De Anza Magnet recognized with the state and national recognition
EL CENTRO — The energy of De Anza Magnet School’s assembly Wednesday morning felt similar to a pep rally as the school celebrated being only one of 22 schools statewide this year to receive the Schools to Watch designation, which is both a state and national recognition.
The STW program recognizes a small number of middle schools that are deemed to be academically excellent, developmentally responsive and socially equitable.
“The STW program recognizes schools that are in a constant state of improvement and that the staff is incredibly dedicated to whatever it takes to provide a superior education,” explained El Centro Elementary School District Superintendent Jon LeDoux. “It is a very involved, intense review process to be designated as a STW, and it is not common for every school in a district to be recognized as one.”
Out of the approximately 1,300 middle schools in the state, De Anza Magnet now stands alongside only 124 others that have received the recognition.
De Anza was also one of 70 schools throughout the entire country to receive the Schools to Watch designation this school year for the first time.
“This school was not selected as a School to Watch because it’s a perfect school; you were selected as a School to Watch because this school is on a path toward success,” said Dr. Irvin Howard, director of California School to Watch program, during the assembly.
Howard congratulated De Anza and presented a “Schools to Watch, Taking Center Stage” banner that will be hung at the school.
The banner was accepted by LeDoux, a group of De Anza students, ECESD Board Directors George McFaddin and Michael Minnix, and De Anza Magnet Principal Maria J. Ambriz.
During the assembly, LeDoux presented a plaque to the school that recognized its achievement from the ECESD Board of Directors.
A certificate of recognition was also presented to the school from Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, on behalf of the California State Assembly.
With De Anza’s recent achievement, ECESD now holds the special honor of being one of only one of five districts in the state in which all of its middle schools are STW designated.
Kennedy Middle School was recognized in 2005, and has been redesignated as a STW since, while Wilson Junior High was first recognized in 2015 and became redesignated this year.
Redesignation is a process that takes place every three years to ensure schools are still making progress toward being an outstanding model school, said LeDoux.
“We couldn’t be prouder of our schools, and this recognition of their hard work and successes,” the superintendent said. “What makes the De Anza’s recognition so special is that it is a K-8 school, while almost all other STW are middle or junior high schools. This means that De Anza is providing outstanding support for its students in all grade levels.”
Months before Ambriz took over as the school’s principal, a leadership group consisting of the school’s reading coach Lupita Rosas, former Principal Richard Sanchez and sixth through eighth grade teachers began the application process for the school to earn STW status.
“This school was already in the process. I’m not going to take any credit for this,” said Ambriz, who began her new position at De Anza just two months ago. “I’m very blessed because I’m inheriting something that the school’s leadership from the then-principal, teachers and staff brought together.”
Rosas explained the application was about 86-pages long with four different components and took a number of months to be completed.
“We sat down. We brainstormed. We talked about everything that De Anza Magnet students and teachers are doing. We put it all in an application, turned it in and waited to hear back,” Rosas recalled.
De Anza was then only one of two schools in the Southern California to get a visit from the STW evaluation team, and the only school in Southern California to receive the recognition, Sanchez said.
“Now as a School to Watch, Ms. Ambriz and the leadership team have another commitment. They’re supposed to help other schools improve,” he added.
Sanchez was principal at De Anza from 2013 to November 2017 and is now principal at Kennedy.
Coincidentally, Sanchez was principal at Kennedy when the school first received its STW award in 2005.
“It’s a big commitment; it’s not just a regular award,” Sanchez said. “It’s a commitment that you’re recognized for the work that you’ve done, but then you’re also expected to help others. It’s a big deal.”
Ambriz first heard of the STW award after Wilson received its STW redesignation this year, as her sister Maria is the principal at Wilson.
“But now the challenge for me is, in three years, will I be able to do what that my sister did?” said the De Anza principal.