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Rialto Area Congressman Re-Election Campaign Suspected of Removing Challengers Signs

26 Apr 2016 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in Ca, Colton, Congressman Pete Aguilar, Fontana, Grand Terrace, Inland Empire, paul chabot for congress, pete aguilar, Public Safety, Redlands PD, Rialto, San Bernardino

In a Press Release sent out by the Campaign for Paul Chabot for Congress an accusation of vandalism, theft and trespassing against the current congressman Pete Aguilar and his campaign. Two years ago when both men ran for the highly contested seat Pete Aguilar ran a dirty campaign full of mailers, TV commercials and ad lies about Candidate Paul Chabot according to Paul Chabot. From the looks of this Press Release the Paul Chabot campaign isn’t going down without a fight. See the Press Release below:

LEADING CANDIDATE CHABOT CALLS ON CONGRESSMAN AGUILAR’S CAMPAIGN, TO RETURN 100’s OF STOLEN SIGNS

Signs stolen from private property across
31st District likely represent felony theft

April 26, 2016 – Today, the Paul Chabot for Congress campaign condemned continued vandalism, and theft of hundreds of campaign signs by opponent’s campaign throughout the 31st Congressional District, likely representing a felony crime. Chabot calls on Aguilar’s campaign to immediately return the property.

Yesterday an eye-witness observed suspects removing “Paul Chabot for Congress” yard signs and replacing them with “Aguilar for Congress” signs. A police report was filed and an investigation is ongoing; however, reports of yard signs being stolen out of people’s front yards have started pouring in from around the congressional district. In Aguilar’s hometown of Redlands, the Chabot for Congress campaign estimates 90% of its supporters’ yard signs have been stolen.

“Crime continues to rise across California and it’s unacceptable that a campaign of a Member of Congress would be directly adding to that increase,” said Chabot.

“This is a perfect example of why we desperately need to elect leaders who have first-hand experience fighting crime,” continued Chabot. “As a Reserve Deputy Sheriff for the past 20 years I have fought criminals just like the ones witnessed trespassing on private property, vandalizing, and stealing property. I fully expect the Aguilar campaign to immediately return our property and comply with the police investigation.”

Listen to Our Interview with Rialto USD Superintendent Dr. Avila

26 Apr 2016 Leave a comment

Last week we had the opportunity to sit down and have a one on one interview with Rialto Unified School Superintendent Dr. Avila. The interview for our radio show Let’s Talk Community that aired last weekend.

Did you miss it? Well not to worry we have you covered with the video below:

After this interview we feel very confident about the future of Rialto Unified if Dr. Avila is able to complete all of what he spoke about in our interview.

Some of the things that we spoke about off camera were Dr. Avila’s wishes for the administrators of the schools in Rialto. He has an expectation that the administrators welcome the students into school and be outside as the children dismiss for the day. Dr. Avila spoke about the benefits he saw from his time as a school principal being outside and visible during the beginning and end of the day. He was able to connect with the students that didn’t find themselves in his office and he could survey the schools surroundings. Dr. Avila also doesn’t agree with administrators having labeled parking spots. He wants every aspect of the school setting to be welcome and inviting. He has gone as far as to remove all the assigned parking spots from district office including his!

The last thing we did is he walked me out into the lobby and asked me what do you see? As I called out items I saw he said now what is missing? I was puzzled I don’t know what is missing? He said where are the children? Why are the students not represented in this lobby? He was right there were lots of adults represented but no children. He said that he would be changing that as well.

We ran into Dr. Avila at the Puttin on a Ritz Gala Saturday Night and he said that he would like to sit down with us again and give an how are we doing now update on the progress of his desires for the District.

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Two Rialto Schools Receive Top Honors In New Recognition Program

18 Apr 2016 Leave a comment

Two of Rialto Unified School Districts schools were awarded the new level of top distinction from the state of California. These two schools have been labeled Gold Ribbon Schools here in the state of California. The California Gold Ribbon Schools Award was created to honor schools in place of the California Distinguished Schools Program, which is on hiatus while California creates new assessment and accountability systems.

Schools applied for the award based on a model program or practice their school has adopted that includes standards-based activities, projects, strategies, and practices that can be replicated by other local educational agencies. The award recognized middle and high schools last year.

The Gold Ribbon Awards recognize California schools that have made gains in implementing the academic content and performance standards adopted by the State Board of Education. These include the California Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics, California English Language Development Standards, and Next Generation Science Standards.

The two schools that were awarded in Rialto Unified School District are Helen L. Dollahan Elementary School and Myers Elementary School.

