At Santa Ana High School, Victor de los Santos not only serves as a music instructor, he’s also a mentor, and often, a father figure to many of his students.
Since he began working at the school, the teacher has grown the music conservatory, and added a mariachi program.
All this has garnered him one of the greatest honors for music teachers in the nation. Santos was recently recently named among 24 semifinalist for the Grammy Music Educator Award.
The winner will be named in January, and flown to New York to attend the 60th annual Grammy Awards show.
The Daily Pilot chronicled in an article this week Santos’ impact on his students at Santa Ana High.
“I told the kids what brings me more pride is not that my name is there but that it’s associated with Santa Ana High School,” Santos told the Daily Pilot. “The school gets a bad rap and it’s sad — there’s so many great things happening here.”
Check out some of the other school news stories from across Orange County for the week ending Nov. 3.
- The rates of students suspended or expelled in California and Orange County has fallen significantly over the last five years, according to new data from the state Department of Education.
- Giant photo portraits featuring Sierra Preparatory Academy students and staff have been printed out and pasted onto the exterior walls of that campus’ 600 Building as part of a global art project called Inside Out.
- Gerald “Jerry” Arriola, a passionate educator who opened Century High School in 1987 and was the first Mexican-American principal of Santa Ana High School, has died at the age of 74.
- Now that truancies have become a state measure of school performance, some parents are concerned that penalties for missing school might be too strict.
- Overhauled instructional standards for English learners have brought new assessments, which are now being evaluated by a diverse group of educators, test experts and policymakers.
- During a surprise assembly on Halloween, some Edison High School students and staff honored 2018 California Teacher of the Year Gregory Gardiner with a “Dress Like Gardiner” costume party.
- In an effort to replace a controversial middle school math program being administered in their district, Newport-Mesa Unified officials have selected two replacement programs to pilot this school year.
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