700 Nominees : State Honors Grant Teacher

Grant High School math teacher Harold Jacobs, who has taught at the Van Nuys campus for 25 years, was honored Friday as one of the state’s seven outstanding mathematics and science teachers by the California Department of Education.

Jacobs was selected from more than 700 names nominated for the honor by school administrators, fellow teachers, students and parents. In addition to Jacobs, the math winners were Dorothy Kirk of Somerset Junior High School in Modesto and Roberta Koss of Redwood High School in Larkspur. There were four science winners, none of them from the San Fernando Valley.

Jacobs traveled to Sacramento, where the award was presented by state School Supt. Bill Honig.

The names of the California winners will be forwarded to a national panel of judges who will select one of them for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching.

The competition is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, which gives the Presidential Award winner $5,000 and the two runners-up $1,000 each. The teachers must donate the money to their school.

The Presidential Award program was started in 1983 by the foundation as a way to improve science and math teaching and to recognize teachers with extraordinary talent.

Jacobs holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in physics and math. He has written algebra and geometry textbooks and his book, “Math, a Human Endeavor,” is widely used by teachers.

Jacobs began his teaching career at Grant in 1962. He is chairman of the math department and teaches courses from basic math to honors algebra.

“He’s simply outstanding,” Grant Principal Bob Collins said. “He loves to teach; he loves kids, and that’s really the bottom line.”