“I am ecstatic to be a part of the Dollahan family and to achieve the recognition of a California Gold Ribbon School,” smiled Dollahan Elementary School Principal, Daniel Husbands. “It is such a huge honor for our students, staff members, parents, and community to be recognized for all of their hard work and dedication to building the next generation of leaders through The Leader in Me process.”

Dollahan Elementary School fifth grade teacher, David Emrick, added, “As a teacher here for several years, I have seen an incredible amount of commitment to student learning and development from all areas of our community. Our secretaries, custodians, various support staff, teachers, administrators, parents, and local businesses have truly collaborated to make our school worthy of our Gold Ribbon status. We are extremely grateful to be recognized with this honor and vow to continue the effort to create a superb learning environment for all of our students.”

The “Leader In Me” program at Dollahan is one of six schools in the county and part of a collection in the state. The program was made possible by the Panda Cares Foundation that has dedicated thousands of dollars to making sure that these Rialto students have a program that will provide accountability and self worth. The program is so appealing the City of Rialto looking for something to fill the GRIP program last summer used the Leader in me program to show that they were trying to do something with the $4 million grant they received.

Myers Elementary School was equally excited about the news from the State. “This award serves as testament to the unwavering dedication exuded by our teachers for all of our students. In the midst of academic reform, our teachers took the initiative to press forward and create a sacred place for learning and discovering. Our teachers adopted the 21st Century skills of Communication and Collaboration. They have taken on the challenge to define and implement the distinct characteristics of this school-wide approach to create college and career bound students. Our accomplishment would not have been possible without the support of our parents, staff members, students, and community volunteers. It is an honor to have been bestowed this prestigious award,” stated Myers Elementary School Principal, Johanna Cuellar.

Teresa Chandler, second grade teacher, at Myers Elementary School, cheered, “It is truly an exciting event on many levels for me as an educator. It validates all the energy that we extend daily as a cohesive team of teachers, administrators, and support staff to help each of our students reaches their unique and maximum potential as individuals. As an educator, such a road taken at times may be stony and difficult, but it is without doubt a magical journey!”

“These schools shine as bright beacons for others, putting forth an exemplary effort to ensure that every student is ready for 21st Century college and careers,” stated State Superintendent of Instruction, Tom Torlakson in his CDE press release. “California teachers are developing an education model for the nation, training the students of today to be problem-solvers, inventors and pioneers of tomorrow.”

Rialto Unified School District Board of Education will formally honor Dollahan and Myers Elementary Schools on Wednesday, April 20, 2016, 7:00 p.m., at the televised public school board meeting held at 182 East Walnut Avenue in Rialto.

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Colton Unified School District Suffers Student Death Some Blame PBIS

14 Apr 2016 3 Comments

Yesterday KTLA Channel 5 reported on the death of a Colton Unified School District Student.

“The parents of a 12-year-old boy who died after playing soccer Tuesday during a physical education class at an elementary school in Colton said Wednesday that a school bully stomped on their son’s chest before he lost consciousness.

School officials told him that Dominick had fallen and lost consciousness after running into another student, Gallegos told KTLA on Wednesday.

Katie Orloff, a spokeswoman for the Colton Joint Unified School District confirmed that a student had died and said a crisis team was at the school Wednesday. She did not provide any details of what had occurred.

“Everybody here is trying to do their best to support each other and work through it as the community that we are.” Orloff said.

Detectives were sent to the hospital and ruled out any type of assault or physical injury that may have happened at the school, according to Colton Police Department Officer Todd Smith, the school’s resource officer.

However, Dominick’s father talked to his son’s friends who witnessed the incident and believes his son was kicked by another student.

The students told Gallegos that Dominick slipped when he went to pick up a soccer ball and another student, who Gallegos said has a reputation for being a school bully, stomped on his son’s chest twice and Dominick lost consciousness.

“I guess the kid thought he was playing around. He started shaking him to wake up,” Gallegos said.

But that’s when the bell ending to school day rang and the boy just took off, Gallegos said.

“I don’t know where the teachers were,” said Gallegos, who felt his son should have been better supervised during the class. “Someone should have been watching those kids.”

Gallegos and the boy’s mother both said their son had no health problems and recently had a physical.”

See the full story from channel 5 here: http://ktla.com/2016/04/13/bully-stomped-on-chest-of-colton-6th-grader-who-died-boys-parents-say/

Now here is our issue with this story. According to Colton Police Officer Todd Smith “there was no proof that someone caused the student to die.” So how does Colton PD explain the witness reports? How can a School Resource officer feel confident that he can examine a dead body and rule out physical contact? Colton Unified has a long history of ignoring bully complaints and lying to parents, community, press and law enforcement.

