Countywide : 11 Schools Nominated in National Competition

Eleven county high schools and junior high schools have been nominated to compete this year in the federal government’s National School Recognition Program, the county Department of Education announced.

The nominated schools are: Brea-Olinda High; Buena Park Junior High; Huntington Beach High; Sunny Hills High, Fullerton; University High, Irvine; Currie Intermediate, Tustin; Newport Harbor High, Newport Beach; Parks Junior High, Fullerton; Portola Junior High, Orange; Walker Junior High, Anaheim, and Woodbridge High, Irvine.

The 11 county nominees will join those from the other 57 counties in California as the state Department of Education this week picks 47 schools to be considered at the national level. Each California county gets to nominate a certain number of schools, based on the total number of students in the county.

Gil Martinez, assistant superintendent of the county Department of Education, said the state is expected to announce its choices by late this week. The federal government then considers the nominees for selection as “model schools” to be recognized with White House honors.

Martinez said 18 schools from 11 school districts in the county competed this year to be new county nominees. From that competition came five new nominees: Brea-Olinda, Huntington Beach, Sunny Hills and University high schools, and Buena Park Junior High. The other six schools were runners-up in state competition last year and automatically were renominated this year, Martinez said.