Fenton Named Distinguished School

Fenton Avenue School was selected this week as a California Distinguished School by the state Department of Education.

The Lake View Terrace elementary school, which became a charter school three years ago, is one of nine schools in the San Fernando Valley area and among 225 elementary schools statewide cited for exemplary work with students.

Schools in Burbank, Glendale, Lancaster, Saugus and Calabasas also won the designation, and will be publicly recognized at a ceremony later this month.

About 700 elementary schools competed for the special recognition, more than twice the number that have applied in the past. The 12-year-old competition, which requires schools to fill out a lengthy application and go through several interviews and visits from state officials, honors elementary and middle schools in alternate years. The schools are judged on a host of criteria ranging from use of technology to family involvement and staff development.

“There was heavy competition this year,” said Carol Kennedy, head of the California School Recognition Program, which oversees the competition. “There’s just a lot of schools now that are a lot further along than in other years and feel strongly that they’re doing a good job.”

Fenton’s principal, Joe Lucente, said his school’s success stems from its transformation into a charter school in 1994, which freed it from many state regulations governing public schools and gave its administrators greater autonomy.

Lucente said the change allowed him to reduce class size in four grade levels, open a TV production studio and boost staff development programs. The year-round school has also beefed up its technology program with more than 300 computers for its 1,300 students.

“We’ve got an incredible staff and school community that’s pulled together . . . and that has really helped a great deal,” Lucente said.

Fenton is one of four elementary schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District to receive the distinction. The other schools are Norwood Street Elementary, Santa Monica Boulevard Elementary and the Open Charter School.

Elsewhere, the honored elementary schools include: Joaquin Miller, Providencia, Walt Disney and William McKinley in Burbank; John Muir and Thomas Edison in Glendale; Cedarcreek Elementary and Mountainview in Saugus; Mariposa Elementary in Lancaster, and Bay Laurel Elementary and Round Meadow Elementary in the Las Virgenes Unified School District.

The award is the first for Bay Laurel Elementary School in Calabasas, which opened five years ago. “We thought we were doing a good job, but it’s nice to have the external validation,” said Bay Laurel Principal Martha Mutz.

Mutz said the school’s philosophy of teaching students to make them “lifelong learners” has helped it stand apart from other schools.

Times special correspondent Sylvia L. Oliande contributed to this story.