La Puente High School's dynamic running group, LP Runs LA, showcased their grit and determination at the 39th Annual Los Angeles Marathon on March 17, which saw 19 student-athletes and four teachers put their year-long training to the test as they tackled the grueling 26.2-mile course among a crowd of approximately 25,000 racers. La Puente High School educators, club advisors, and avid runners Ana Benitez and Wesley Perez said they started LP Runs LA in 2015 aiming to bring the many health and socio-emotional benefits of running to the students and staff of La Puente. This year marked LP Runs LA's seventh race, with three runners earning an LA Loyal pin for completing the journey around some of the city’s most notable landmarks for the second time.
Glen A. Wilson High School has been named a 2024 California Distinguished School by the California Department of Education (CDE), recognizing the Hacienda La Puente Unified school for demonstrating exceptional student performance and achieving accelerated academic growth for one or more historically underserved student groups. Glen A. Wilson High is one of just 293 secondary schools honored in 2024. To be selected, the CDE used multiple measures to identify eligible schools based on their performance on the state indicators specified in the 2023 California School Dashboard.
Cedarlane Academy, Fairgrove Academy, Mesa Robles School, and Valinda School of Academics have been named 2024 Schools to Watch by the California Department of Education (CDE) and the California League of Educators, recognizing their continued success in keeping students engaged through a critical stage in their K-12 educational journey, demonstrating social equity and helping them achieve academic excellence. The four campuses are among 16 schools to be newly designated as Schools to Watch and will be honored alongside 36 re-designated model schools at the annual California League of Schools Conference held March 8-9 in Monterey.
Hacienda La Puente Unified Middle Schools Cited as Schools to Watch
Cedarlane Academy, Fairgrove Academy, Mesa Robles School, and Valinda School of Academics have been named 2024 Schools to Watch by the California Department of Education (CDE) and the California League of Educators, recognizing their continued success in keeping students engaged through a critical stage in their K-12 educational journey, demonstrating social equity, and helping them achieve academic excellence. The four campuses are among 16 schools to be newly designated as Schools to Watch and will be honored alongside 36 re-designated model schools at the annual California League of Schools Conference held March 8-9 in Monterey.
Hacienda La Puente Unified Students Connect Via Engineering Pathway
For 35 years, Hacienda La Puente Unified's award-winning Los Altos Academy of Engineering (LAAE) pathway has provided Los Altos High School students with hands-on learning experiences, vocational training, and a student-led curriculum centralized around math and science. With more than 1,000 program graduates, the LAAE continues to grow in popularity each year. Thanks to the long-standing success of LAAE, the District expanded the pathway to Orange Grove and Newton middle schools during the 2022-23 school year, introducing seventh- and eighth-grade students to computer, science, engineering, technology, and mathematics (C-STEM) through various courses, electives, and clubs.
Fifth-grade students at Baldwin Academy are benefiting from Microsoft Education’s public preview of its latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) learning tool, Reading Coach. The free immersive experience harnesses generative AI to help learners produce their own stories and independently practice reading-aloud content that gets them excited about reading. In addition to generating engaging stories from characters and settings selected by students in real-time, Reading Coach also tracks each student’s progress to help educators gauge their growth, find areas of opportunity and earn badges to track their amount of time, proficiency and reading level.
William Workman High School’s girls wrestling program is celebrating a historic 2023-24 season, as the Hacienda La Puente Unified team secured its first-ever Montview League championship and qualified all eight team members for the upcoming California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section (CIF-SS) individual championships, to be held Feb. 9-10. The Lobos put together dominant performances both individually and as a team, culminating in the Montview League Meet on Jan. 23 where they produced five individual champions, with three more wrestlers placing in their respective weight classes.
Hacienda La Puente Unified School District’s high school students are gaining insight into different cultures, histories and perspectives through the District’s Intersectional Ethnic Studies classes, which provides them with a deeper understanding of the nuances and complexities that have helped shape society. The District currently offers 11 sections of Ethnic Studies courses across its five high schools. These University of California A-G approved courses include curriculum and pedagogy that focus on the struggles and oppression of minority and marginalized groups and center on the importance of movement toward educational and social justice.
HLPUSD Middle School Girls Unlock Potential During STEM Celebration
An impressive group of Hacienda La Puente Unified eighth-grade girls journeyed to Whittier College to hear inspiring words and success stories from innovative female leaders and young women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), at the 29th Annual American Association of University Women Math and Science Conference, held on Jan. 11. The cutting-edge and highly anticipated conference, titled "Unlimited Potential," aimed to ignite passion and motivate females to dream big, work hard, and pursue careers that have historically been underrepresented.
Hacienda La Puente Unified showcased a year of growth and success during its ninth annual State of the District on Jan. 18. With a theme of “Engage, Experience, Connect: Deep Learning Every Day,” Superintendent Dr. Alfonso Jiménez led the event with a comprehensive presentation packed with animations and lively photos highlighting the past year’s accomplishments in front of a crowd of distinguished guests, administrators, staff, community and HLPUSD Board of Education members. At the conclusion, the District premiered its showcase video, which recognized the dedicated staff that make Hacienda La Puente Unified the ideal educational choice for families.
