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Foothill nominated for national Blue Ribbon award

Foothill+was+nominated+for+a+National+Blue+Ribbon+award.+It+is+the+second+time+the+school+has+received+the+honor.+Credit%3A+Aysen+Tan%2FThe+Foothill+Dragon+Press
Foothill was nominated for a National Blue Ribbon award. It is the second time the school has received the honor. Credit: Aysen Tan/The Foothill Dragon Press
Foothill was nominated for a National Blue Ribbon award. It is the second time the school has received the honor. Credit: Aysen Tan/The Foothill Dragon Press

Foothill students and staff learned Wednesday that the school has been nominated for an award from the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program for the second time since its opening in 2000. It is the only school in Ventura County to be nominated for this year’s Blue Ribbon award.

The BRSP is a program from the US Department of Education that recognizes elementary and secondary schools deemed academically superior or have demonstrated dramatic gains in student achievement while serving an economically disadvantaged population of students.

“This is very prestigious,” Assistant Superintendent Kathy Asher said. “It goes on to recognize what goes on at Foothill every day.”

Foothill is one of 21 California schools nominated for a Blue Ribbon. Of the 372 schools nominated nationally, 42 are public high schools. A list of the 2012 nominees can be found at this link.

Awards will be given out at a national awards ceremony in Washington D.C. in the fall.

“I am excited for our staff and students,” Principal Joe Bova said. “It’s definitely an affirmation of the collective hard work that has gone on here for a number of years.”

Schools are eligible for nomination for a Blue Ribbon once every six years. Foothill was nominated and won the award for the first time in 2006.

“Our students work very hard,” senior Anna Shang said. “Along with that determination, we achieve great success, proven by the number if kids that go to a four year university.”

Santa Paula Elementary was the only school in the county to receive the Blue Ribbon award last year, and California Academy of Mathematics and Science and Gertz-Ressler Academy High School were the only two high schools in California that won the Blue Ribbon distinction in 2011.

In order to become a BRSP award winner, a school must meet all of its 2012 Academic Performance Index (API) and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) targets.

“What comes with the nomination is that we have to write a document and submit that document to the Blue Ribbon program,” Bova said. “It ends up being a 20 page document, equally split between providing demographic and assessment data, and the other half is a narrative describing all different curricular aspects of the school.”

The due date for the application is March 2.

“A small committee of people will do most of the writing, including our administrative team,” Bova said. The demographic and assessment data will be collected from the classified support staff.

Foothill’s record API score and other achievements have set the school on track for another Blue Ribbon award.

“The fact that we got 914 and passed Oak Park in the county could have been the difference in receiving the award,” Bova said.

“The staff has tremendously high expectations for the students and the students meet those expectations,” Asher said. “That is what I see consistently at Foothill.”

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Foothill nominated for national Blue Ribbon award