Blue times two

Danette Goulet

They tied a blue ribbon around the old oak tree, and the fence and the

shrubs and the students and every doorknob in the schools.

Two Corona del Mar elementary schools -- one public and the other

private -- celebrated Monday morning after learning they had been named

National Blue Ribbon Schools late Friday afternoon.

“It’s just such an exciting day,” said Karen Kendall, principal of

Harbor View Elementary School, the eighth school in the Newport-Mesa

Unified School District to earn the honor. “I had a fire drill on Friday

and pulled the whole school to the area where we have our morning flag

deck and told everyone. The children went nuts. It was so cute.”

Despite the impromptu announcement Friday, Kendall still decked out

the school Monday with blue balloons and ribbons.

As did the parents and administrators at Our Lady Queen of Angels

School, who spent the weekend decorating the campus with blue ribbons,

balloons, streamers and banners bearing congratulations.

“It’s really neat,” said Matthew York, 10, a student at Our Lady Queen

of Angels. “It’s very special to be a Blue Ribbon School.”

The school is the first Catholic elementary school in Orange County to

earn the national honor, said Sister Joanne Clare Gallagher, one of the

school’s two principals.

Being named a National Blue Ribbon School is the highest distinction a

school can receive from the federal government, and one that takes time

and dedication from the administration, staff and parents to earn.

Developed by the secretary of education in 1982, the Blue Ribbon

program was designed to identify and give recognition to outstanding

schools nationwide.

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

earn the honor of being a California Distinguished School.

When a school receives that award, it is invited to apply for the

national award.

Last spring, Harbor View was one of three Newport-Mesa elementary

schools to become a California Distinguished School and was invited to

apply for the blue ribbon award.

This year, it was the only one to make it through the rigorous process

and earn the prestigious title.

“This has been a two-year road for us, so [the students] really

understand,” Kendall said. “They were exultant.”

For Our Lady Queen of Angels, the application process took Ajay and

Elizabeth Patel about 30 days and 300 hours once they picked up the job

in August. And they said administrators were working on it months before

they came on board and wrote the application.

Now the couple said they would like to take the process a step

further.

“What we’re thinking is we’ll help other schools [earn the blue

ribbon] because the better our education system, the better our society,

right?” Elizabeth Patel asked.