Businesses Put San Bruno Park Schools on Honor Roll

Four San Bruno Park schools have been recognized by California’s business community for demonstrating consistently high student academic achievement. 

Superintendent David Hutt announced the recognition at last week’s school board meeting and said that El Crystal, John Muir, Crestmoor and Portola elementary schools all made it on the California Business for Education Excellence honor roll for 2010. 

To get on the honor roll, a school must have met a rigorous standard of proficiency on statewide tests across grade levels over several years, all the while closing the achievement gap among its students. 

Despite the fact that the was recently , all four schools have an Academic Performance Index of more than 850. 

“These schools are the bright spots of excellence in efforts to raise student academic achievement and close persistent achievement gaps,” Kirk Clark, president of the California Business for Education Excellence, said in a statement. “By highlighting them, recognizing their achievement and giving them a voice we hope other schools can learn from these proven practices and we can begin to duplicate their success to scale throughout the state.” 

El Crystal Elementary was recognized as a “star” school, a designation given to schools with a large population of students living in poverty that are increasing their academic proficiency. At El Crystal, 30 percent of the students are considered poor. 

John Muir, Crestmoor and Portola schools were all recognized as “scholar” schools, meaning they are achieving academic proficiency but don’t have many students living below the poverty line. 

The 2010 honor roll includes 1,315 public elementary, middle and high schools, and the award is supported by numerous businesses and organizations, including State Farm, Macy’s and the United Way of the Bay Area.