THE LAST WORD:

Recent headlines have given us plenty of reasons to be pessimistic — rising gas prices, rising foreclosures, the dropping value of the dollar — but the Newport-Mesa school district’s coup Wednesday in the California Distinguished School Awards provided a welcome shot of optimism.

Eastbluff, Andersen, Harbor View, Killybrooke and Sonora elementary schools took home the prize after they exceeded their state Academic Performance Index targets and met the federal No Child Left Behind benchmark. Only 343 elementary schools statewide receive the award.

What’s most heartening is that not all five of the Newport-Mesa schools serve the most affluent students. Killybrooke and Sonora reside in a well-off part of central Costa Mesa, but they draw from a more diverse population than the schools in the Corona del Mar Zone. As school board member Walt Davenport noted, though, it’s hard work and dedication that truly make a distinguished school.

“It’s a feather in the cap for all the people in the district who are working hard to earn that recognition,” he said. “I can’t attribute it to anything other than the caliber of the personnel working at these schools.”