The Real Story

By William A. "Bill" Parker

I have two wonderful daughters. Rell and Tori. They attended school in the Encinitas Union School District from Kindergarten through the sixth grade.

Because of the outstanding foundation that both girls received, they have thrived in Education and both girls continue to excel in their college careers.

Seventeen years ago when my oldest daughter entered kindergarten, I became involved and I began volunteering in our schools.

I have served: in the classroom, on the School Site Council, on the PTA board, the Legislative Action Committee and on the Encinitas Education Foundation.

Being a School Board Member means working together as a team.

As a team we are very proud of our accomplishments. Some of our accomplishments include:

Last week Judy Leff being selected as a San Diego County teacher of the year. Our third teacher selected for this award.

Our school district's API score ranks as 31st out of 940 school districts in the state of California, That's in the top 3.3 percent.

This year our test scores have continued to increase

The state goal is that every school in the state to have an API score of at least 800. Our District Score is 887. 1000 being the highest score. We have 5 schools with scores above 900. 3 Schools above 800 and 1 school Ocean Knoll with a score of 764. Ocean Knoll last year was a California Distinguished School I might add. Every one of our 9 schools has been recognized California distinguished school.

In San Diego County there are over 450 schools. Last year we had 3 schools of only 17 schools in the county selected as California Distinguished Schools.

Mission Estancia has recently been nominated as a National Blue Ribbon School. The highest Award in the nation for a school. 35 schools will be selected as National Blue Ribbon Schools in California. Mission Estancia would be our 4th National Blue ribbon school.

In addition, Latino Student's scores, socioeconomically disadvantaged student's scores, English learner's scores, And Disabled students Scores all improved significantly this year.

Encinitas is acknowledged throughout the state and Nationally for its high achieving schools and is highly regarded as an outstanding school district..