Head of the Class

Sleeves rolled up and charcoal clutched earnestly in hand, the artists look from tulip to paper, then paper to tulip.

Their classically trained instructor urges them to render the flowers with bold strokes. Pick vibrant colors. Steep themselves in art while listening to Mozart.

And third-grade sketchers do just that--until the bell rings for recess at Westlake Hills Elementary.

“It’s really nice to learn art,” said student Miles Black, an 8-year-old with a smudge of red charcoal on his cheek. “You get all the good stuff in your brain out. You get the coloring out, and you feel how good you are.”

Westlake’s dedication to the arts is one of the many factors that made it one of two Ventura County schools nominated this year for one of education’s highest accolades: the national Blue Ribbon School award.

Also in the running is Simi Valley’s Hollow Hills Fundamental School--where teachers and parents stress personal responsibility, traditional teaching methods and patriotism.

Both public schools have reached the final cut in the competition and will be toured by educators from across the country sometime before April 20. In a typical year, most schools receiving site visits go on to win a Blue Ribbon; but officials at these two schools say they will be on pins and pencils until the final announcement in May.

Schools in the running are judged on student support, curriculum, teaching techniques, leadership, school-family-community partnerships and student achievement on a variety of tests and batteries.

While the award is not monetary, a Blue Ribbon nod often brings prestige, recognition, increased parent participation and more corporate sponsorships to winning schools, said educational consultant Paula Wenzl, who works with the awards program in the state Education Department.

Realtors say the awards increase home values. The award can even boost school district bond ratings.

Forty-nine California elementary schools were nominated for the award this year. The Blue Ribbon program honors elementary and secondary schools in alternate years.

“It’s very stiff competition,” Wenzl said. “To win it is quite a feat. It’s very significant in terms of recognition and status for a school. Suddenly, major corporations want to donate to that school. They call up and say, ‘You’re doing great things for kids, how can we help?’ ”

The nominated Ventura County schools share much in common: Both are in the affluent east end of the county, where most students speak fluent English and many parents have college degrees and professional jobs.

Standardized test scores at the two schools are among the highest in the county. Committed parents clock thousands of volunteer hours--and raise tens of thousands of dollars--for each campus. Westlake Hills and Hollow Hills alike are noted for their technology programs.

In the classrooms, murals, children’s poetry and artwork plaster the walls and ceilings. Students are alert and have ample supplies at their desks. Both schools offer additional clubs--strings ensembles, language clubs and scouting--to round out educational experiences.

At Westlake Hills, students from the first grade on master computer skills by producing books of poetry and stories that are written, designed and illustrated in the school’s enviable computer lab. Once a month, students visit a senior citizens center to perform skits and read with and create crafts with seniors.

“When you have the triumvirate of educators, students and parents working together, you have a good education,” said Westlake Hills Principal Rachelle D. Morga. “You’ve heard that it takes a village to raise a child, well it takes a school with those three entities working together for everyone to achieve more.”

A few miles away in Simi Valley, Hollow Hills fifth-graders study the Patriots’ reasons for breaking away from England and reenact a colonial town hall meeting in full costume. A read-a-thon is in full swing. And kindergartners learn about democracy by voting for their favorite ice cream flavor on election day (in keeping with majority rule, every youngster must eat the winning flavor once results are tallied.)

Here, the schools diverge.

While Westlake is a classic neighborhood school, drawing children from the surrounding homes, Hollow Hills is a fundamental magnet school. Students from across the Simi Valley Unified School District join a lottery to enroll in the school, which has waiting lists for all grades.

In keeping with its back-to-basics bent, Hollow Hills holds students to additional rules and dress requirements and demands more homework than many other elementary schools. Principal Leslie Frank also has the option--albeit rarely used--of expelling students who aren’t keeping up their end of the bargain.

“When people come to our school, they’re not going to see any special programs or anything really revolutionary,” Frank said. “What you will see are good students, great teachers and dedicated parents. It’s not a revolutionary formula, just a commitment to excellence.”

Part of that commitment is a signed contract outlining the responsibilities of parents, students and teachers alike.

Students vow to obey teachers, complete all assignments on time, develop self-discipline and use manners. Parents commit to holding their children responsible for their own behavior, checking and initialing many homework assignments and attending back-to-school nights, parent-teacher conferences and seeing to it that work is completed and handed in on time.

The differences of the fundamental school are not immediately evident in Geneva Pringle’s classroom at Hollow Hills. Certainly, her third-graders are well-mannered and work diligently on their studies of Native Americans.

But one parent, Coleen Ary, said her daughter has flourished under the teachers’ tough, but fair, expectations.

“They have lifted my child up from enjoying school to truly achieving,” Ary said. “My daughter has just blossomed here in these classes.”

Her daughter, 8-year-old Madeleine, dressed for school in a knee-length, blue-flowered frock, agreed.

“The students here work really hard on their work,” she said. “We have very good teachers, good books and lots of students who help each other.”

Although schools that garner Blue Ribbon status are certainly accomplished, they are not necessarily better than campuses across town, or across the county, said Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

Although the awards are good at sifting out affluent schools that have ideal demographics, they are not as good at finding poor, urban schools that are serving students well despite challenging odds, said Rothstein, who also teaches at Occidental College.

“Not to take anything away from these schools, but these awards reflect an enormous amount of effort to submit the [40-page, single-spaced] application,” said Rothstein, who has studied and written about educational achievement.

“The schools that get them are good, probably exemplary, but there’s no assurance that a school that didn’t get the award isn’t equally as good,” he continued. “It’s a matter of who applies. It’s not as though all schools are considered and, based on some objective criteria, the Blue Ribbon Awards are granted.”

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Blue Ribbon Nominees at a Glance

Hollow Hills Fundamental School District: Simi Valley Unified

Number of Teachers: 29

Enrollment: 676

Racial composition:

White: 80%

Asian-American: 8%

Latino: 7%

Other: 5%

Limited English Proficient: 0.4%

Students qualifying for free or reduced-cost lunches: 5%

Students receiving special education services: 5%

*

Westlake Hills Elementary School District: Conejo Valley Unified

Number of Teachers: 30

Enrollment: 695

Racial composition:

White: 84%

Asian-American: 8%

Latino: 6%

Other: 2%

Limited English Proficient: 2%

Students qualifying for free or reduced-cost lunches: 3%

Students receiving special education services: 3%

True Blue Schools

If Hollow Hills Fundamental and Westlake Hills schools receive the coveted federal Blue Ribbon designation in May, they will join an elite group of 11 Ventura County schools that have already received the honor.

By year, Ventura County’s Blue Ribbon winners are:

1998: Adolfo Camarillo High School in Camarillo.

1997: Meadows Elementary School in Thousand Oaks.

1996: Charles Blackstock Junior High School in Oxnard and Medea Creek Middle School in Oak Park.

1993: E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard and Oak Park High School in Oak Park.

1992: Oak Hills Elementary School in Oak Park.

1991: Anacapa Middle School in Ventura

1988: Los Primeros Structured School in Camarillo.

1987: Los Altos Intermediate School in Camarillo and Mesa Elementary School in Somis.

Source: Ventura County Superintendent of Schools Office, “Meeting the Education Challenge 1998.”