More than 7,200 students will return to El Monte Union High School District (EMUHSD) for the first day of the 2025-26 school year, which will include spirited campus celebrations, milestone events, and warm welcomes from Associated Student Body and Link Crew leaders, faculty, staff, and administrators. Celebrations will take place across the District, including El Monte High School’s debut of a new state-of-the-art athletic facility, South El Monte High will celebrate two students recently sworn-in as EMUHSD student board members, and Rosemead and Arroyo high schools will commemorate their 75th anniversaries of academic excellence.
When Bonita High School Class of 2022 graduate Alexa Garcia arrived at UCLA for her freshman year, she was hoping to find community among the nearly 46,000 students inhabiting the university’s vast campus. Now a senior at UCLA, Garcia eventually found her way to MedReach, a UCLA outreach organization whose students serve as mentors for L.A.-area high school students interested in pursuing a career in the healthcare industry. MedReach offers six “Ready for Healthcare” seminars during the year, both online and in-person, where high school students learn about short-term and long-term careers in the medical field, learn medical terminology through puzzles and games, and examine case studies to observe doctor-patient interaction.
The El Monte Union High School District (EMUHSD) Board of Trustees made history in the District by expanding student representation with the swearing-in of two Student Board Members, Ashley Yu and Tessa Ocegueda, for the 2025-26 school year at the District’s Aug. 6 Board meeting. Yu and Ocegueda, both South El Monte High School students, will represent the voice of nearly 7,200 EMUHSD students. They step into newly-created leadership roles, with Yu serving as Student Board Member President and Ocegueda as Vice President. Both will continue their service on the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council, where they served last school year.
El Monte Union High School District (EMUHSD) will host a dedication ceremony to celebrate the renaming of Fernando R. Ledesma High School’s newly renovated multi-purpose building and gymnasium. The facility will be renamed the Freddy and Bernie Arteaga and Frank Ogaz Center, honoring two longtime educators and a former Board of Trustees President whose decades of service have helped transform the lives of countless students across the District.
Colorful signs, lively music, and cheerful staff welcomed back more than 30,000 Fontana Unified School District students, who greeted each other with smiles, hugs, or fist bumps, for the first day of the 2025-26 school year on Aug. 6. The first day of the new academic year marks a new chapter for all 44 Fontana Unified schools – many of which have earned recognition, including California Schools to Watch, California Distinguished Schools, and California Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) Coalition Awards, among other honors.
Red carpets, cheering squads, and vibrant energy marked the first day of the 2025-26 school year as Hacienda La Puente Unified School District welcomed back more than 15,000 students across 28 campuses on Wednesday, Aug. 6. At Wedgeworth Elementary School, students began the year on a brand-new, two-story campus featuring 30 modern classrooms, smart technology, energy-efficient systems, and a fully outfitted kitchen. The indoor/outdoor multipurpose room offers a flexible learning and activity space, while an underground stormwater basin — designed to capture 1.5 million gallons of water — underscores the District’s ongoing commitment to sustainability.
SAN DIMAS/LA VERNE – Bonita Unified students looking to get a head start on college and career planning received expert guidance in auto repair, architecture, and engineering through career technical education (CTE) summer academies at Citrus College and Cal Poly Pomona, with rising juniors and seniors taking weeklong courses designed to spark their interest in lucrative fields.
Less than 24 hours before the start of the 2025-26 school year, Fontana Unified School District (FUSD) celebrated the renaming of O’Day Short Elementary School on Aug. 5, honoring the courageous legacy of the Short family, who inspired the renaming of the school after breaking Fontana’s color barrier at the school site nearly 80 years ago. Fontana Unified hosted the official renaming ceremony for O’Day Short Elementary – previously named Randall Pepper Elementary School – at the school’s campus, drawing a standing-room-only crowd of school and District staff, students, residents, elected officials, and two living relatives of the Short family.
Covina-Valley Unified School District will kick off the 2025-26 school year with its annual Welcome Back Convocation, bringing together teachers, staff, and administrators for a morning of celebration, connection, and inspiration. The event will include a dynamic keynote speaker, team-building activities, and uplifting messages to set a positive tone for the year ahead.
Fontana Unified School District (FUSD) is heading into the 2025-26 school year with 12 new administrative appointments, including five interim appointments, as part of a strategic reorganization designed to optimize leadership assignments within the District. Two Fontana Unified administrators took on new roles within the reorganization at the District level, with former school principals Christopher Hollister, Ed.D., and Patricia Corral, Ed.D., named Executive Director of Secondary Education and Interim Executive Director of Classified Human Resources, respectively.
