GARDEN GROVE : Teacher Selected as Among County’s Best

A social science teacher at Garden Grove High School has been chosen as a winner of the 1995 Orange County Teacher of the Year award.

Renae Boyum will receive $15,000 from the James Hines Foundation, one of the award sponsors. She will advance to the California Teacher of the Year competition, which will be held in October.

The state winner moves on to the national competition, with the eventual winners honored by the President at a White House ceremony as the nation’s best teachers. The annual awards are intended to promote excellence among public school teachers.

The other county winners were Ron Archer, an English teacher at Trabuco Hills High School in Mission Viejo; Marilyne Coats, a language arts teacher at Willis Warner Middle School in Westminster, and Lois Knudson, a special-education teacher at Lakeside Middle School in Irvine.

John F. Dean, the county’s superintendent of schools, announced Boyum’s selection during a visit last week to Garden Grove High School. A panel of education, business and community leaders selected the winners from a group of 40 teachers nominated by Orange County school districts.

Boyum, a resident of Irvine, has been with the Garden Grove Unified School District for the past 21 years. Since 1992, she has served as school district representative to the University of California Partnership Network, which is studying admission changes to the UC system.

She also has participated in a pilot project at Stanford University to assess teacher performance as part of a national standards board certificate program.

Boyum teaches civics, government and U.S. history at Garden Grove High School. She has worked with seven other teachers in developing Argos United, a club consisting of students and teachers from various ethnic groups who plan and organize school activities to promote tolerance and cultural diversity at the Garden Grove campus.

Boyum, who was raised in Minnesota, earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and social science education from the University of Minnesota. She has taught at Rancho Alamitos High School, Bolsa Grande High School and La Quinta High School.

From 1988 to 1992, she was president of the Garden Grove Education Assn., which represents teachers, nurses and librarians.