FOLKLORICO dancers from Santiago High School performed at the GGUSD school board meeting on Tuesday (OC Tribune photo).

By Jim Tortolano/Orange County Tribune

Folklorico dancers from Santiago High School brought color and music to Tuesday’s meeting of the Garden Grove Unified School District Board of Education.

The performance was in observance of September as Hispanic Heritage Month. On Sept. 21, 1821, five Latin American nations – Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua – declared their independence from Spain. Mexico declared its independence on Sept.16, 1810.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, a video was shown to honor the 46 GGUSD students that have been declared Simon Scholars. That’s a program to help economically disadvantaged pupils get to college and succeed. Each Simon Scholar gets $16,000, a laptop computer and other forms of assistance through college and beyond.

Of 200 Simon Scholars in Orange County, 46 are from the GGUSD.

Also on Tuesday night, the board voted 6-0 – with Trustee Dina Nguyen absent – to appoint Bernice Flatebo to another three-year term as a member of the district’s Personnel Commission. 

The GGUSD is a K-12 system that serves most of Garden Grove, along with parts of Anaheim, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Santa Ana, Stanton and Westminster.

The next meeting of the board is scheduled for Oct. 17.