News and Announcements

Our District and each of our schools have been named recipients of the California Pivotal Practice Award Program by the California Department of Education. This program was designed to celebrate districts and schools that implemented an innovative practice during the 2020–21 school year, when California required schools to offer distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We were recognized for the following:

District: District Student Mental Health Program
CVISS: Use of Technology and Well-Being Efforts
Hawthorne: Providing Educational Technology and Systematic Home Support
Lawndale: ROCKS Student Support Team
Leuzinger: Virtual Learning Walks
Lloyde: Social-Emotional Well-Being for All

Congrats to Leuzinger High School, the first ever CVUHSD E-Sports Champs!!! The Olympians went undefeated both days of the tournament! Great job Hawthorne, Lawndale and Lloyde High Schools, they put up a good fight! Congratulations to all students for making history by competing in the first CVUHSD E-Sports Championship! A HUGE thank you to our IT department who worked tirelessly to make this event happen, it looked AMAZING. And thank you to MCA Productions for covering the event, they did awesome and made a great highlight video!

In accordance with California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) regulations, an Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS/MND) was prepared that describes the environmental impacts of the proposed Hawthorne High School Athletic Facilities Improvements Project (Project). The proposed Project would replace existing outdoor athletic facilities on the campus and the Hawthorne Aquatics Facility with new and improved facilities. The IS/MND was circulated for public review and comment for 30 days from March 21st to April 19th, 2022, as required by CEQA. No comments from State or local agencies or members of the public were received on the Draft IS/MND for the Project. As a result, the Centinela Valley Union High School District (District) has not had to respond to any comments. A Final IS/MND has now been prepared, which will be presented to the District’s School Board (Board) for their consideration and approval. The Board of the District will consider adoption of the Final IS/MND and the CEQA required Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program (MMRP) and approval of the proposed Project at its meeting on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.

CVUHSD hosted the HBCU Caravan at Hawthorne, Lawndale and Leuzinger High Schools. The event was huge success with nearly a thousand seniors in attendance. Hundreds were accepted on the spot, and hundreds of thousands of dollars were awarded in scholarships. Some juniors were even able attend and accepted to college before their senior year!

The School News LA County Superintendent annual issue is now available and features Dr. Stephen Nellman on page 11 (pictured above). Click title to view the publication online. Limited printed issues will be available at the District Office.

Congratulations to Lloyde High School for being one of 36 schools to be named a 2022 Model Continuation High School, sustaining another three-year designation after earning the recognition in 2019. The schools were recognized for their innovative teaching approaches that enable students with diverse and challenging needs to complete their high school education.

Please review the new COVID-19 protocols and recommendations for students and staff, issued on January 4, 2022. Click the title above to view new information for the return of students and staff from Winter Break.

Leuzinger earned the College Board's AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award for expanding young women's access to AP Computer Science Principles (CSP). This award acknowledges 1,020 schools for their work toward equal gender representation during the 2020-21 school year. Leuzinger is one of only 760 schools to be recognized for achieving this important result in AP CSP.

CVUHSD Families,

We wanted to inform you that the state will be mailing out NEW and retroactive P-EBT (2.0) cards to the address on file at your student's school. If your address or contact information has changed, you need to contact your student's school and provide a new proof of residency. You are at risk of not receiving these important benefits if your address and contact information is not updated.

Click title for more information.

CVUHSD was invited to present at the California Association of Black School Educators (CABSE) 5th Annual Education Conference. Dr. Stephen Nellman, Superintendent, Dr. Pam Brown, Assistant Superintendent of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Dr. Kelly Santos, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services gave a presentation on Transforming Culture Through Equitable Policies, Inclusive Practices and Strategic Supports.

The district is now in year 3 of the Digital Learning Initiative (DLI). This year all students have a take-home Chromebook; we have deployed over 6,000 student Chromebooks!

