Principal Doug Huscher talked excitedly to the teachers at Oak Ridge Elementary School. There were committees to form, class projects to discuss and plenty of self-reflecting going on during the mandatory staff training Thursday morning.

Written on an overhead was a poignant question: How do we create a safe environment for risk taking?

Huscher said risk taking has been an essential element in turning around the Oak Park school, which saw an 82 point jump in its Academic Performance Index score in state data released Thursday.

It was a dramatic climb for Oak Ridge Elementary, which was listed in 2010 among the bottom 5 percent of California's persistently lowest-performing schools, based on how students scored on standardized tests.

The high-poverty school with half of its students classified as English learners had a 658 API score in 2010. That same year, 19 percent of Oak Ridge's third-graders were reading at grade level, while 26 percent were reading far below grade level.

Days after Oak Ridge was labeled among the worst schools in the state, Sacramento City Unified Superintendent Jonathan Raymond unveiled a plan to drastically overhaul the school, as well as five others. He called them Priority Schools: Oak Ridge, Father Keith B. Kenny Elementary, Jedediah Smith Elementary, Fern Bacon Basic Middle, Will C. Wood Middle and Hiram W. Johnson High. A seventh school – Rosa Parks Middle School – was added earlier this year.

The reform-minded Raymond replaced each principal, except at Father Keith B. Kenny, which had a newly appointed principal at the time.

Priority school principals were given 10 percent salary boosts and those not on a 12-month calendar were moved to one. Money was freed up for campus makeovers that included deep cleaning and painting.

And in the most controversial maneuver, principals were given the authority to remove teachers, and those remaining at priority schools were skipped during layoffs in the spring. Some teachers left voluntarily when given the option to move to another school.

Over the past two years at the seven priority schools, 58 teachers moved voluntarily and 34 were administratively transferred to other district schools. Teacher turnover rates exceeded 50 percent at Jedediah Smith, Oak Ridge, Father Keith B. Kenny and Fern Bacon since 2009-2010.

"This isn't easy work," Raymond said. "We took chances and risks. We are asking teachers to change and be willing to change. Those who weren't willing to, we said there are other opportunities for you."

On Thursday, at a media conference at Oak Ridge, Raymond announced the gains made at each school.

• Oak Ridge's API is 740. Fifty-seven percent of Oak Ridge students were at grade level in math, compared with 38 percent in 2009-2010. However, third-grade reading scores dropped, with 17 percent scoring proficient or better in 2010-2011.

• >Father Keith B. Kenny's API rose 33 points this year and is up 117 points over the past two years. The school is no longer in Program Improvement.

• >Fern Bacon's API went up 44 points to 691.

• >Jedediah Smith's API went up 30 points.

• Hiram Johnson High's API rose from 612 to 671. Behavior suspensions were down by 244, according to school leaders.

• Will C. Wood's API went down one point to 704. However, the school saw improvements among seventh-graders in math and eighth-graders in English. Thirty-seven percent of seventh-graders tested at grade level in math, compared with 31 percent in 2009-2010. The school also saw a large jump in the number of seventh-graders taking the math test, from 65.7 percent in 2009-2010 to 92.6 percent in 2010-2011.

The share of Will C. Wood eighth-graders scoring proficient or better in English rose from 38 percent to 43 percent.

While most of the Priority Schools saw dramatic gains, scores at a handful of other district schools plunged. William Land Elementary dropped from 800 to 748. Scores dropped from 856 to 810 at Sequoia Elementary, where Principal William Aydlett left to take over priority school Jedediah Smith.

Seven other Sacramento City Unified schools dropped at least 30 API points, while overall the district's API increased six points to 759.

Sacramento City Teachers Association President Scott Smith said he can't help but think prioritizing seven schools is causing other schools to suffer.

"They siphoned off teachers to go to these priority schools and they siphoned off money," Smith said. "You would think that would have an overall effect."

Smith and other union leaders have been monitoring an often tumultuous relationship at Hiram Johnson High between a group of teachers and Principal Felisberto Cedros.

In June, teachers, students and parents unsuccessfully pleaded with Sacramento City Unified school board members to replace Cedros, who they said operated a dictatorship that emphasized teaching to the test.

Several teachers complained that low-performing students were being counseled to transfer to another school to artificially raise test scores.

After hearing those allegations, Mary Shelton, chief accountability officer for Sacramento City Unified, said she analyzed student withdrawal data. Shelton said 443 students left Hiram Johnson during the school year. Of those, she said, 232 left the district. State data show the school started the year with 1,900 students.

Shelton said 71 students were referred to other district programs because they were credit deficient.

"I think there is good counseling going on at Hiram Johnson," Shelton said. "I don't want 12th-graders sitting in classes with credits that don't give them a chance of graduating. If we see a student in such a position, they should be counseled out."

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Call The Bee's Melody Gutierrez, (916) 326-5521. Follow her on Twitter @MelodyGutierrez.

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