Santa Clarita School Receives National ‘Distinguished’ Honor

Highland Elementary School in Santa Clarita has been named one of 221 “distinguished” schools nationwide, the U.S. Department of Education announced Friday.

Highland, with 650 students, was one of 16 schools from California selected for the honor.

“Everybody’s pretty sky-high right now,” Randy Snyder, a teacher at the school, said.

Snyder said he received a congratulatory phone call from state officials at 10:15 a.m. Friday. “At 10:16 I told the teachers,” he said.

The teachers took off running, announcing the news from class to class. “You’ve never seen ladies of that age run so fast,” Snyder joked.

As the news spread, “all I could hear was all the kids screaming,” Snyder said. “It took us about a half hour to pull them all down from about the ceiling.”

Highland is one of 11 schools in the fast-growing Saugus Union Elementary School District. With 4,500 students, the district has opened three schools in the past three years.

Representatives from the winning schools will receive a plaque and flag at a Washington ceremony in September, which is to be attended by Education Secretary Lauro Cavazos.

Distinguished schools are honored for overall programs, not just grades, Diane Jones, a Department of Education spokeswoman, said.

Among other things, judges consider the school environment, attitude of staff members, how the school interacts with the community, and parents’ involvement. “It’s a total school effort, not just one program,” Jones said.

Highland and another Saugus district school, Rio Vista, were among 35 California schools nominated by state education officials for the distinguished school award.