The Lawndale High School football team had an exceptionally successful season, ending it as the CIF State Division 2A Champions. Additionally, they won the CIF Southern Section Division 5 Championship and the CIF State Southern Regional Division 2A Championship.
They have been named Top 50 in the nation by MaxPreps, out of 17,000 teams nationwide. The team was honored by MaxPreps in partnership with the National Guard at a Tour of Champions event, where they were recognized and presented with a trophy. A representative from the LA Rams attended to congratulate the team and present Coach Clark with a Coach of the Week Award and a rep from the LA Chargers attended and gave the team hats. Community stakeholders and all Lawndale HS students attended to celebrate our State Champions.

This year, CVUHSD hosted its first annual "Get to Know Us" tour at Hawthorne, Lawndale and Leuzinger High Schools. We invited principals, assistant principals, teachers, counselors and district administrators from our partner districts to attend and the turnout was great! Guests enjoyed a continental breakfast prepared by our Culinary Careers Academy students, followed by a tour at each high school, highlighting the best programs and extracurricular opportunities that each school has to offer, and concluding with lunch. We value our partner districts and look forward to continuing to nurture our partnerships to ensure that our students leave high school ready for college, career...and life!

Tuesday, September 18th marked our 3rd Annual Community Partner Breakfast, in partnership with the South Bay Workforce Investment Board. This year's breakfast proved to be a huge success with over 100 business representatives in attendance! Attendees watched a presentation on how businesses can connect with our career academies and career technical education pathways, a panel discussion including current business partners, and the Platinum Partner Awards. The attendees then had 40 minutes to interact directly with our academy students during the Academy Table Talk time. We are excited to watch these new partnerships develop this year!

Lawndale HS students participated in UCLA Volunteer Day, a large community participation event for students that covers a wide range of community service projects across Los Angeles. A group of Bruins went to Lawndale HS Saturday School and encouraged students to attend college. Next, they went to Lloyde HS and helped complete a fence project for campus improvement. The event proved to be a great example of #theCVway, putting #StudentsFirst and improving campus safety, keeping it clean, being kind and learning something new. A big thank you to UCLA Bruins Give Back and to the CV students and staff who participated in UCLA Volunteer Day.

Hawthorne engineering student, Alex Lopez, was tasked with a project for NASA during his time in their on-site internship program, NASA Hunch. Hawthorne is one of only forty schools nationwide participating in the manufacturing portion of the program. The Hawthorne High School of Engineering and Manufacturing (HHSME) along with industry partners and alumni, began working to create successful products that are capable of passing a rigorous inspection before being accepted as flight parts for the International Space Station (ISS).

Lopez, along with a small group of engineering students and mentors from the industry, worked meticulously to create 10 flight parts. All 10 of Lopez's parts passed the NASA inspection and have been accepted as flight parts that are now in the process of being assembled as part of a Hand Rail System that will be flying to the ISS in a future mission.

As a result of Lopez’s hard work and ensuring his parts exceeded expectations, HHSME has the pleasure to announce that NASA has requested 50 additional parts!

Lawndale High School physics teacher, Ms. Maria Genota, was named Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) Teacher of the Year. Genota was selected for her exemplary dedication, compelling classroom practices, positive accomplishments and professional commitment. LACOE selects the top 16 teachers out of the 72,000 teachers within the county. Genota prides herself on setting up programs that provide her physics students opportunities to meet and collaborate with engineers and implementing new strategies in her classroom.

CV is partnering with Sprint to give high-speed internet to our students who do not have access at home. As part of Sprint's 1Million Project, they are giving us 300 HotSpots with high-speed internet each year, for the next 5 years. We will distribute them to CV students who qualify, giving them free internet at home. Internet is a basic necessity for student success in the 21st century and we thank Sprint for this amazing opportunity!

Hawthorne HS geometry teacher, Ms. Ding-ay Tadena, won 1st place in Voya Financial's Unsung Heroes Program and was presented with a $27,000 check.  She won for her innovative “When Geometry Meets Fashion” project, which focuses on connecting “left brain and right brain” skills.  Students use the math skills they have developed from her class to the study of music, art and fashion design.  The Voya grant will allow Tadena to provide materials for a diverse array of mathematical art projects, including drawing, painting, fashion and accessory design, and more. Tadena believes by understanding and applying the crossovers between arts and mathematics, students will be able to find color, glamour and beauty in what is sometimes considered a mundane subject. With her award grant, she plans to purchase items for the program, including dress forms, expandable body forms, mannequins, sewing machines, assorted textiles, 3-D printers and art materials. These items will help ensure the continued success of the program for years to come and will allow other teachers to utilize the resources so they can also discover the joy of arts integration into other subjects.

