Merced County school administrators win several regional awards

Merced County school administrators won several awards at the Association for California School Administrators Region 9 Award Ceremony in late February.

Stan Mollart, superintendent of McSwain Union Elementary School District; John Olson, principal at Merced High School; Ana Boyenga, principal at Thomas Olaeta Elementary School in Awater; and Susan Coston, assistant superintendent of Special Education at the Merced County Office of Education (MCOE), were all honored at the award ceremony and dinner in Fresno.

Mollart, who has been superintendent at McSwain for the past 13 years, is a veteran educator with nearly 35 years of experience and saw McSwain’s API score jump to 871, according to a news release from MCOE.

Olson has been a site administrator in the secondary level for eight years in the Merced Union High School District and has been in education for 19 years. Under his guidance, Merced High School is the first high school in Merced County to achieve an API score of 800, and the school has won the Merced County Academic Decathlon four years in a row.

Boyega, who has been principal at Thomas Olaeta for three years and an educator for 18 years, led the school to a 76-point gain in its API score to 830, with all of the school’s subgroups meeting or exceeding their AYP targets.

Coston has been with MCOE for 24 years and an assistant superintendent since 2002. She leads the Special Education department with more than 400 employees that serve nearly 1,000 Merced County students and serves as the Merced County Special Education Local Plan Area director.

The winners from ACSA Region 9 will advance to the state competition and state winners are honored at the State ACSA Conference in November in San Diego.

This story was originally published March 6, 2012 at 8:31 AM with the headline "Merced County school administrators win several regional awards."