35 County High Schools Winners in ‘Dollars for Scholars’ Program

Thirty-five of Orange County’s 70 high schools are winners in the state’s new “dollars for scholars” incentive program.

Winning schools will receive state grants ranging from a few hundred to several thousand dollars. The two biggest winners were Sunny Hills High in Fullerton, which will get $81,092, and Laguna Hills High, $77,869.

Corona-Norco Unified School District, immediately adjoining Orange County, also had a winner, Norco Senior High, which will get $40,771.

The money can be used by the winning schools for virtually any purpose except to pay salaries or hire new staff.

46% of State’s Schools Won Cash

The program, launched this school year, offered cash awards to high schools showing overall improvements in the state’s California Assessment Program (CAP) tests of scholastic achievement. Some called the program “Cash for CAPs.”

State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig announced the winning schools this week from his office in Sacramento. A total of 530 of California’s 1,142 high schools--46% of the total--won cash awards for improvement.

With a 50% ratio of winning schools, Orange County was slightly higher than the rest of the state in cash awards. The county’s total and percentage would have been higher still if the Newport Mesa Unified School District in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa had taken part in the competition. Newport Mesa Unified was the only district in Orange County to refuse to compete.

Newport Mesa decided against taking part because the district philosophically questioned such an activity and also because there were fears that the test would disrupt some classes, said Dale Woolley, director of pupil personnel services in the district.

“Also, our scores were already very high--among the top 5 or 6% in the state,” said Woolley. He added that with high scores, chances for improvement--and cash awards--are slimmer. “There is no prize for maintenance (of existing high scores),” he said.

But, ironically, the district’s high schools did show overall CAP test improvements this year. Woolley conceded that Newport Mesa schools apparently would have won state money had the district competed and tried to get a slightly higher percentage of students taking part in the testing.

Under the incentive program rules, at least 93% of eligible students must have taken this year’s test. Newport Mesa Unified had 84% of its students tested this year.

While competition for the cash awards is optional, the state requires all schools every year to take the CAP tests.

CAP tests in reading, written expression, spelling and math are administered yearly to public school students in the 3rd, 6th, 8th and 12th grades. The tests are supposed to show how well schools and school districts are performing, state officials have said.

The special incentive program this year was only for 12th-grade (or senior) students in the state’s high schools. The Education Improvement Incentive Program had three rules: 93% of each school’s seniors had to take the test; the test had to be strictly supervised, and the composite score of the school had to improve over the previous year.

13 Districts Had Winners

Of 15 districts in Orange County having high schools, 13 districts had one or more schools winning money in the incentive program. The only districts not winning were Newport Mesa, which declined to take part, and the small Los Alamitos Unified District, which only has one regular high school and one continuation high school.

Tustin Unified School District scored a sweep, with all three of its high schools--including its continuation school for students with special problems--winning cash awards for test score improvement.

Other Orange County districts doing especially well in the competition were Irvine Unified and Fullerton Union High School District. Irvine Unified and Saddleback Valley Unified had all of their regular high schools winning money. Five of Fullerton Union High School District’s seven schools --including its continuation high --won cash awards.

Under the state rules, each winning school’s advisory committee must decide on how the money is to be spent. The advisory committees are called “school site councils.” They are composed of faculty, student and parent representatives.

Honig Praises Seniors

According to Orange County Department of Education officials, some school districts told their seniors that advisory committees would very likely allow the seniors themselves to recommend how the bonus money is to be spent.

Honig praised the state’s high school seniors who won the money, noting that they “helped push the annual CAP scores to their highest overall level in 10 years.” He added: “Although they (the seniors) will not personally benefit from this reward, this was a fine gesture of appreciation to their teachers and fellow students. And it is a welcome bonus for schools.”

The $14.4 million in the state incentive program was allocated to schools based on a formula factoring the amount of gain in CAP scores and the number of seniors taking part. Rowland High, in Los Angeles County’s Rowland Unified School District, won the single largest prize in the competition, $140,818. The smallest award given statewide, Honig said, was $111.

Tom Tullar, principal of Laguna Hills High, exhaled a sigh of surprise and satisfaction on Thursday when a reporter told him his school had won $77,869. He said the school’s senior class is outstanding.

‘One of the Finest Classes’

“This is one of the finest classes we’ve had come through here,” he said. “This is a reflection of a good bunch of kids and the staff that’s worked with them for four years. I think it also shows our high school’s concentration on improvement. Starting back in 1981, we focused on improving students’ abilities in written expression and spelling, and our CAP scores have been especially high in those areas.”

Gerald Mieger, principal of Sunny Hills High, was equally excited Thursday about his school’s winning the county’s top amount, $81,092. “It was a real team effort,” said Mieger. “The teachers took to the challenge. The kids took to the challenge, and certainly the community was informed, and I’m sure parents talked about this (competition) to their children. So it was a real team effort.”

MONEY FOR SCHOOLS

These are high schools in Orange County that have been designated to receive grants under the Education Improvement Incentive Program.

SCHOOL DISTRICT AWARD Cypress Anaheim Union $68,127 Katella Anaheim Union 10,292 J.F. Kennedy Anaheim Union 1,787 Western Anaheim Union 73,036 Brea Olinda Brea-Olinda Unif. 10,399 Capistrano Valley Capistrano Unif. 23,821 Dana Hills Capistrano Unif. 341 Norco Senior Corona-Norco 40,771 Buena Park Fullerton Union 16,513 La Habra Fullerton Union 16,262 La Vista Cont. Fullerton Union 6,016 Sunny Hills Fullerton Union 81,092 Troy Fullerton Union 39,925 Bolsa Grande Garden Grove 12,708 Garden Grove Garden Grove 45,958 La Quinta Garden Grove 13,735 Los Amigos Garden Grove 10,180 Marina Hunt. Beach 28,987 Westminster Hunt. Beach 15,083 Irvine Irvine Unified 46,132 Woodbridge Irvine Unified 21,253 University Irvine Unified 323 Laguna Beach Laguna Unified 5,423 Richland Cont. Orange Unified 13,159 Esperanza Placentia Unified 29,270 El Dorado Placentia Unified 38,357 El Camino Real Cont. Placentia Unified 6,791 El Toro Saddleback 48,085 Laguna Hills Saddleback 77,869 Mission Viejo Saddleback 55,184 Mountain View Santa Ana Unif. 6,045 Santa Ana Santa Ana Unif. 46,221 Valley Santa Ana Unif. 1,726 Foothill Tustin Unified 39,348 Hillview Tustin Unified 17,082 Tustin Tustin Unified 62,576