UPDATE: Since the CSBA declined to reward any lawmakers this year, I wondered who was honored last year. This just in from Frank Pugh:

The Board of Directors ratified the following state lawmakers who have earned CSBA’s annual recognition for working actively to improve California’s public schools and exercising legislative leadership:

Outstanding Legislator of the Year – Assembly Member Lois Wolk, D-Davis;

Outstanding Legislator of the Year – Sen. Darrell Steinberg,

D-Sacramento; Outstanding Freshman of the Year – Assembly Member Julia

Brownley, D-Santa Monica; Albert S. Rodda Lifetime Achievement Award –

Assembly Member Gene Mullin, D-South San Francisco and Sen. Jack Scott,

D-Pasadena.

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Any California lawmakers hoping to book a flight to San Diego next month to pick up the award for Legislator of the Year from the California School Boards Association might want to use their frequent flier miles for another trip.

For the first time, no one is getting the nod for being a friend to education.

“They haven’t provided leadership, they haven’t provided hope, they haven’t provided direction,” said Santa Rosa School Board trustee Frank Pugh, who is also president-elect of the CSBA and will be installed as president at the December gathering.

A number of local school boards did submit names for consideration, but the number was down from years past, according to Pugh. A subcommittee voted to bag the award this year and fill the speaker’s slot with someone else at the convention and save the plaque for next year. The executive committee concurred on Oct. 30.

“It is yet another barometer that measures the level of disappointment and dissatisfaction for our legislators,” Pugh said.

Last Friday, CSBA officers were in Santa Rosa touring schools in what Pugh characterized as a tour of the most vulnerable programs during tough budget times.

The highlighted programs in Santa Rosa? Arts at Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts, art and ag programs at Santa Rosa High, music and academic program at Elsie Allen High.

“We are not the one that created this problem,” Pugh said of local school boards having to take deep slices out of their budgets. “We are left to drift as a local government agency in trying to figure out what we can afford. The state has been of absolutely no benefit to us or help at all.”