Two BUSD school sites named California Distinguished School

Both Lone Hill Middle School and San Dimas High School were recently selected by the California School Recognition Program as 2009 California Distinguished Schools, an award that recognizes some of the State's most exemplary and inspiring public schools.

"BUSD now has California Distinguished Schools in San Dimas and La Verne at the elementary school, middle school and high-school levels," said BUSD Superintendent, Dr. Gary Rapkin. "For our families who have students at our sites in any grade level, they can send their children to school knowing they are on a path of academic excellence, which shows how tremendous this honor is to our community."

This year, the selection process required all schools to provide an in-depth description of two "signature" practices implemented at the schools that are replicable, and directly related to the success of their students. During an intensive site visit by a trained team of external educators, additional evidence about the effectiveness of the "signature" practices was gathered and analyzed to determine their effectiveness.

"This is a great day for our school site," said San Dimas High School Principal, Michael Kelly. "Being selected as a "California Distinguished School" truly reflects upon the hard work, dedication and commitment that our students, teachers, support staff and families show daily."

The selected middle and high schools represent about 10.9 percent of California's nearly 2,400 middle and high schools. Of those, only 341 schools met the eligibility criteria based on their student achievement and were chosen from 170 school districts in 46 counties. An awards ceremony honoring the Distinguished Schools will be held Friday, May 29 at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.

"This news is very pleasing to our parents," said Lone Hill Middle School Principal, Ray Arredondo. "They know they are sending their children to one of the best schools in the State."