7 County Schools Win State Award

Seven Ventura County schools are among 180 middle schools and high schools across the state that have been named California Distinguished Schools this year.

Cabrillo Middle School in the Ventura Unified School District; Medea Creek Middle School and Oak Park High School in Oak Park Unified; Charles Blackstock and E.O. Green schools in the Hueneme Elementary district; Monte Vista Intermediate in the Pleasant Valley Elementary district, and Thousand Oaks High School in Conejo Valley received the state honor.

Thousand Oaks High School Principal Keith Wilson attributed his school’s success to the combination of parents, students and faculty. “They deserve the recognition,” he said.

It was the first time that five of the schools were named distinguished schools.

Medea Creek and Blackstock won the honor two years ago.

But since that time, the state has changed its criteria for selecting distinguished schools.

When the state Department of Education launched the distinguished-school program in 1985, it awarded the honor mainly on the basis of students’ scores on statewide assessment tests.

In 1992, however, California students did not take any statewide assessment tests for education officials to use as criteria for the 1993 awards.

So in 1993, the Education Department began to bestow the distinguished-school honor based mainly on how well schools implement the state’s curriculum guidelines. This year, state education officials also put some weight on schools’ performance last spring on the new California Learning Assessment System exams.

The state names distinguished elementary schools in alternate years to middle and high schools.

Last year, 13 elementary schools in Ventura County received the award: Weathersfield in the Conejo Valley district; Bard and Sunkist in Hueneme; Mar Vista in Ocean View; El Rancho and Los Primeros structured schools and Las Colinas in Pleasant Valley, and six schools in Ventura Unified: Juanamaria, Junipero Serra, Lincoln, Loma Vista, Portola and Saticoy.