School Is Only Private One in State to Win U.S. Honor

A Chatsworth private elementary school where classes are small, students begin learning Spanish in kindergarten and nature walks are a regular part of the curriculum is the only California private school to win national honors this year from the U.S. Department of Education.

The 400-student Sierra Canyon School, on six acres at the base of the Santa Susana Mountains, is also the only for-profit school among the 221 public and private schools, including 16 in California, to win the department’s annual Distinguished School Award, according to Dorothy Vukisch, deputy regional representative for the Education Department.

“We challenge students,” Principal Ann Gillinger said. “We have a school full of achievers, many reading two to three levels ahead of their grade.”

But, she said, students “do not learn in stressful situations. They learn best in a nurturing environment, and we provide that.”

The school charges $5,700 annual tuition plus $195 per month for transportation for the 1990-91 academic year. Officials said that 20% of the student body is made up of minorities and 11% of students attend with the help of full or partial scholarships. The school was notified of its award Friday.

Gillinger said that when she heard the school had won she “ran into each classroom. You would have thought the students had won the Super Bowl. They screamed and waved their fists because they knew we had been nominated.”

The school is next to 36 acres where students take nature walks and study plants, trees, insects and soil. The campus includes a small orange tree orchard shading the lunch area, an amphitheater and two swimming pools.

An Education Department spokesman said public and private schools were evaluated on equal criteria, including visionary leadership, academic achievement, parent involvement and programs that challenged students and enabled teachers to develop professionally and teach effectively.

But the school has many amenities that are beyond the reach of public schools. Its faculty includes 18 full-time teachers with full-time assistants in addition to specialists in Spanish, music, art, math and science and physical education.

Gillinger said the school started 12 years ago when Howard Wang, Mick Horwitz and she, all of whom were public school teachers, decided “that there was a way we would like to do things.”

She said the average class size at the school is 24, which allows students to study in small groups and get extensive individual attention. Classes in public schools often have 30 students or more.

In one first-grade class Monday, red-headed, freckle-faced Derek Snyder, 7, slouched in his chair as he used a computer game to learn to read.

“I like this game,” he said. “You could learn lots of different words.”