BRAVOS RING FOR SCHOOL GLENDALE HIGH LAUDED FOR TOP ARTS OFFERINGS.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

Glendale High School won the Music Center's top arts education award Monday for an expansive program that offers everything from sculpture to dance while a Lancaster kindergarten teacher was recognized for helping revive music in local schools.

The 19th annual BRAVO Awards, given annually by the Education Division of the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County, recognizes one school and two teachers for excellence in arts education. The winners were selected from among 73 nominees from 39 school districts throughout Southern California.

Glendale's triumph elicited a hail of applause as co-principals Gloria Vasquez and Mike Livingston accepted the award at a gala dinner at Los Angeles' Regal Biltmore Hotel.

``The program has been strong for a long time, but I think we have a great combination of teachers now,'' said Vasquez.

Glendale also won a $5,000 cash award, furnished by Robinsons-May Department Stores.

In its quest for the prize, Glendale competed with 10 other schools from Los Angeles, Ventura and Riverside counties, including Canterbury Elementary Magnet School in Pacoima, Valley Presbyterian in North Hills and Lindero Canyon Middle School in Agoura Hills. Aspen Elementary of Thousand Oaks also was a finalist.

Glendale won because of its intense dedication to student learning, said Lynda Jenner, producer of the awards.

``They had a rich arts program at all levels - dance, music, visual arts and drama. It was all very well thought out,'' Jenner said.

The BRAVO Awards also recognize two teachers - an arts specialist and a generalist - for excellence in arts education. This year, the awards went to Fernando Pullum, a music teacher at Washington Preparatory High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District, and Paul Astin, a third-grade teacher at Moffet Elementary School in the Lennox Unified School District.

Deborah Hanson, a kindergarten teacher at El Dorado School in the Lancaster School District, won the organization's Special Achievement Award for ``doing the most with the least resources.''

When Hanson started teaching 10 years ago, there was no music program at El Dorado. She started a choral and music program and helped establish them at the district's other schools.

She and another teacher also were instrumental in starting the district's Kids on Stage program in 1993, in which students from each school perform at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center every spring. The event helps raise funds for the Lancaster Education Foundation.

Mack Dugger, a drama teacher at Glendale, said the students earned the award.

``My joy is going to be telling the kids tomorrow. They're going to come unglued.''