The California PBIS Coalition recognized Lawndale High School for the successful implementation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) at the Silver level. Lawndale received the honor within the California PBIS Coalition’s System of Recognition, reflecting excellence with the application of the core features of PBIS.

SoCal Helpful Honda Guys selected Hawthorne High School's special education teacher, Mr. Ivan Flores for a Random Act of Helpfulness. He was surprised with a room makeover including new desks, a new reading area with couches and beanbags and several new storage spaces. Flores was nominated by Principal Vanessa Landesfiend and was selected out of over 500 submissions, proving how inspiring and remarkable of a teacher he is. To top it all off there was an another surprise for him, Principal Landesfiend announced that he has been voted Hawthorne HS's Teacher of the Year by his colleagues. CV is so proud to have you!

Click on the title above to view media clips of the surprise

On Feb 22., 2017, young designers from Hawthorne High School presented the newest fashion trend, When Geometry Meets Fashion, at the Fourth Annual United Way of Greater Los Angeles Linked Learning Showcase. Their Linked Learning project was an opportunity to create sustainable fashion using geometry, math and design skills learned in the classroom.

Copy and paste the address below for the full story, LA Fashion Magazine: http://thelafashion.com/2017/02/24/knew-math-beautiful/

The CVUHSD School Attendance Review Board (SARB) was selected as a Model SARB in California. The Model SARB Recognition Program identifies outstanding results-based school attendance improvement programs that provide comprehensive services to high-risk youth with school attendance or behavior problems.

“Readers noted your comprehensive prevention, early identification, and intervention strategies as well as your excellent SARB leadership strategies”, said David Kopperud, California Department of Education.

Lawndale High School MESA (Math Engineering Science Achievement) team won 2nd Place at the 2017 Raytheon Engineering Games. 30 schools participated in the games, which involved Electronics, Programming, Mathematics, team work, passion and hard work ! Congratulations Lawndale HS MESA UCLA Team 2017!

The Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) Region XIV selected Dr. Pam Brown as the Secondary Administrator of the Year. The award is presented annually in recognition of the outstanding performance and achievement of an individual in the public school system. Her nomination will be submitted to the State ACSA for consideration at the state level.

KCAL 9 came out to interview Ms. Church on being nominated as a Top 50 Finalist for the Varkey Foundation's Global Teacher Prize. The winner will receive $1 million! She is one of only 5 Americans to be nominated.

Click the title to watch the story.

Leuzinger High School was awarded funding by the U.S. Department of Education for a new college-preparation program in partnership with Volunteers of America, Los Angeles (VoALA), called the Educational Talent Search Program.

The program offers free services to students from Leuzinger High School that participate. Program activities include:

• Academic advisement (tracking A-G requirements)
• College & cultural enrichment field trips
• Standardized test preparation (PSAT/SAT/ACT)
• Assistance with scholarship searches
• Tutoring
• Workshops (academic, gender awareness, senior year preparation and timeline, networking, financial responsibilities, athletics, etc.)
• Individual help with college and financial aid applications

CVUHSD was 1 of only 5 districts awarded the UCLA California Mathematics Readiness Challenge Initiative grant.

The $1.28M grant will provide for in-depth professional learning opportunities in Mathematics for a collaborative composed of our Mathematics teachers, instructional coaches, school site administrators, and faculty from UCLA to support the implementation and evaluation of grade 12 experiences that are designed to prepare students for placement in college-level courses in Mathematics. Through this partnership with the UCLA Teacher Education Program, we will be introducing a new Mathematics course, Introduction to Data Science (IDS) and providing extensive professional learning for their Mathematics Teachers.

The Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for the new Student Union Building at Lawndale HS was held on October 7th. Staff, students and community stakeholders all showed their support by attending the ceremony. The Lawndale HS Marching Band started off the ceremony followed by Cheer. Speakers included Dr. Paula Rodas, Principal, Dr. Gregory O'Brien, Superintendent, Board President Hugo Rojas, Vice-President Gloria Ramos, Clerk Rocio Pizano, and Member Daniel Urrutia. Local dignitaries were present and representatives from the County Board of Supervisors and Assemblymember Autumn Burke's offices presented Certificates of Recognition. Food was provided by the Culinary Careers Academy at Leuzinger HS.

50 students from the Hawthorne High School of Manufacturing & Engineering attended a special Shades of Blue E-Learning webcast, an interactive online presentation in conjunction with the SHADES OF BLUE Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) educational initiatives, at the Bob Hope Patriotic Hall in Los Angeles, Wednesday, October 5, 2016.

The South Bay Workforce Investment Board (SBWIB) provided transportation for the students, teachers and chaperones. Eric Grice, Executive Director of the Tuskegee Airmen Scholarship Foundation (TASF), Clark W. Robinson, President, Chairman of TASF, and Theodore Lumpkin, past President of LA Chapter Tuskegee Airmen, Inc., attended the event and were on hand after the presentation to give personal accounts and answer student questions.

The California Department of Education (CDE) compiled a report of the exemplary work that CVUHSD is doing with the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) System and Smarter Balanced Asessment Consortium (SBAC) Interim Assessments. CVUHSD is featured on the CDE website!

Click article to view report

The Million Father March took place on Monday, September 19th at Hawthorne, Lawndale and Leuzinger High Schools. Fathers were invited to the school for an agenda full of engaging and exciting activities including a welcome, keynote address and breakfast, Parent Learning Walks, a Community Building Circle and closing.

Check out how the CVUHSD staff kicked off the 2016-2017 school year.

Hawthorne High School welcomed new Principal, Dr. Vanessa Landesfeind to the campus. Dr. Landesfeind left her position as the Principal of Instruction at Dominguez High School in Compton to join the Hawthorne High School team.

“I am honored to have been selected as the new principal for Hawthorne High School. I look forward to working with our students, parents, staff and community.”, said Dr. Landesfeind.

Congratulations to our Class of 2016 graduates! We wish you all the best in your future endeavors! Click on the title or picture to view pictures from the Hawthorne, Lawndale and Leuzinger graduations.

Hawthorne High School of Manufacturing & Engineering (HHSME) was awarded a $25,000 grant from Chevron at the School Maker Faire on May 21st. The funds will be used for tooling, tools and storage for the Project Lead The Way Computer Integrated Manufacturing Class. The project is expected to last over 10 years, the lifespan of the tools.

Each year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors names ONE student as the Outstanding Youth Volunteer for the entire county and this year, Brandon Ward a senior at Lawndale High School, was awarded. Last year, it was also a Lawndale High School student who was awarded. Brandon has been a peer mediator for the Centinela Youth Services STARS Peer Mediation Program for the past two years. He is a true leader in this program and his peers look up to and respect him. He takes the skills he learns in the program and applies them to his life and struggles. CVUHSD congratulates Brandon!

The Centinela Valley Union High School District recently locked in savings of over $5.2 million for local taxpayers by refinancing a portion of Measure CV bonds approved by voters in 2010.

On April 12, 2016 the CVUHSD Board voted unanimously to approve a resolution authorizing the refinancing of nearly $30,000,000 of its current bonds. The District took advantage of the historically low interest rate environment and replaced bonds with an average interest rate of approximately 5.73% with new bonds at an all-inclusive interest rate of 3.32%. All of the savings from the refinancing will be passed back to District taxpayers in the form of lower property tax bills. The refinancing did not extend the term of the original bond payments.

Lloyde High School was honored at the California Continuation Education Association (CCEA) Conference on April 29th for being named a 2016 Model Continuation School by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson.  The schools were recognized for their innovative teaching approaches that enable students with diverse needs to complete their high school education.

