On Friday, March 4, three educators visited SDA to evaluate the school to become a California Distinguished School. The visit was the third step of the process of being recognized by the state, according to Principal Michael Grove. “First you qualify to apply based on the CST scores from last year and our school did well,” said Grove.

The school was distinguished in 2005, but wasn’t eligible to become distinguished due to low CST scores, said Grove.

The next step was to write up a formal application, which chooses two signature practices, or things that the school is proud of, said Grove.

SDA chose to focus on student connection, specifically school culture, and academic work. According to Grove, academic work was chosen because it is a focus of most of the work of the staff and school culture was chosen because it is one of the most unique things about SDA. “It is something that stands out about the school,” said Grove.

The visit served as a “validation visit” to verify that the claims made in the application were true. Although the formal results of the visit are still unknown, the educators expressed that they were going to enthusiastically recommend the school for the award, according to Grove. The award wouldn’t bring anything physically to the school, just another feather in the cap, said Grove.