This death reminds us of the bully case in 2014 where Jewlie Serna’s son had a bully give him death threats. This student was a known bully with issues and was labeled a special education student. Mrs Serna went round and round with the school and district and in a last ditch effort to get help she went to Social Media. Once she posted her sons issue on Facebook the stories of other students that were bullied and never helped came flooding in.

What made matters worse is when Mrs Serna brought a parent-child advocate and bully prevention professionals to a Colton Unified School Board meeting in an effort to get the school board to act the school and principal came out in force not to stand by Mrs Sernas son but to stand up for the administration that had been caught lying to police, community and parents.

We reached out to Mrs Serna to see if she wanted to make a statement on this horrible incident.

“I am so sickened to hear about this young boy’s death, I have been trying for about two years to change something with the CJUSD policies regarding bullying to no avail. The lack of truth and transparency was a large hurdle to over come in my sons case but though an attorney and a judge that was sick of the schools/ districts doing nothing I was able to protect my son through a restraining order. The schools and districts all point fingers the other way, no one is accountable.”

The popular thing we hear from people who work in education is that they are here for the children. But even louder than that old tag line is their actions. Covering up abuse, squabbling over money and work load and standing up for bad administrators instead of the kids who we claim to care for speak louder than your tired catch phrases.

We titled this article Colton Unified School District Suffers Student Death Some Blame PBIS because it is Positive Behavior Intervention Support that Colton and other IE School Districts are hiding behind to excuse the lack of accountability when it comes to punishing bad student behavior. How can we send our children to California Public Schools without worrying for their safety?

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12 Apr 2016 Leave a comment

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San Bernardino Schools Student Discipline & Citations Discussion

11 Apr 2016 1 Comment

by rialto-now in 100 Black Men, AFL-CIO, Assemblymember-Elect Cheryl Brown, Ca, Congressman Pete Aguilar, Crime, Currupt, Inland Empire, Marijuana, Medical Marijuana, pete aguilar, Public Safety, San Bernardino, San Bernardino PD, San Bernardino Police, SB Sun, youth

About 120 people from San Bernardino Unified School District, School Police, School Board members and various ethnic based organizations from throughout the San Bernardino area met at the San Bernardino Club and Events center to go over sweeping changes to student discipline that many in the community see as adding to the dangers that exist within the city of San Bernardino. Out of the 120 plus people in attendance we only count nine parents. Most of the people in attendance are people that are advocating and receiving funding for the sweeping changes in student citations.

Both Pete Aguilar and Cheryl Brown had people from their office here in attendance. On top of that we had four San Bernardino School District Board Members a clear violation of the Brown act. The violation is that out of the seven members that sit on the board Scott Wyatt, Barbara Flores, Abigail Medina and Mike Gallo are here creating a quorum. Apparently this isn’t the first time San Bernardino School Board has had a quorum without putting out the public notice of the meeting. School Board Sup Dale Mardsen said that since they have four board members at the meeting they now have to fly this as a public meeting after the fact. We asked board member Barbara Flores about this and she said “who cares this is important what are they (DA Ramos and his public integrity unit) going to do slap our hands? I’m ok with that!” To make matters worse later on into the meeting another Board Member (that makes five) came into the meeting Board Member Rogers. It was clear that these board members have no respect for the laws that govern them.

Dr. Harold Vollkommer and Superintendent Marsden worked hand in hand to control the conversation of the meeting leaving ZERO room for real questions or allowing people to speak their minds. It was so bad that Student Parent advocate Steven Figueroa said so in his comments publicly. The only people for this failed plan to remove consequences for the very things most parents work so hard to protect their children from were the people who stood to make money off of implementing the programs. From the mess of switching from different colored paper that was all out of order, poor time management and having the wrong information in the packets this meeting was a mess.

Another key person that stood out to us here is that Rialto School Board Member Dina Walker who was in favor of these horrible ideas making us wonder if Rialto Schools safety is now in jeopardy? Why would a Rialto School Board member attend a meeting like this, speak favorably of it and not have plans for using it in Rialto? Also Mrs. Walker was not there in another capacity alone she self identified as a Rialto School Baord Member and Dale Marsden also introduced her solely in her title as Rialto School Board Member.

Parents spoke about how the district is making parent involvement extremely difficult in this process and in attending this meeting. They are right this whole process has been made out to be as secret and behind closed doors as possible. San Bernardino School District is paying 1,500 a day for an upland based attorney to oversee this process. When this plan was launched it was done in a district employee eyes only email and employees were told they would find trouble with the district if they shared the information that is within.

