Countywide : Student Awards Give Credit Where It’s Due

David Everett, an eighth-grader at Washington Middle School in La Habra, probably never thought he would win an award for helping a cafeteria worker clean a lunch area.

The same is true for Felipe Salazar, who won a ribbon for improved behavior in his eighth-grade class.

But every Tuesday, when the school holds its “Make a Difference,” or MAD, day, as many as 60 students like David and Felipe receive ribbons from staff members for helpfulness, good grades or good behavior, said principal Gary Mantey.

“Our discipline program is the philosophy of recognizing kids when they do something right,” Mantey said. “We still punish bad behavior, but good behavior is what gets attention.”

Although the program at Washington is unusual, its concept and purpose are not. Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach and Marina High School in Huntington Beach have similar programs that recognize students for academic achievement or improvement or for exemplary behavior.

All three schools recently were named by the California Department of Education to the list of the 20 best schools in California, the survivors from a preliminary list of 84 schools recognized statewide. The nationwide competition, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, was started in 1982 to honor schools judged unusually successful in meeting students’ educational needs.

To enter the competition, each school submitted an application to the state Department of Education. The remaining step in the competition is selection to the list of the top schools in the country. About 150 to 200 schools are expected to make the final cut, and those schools will receive plaques at awards ceremonies in their towns. Also, banners will be presented to school representatives at a special ceremony in Washington.

But for now, the schools are going about the everyday business of being the best.

At Corona del Mar High School, the teachers took the traditional student-of-the-month concept one step further and decided that each department would select its own student of the month, said Principal Dennis Evans. Larger departments such as English and math select two students, he said.

“We think it’s a really good approach because there may be a student in art who may not be a 4.0 (grade average) student or who may not win some competitive scholarship,” Evans said. “But (the program) creates an atmosphere that every student is important and can be recognized in any area.”

Marina High School in the Huntington Beach Unified High School District has started a district scholars program, which, said Principal Ira Toibin, gives students “special recognition and preferential treatment as far as class rank is concerned” for taking difficult classes that require more effort and better grades than the minimum needed for entrance into the University of California system.

Students don’t seem to mind the hard work, Toibin said.

“They care more here than at other schools,” said Keith Laszlo, 17, a junior at Marina. “We put more effort into class time, so we get more out of it.”