Countywide : 2 High Schools Judged Among Best in the U.S.

Corona del Mar High School and Huntington Beach’s Marina High are among the nation’s top 109 secondary schools in 1985, and representatives will travel to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to receive accolades from President Reagan and Secretary of Education William Bennett.

Marina received notification of the award in June but the Newport Beach school was at first rejected and had to go through an appeal process before it was included on the nation’s honor roll Sept. 13. A U.S. Department of Education representative spent two days at each school in May to compile reports that were used to select the top institutions.

“When we saw their reasons for rejecting us,” said Corona del Mar Principal Dennis Evans, “we thought they might have the wrong school at first.”

Evans said the rejection form contained several reasons not cited in the original reports; teacher morale was listed as low although glowing quotes of teachers were included in the original report and in one instance the word “experiential” was mistakenly thought to be “experimental.” “So they dinged us for having experimental programs,” he said.

But all was righted in the end and Evans and two other school representatives will be in the nation’s capital Tuesday.

Marina Principal Ira Toibin said he feels the award went to his school because of high standards in all areas studied, including homework policies and community involvement.