pulled out from under them.”

Superintendent Mijares notified school districts this month about the decision to restructure and scale back the department’s outdoor camping education program.

Mijares explained in a letter that the county could not continue the extra camping programs due to the department’s more pressing financial and legal obligations to provide resources for students at county-run schools, most of whom are in the juvenile justice system or foster-care system or have been removed from local districts for disciplinary reasons.

“The resources that come into this office are for our students,” Mijares said Wednesday. “We don’t have enough money to serve them, let alone direct that money elsewhere.”

The financial burden of the camp became especially heavy this year. The department projected a deficit of $1.5 million for the camping program alone next year, said Ellin Chariton, executive director of school and community services for the county department of education.

Outside funding for the program also dried up in recent years. An anonymous donor who had given the county up to $5 million each year since 1998 to help subsidize the camp is no longer donating. County board member Liz Parker said she personally knows the donor and that his reason for pulling out was strictly financial.

Staff at school districts like Garden Grove Unified, Irvine Unified and Capistrano Unified say they already have plans to replace the camping experience for their students with private programs. In the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, for example, many students started going to campgrounds at Arrowhead Ranch and the Irvine Ranch Outdoor Education Center instead of the county program in recent years, according to a district spokesperson.

The decision to end the program was disappointing to educators including Bob Gardner, a board member in the Anaheim City School District and former teacher and principal. He said he understood the county’s financial obligations but that the abrupt decision to end the program after students had already signed up for it was shortsighted.

“In school districts like Anaheim’s, we’re pulling kids out of those gang neighborhoods for this camp,” he said. “It’s not only that science education that they’re getting. They’re getting exposed to a professional opportunity outside their areas.”

Instead of the camp, the county department will devote its resources to existing day-long field trips and outdoor classroom activities, which it supports through a nonprofit foundation. These programs serve significantly more students than the camping program did and were easier to raise funds for, Chariton said.

Gardner urged the county to continue the camping program for one more year; however, the county board approved its budget for next year during Wednesday’s meeting.

Until school districts find alternatives, parents like Asch are now wondering how they will help their children gain the impact the outdoor camps had.

“I know he would like hiking along the streams and playing in the creeks and learning about the plants,” she said of her son. “Now I’ll have to look into something else to try and give him that experience.”

Contact the writer: lsteussy@ocregister.com