Covina-Valley Unified enthusiastically welcomed more than 11,000 students onto its campuses on Aug. 22 with banners, balloons, music, and smiling teachers, staff and mascots to begin the 2022-23 school year. The District boasts a range of innovative programs for its students, including preschool and Transitional Kindergarten, dual-immersion courses in Mandarin and Spanish, 23 career technical education pathways, and after school programming that provides both academic support and supervised activities and recreation for students.
For generations of Bonita Unified students, staff and alumni, the annual Smudge Pot football game is the most anticipated athletic event of the school year. The cherished football rivalry that pits the Bonita High School Bearcats against the San Dimas High School Saints will celebrate its golden anniversary this year, as the schools prepare to play their 50th game in the series. To honor the memories, sportsmanship and heroics of the game, which is one of the oldest continuous rivalries in southern California, the Smudge Pot’s rich and colorful history has now come alive in a new website, smudgepotgame.com. Created by Bonita High students, the website features photos, news clippings and decade-by-decade accounts of the competition.
At Corey Elementary School, students as young as two years old are building social skills, learning to read, expanding their language skills and readying themselves for academic success thanks to a revamped preschool program. Buena Park School District’s preschool program, including the program at Corey School, was recently expanded for the start of the 2022-23 school year to offer part- and full-day options, parent participation opportunities and accommodations for younger students. Corey School Instructional Assistant Karina Castaneda and the rest of the preschool staff strive to offer a nurturing environment for students and their parents. Castaneda said one of the biggest components of preschool is when students connect with each other and learn about social-emotional growth.
The Hacienda La Puente Adult Education (HLPAE) Registered Dental Assistant (RDA) program puts adult learners on the path to lucrative careers in the dental industry. The year-long program readies students to take the California RDA exam with a thorough curriculum accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation. Available at HLPAE’s Willow campus, the RDA program does more than provide a pathway to a career in the medical profession – it also doubles as a working dental clinic for the Hacienda La Puente community, with District partners Western Dental and the San Gabriel Valley Foundation for Dental Health providing low-cost dental care on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
South El Monte High School students, families and staff mixed with dignitaries and community members for a lively ribbon-cutting ceremony on Aug. 24, celebrating the completion of the school’s quad renovation project. The ceremony, highlighted by the South El Monte choir singing the national anthem, included speeches, certificates of recognitions from City Council members and local elected officials, and a special birthday greeting for the school, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary on Sept. 2.
Baldwin Park Unified Bond Projects Focus on Facility, Safety Upgrades
Baldwin Park Unified students and employees are benefiting from new air conditioning systems, upgraded athletic facilities and improved safety thanks to Measure K, a bond approved by voters in 2006, and Measure AE, a bond approved in 2018. Combined bond funds are being used for the Safe Schools Initiative to increase security across the District, including the installation of security cameras, a new PA system and clock speakers.
Several undocumented Río Hondo College future students will soon receive scholarships to attend college, thanks to a pledge from Mexican singer Alejandro Fernández to donate a portion of concert proceeds from his “Amor y Patria” tour this fall. Fernández will donate partial proceeds from his exclusive and limited “Amor y Patria” run in September, to Río Hondo College as a means of funding the education of undocumented students under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), also known as ‘Dreamers.’ To be considered for the scholarship, students need to submit a Río Hondo College Foundation Scholarship Application. Río Hondo College, which is the only southern California organization receiving the donation, plans to utilize this gift to provide five ‘Dreamers’ with scholarships for the 2022-23 school year, with additional awards to be confirmed.
The Randall Pepper Elementary School robotics team will seek a return trip to Europe when it competes in the 2022 WRO-USA National Championship and International Friendly. More than 100 teams from across the United States and 30 international teams will participate in the tournament, including students from Fontana Unified’s Southridge Tech Middle School. Winners will qualify for World Robot Olympiad, to be held in Dortmund, Germany in November 2022. The WRO-USA National Championship will be held on Saturday, Aug. 27 at the Ontario International Airport Hangar, 1923 E. Avion Ave., Ontario. The main competition will run from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.; a dinner and awards ceremony will follow at 7 p.m.
Bonita Unified School District students descended upon cheerfully decorated campuses – bedecked with vibrant welcome signs and filled with cheers of encouragement – on Aug. 22, marking the start of a new school year that is focused on empowering students to live their purpose and ensuring new levels of achievement. Roynon Elementary School welcomed new and returning students with cardboard cutouts of superheroes representing every grade level, including transitional kindergarten (TK), which is being offered to more students than ever, thanks to the rollout of a universal TK program that has welcomed nearly 430 young learners to classrooms this year.
Sequoia Middle School has been honored for its stellar implementation of Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) – a college-prep elective that works to narrow the achievement gap between the lowest- and highest-performing students – and named one of three San Bernardino County schools to earn a 2022 AVID Teacher Advocacy Award. The AVID Teacher Advocacy Award honors and supports outstanding California AVID teachers and school site teams while encouraging the implementation of AVID schoolwide and the sharing of best practices among peers. Sequoia was awarded $10,000 to be used for further implementation of AVID.