Dale Marsden told us that no decision has been made and that this DRAFT proposal and that the School Board still has to approve it. The only problem is that Five board members are there all speaking privately about the Draft Proposal and they all are in favor of the proposal.

12th Annual Puttin’ on the Ritz Fine Arts Gala

07 Apr 2016 Leave a comment

The highly anticipated Youth Talent Showcase for the Students of Rialto Unified School District is upon us once again. This event is not only a showcase of Rialtos awesome young talent but a fundraiser for Fine Arts in the District. It also serves as one of the largest collections of the Who’s Who of Rialto. One of this years talent is Sarah Urbieta the Current Youth Chair of the Rialto Community Coalition and an all around awesome young lady. See her preform last year at the Positive Images Conference held at Bob Murphy High School.

12th Annual Puttin’ on the Ritz Fine Arts Gala are now open! This year’s impressive lineup of talented student performers is sure to leave attendees in awe:

2016 Ritz Talent

Owen Knapper, Jr., 6th Grade – Kucera Middle School

Aimee Monge, 5th Grade – Simpson Elementary School

Aubrey Stevenson, 3rd Grade – Fitzgerald Elementary School

Angelica Gonzales, 6th Grade – Rialto Middle School

Jalen Adams, 7th Grade – Kucera Middle School

Chiana Hedgeman, 12th Grade – Eisenhower High School

Kiarissa Ortega, 11th Grade – Eisenhower High School

Luis Vidana, 5th Grade – Casey Elementary School

Alyssa Edwards, 8th Grade – Kolb Middle School

Jocelyn Vega, 10th Grade – Carter High School

Sarah Urbieta, 6th Grade – Kucera Middle School

Casey Ballet Folklorico, 3^rd and 4^th Grade – Casey Elementary School

Rialto Royalz (Dance Team), 8th Grade – Rialto Middle School

Noted as the largest fine arts, student based Gala in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, the Ritz has raised over $420,000, benefiting RUSD classroom students and teachers. Since the Ritz’ inception, over 300 students have shared their incredible talents on stage with more than 7,000 audience members throughout the event’s lifetime.

This year, we are proud to welcome esteemed guest emcee, Frank Pine, Executive Editor of the Los Angeles News Group (LANG), which encompasses The San Bernardino Sun and Daily Bulletin. We are also excited to welcome back, as co-emcee, the talented and entertaining 96.7 KCAL Rocks Radio Personality, Jimbo.

Tickets can be purchased by contacting Lana Kosh at (909) 820-7700 ext. 2140 or online by clicking the link HERE

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Rialto High School Finishes 1st Place at Nationals

26 Mar 2016 1 Comment

The photo above is from the Rialto Knights Twitter account. The picture shows the waiting moments of waiting for the results on their first place finish at Nationals In Anahiem on Sunday. Well a picture is worth a thousand words and this picture tells it all.

Well if the 1st place finish at the USA Spirit State Championships wasn’t enough your Rialto High School Cheer Team has now finished 1st at the USA Spirit Nationals. The Rialto Cheer team division had nine teams for preliminaries on March 19th and three teams for finals on March 20th. Thousand Oaks placed third and Temple City placed second behind your Rialto Knights!!!!!! See the video of the winning cheer Below:

The AWESOME team of girls took over the stage at the Anaheim Convention Center and owned their performance. The Inland Empire was well represented with teams from Fontana, Rialto, Chino Hills and Beaumont all competing for a win on the National Stage. Were super excited to see this team representing not only the Inland Empire but Rialto in a big way. It’s awesome to see that they were sent off by their classmates in the best way possible to get they big win.

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Rialto City Council Meeting Tonight

22 Mar 2016 Leave a comment

Well after a month between meetings we are back from Washington and ready to get back to the business of spending your money. This agenda is super top heavy with lots of Proclamations and Awards for all types of things. One that stands out to us is:

5 16-180 Proclamation-National Public Safety Telecommunications Week Mayor Deborah Robertson

What are we Proclaiming here? With wait times on the phone being as much as 30 minutes and residents reporting that they have called dispatch only to get a recorded message. Yes we know their job isn’t easy but when do we get off that excuse and ask the Police Department to get dispatch under control?

Vice President Gonzalez said something about the West Valley Water Board agendas that makes sense all over especially in Rialto. Millions of dollars is hidden and spent in the Consent Calendar. As you can see below the three we highlighted below are all things that should be examined individually not all at once hidden is a blanket motion. Here is how we break each one down:

E.6 – Request City Council to Approve Amendment No. 1 to the Exclusive Right to Negotiate Agreement with Fernando Acosta for the Development of Approximately 8 Acres of Property Located at the Northeast Corner of Ayala Drive and Renaissance Parkway.

