Nine GGUSD Schools Earn Prestigious California Distinguished School Award

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Garden Grove Unified School District (GGUSD) was well represented in the 2020 California Distinguished Schools Program, which was announced by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond on December 18, 2019. GGUSD placed more schools on the list than any other school district in Orange County with Allen, Cook, Crosby, Excelsior, Hazard, Lawrence, Morningside, Peters, and Stanley elementary schools all receiving the recognition. Schools are recognized for achieving exceptional student performance for two consecutive school years or closing the achievement gap between two school years.

“Congratulations to the administration, staff, teachers, and students of all our schools recognized as 2020 California Distinguished Schools,” said GGUSD Board of Education President Walter Muneton. “Our schools continue to excel and are among the state’s best year after year.”

The Orange County Department of Education provided California Distinguished School recognition signs, which are proudly displayed at the nine GGUSD elementary school campuses. Schools that applied were eligible based on their performance and progress on the state indicators as described on the California School Dashboard. Indicators include test scores, suspension rates, and graduation rates.

Distinguished School award winners represent examples of not just excellent teaching, learning, and collaboration, but also highly successful school climate efforts ranging from real-time conflict resolution to positive behavior intervention. The Distinguished Schools award program alternates between recognizing elementary and secondary schools from year to year.