Newport Harbor brings home the hardware

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT BEACH -- Bleary-eyed but proud, a small delegation of Newport

Harbor High School representatives returned from Washington, D.C. on

Monday, having received the highest national honor bestowed upon a school

-- the National Blue Ribbon Award.

While its travels may have been rough, the group was ecstatic to be

one of only 88 high schools in the country to receive the award this

year.

“It’s a bigger honor than I realized,” said Da Vinci Academy teacher

Joe Robinson, upon discovering how exclusive the group of honorees was.

“It just says what we’re doing here is the right thing.”

Newport Harbor was one of only four high schools in Orange County --

15 in California -- to be named a Blue Ribbon school this year.

Developed by the Secretary of Education in 1982, the Blue Ribbon

program was designed to identify and give recognition to outstanding

schools throughout the country.

Before any school can claim a Blue Ribbon, it must first earn the

honor of being a California Distinguished School. Once a school receives

that award, it is invited to apply for the national award.

“It was a grueling application process,” said Robinson, who completed

the lion’s share of the paperwork. “They want to know you’re as good as

you say you are.”

Robinson was accompanied to Washington by his wife, Mary, student

Meredith Chinn and her father, and recently retired principal Bob Boies

and his wife, Barbara.

“It was really just a great experience,” Boies said. “It’s a nice way

to end my career, but it’s also great for Newport Harbor.”

Even more exciting than the presentation banquet, Chinn said, was a

one-on-one seminar with other student-delegates.

“Every student shared a little about their school; why they deserved

the award and how you can have a role as a leader,” Chinn said.

But what most inspired the 16-year-old student was not the successes

of other schools, but their shared woes.

“It’s just nice know that there are other people out there dealing

with the same issues we are,” she said.

Each member of the delegation attended their own seminar and each took

something different with them.

“On a more personal note, it’s also saying that not all schools have

bad test scores. Public schools can work,” Robinson said. “We’re doing a

really good job, I think, and I’m proud of our school.”