8 Schools Are Blue Ribbon Nominees

Eight Orange County elementary schools have been nominated for national Blue Ribbon awards this year, making the county one of the top such honorees in the state.

The state Department of Education announced Monday that the eight schools were among 49 throughout California nominated for the prestigious federal award, which brings no money to the campuses but which some real estate agents believe can boost neighborhood home values. San Diego County was the state’s big winner, with 10 nominated schools.

“It’s wonderful,” said Daryle Palmer, principal of Kaiser Elementary School in Costa Mesa, one of the nominated schools. Palmer said she called her students out to the flag deck Monday morning to tell them of the honor.

The other Orange County nominees are Malcom Elementary in Capistrano Unified; Hopkinson, Los Alamitos and Lee elementary in Los Alamitos Unified; Harbor View and Victoria elementary in Newport-Mesa Unified; and Montevideo Elementary in Saddleback Valley Unified.

Before making it to the federal level, the schools first were named California Distinguished Schools. Once they won that, they had the option of filling out an exhaustive Blue Ribbon application. From a field of 233 California Distinguished Schools, state officials picked 49 nominees for Blue Ribbon awards.

This spring, federal evaluators will visit the nominated schools and interview parents, students and teachers to verify the information in the applications. The awards alternate each year between elementary and secondary schools.

Palmer said she is keeping her fingers crossed that her school makes the final cut.

But even if it doesn’t, she said the process of filling out the application has improved the way teachers and students get along on her campus.

That’s because, as part of the process, outside evaluators interviewed students, who complained that they did not have enough say in playground rules.

The principal said she took that into account when it came time to deal with a lunchtime soccer game that was turning ever more violent, with students tackling one another and drop-kicking balls into one another’s faces.

Instead of simply banning the game--her first inclination--she called students into an assembly and charged them with developing a set of safe rules for the game.

“We never had another soccer problem,” Palmer said.

Parents have also become more involved in the school.

“It’s one of those really good pieces of news,” she said.