Vocal ensemble students from Sierra Vista High School’s choral music department will deliver a foot-tapping holiday performance for the California Highway Patrol’s annual CHiPs for Kids Toy Drive. The event will be broadcast on CBS 2 and KCAL 9 at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 19 at the West Covina Mall. The mall is at Plaza West Covina, 428 Plaza Drive, West Covina.
Bonita Unified’s elementary school choirs will ring in the holiday season with four performances on Monday, Dec. 17 and Tuesday, Dec. 18. Oak Mesa and Shull elementary students in the Allegro Honor Choir will perform at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 17 at the Bonita Center for the Arts (BCA). Grace Miller and La Verne Heights elementary students in the Allegro Honor Choir will showcase their skills at 7 p.m. Dec. 17 at the BCA. Gladstone and Ekstrand’s Allegro Honor Choir students will perform at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 18, followed by Allen Avenue and Roynon Allegro Honor Choir students at 7 p.m. at the BCA.
Fontana Unified School District, Fontana School Police and community partners will provide holiday gifts to nearly 450 FUSD families during the 21st annual Fontana Santas toy drive/second annual holiday breakfast from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 15 at A.B. Miller High School, 6821 Oleander Ave., Fontana. School police officers will deliver gifts to neighboring homes during the event, which will feature free breakfast, family-friendly games and pictures with Santa.
Sierra Vista High School students will alleviate finals week stress with a puppy party at lunchtime on Monday, Dec. 17. The event is organized by the school’s National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) club, a student-led organization that raises awareness of mental health. Sierra Vista High School is at 3600 Frazier St., Baldwin Park.
Lynwood Unified served food and gave toys to nearly 200 families in need at the District’s annual Holiday Fun event on Dec. 15 at Firebaugh High School. The District partnered with the Wild Horse Children's Foundation and Giving Children Hope to provide support to families. Activities included a family portrait station and photo booth.
The Paramount Unified Board of Education appointed a new president and vice president/clerk on Dec. 9. Vivian Hansen is the new president, while Yesenia Cuarenta will serve as vice president/clerk. Members Sonia De Leon, Linda Garcia and Carmen P. Gomez round out the board.
Jefferson Middle School’s concert choir brought holiday cheer to cancer patients on Dec. 21 at City of Hope. Students sang carols in the Helford lobby before caroling through the halls of the children’s ward. That afternoon, the choir staged a concert from at Royal Vista Center in San Gabriel.
Potrero School teacher Lisa Gonzalez received a holiday classroom makeover and presents for her kindergarten students when local radio station, K-Earth 101, visited to name her the "Knock, Knock, It's Christmas" contest winner.
Roosevelt Elementary students improved their performance on California’s English language arts (ELA) and mathematics tests in 2018, continuing a three-year upward trend attributed in part to the school’s Music Immersion Experience (MIE) program. Formed in 2015, the MIE program enhances student learning and achievement through music education. San Gabriel Unified launched the program after bring inspired by El Sistema programs throughout the country, as well as recent Northwestern University research that discovered a positive link between music education and lifelong academic success.
About 15 students cluster around the row of drums, bongos, congas, timbales and cow bells, banging on the instruments with hands and sticks, vying with one another to see who can be the loudest. Every Friday from 4 to 5 p.m., Van Wig Elementary School students in transitional kindergarten through fifth grade join Principal Andrew Candelaria in the cafeteria to learn about cadence and “finding the beat.”
