Fontana High School’s Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (MCJROTC) marksmanship team turned in a scintillating performance during the inaugural Arizona NRA Junior ROTC Air Rifle competition, held Dec. 4, 2021 in Arizona, capturing team and individual first place honors while advancing to the JROTC Service Championships, to be held in February. FOHI senior Jasmine Arguello and sophomore Crystal Santiago took top honors in the Sporter Veteran and Sporter New Shooter divisions, respectively, leading their teams to first-place finishes in the competition that brought ROTC programs together from California, New Mexico, and Arizona.
Fontana Unified Board of Education Selects New Leadership
Fontana Unified School District’s Board of Education held its annual organizational meeting on Dec. 15, voting its members into new leadership roles for 2022. The Board selected Dr. Jennifer Quezada as president and Joe Armendarez as vice president/clerk. Members Adam Perez, Mary Sandoval and Marcelino “Mars” Serna complete the Board of Education.
Fontana Unified will bring holiday cheer to families in need on Saturday, Dec. 18 with its annual Fontana Santas Toy Drive distribution, a drive-thru event that will provide students with toys and gifts. Held at the District office, 9680 Citrus Ave., Fontana, the event will culminate Fontana Unified’s 24th annual holiday toy drive, for which community organizations, District employees and Fontana residents donated toys and gifts cards.
Fontana High School Class of 2021 graduate Therelin Segura was honored by the National Latino Peace Officers Association (NLPOA) Inland Empire Chapter, receiving a $500 scholarship during its 2021 Officer Down Memorial Scholarship banquet on Dec. 5. A four-year member of FOHI’s Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, Segura rose to the rank of Cadet Lieutenant Colonel and served as Cadet Commanding Officer for the entire program in her senior year. Segura is currently attending Cal Baptist University and studying law enforcement while working toward becoming a commissioned officer in the Marine Corps.
Fontana Unified was named the district winner for San Bernardino County in the Race to Submit campaign for achieving the highest percentage of financial aid applications completed by the Class of 2021 in the county. The District was recognized by the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools for the achievement, verifying that 60.46 percent of Fontana Unified students in the Class of 2021 had completed financial aid applications. Race to Submit is a statewide campaign to increase the number of financial aid applications completed by high school seniors in California.
For overseeing the successful implementation of an innovative curriculum designed to help struggling students discover a love for mathematics, Fontana Unified Superintendent Randal S. Bassett was recognized by the UC Davis C-STEM Center as its 2021 Superintendent of the Year. North Tamarind Elementary School fourth-grade teacher Janice Taylor and Elementary Education Coordinator Honey Sacro Swem were also recognized as C-STEM Teacher of the Year and C-STEM Administrator of the Year, respectively, during the center’s virtual conference, held Nov. 29 to Dec. 2. FUSD introduced C-STEM into its middle school curriculum in 2018; it is now available at 23 FUSD elementary schools, five middle schools, and one high school.
Fontana Unified freshman Matthew Barrera was recently honored at the statewide Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) Leadership Summit, celebrating his commitment to academic success and leadership in and out of the classroom. Barrera’s recognition at the statewide summit in November follows his selection as the 2021 Every Student Succeeding Award recipient, an honor bestowed by the ACSA Region 12 Board of Directors in early 2021, when Barrera was in eighth grade at Sequoia Middle School. The award also came with a $1,000 scholarship.
Fontana Unified Expands COVID-19 Testing Clinics to Community
Fontana Unified School District is expanding its ongoing COVID-19 testing clinics to be available to the greater community at no cost. Testing clinics are available at all high school sites from 12:15 to 6:15 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and from 12:35 to 4:15 p.m. on Fridays; at middle school sites from 7:35 to 11:15 a.m. on Fridays; and at District office from 7 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and from 12:35 to 4:15 p.m. on Fridays. Appointments are available, but not required. Community members who are not Fontana Unified students or employees may register for testing at https://www.covidclinic.org/fusd/.
Fontana Unified will offer Spanish dual-language immersion (DLI) instruction at Sequoia Middle School in 2022-23, providing a continuum of learning that fosters bilingualism, biliteracy and sociocultural competency while preparing students for success in college and career. Sequoia Middle School will be the District’s third DLI school, building on the foundational instruction provided to students in kindergarten through sixth grade at Dolores Huerta International Academy and Redwood Elementary School. The DLI program will serve seventh-grade students in 2022-23 and will expand to serve eighth-grade students in 2023-24.
Fontana Unified Students, Teacher Honored for Improving Math Skills
Truman Middle School eighth-graders Iris Tovar and Keila Molina Hernandez have been recognized 2021 Houghton Mifflin Houghton (HMH) 180 Award winners – an honor given to just 30 students across the country – for their perseverance in overcoming past struggles with math and displaying academic progress. Tovar and Molina Hernandez were lauded for exhibiting engagement, consistency, and perseverance in class, where Truman Middle School math intervention teacher Sahar Yahya uses the HMH Math 180 curriculum to help students learn and grow through a digital framework that provides daily goals and instant assessments. Yahya was also recognized as a 2021 HMH 180 Award winner, one of just 20 educators in the U.S. to receive the distinction.
