Buena Park School District Preschool Program Expands Services
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 expanded for the start of the 2022-23 school year and now offers part- and full-day options, parent participation opportunities and accommodations for younger students.
Fontana Unified to Co-Host Annual Regional College and Career Fair
Fontana Unified School District will join forces with Chaffey Joint Union High School District to host the annual Regional College and Career Fair from 4 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 20 at the Ontario Convention Center. The free event will introduce more than 60,000 students from the two school districts to representatives from dozens of colleges and universities across the country. Students can also explore potential career pathways, trade schools and more. The Ontario Convention Center is located at 2000 E. Convention Center Way, Ontario.
Bonita Unified Football Teams to Face Off in 50th Smudge Pot Rivalry
San Dimas and Bonita high schools are warming up for the 50th annual Smudge Pot football game, set for 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10 at Citrus College Stadium, 1000 W. Foothill Blvd., Glendora. The friendly rivalry – a beloved District tradition that aims to foster school spirit and unite the community – started in 1972, with both high schools competing for an iconic silver Smudge Pot, an oil-burning tool used to shield fruit trees from frost and a symbol of the two cities’ roots in the region’s citrus industry.
Representatives of Lynwood Unified School District’s Board of Education, Superintendent Gudiel R. Crosthwaite, and elected officials will gather to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new state-of-the-art STEM lab at Firebaugh High School. Firebaugh High School students and key leaders will grab their hard hats and shovels to commemorate the new facility, made possible by a grant of $225,000 from the W. M. Keck Foundation, which will inspire young learners to pursue success in the District’s College and Career Technical Education (CTE) Pathway program. The lab will allow Firebaugh to double enrollment in its biomedical science and nursing program, along with its advanced manufacturing and engineering program. Those programs currently share a space that limits activities and projects.
Baldwin Park Unified students and employees are benefiting from new air conditioning systems, safer infrastructure and improved safety and security thanks to Measure K, a bond approved by voters in 2006, and Measure AE, a bond approved in 2018. The most recent project to be completed using funding from Measure K was the renovation of the athletic fields at Olive Middle School. Renovations to the fields began in 2019 and culminated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 20.
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.