Fernando Acosta is being given exclusive right to negotiate on the cities behalf on a portion of land that has 3 major owners and one that fell under our scrutiny when Cal Trans was using it as a construction storage facility and was full of blight and graffiti. Why is Fernando being given Exclusive Right to Negotiate? Is it because Ed Scott has majority power on the council right now and he is a donor to Ed Scott’s Campaign? Fernando live in the Flores Park Community but is never seen participating in the community efforts and his businesses only help organizations that are close to the Baca Foundation. Even local schools that are struggling to provide for low income kids cant get Fernando’s support. But were giving him access to what would be a multi million dollar deal?

E.10 – Request City Council to Approve an Increase to the Purchase Orders for Fritz Ford for Vehicle Parts in the Amount of $5,000, for a Total Not to Exceed Amount of $20,000.

Pay close attention to how staff spelled FRITTS FORD. We pay these people a lot of money and they can’t even spell the name of a business right especially a business that is Outside of the city of Rialto and is getting $20,000 of our tax money.

E.12 – Request City Council to Authorize an Increase to the Purchase Order with the Daily Journal for Advertising Services in the amount of $15,000 for a total amount of $30,000 in the 2015-2016 Fiscal Year

This one steams me how much are we paying for a subscription to a legal paper? This paper is just a news site for the legal world. Isn’t this something our well paid city attorney should be signing up for? The city claims it has no money for youth development and enrichment and the mayor is attacking groups like the Rotary and Chamber of Commerce all while wasting $30,000 a year on a digital newspaper subscription?

TAB 5 – Request City Council/Rialto Utility Authority to Approve a Third Amendment to the Agreement with West Valley Water District for Operation and Maintenance of Groundwater Contamination Treatment Systems for the 2015/16 Fiscal Year in the Amount of $68,381.69.

This final item is an TAB item (what the items above should be on) and what makes it stand out is the fact that the current President and Vice President of West Valley Water Board spent months telling us that their Groundwater Contamination Treatment Systems are not functioning properly in an effort to damage former General Manager Butch Ariza’s reputation. So the question is are we paying over $68,000 for treatment systems that are not functioning?

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Tying The Police Hands & Violence Towards Police Hits Close To Home

18 Mar 2016 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in Ca, Colton, Crime, Currupt, Inland Empire, Public Safety, San Bernardino, San Bernardino PD, San Bernardino Police

In the past a bad guy would think twice about shooting at a police officer but according to new national statistics, 42 police officers were shot and killed in 2015. Four percent more law enforcement officers at the federal state, territorial and local levels died in the line of duty in 2015 than in 2014, according to a preliminary report from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Local Law Enforcement supporters have watched the violence towards the police take place outside of the Inland Empire. Outside of the occasional gun battle between gangs and San Bernardino Police the IE has yet to have a random shooting at Law Enforcement until March 9th that is. Last week an unamred San Bernardino City Community Service Officer was shot at while in his vehicle. According to the ABC 7 news report below the officer was looking to recover a stolen vehicle when shots rang out and struck has patrol car. This happened on the border of Rialto and San Bernardino in the area of Meridian and Foothill. This area is known for rampant drug and gang activity as well as one of the highest concentrations of prostitution in the city of Rialto. The question is how long will it take San Bernardino Police to stop living in the shadow of San Bernardino’s Bankruptcy and Terrorist Attack and get to work cleaning up the mountain of crime? Where is the collaborative efforts to have Rialto Police work with San Bernardino to get things on the border under control?

http://abc7.com/news/san-bernardino-police-searching-for-suspect-who-shot-at-officer/1238774/

The scarey part is there is going to come a point where San Bernardino’s crime will become Rialto’s problem. Another question is are the anti cop crowd now attacking Inland Empire Cop’s?

We reached out to San Bernardino PD about this shooting. We had not heard back from SBPD so we decided to attend a Coffee with a Cop event at Farmer Boys in North San Bernardino. Lt Walker of San Bernardino PD said that they did detain multiple persons of interest but due to the trama of the shooting the CSO was unable to identify the person. They are waiting on DNA and gun powder residue to identify if any of the persons of interest match the evidence that was located.

On another note Lt Walker said that they will be hitting that complex hard with their gang team over the next two days to deal with the issues going on in that complex. Lt Walker said that five homicides in one week.

We had yet to hear from newly elected Councilwoman Littlefeild. People close to her camp have attacked us for asking her for a simple statement on this issue. We will have more on that story later………