184 students honored, 15 by the mayor...

184 students honored, 15 by the mayor

St. Bonaventure School in Huntington Beach honored the academic

achievements of its students during an honor roll breakfast Tuesday.

In the fourth through eighth-grade, 184 students made the honor

roll and 15 graduating eighth-graders received the special Huntington

Beach Mayor’s Award.

“They are bright and they study hard -- they earn it,” said

Xiomara Galindo, fund-raising chair.

The annual Mayor’s Award was presented to students by Mayor Connie

Boardman. It is awarded to students who attained honor roll status

for all five years at the school.

High standards are set for the students both academically and

behaviorally to achieve honor role status, Galindo said.

“Failing is important because we have to know how to do that,” she

said. “But when you succeed, a big pat on the back is so meaningful.”

Oak View nabs excellence award

Oak View Preschool and Education Resource Center in Huntington

Beach was recognized Tuesday with the Peter A. Hartman Award for

Excellence. The Children and Families Commission of Orange County

honored the program as the most outstanding community program.

The award is presented to the community program having the

greatest impact on students, preparing them for school. The Oak View

program, established in 1990, was selected for its collaboration of

early education and health programs in a high-priority area.

The commission was created as a result of Proposition 10, which

designated funds from an added 50 cent surtax placed on tobacco

products be put toward education. It funds 26 elementary school

districts in Orange County.

“For Oak View to rise up among its peers, they become a model from

the local and statewide perspective,” said Kelly Pijl, spokesperson

for the commission.

Kettler Elementary honors its readers

The Orange County Department of Education’s California Reads

Program got the students at Kettler Elementary School excited about

reading. Students who participated will be honored at a Gold Medal

Ceremony on June 5.

It is the first year the school has participated and librarian

Coco Fabre said it was successful. Children reported to Fabre about

their progress as they checked out books from the library.

“We are happy to see we’ve gotten kids excited about recreational

reading,” she said. “It is meant to be about recreational reading and

not assigned reading, although they can use books that are assigned.”

A large bulletin board titled “Journey Through Books,” ran down

the hall. Students, moved markers along the board to track their

reading accomplishments.

“The exciting thing is to see their markers go down the wall,”

Fabre said.

Students who completed eight reading stations will be awarded a

gold medal and a book.

Third-grader wins poster contest

Jose Alemano, a third-grade student at Golden View Elementary

School, was one of nine winners chosen for Sen. Barbara Boxer’s Earth

Day poster contest. Students were asked to draw a poster of what

Earth Day meant to them. More than 4,500 entries came in from across

the state that included a variety of wildlife and nature scenes. Many

children wrote messages stressing the importance of protecting the

environment.

Alemano’s poster was a colorful drawing with clouds, sun, birds

and a palm tree. It represented people cleaning and filling garbage

cans with trash. At the top, he wrote, “Earth Day! 2003”

All participants received recognition and the winning posters were

posted on Boxer’s Web site, https://boxer.senate.gov.