Congratulations to a few of Hawthorne HS's top scholarship recipients! Jasmine Brandon won the 2016 Gates Millennium and Posse Scholarships. Jasmine is graduating #2 in her class and will attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Fall. Mitchell Nguyen and Nicolas Fernandez are also recipients of the 2016 Posse Scholarship. Mitchell will attend University of Wisconsin-Madison in the fall to study Biology. Nicolas will attend Northwestern to study Applied Math. Aureliano Yepez and Felix Granados are recipients of the 2016 Sandpipers Scholarship. Aureliano is the valedictorian of his class and will attend UC Berekely in the Fall to study Computer Science. Felix will attend Cal Poly Pomona this Fall to study Geology.

Leuzinger High School senior, Kimberly Rodriguez was informed on Monday, April 18th, that she is a recipient of the 2016 Gates Millennium Scholarship (GMS), which will cover her costs when she attends UCLA for her undergraduate program. She plans to study Business and Psychology. She also plans to continue on to graduate school at an ivy league university, and if she chooses to study Computer Science, Education, Engineering, Library Science, Mathematics, Public Health or Science, she will be eligible for GMS fellowship funding for master’s and doctoral degrees.

Leuzinger senior Jennifer Rodela was surprised while in class by Edison International, who awarded her a $40,000 scholarship. She was one of only 30 high school seniors to receive the scholarship this year. Jennifer is graduating as valedictorian with a 4.7 GPA and plans to study Computer Science at either UC San Diego or UC Irvine.

Copy and paste this URL or click "read more" to take the survey!
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https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LCAP_Parent_CV

The District engaged 34 parents, 23 district and school site staff members, and 8 community members and partnership organization representatives in collaborative work to identify areas of critical need to be addressed in the 2016-2017 LCAP.

The Hawthorne HS Robotics Team was awarded the 2016 Regional Engineering Inspiration Award last Saturday, March 12, at the FIRST Los Angeles Regional Robotics Competition that was held at the Long Beach Convention Center March 9-12, 2016.

This award allows them to participate in the FIRST World Championship that will be held April 27-30, 2016 in St. Louis, Missouri. Additionally, it comes with a $5,000 scholarship from NASA to pay for their entrance fee. Anyone interested in making a donation to the team so they can raise the $30,000 they need to send the team and the robot to the competition should contact Lucas Pacheco at (310) 263-4545 or pachecol@centinela.k12.ca.us.

The CVUHSD Board of Education voted unanimously for Marisela Ruiz to fill the vacant seat for Trustee Area 1 in Lawndale. She will fill the position until the November 2017 election when the seat is up for reelection.

Marisela Ruiz is a lifelong member of the Lawndale community. Ms. Ruiz and her family are all Hawthorne High School alumni. She has worked her entire 19-year career in Lawndale and is currently a realtor at Casa Bella Properties, serving the Lawndale community. Ms. Ruiz is a member of the local Rotary Club and has volunteered her time fundraising for local schools and organizations. She currently has nieces and nephews at Hawthorne High School and is excited to be able to help ensure the best resources possible to them and continue increasing the success and betterment of all CVUHSD students. She looks forward to helping improve the district in her new position. CVUHSD takes great pleasure in welcoming Ms. Ruiz to the Board.

The Leuzinger High School Speech and Debate Team received a certificate of recognition at the Centinela Valley Union High School Board of Education meeting on March 8, 2016. This year, the Leuzinger High School Speech & Debate Team has amassed the most recognitions ever: six 1st place, seven 2nd place, four 3rd place, 12 "superior" certificates (4th-5th place) and 27 "excellence" certificates (6th-8th place).

The total National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) points as of Jan. 1, 2016 were 1,454 earned; their National ranking is 2,324 of 3151; their State ranking is 180 of 268. NSDA honored Leuzinger Speech and Debate as a Charter Member school with over 50 degrees awarded in a three-year period. Leuzinger is particularly proud of Onyeka Obi, who earned 1st place in House of Congress within the congressional debate arena.

Congratulations to Lawndale High School students Princess Turner, Kylie Morales
& Moises Contreras for winning 2nd place out of 26 schools in the 2016 Raytheon E Games Engineering Day.

