/Chula Vista

Otay welcomes education leaders from across the United States

 

Otay Elementary hosted school board members from throughout the nation on April 2 as part of a presentation on how the school and District have become models for increasing the academic achievement of English learners and other target groups.

 

The site visit is part of the National School Boards Association’s Council of Urban Boards of Education 69th Annual Conference in San Diego. The District’s Board of Education was a finalist for CUBE’s prestigious annual award that honors districts that demonstrate progress in educating children and serve as role models for excellence in board governance in large urban districts. 

 

The District’s presenters for the CUBE site visit included Superintendent Lowell Billings, Otay Principal Francisco Velasco, Associate Principal Erin Dare, and a team of teachers consisting of Kathy Carrillo, Tanya Chavez, Vanessa Cruz, Cristina de la Cruz, and Martha Guerra.

 

Otay has compiled a host of honors. It was named a California Distinguished School. The California Association for Bilingual Education also honored Otay with the association’s 2008 Seal of Excellence award.  Otay has been so successful that in January, 2008, then-U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger toured Otay classrooms and met with parents and teachers to hear more about the school’s turnaround.

 

Then came the news last September that the school’s Academic Performance Index score reached 805, qualifying Otay as an “800” API school.  The API is the cornerstone of California’s State Testing, Accountability and Reporting program.