Four schools receive statewide awards

Four sites in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District received California Distinguished School awards on Tuesday, tying the district’s record from six years ago.

The campuses ? California, Lincoln, Mariners and Victoria elementary schools ? were nominated by the state in March before undergoing visits from an evaluation team. State Supt. Jack O’Connell announced 377 winners of the award on Tuesday, the highest number of California schools ever honored in a single year.

The recipients will be honored on May 26 at a ceremony at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. Newport-Mesa’s total of four was the highest for the district since 2000, when Harbor View, Kaiser, Killybrooke and Victoria elementary schools received the honor.

“I’m thrilled,” said Susan Astarita, Newport-Mesa’s assistant superintendent of elementary education. “I’m proud of each and every one of the schools. They all deserve it. The parents, the teachers, the administrators have done an excellent job.”

The California Department of Education presents the awards every year, with elementary and high school campuses alternating. Newport Harbor High School won the recognition for the Newport-Mesa district in 2005.

School administrators apply for the awards in the fall, completing a lengthy series of forms about curricula, programs, demographics and other aspects of a campus. Nominated schools must meet federal and state criteria to be eligible.

The four awards to Newport-Mesa this year bring the district’s total to 22 since the state began giving the awards in 1985. Two of the schools, California and Mariners, are first-time winners; Lincoln won the honor in 1997 and Victoria in 2000.

“We had ‘We Are the Champions’ playing in the faculty lounge,” said Victoria Principal Judy Laasko, who has overseen both of her school’s distinguished awards.

Lincoln Principal Jane Holm was not on the staff when her school won the first time, but she was assistant principal when Lincoln received the national Blue Ribbon Schools Award in 1999.

“I’m going around today and announcing it to all the children,” she said. “We’ll be celebrating in the classrooms.”