This year was a Star Wars theme where the the protagonists had to build a "weapon" against the enemies, students built a trebuchet. The students, together with Engineers and Advisors, designed, constructed and tested the trebuchet machine with a goal of shooting a given object / projectile the farthest distance. The final score was an average of those two shots. Lawndale HS with North Torrance HS won 2nd place.

Hawthorne High School students Mitchell Nguyen, Jasmine Brandon and Nicolas Fernandez were honored at the CVUHSD Board Meeting on January 12, 2016 for being this year's Posse Scholars. Posse Scholars are awarded a four-year, full-tuition scholarship to a Posse partner college or university. Students are chosen based on their demonstration of leadership within their high school, community or family and their academic potential. Mitchell Nguyen and Jasmine Brandon will be attending University of Wisconsin and Nicolas Fernandez will attend University of Illinois this fall.

Congratulations to the Leuzinger High School Olympian Marching Band who won in three competitions at the Southern CA Judges Association State Championships. They took home 2nd place in Division 1, Viewer's Choice Award - Fan Favorite, and 1st place Color Guard competition.

On Tuesday, October 27th, CVUHSD teamed with the National Latino Peace Officers Association, North Los Angeles Chapter to host a special event with guest speaker Mika Camarena. This year marked the 30th anniversary of National Red Ribbon Week which commenced in honor of DEA Agent Enrique Camarena, who was slain while fighting the war on drugs in the United States and abroad. Agent Camarena's widow, Mika Camarena, was the keynote guest speaker at this event to address high school students on the danger of drugs. This memorial event was educational and benefit all students.

Students entered an essay contest on the theme Respect Yourself. Be Drug Free. Leuzinger High School student Precious Onwuka won the contest and took home a new laptop and wireless printer.

On Tuesday, December 8th, 2015, CVUHSD welcomed back Gloria Ramos, Board Member Re-Elect and new Board Member Elect, Daniel Urrutia at the Oath-Taking Ceremony. Board Member Gloria Ramos was sworn in by Mr. Rick Olivarez, Partner at Olivarez Madruga Law Firm. Board Member Daniel Urrutia was sworn in by the Honorable Robert Pullen-Miles, Mayor of Lawndale.

Hawthorne High School students marched (in the rain!) from Eucalyptus Park to Hawthorne High School as part of the Million Father March to support education. The Million Father March is the beginning of a year-long commitment of men to their children's educational success.

On October 17th, Hawthorne's NJROTC cadets Jordy Fuentes, Nick Moncada, Jonathon Villagomez, and Meghan Uitz competed in the JROTC Air Rifle match against a diverse number of schools from as far north as Reedley California to San Diego. Hawthorne finished 2nd place overall in all three positions (standing, kneeling, and prone​) . Cadet Jorddy Fuentes took 1st place as the highest scoring cadet as well as the 2nd highest shooter in kneeling and prone. Cadet Villagomez took 3rd in standing as well.

On August 24th, 2015 Hawthorne NJROTC cadets supported the "Tee it up for the troops" event at the Suncliff Country Club Golf Course as part of a fundraising activity for the Wounded Warrior project. The event was covered by ABC 7 news anchor, Phillip Palmer. Pictured are two cadets, Valerie Banda and Jose Ibarra with the ABC news team and CDR Urquidez.

Enrique Lopez is a graduating senior at Hawthorne High School. His two passions are his education and serving his community. He is an International Baccalaureate Diploma Candidate attending the University of California Berkeley in the fall. He has served numerous hours through Rotary (Interact) and most recently, as a Wish Granter for the Make A Wish a Foundation.

Enrique created the Resilience event, which took place on May 21st at the Centinela Valley Center for the Arts, to motivate and inspire the youth of the community. Hawthorne High School Alum stood on stage to share their experience. Their story of diverse backgrounds, communities, conflicts, resilience, education and success related to the audience of middle school students and high school students. He hopes that Resilience will become an annual student-produced event in the years to come.

Math teacher Ding-ay Tadena's students spent several weeks working through geometry problems that they used to create outfit designs with recycled items like plastic cups, newspapers, trashbags and CDs. Out of their effort came frocks, smocks, skirts and other costumes for their event.