Redlands Superintendent Mauricio Arellano visits Orangewood High School

By DEBBIE DIAZ and JOSEPH PACHECO

Superintendent Mauricio Arellano came to Orangewood High School on Nov. 17 to speak to students and look at the new remodels in the classrooms.

“The purpose of coming was to meet the students, meet the staff, get to look at some of the instruction that’s happening,” said Arellano. “I wanted to look at some of the remodels, like the library, some of the science rooms are still kind of in process — it’s going to take a while. I hadn’t seen the new culinary kitchen, so there’s a lot of good — the PE room, so that was a big part of coming.”

Arellano was doing the visits with Susan Abt, president of the Redlands Teacher Association. This was their second visit after their visit to Redlands High School earlier in the week.

Arellano said, “It’s not just me coming today, this is actually a collaborative schedule…so that people see us as a united force, that we’re here for kids and the staff and the principals.”

From left: Superintendent Mauricio Arellano, Orangewood High School seniors Debbie Diaz, Linayah Timmons and Joseph Pacheco and Redlands Teachers Association President Susan Abt. (Ethic News photo)

“I think it’s been very beneficial for everyone to see us together, working together as a team, instead of two different groups,” Arellano said.

Students in Kimberly Lott and Louise Gonzales’ classes made posters to make the superintendent feel welcome.

Senior Victor Encarnacion Ruiz said of Arellano visiting his first period class, “He felt like a future self of us, looking down on us, and it felt like someone was saying, ‘Don’t worry’.”

When Arellano and Abt visited Gonzales’ Integrated I math class, Gonzalez said Arellano would ask students what they were doing. In Lou Ann Perry’s English 11 class, he asked students about their upcoming AVID field trip to Whitewater.

“I enjoyed asking a lot of the students as I walked through, you know, do they like the school, do they feel supported,” said Arellano, “and everyone — at least that I talked to — said they really enjoy the school and appreciate and feel like they’re getting support.”

“One kid told me that he was tired and yawned,” said Arellano.

Arellano laughed and said, “That’s okay. I’ve had those days.”

Orangewood High School students in a Mathematics II class take notes on Nov. 17, 2021, while instructor Louise Gonzales explains out the new lesson they’re starting. (JOSEPH PACHECO/ Ethic News photo)

Orangewood High School teacher Matt Stewart works with a small group of students on Nov. 17, 2021. Stewart says, “We were discussing the Rube Goldberg contest — the upcoming rube Goldberg contest — where the final step is to open a book and so we were talking in class about how many different ways we can open a book with the machine.” (DEBBIE DIAZ/ Ethic News photo)

A new Culinary Arts kitchen, recently integrated into the Orangewood High School campus, is one of the new remodels of the school. (DEBBIE DIAZ/ Ethic News photo)

3-D printers are some of the new equipment upgrades in Matt Stewart’s Career and Technical Education classroom at Orangewood High School. (DEBBIE DIAZ/ Ethic News photo)