Two of Claremont’s eleven public schools sit on Apple’s worldwide directory of Distinguished campuses. Is the badge a mark of educational excellence — or evidence of undue commercial interest in a public school district?
Per Apple's current worldwide Apple Distinguished Schools directory, two of Claremont's eleven public schools currently hold the designation: Condit Elementary and San Antonio High. Earlier Claremont COURIER reporting included Sycamore and Oakmont elementaries as well, both of which appear to have held the designation in previous Apple certification cycles. Because Apple Distinguished School status is awarded in rolling three-year terms, Apple's current published roster now shows only Condit and San Antonio as active.
The more interesting question is not the number itself, but what the remaining schools have in common — and, pointedly, what they do not.
They sit at almost opposite ends of the academic table. Condit is one of CUSD's three top-scoring elementaries, a 9-out-of-10 California school that would have looked strong on paper with or without Cupertino's stamp. San Antonio is a continuation high school of about seventy students that ranks 4 out of 10. The two schools carry the same Apple badge, which is the first useful clue to what the badge actually measures.
