The girls flag football teams at Bonita and San Dimas high schools will engage in a beloved District tradition as they face off for the first time during the inaugural season of CIF Southern Section flag football for the “Smudge Crown” rivalry game. With the undefeated Bonita squad setting its sights on a perfect record in its inaugural season, San Dimas will look to play spoiler. The game – rescheduled due to the Bridge Fire in September – will also feature an unusual, head-to-head family rivalry with a much-anticipated matchup between sisters Ashley and Breanna Sandmark, who will face off on opposite sides of the field for the very first time. Ashley and Breanna, both in their senior years and co-captains of their teams, attend San Dimas High and Bonita High, respectively.
San Dimas High School senior Emily Moore was on a cross-country trip, driving through Utah with her grandmother, when suddenly the music stopped. The pair’s meticulously curated playlist mysteriously disappeared into a data cloud, starting a conversation between the two about the hit-and-miss nature of modern technology, and how most senior citizens are at a loss to understand it. The conversation had an immediate impact. After returning home, Moore began laying the groundwork for a student community service club that would connect with local senior citizens and try to resolve their tech issues. With the assistance of several of her classmates, Moore created the Silver Surfers Tech Club, which debuted during the 2023-24 school year.
Shull Elementary students and families embarked on a literary voyage, diving into an ocean of stories and imagination on Sept. 11 during the school’s Family Reading Night, an event designed to inspire a love for literacy. More than 150 Shull students, parents, and teachers soaked up this month’s aquatic theme of “Dive into Reading” at the first reading night of the school year, with many snacking on gummy sharks as teachers read aquatic-themed books that led families on an adventure across the seven seas.
As a member of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles’ (NHM) teacher advisory council, San Dimas High School art teacher Dominic Black has created art projects and curriculum designed to give students of all ages access to museum exhibits – both in-person and online – and inspire them to learn more about the art process and natural history while creating their own original work. In the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Black’s ideas on curriculum allowed art students from across L.A. County and beyond to continue their education virtually, through books like “Art Inside and Out” and personal story projects, including a cultural self-portrait assignment where students reimagined a mural by L.A.-based artist Barbara Carrasco.
As the 2024-25 school year gets underway in Bonita Unified School District, the countdown is officially on for the 52nd chapter of the storied Smudge Pot Rivalry Game between the Bonita and San Dimas high school football teams. The annual, friendly rivalry is a District staple, celebrating school unity by showcasing not only the athletic but artistic talents of its students. The game features spirited halftime performances from the schools’ cheer and dance teams, marching band, and color guards that reflect the rich culture at both Bonita and San Dimas high schools.
It appeared to be a typical summer football practice at Bonita and San Dimas high schools, with new and returning players performing running and passing drills, conferring with their coaches, and looking to find team spirit and chemistry as the teams prepare for the 2024-25 football seasons. This year, however, it is not just the boys suiting up in football jerseys, looking to make memories. Female athletes now have the thrill of making a touchdown run or maintaining a goal line stand, following the official CIF Southern Section debut of girls flag football in August after a year as a pilot program. Both Bonita and San Dimas are fielding teams and ready to battle for a CIF championship.
Some 10,000 students returned to Bonita Unified School District campuses for the start of the 2024-25 school year on Aug. 19, which saw transitional kindergarten students sharing tearful hugs with their parents as they began their educational journeys and seniors taking selfies and watching the sun rise together on their final first day of high school. Teachers at Ekstrand, La Verne Heights, and Shull elementary schools welcomed a new class of transitional kindergartners with enthusiastic hugs and high fives, while returning students wasted no time in greeting each other and delivering flower and candy gifts to their new teachers. At Bonita High School, a large contingent from its Class of 2025 assembled bright and early for the school’s annual Senior Sunrise celebration, held at Glenn Davis Stadium. Under a scoreboard displaying '2025,' friends reconnected, spread out on blankets, listened to music, and played games, all while catching the spirit for their final year of high school.
Bonita Unified students looking to get a head start on college and career have taken advantage of several summer workshops and programs designed to spark interest in career technical education (CTE) fields, including industrial and manufacturing engineering, auto repair, architecture, theater, interior design, welding, mentoring, and waste management.
Cal Poly Pomona, Citrus College, Mt. SAC and the Claremont Colleges are among the local campuses providing guidance and instructors to assist students in finding their passion in diverse fields that can lead to lucrative careers. More than 100 BUSD students participated in programs over the summer.
When Bonita High School rising junior Abigail Park was summoned to the BUSD District Office with her father, she thought she was being nominated for an extracurricular award. Instead, Park was greeted by College Board representatives, who surprised her with a $40,000 scholarship on July 25, as part of its BigFuture college and career planning campaign. High school students across the country are encouraged to go online and complete a series of quizzes and lists, with each student entry qualifying them to earn a scholarship. Two students are selected each month at random to receive a $40,000 scholarship. Park is active in Bonita’s hip-hop club, plays clarinet in the BHS band, and is president and co-founder of Bonita High’s Eco Club.
