The Horizon

Dear Jurupa Unified School District families:

The last few weeks of the school year are here. This is a meaningful time of the year – a time of celebration and reflection. As I look back at all of the incredible moments we shared, I am proud and grateful for our students, our teachers, our staff, administrators, families, and the community. You all are essential to our Jurupa story.

An important part of the Jurupa Experience is to develop our students as strong and caring individuals who will become leaders in their community. Our first-ever JUSD Week of Service allowed students of all ages to build character by practicing skills such as leadership, teamwork, and empathy. Students held book and clothing drives, cleaned up their campuses and tended school gardens, collected items for shelter animals, and even brought potted plants to the elderly. The breadth and creativity of our Week of Service projects were amazing. You can read more about it in this month’s newsletter. I hope we keep this spirit of service going strong all year long.

Literacy also remains a focus in our district, and I am happy to share that our elementary students have read an incredible 751,172 minutes since our JUSD Family Reading Challenge began 2 ½ years ago. That’s incredible. Our goal is to reach one million minutes, and I know we can get there. Be sure to look out for an announcement of our top readers for spring and the year coming soon.

Our schools have also initiated some creative and exciting literacy programs. You can read about two of them in this month’s newsletter as we continue our series on Literacy Without Limits in JUSD. This month, we highlight a family literacy class at West Riverside Elementary and feature volunteers from Costco who generously share their time to read with students at Mission Bell Elementary.

In the weeks ahead, I look forward to visiting our school sites, participating in awards ceremonies, attending end-of-the-year performances, and shaking hands with members of our Class of 2026 as they graduate and continue their life’s journeys. I hope you also pause to enjoy this time with your students as you celebrate their hard work and achievements. As our students finish those final tests and assignments, I want to encourage them to keep going, keep striving, and, as Henry David Thoreau once said, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.”

Sincerely,

Trenton Hansen, PhD

Superintendent

This April, JUSD launched the district's first-ever Week of Service, held in conjunction with National Volunteer Week. Students from all grades across the district led and participated in service projects. They held campus clean-ups, book, clothing, and canned food donation drives, and brought smiles to the elderly and shelter pets. We hope this incredible movement will continued to grow in the future. We are so grateful for the generosity and leadership of our wonderful students and staff. We are: One Jurupa, Stronger Together!

German shepherds, mixed labradors, and other shelter dogs listened attentively in their enclosure as Pedley Elementary School students read them English and Spanish books about fairies, pets, and courage.

The Riverside County Department of Animal Services in Jurupa Valley provided the perfect volunteer opportunity for students who visited on a field trip. The shelter is local, everyone at Pedley could participate by donating supplies, and students created excitement among their classmates to find more opportunities to volunteer, said Lauren Abadilla, Pedley teacher.

In addition to reading to the dogs, the Pedley Student Council delivered carts full of pet supplies, food, and toys that Pedley families donated.

“We really want them to understand that community isn't just located within the walls of our school, but extends outwards as well,” said Ms. Abadilla.

After their visit in early April, the student leaders shared their experience with their peers during an assembly to motivate them to participate in the JUSD’s Week of Service.

“I think it’s important (to share) so then in the future… they know it’s good to help their community and it’s good to help everyone,” said June Kruse, President of Student Council.

Rubidoux High School Junior Natalya Fernandez spent several days researching, planning, and completing a rather unusual high school assignment – decorating a free little library for Rustic Lane Elementary School.

“I know they’ll appreciate the colors,” Natalya said of the small, white, blue, and yellow house-shaped cabinet that soon will be filled with donated books for Rustic Lane students to take home and keep.

“It will make it feel more special for them to be able to get books from something that was made specifically for them,” she said. “It makes me feel really good inside, because it reminds me of when I was in elementary school. I would have loved it if anyone else did that for us,” Natalya said. “It’s important to give back to our community because it kind of reminds us where exactly we came from.”

Rubidoux High School teacher Brett Roble and student leaders came up with the idea to create the free little libraries while brainstorming service projects they could take on for Jurupa Unified’s first Week of Service, which took place April 20-25, National Volunteer Week.

On a cloud-covered Saturday morning, a group of Ina Arbuckle Elementary students set out on foot with one goal in mind: to make someone's day a little sunnier.

“They wanted to create a project that was outside the box (and) give back to the community.” Principal Allison Hesler said.

Sixth-graders partnered with younger students to decorate flower pots, plant them with beautiful flowers, and write cards that they hand-delivered during Saturday School to a local care facility.

“Partnering up the younger students with the older students has created a community within our school,” Ms. Hesler said. “It’s teaching them that they can give back even within our own school. Our bigger picture is going outside our school walls."

The project was in celebration of Earth Day and Jurupa Unified School District’s Week of Service, in which the students do their part in giving back to the community and practice eco-friendly activities. The students also picked up trash along their path.

JUSD was recently highlighted for our efforts to support foster youth and to help to develop the RCOE FosterFerret App, which provides easy access to important information and resources for foster youth.

The app helps students to safely store essential documents in a digital vault, provides assistance with health and well-being, offers academic support, and has an online shop where students can access items they need, such as school supplies or self-care items.

“Foster students in our high schools have shared how the ability to store their important documents digitally means they don’t have to worry about losing them whenever their placement changes,” said Jurupa Unified School District Foster and McKinney-Vento Counselor, Mariana Lopez Ramos. “The app also provides a way for students to advocate for themselves so they can get what they need to succeed and thrive, such as when one student facing a financial barrier was able to ask for and get funds from The Burrow Shop to purchase shoes needed to participate in a school sport.”

You can learn more at: RCOE Launches App Designed With Foster Youth For Foster Youth | Riverside County Office of Education.