Countywide : Schools Win Prizes for Bankruptcy Ideas

Thirteen local schools have won new photocopiers and fax machines in a contest sponsored by Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. in the wake of Orange County’s financial crisis.

More than 80 schools participated in the contest, in which students drew murals on rolls of fax paper and wrote essays about creative ways for the county to recover from bankruptcy.

One student suggested a contest in which participants would pay $1 each to guess how many jellybeans were in a jar; another said simply: “We could sell some stuff that my dad makes.” Others offered pickle sales, lollipop-licking contests, throwing pies in the face of former Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron, and, taking a cue from county leaders, a half-cent sales tax increase.

The winners, who were honored during a ceremony Wednesday, involved the following schools: College Park School and Estancia High in Costa Mesa; Nelson Elementary in Tustin; Carl Hankey School and Capistrano Valley High in Mission Viejo; John Marshall School in Anaheim; Concordia Elementary in San Clemente; Washington Middle School in La Habra; Santiago Elementary and Serrano Intermediate in Lake Forest; Aliso Viejo Middle School in Aliso Viejo; Marina High in Huntington Beach and Sunny Hills High in Fullerton.