Precocious School on Distinguished List

Hidden Hills Elementary School first opened its doors four years ago, which makes the Laguna Niguel school younger than its own kindergartners.

Apparently the school learns quickly, though. Hidden Hills was one of 22 Orange County elementary schools Tuesday to be crowned a California Distinguished School.

“We’re thrilled and very excited and very honored,” said Ellen Fine, principal of the 712-student school. “We were hoping for the best.”

The awards are part of a state Department of Education program that singles out individual schools for overall excellence, based on factors ranging from standardized test scores to parental involvement to safety and cleanliness.

The program, which began in 1985, honors elementary and secondary schools on alternate years.

Awards--a plaque and a flag--will be handed out during a ceremony May 22 in Anaheim to representatives from the 211 schools selected statewide.

State officials also announced Tuesday that eight Orange County middle and high schools have been nominated as 1997-98 National Blue Ribbon Schools, the winners to be announced in June by the federal Department of Education. They also will be recognized at the May 22 ceremony.

Of the 22 Orange County elementary schools to win the Distinguished School citation, seven were in the Irvine Unified School District, which one principal said reaffirms that district’s reputation for excellence.

“I think it’s the outstanding teachers that we hire, and I think it’s the leadership of the district and at the school sites,” said Sharon DeNisi, principal of the 654-student Meadow Park Elementary School, one of the winners. “I also think it is the result of the collaboration between the parents--the community--and the boys and girls.”

It’s been a banner week at Meadow Park. DeNisi also was notified Tuesday that she had been selected Elementary Principal of the Year in the local region of the Assn. of California School Administrators, which makes her one of 18 nominees for the statewide honor.

Anne Flesher, principal of the 625-student Arovista Elementary School in the Brea Olinda Unified School District, said her school’s citation honors “a team effort.”

“We are proud of what it offers to the kids,” she said of the school, “We have a huge amount of parental involvement.”

Flesher said the school logs about 8,000 parental volunteer hours a year, and “That’s just the ones who . . . sign in.” Principal Linda Bell of 1,040-student Santiago Elementary in the Santa Ana Unified School District, another Distinguished School, echoed Flesher.

“One of the things that is outstanding is the amount of parental involvement that we have generated,” she said.