Zahra Razi has always had the heart of a teacher and can trace her passion for computer science back to her high school years in Iran, where she was born and raised. Those two characteristics helped bring her to Wayne Ruble Middle School, where she has taught for more than a decade. Over the past five years, Razi has used the Amazon Future Engineer program to share her enthusiasm for computer science with her students. Now, she’s one of 50 educators nationwide selected for a two-year, paid fellowship as a teacher ambassador for the program, aiming to expand science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and tech opportunities for students.
Students in Fontana Unified School District’s Future Shapers Academy (FSA) will present its contributions and input to the city of Fontana’s Downtown Core Project, a proposal to develop downtown Fontana into a local and regional destination. Fontana Unified launched the Future Shapers Academy in 2023-24, with FSA students spending the inaugural school year collaborating with leaders from the city of Fontana on designing an entertainment center in downtown Fontana. Students tackled a series of smaller design challenges that contributed to the larger project.
Redwood Elementary School students are benefitting from language development and increased cultural awareness and connection as part of the school’s popular dual language immersion (DLI) program. Each year, Redwood Elementary School holds a lottery for its dual language immersion (DLI) program with about 100 families applying for the 50 seats offered to kindergartners entering the program.
Fontana Unified School District voted to rename Randall Pepper Elementary School to O’Day Short Elementary – shining a light on a dark moment in Fontana’s history while affirming the District’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion – during its Board of Education meeting on Sept. 4. Southridge Tech Middle School seventh grader Cyrus Moss first set the wheels in motion for the name change when he presented the Fontana Unified Board with a petition signed by 132 members of the community at its March 13 meeting. In accordance with administrative regulations, FUSD was unable to act on the petition until its Sept. 4 meeting.
For more than 20 years, A.B. Miller High School’s Director of Dance and Fontana Unified’s Dance Collaborative Lead teacher Nicole Robinson has built a legacy of dedication and passion for her students and the art form and discipline of dance. Robinson’s excellence in creating and leading impactful programs and curricula at A.B. Miller and the greater community led to the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) honoring her with its 2024 Outstanding Leadership Award for PK-12 Education. She will be recognized for receiving the national honor during a virtual awards ceremony at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 5.
Wherever Cypress Elementary School second-grade teacher Elmo Kelley goes, he records mental notes of his surroundings, places them in his memory, and waits until he finds the inspiration to begin writing poetry. Over the last two years, Kelley has compiled all his musings into two separate poetry collections, with the most recent self-published book, titled “Traveling Through My Mind, Vol. 2,” released in June. It continues a journey that began 30 years ago in a UC Riverside creative writing class, where Kelley was first introduced to poetry as a writing discipline. He hasn’t looked back.
Celebrations spread around Fontana Unified School District’s 45 schools as students embraced their peers, teachers, and administrators as they returned to campus to officially usher in the 2024-25 school year on Aug. 5. Lively music, smiling staff, welcome banners, photo backdrops, and even waving, inflatable tube men warmly greeted students as they stepped back on campus for a historic day in Fontana Unified. Redwood Elementary School celebrated its 75th anniversary to open the new year, while several schools commemorated new campus developments.
Nine Fontana Unified schools will enter the 2024-25 school year with new principals as part of a strategic reorganization designed to leverage existing leadership skills within the District and best meet the unique needs of each school community. Almond, Citrus, Locust, Maple, Virginia Primrose, and West Randall elementary schools, along with Chaparral Academy of Technology; Alder Middle; and Summit high schools will start the new school year with new leadership. Eight of Fontana Unified’s nine new principal appointments were already employed in the District, including six who served as principals at other schools in 2023-24, while a former FUSD principal is transitioning to the District office.
Fontana Unified School District celebrated its commitment to conservation and mindful resource management with a ribbon-cutting ceremony held jointly with the Fontana Water Company on July 29 at Henry J. Kaiser High School to mark the completion of a reclaimed water project. Six FUSD schools in the south end of Fontana connected their existing landscape irrigation water supplies to recycled water, which is estimated to save enough drinking water to provide more than 200 Fontana residences with water for one year, which amounts to approximately $190,000 in savings each year for both the District and taxpayers.
Sequoia Middle School’s commitment to equity, excellence, and innovation led to it being designated as a National School to Watch by the National Forum Advancing Excellence in the Middle Grades. The recognition serves as a redesignation for Sequoia, which first received the honor in 2017, for the school’s dedication to helping all students belong, learn, and grow. Fontana Unified School District and Sequoia Middle School staff were presented with the accolade at the National Schools to Watch Conference in Washington, D.C. in June.
