Fontana Unified Launches 2022-23 School Year with Lively Celebrations
Fontana Unified School District welcomed students back to campuses filled with upbeat music, cheerful decorations and smiling faces on Aug. 3, ushering in a new school year focused on empowering students to achieve their full potential. A.B. Miller High School celebrated the first day of school bright and early with a Senior Sunrise event for the Class of 2023. ASB leaders, many wearing cowboy hats, handed out donuts and juice to seniors while a DJ played music. School pride was on full display at Tokay Elementary School, where Student Council members waved red pompoms and greeted their peers as they entered the campus.
The Fontana Unified Board of Education selected longtime educator Juan M. López to serve as the District’s interim superintendent, effective Sept. 6, 2022, during the Aug. 10 Board meeting. Per the Board-approved contract, López will serve as the District’s top official through Jan. 13, 2023, providing leadership as the Board conducts a search for a permanent superintendent. He will succeed Dr. Monica Makiewicz, Fontana Unified’s associate superintendent of teaching and learning, who was appointed acting superintendent following the retirement of Randal Bassett.
Canyon Crest Elementary School fifth-grader Dominic Romanio’s track and field career is off to a strong start, after he helped his 10 East track club teammates sprint to a third-place finish in the 4x100 relays during the 2022 USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships, held July 31 in Sacramento. Racing against the top relay teams in the country – ages nine and 10 – Romanio took the anchor leg in the relay as the team completed one lap around the track in 54.93 seconds, narrowly edging the fourth-place finisher by .08 seconds and securing their place on the winner’s podium as bronze medalists.
Dolores Huerta International Academy and Southridge Tech Middle School have been certified as International Baccalaureate (IB) World Schools, officially authorizing their IB instructional offerings and signifying the completion of Fontana Unified School District’s K-12 IB Continuum. The continuum begins with the Primary Years Programme (PYP) at Dolores Huerta International Academy (DHIA), followed by the Middle Years Programme (MYP) at Southridge Tech Middle School and in grades nine and 10 at Jurupa Hills High School. The continuum culminates with the Diploma Programme, offered to juniors and seniors at Jurupa Hills High School.
Fontana Unified School District welcomed students back to campuses filled with upbeat music, cheerful decorations and smiling faces on Aug. 3, ushering in a new school year focused on empowering students to achieve their full potential. A.B. Miller High School celebrated the first day of school bright and early with a Senior Sunrise event for the Class of 2023. ASB leaders, many wearing cowboy hats, handed out donuts and juice to seniors while a DJ played music. A.B. Miller senior Luis Sainz was one of the first to arrive on campus. Sainz, an ASB and Link Crew leader and a member of the A.B. Miller track and cross country teams, is eager to get the school year off to a good start.
When Summit High School Advanced Placement (AP) teacher Megan Perez graduated from Kaiser High School in 2008, she was certain that she had left Fontana Unified forever. While attending UCLA, Perez was determined to embark on a career as a lawyer, but the former valedictorian soon realized that her destiny was in the classroom and returned to teach history at Kaiser High in 2013. In the years since, Perez has inspired hundreds of Kaiser High students to achieve at the highest levels, with pass rates for the AP classes she teaches – AP Capstone, AP Human Geography, AP Government and AP Psychology – well above the average in California and globally. Kaiser graduates taught by Perez have gone on to attend a number of elite universities, including MIT, Stanford, Johns Hopkins and Yale.
Seven of Fontana Unified’s top administrators have been promoted into new leadership positions for the 2022-23 school year, with four FUSD campuses welcoming new principals and three former principals moving to the District office.
Fontana Unified School District Superintendent Randal S. Bassett will retire effective Aug. 1, 2022, bringing to a close an illustrious career in which he dedicated more than 25 years to fostering innovation and high levels of achievement in the District. Bassett, who has nearly 30 years of management experience in education, was appointed to the District’s top position in December 2016. During his time in Fontana Unified, Bassett also served as interim superintendent, associate superintendent of business services and chief technology officer.
Fontana Unified’s television production students eagerly took notes, snapped photos and asked questions as New York film director Michael Marantz transformed their school campuses into hazy, dramatically lit sets, gaining industry insight as a team of professionals produced a video celebrating the empowerment of Fontana Unified students. The video, which will debut at the July 6 Board of Education meeting and be shown throughout the Fontana community during the 2022-23 school year, was filmed over four days in late May. The filming days served as a learning opportunity for the District’s television production students, who were invited to step behind the scenes and learn from Marantz and a professional film crew as they brought their creative vision to life.
Fontana Unified Media Students Gain Insight from Film Director
Fontana Unified’s television production students eagerly took notes, snapped photos and asked questions as film director Michael Marantz transformed their campuses into hazy, dramatically lit sets, gaining industry insight as a team of professionals produced a video celebrating the empowerment of Fontana Unified students. The film shoots, which took place over four days in late May, served as a learning opportunity for the District’s media students to step behind the scenes and watch as the filmmakers brought their creative vision to life. The video will debut at the July 6 Board of Education meeting and be shown throughout the Fontana community during the 2022-23 school year.
