Blue Ribbon potential at three schools

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA -- Three Newport-Mesa schools are in the running for the

country’s top educational honor -- the prestigious National Blue Ribbon

School Award.

Principals at Harbor View, Kaiser and Victoria elementary schools were

notified Monday morning that their schools had been nominated by the

state Department of Education for the annual nationwide evaluation to

determine the best schools in all the land.

“I’m absolutely thrilled,” said Karen Kendall, principal at Harbor

View in Corona del Mar. “California is so competitive. We are honored and

thrilled that we made it. It’s so much work to put that application

together, so it is really gratifying that we passed.”

Developed in 1982 by then Secretary of Education Terrel Bell, the Blue

Ribbon program recognizes outstanding campuses throughout the country.

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

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

receives the state award, it is invited to apply for the national award.

Of the four elementary schools in the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District that won Distinguished School status last year, only Killybrooke

-- which lost its principal at the end of the year -- was not nominated

to move on to the national round.

In fact, the Newport-Mesa district accounts for nearly half of the

successful applications in Orange County, where 15 schools applied and

eight advanced for Blue Ribbon consideration.

If it makes the cut as a national finalist, a school must then pass a

site inspection by officials from the U.S. Department of Education.

The principals of the nominated schools shared the news of the

preliminary victories with their teachers, students and parents.

“I am so proud of what my teachers do, the connection we have with our

families,” said Daryle Palmer, principal of Kaiser Elementary in Costa

Mesa. “This application is not about who is a Blue Ribbon principal, it’s

about what happens on the playground, in the classroom and with the

parents.

“There are amazing things going on here and it should be a place that

others schools come to learn. And when you become a National Blue Ribbon

School, you become a demonstration school. You’re seen as a resource.”

So now the waiting begins all over again for anxious school

communities. After four to five months of agonizing over the writing of

the extensive Blue Ribbon application, principals said the waiting will

be even worse.

School officials can expect to hear by late January if they will

advance to the final round.

“The waiting game continues,” Kendall said. “The next step, if we make

it, is the site visit. We hope to jump over that hurdle too and keep

jumping until we’re a Blue Ribbon School.”