Rialto Unified School District

Rialto Unified School District
Address
182 East Walnut Avenue
Rialto
, California, 92376
United States
District information
TypePublic
GradesK through 12
SuperintendentJudy D. White
NCES District ID0632370 [1]
Students and staff
Students24,461 (2020–2021)[1]
Teachers998.97 (FTE)[1]
Staff1,251.42 (FTE)[1]
Student–teacher ratio24.49:1[1]
Other information
Websitekec.rialto.k12.ca.us/kec

Rialto Unified School District is a school district in San Bernardino County, California, serving most of Rialto, sections of Colton, Fontana and San Bernardino, and the census-designated place of Lytle Creek.[2][3]

The school district has about 26,485 students, 3,800 staff, and a budget of about $200 million.

History

The district's first schoolhouse, which opened in 1888, was a part of the Brooke School District. The Rialto school district was formed out of the Brooke district on April 9, 1891.[4]

Holocaust writing assignment controversy

In 2014, Rialto Unified attracted national criticism after it gave its roughly 2,000 eighth-grade students an argumentative writing assignment asking them to determine, based on their research, whether the Holocaust was "an actual event in history, or merely a political scheme created to influence public emotion and gain wealth".[5][6] The assignment had been written by a team of the district's eighth-grade language arts teachers and cleared its Educational Services Department before being given out in April under interim superintendent Mohammad Z. Islam.[7][8] The accompanying source packet included printed material from a Holocaust denial website.[6][9]

Crown Coach Supercoach II, Rialto Unified School District

After The San Bernardino Sun reporter Beau Yarbrough broke the story in May 2014, the Anti-Defamation League and the Simon Wiesenthal Center condemned the prompt.[5][10][11] District spokeswoman Syeda Jafri initially defended it as a Common Core critical-thinking exercise, but at an emergency meeting the school board, through its president Joanne Gilbert, apologized and called the assignment "horribly inappropriate".[7][12] The district revised its assignment-review process, sent the eighth-graders and their teachers to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, and provided sensitivity training for teachers.[13][8] Islam and Jafri received death threats that police traced to a man in Connecticut.[7][14][15]

A follow-up investigation by the Sun found that, contrary to the district's initial claims, at least 50 of the students' essays denied or doubted that the Holocaust occurred.[16][17]

Elementary schools

  • Levi Bemis Elementary School Bobcats
  • J. Calvin Boyd Elementary School Bulldogs
  • Merle S. Casey Elementary School Cougars
  • Sam V. Curtis Elementary School Colts
  • Helen L. Dollahan Elementary School Dalmatians
  • George H. Dunn Elementary School Dolphins
  • Dr. Edward M. Fitzgerald Elementary School Foxes
  • Dr. Ernest Garcia Elementary School Grizzlies
  • Lida M. Henry Elementary School Hawks
  • Elizabeth T. Hughbanks Elementary School Huskies
  • J. P. Kelley Elementary School Koalas
  • A. H. Morgan Elementary School Mustangs
  • Georgia F. Morris Elementary School Mountain Lions
  • W. A. Myers Elementary School Dragons
  • Lena M. Preston Elementary School Panthers
  • Samuel W. Simpson Elementary School Seahawks
  • W. J. C. Trapp Elementary School Timberwolves
  • Nancy R. Kordyak Elementary School Cubs
  • Charlotte Nan Werner Elementary School, opening July 2008, named after an area mother[18]

Middle schools

  • Warren H. Frisbie Middle School Falcons
  • William G. Jehue Middle School Jaguars
  • Ben F. Kolb Middle School Cougars
  • Ethel Kucera Middle School Coyotes
  • Rialto Middle School Tigers

High schools

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Search for Public School Districts – District Detail for Rialto Unified". National Center for Education Statistics. Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
  2. ↑ "2020 CENSUS - SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP: San Bernardino County, CA" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. p. 8 (PDF p. 9/12). Retrieved March 14, 2024. - Text list
  3. ↑ "Board of Education". rialto-ca.schoolloop.com. Archived from the original on August 17, 2019. Retrieved July 19, 2019.
  4. ↑ "120 Years of RUSD - A Look Back..." (Archive). Rialto Unified School District. Retrieved on July 1, 2014.
  5. 1 2 "EXCLUSIVE: Rialto Unified defends writing assignment on confirming or denying Holocaust". San Bernardino Sun. May 4, 2014. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  6. 1 2 Strauss, Valerie (May 7, 2014). "8th grade assignment: Write essay about whether Holocaust was real or made up". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 "Furor over school essay assignment questioning whether Holocaust happened - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. May 8, 2014. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  8. 1 2 "SWC Action Following Rialto Holocaust Assignment: 2,000 Middle School Students to Visit Museum of Tolerance by June". Simon Wiesenthal Center. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  9. ↑ "School District Officials Reportedly Threatened Over Holocaust Assignment - CBS Los Angeles". www.cbsnews.com. May 5, 2014. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  10. ↑ "Holocaust Denial Exercise for Students in California High School Backfires". Southern Poverty Law Center. May 6, 2014. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  11. ↑ "You are being redirected..." la.adl.org. Archived from the original on August 6, 2024. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  12. ↑ Rocha, Veronica (May 8, 2014). "Rialto school officials apologize for Holocaust assignment". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  13. ↑ "Rialto Assignment Asking Students to Question Holocaust to Be Revised". KTLA. Archived from the original on May 5, 2026. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  14. ↑ Cocca • •, Christina (May 5, 2014). ""Scheme" or Tragedy: Middle School Holocaust Assignment Prompts Death Threats". NBC Los Angeles. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  15. ↑ Winograd, David (May 6, 2014). "Rialto Unified School District Backs Off Holocaust Assignment". TIME. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  16. ↑ "EXCLUSIVE: Holocaust denied by students in Rialto school assignment". San Bernardino Sun. July 11, 2014. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  17. ↑ "Student Essays Argue Holocaust Didn't Happen in Controversial California Assignment". Tablet Magazine. July 16, 2014. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  18. ↑ Farren, Julie (August 29, 2007). "Rialto's latest school named for mom". The Press-Enterprise. Archived from the original on May 20, 2011. Retrieved March 14, 2024.
  19. ↑ "3rd Council Ward District" (PDF). City of San Bernardino. Retrieved March 14, 2024. - Linked from here Archived March 14, 2024, at the Wayback Machine. A school icon is placed where Rialto High is. Please compare with the full street name, number, and ZIP code of the school: "Home". Rialto High School. Archived from the original on May 16, 2024. Retrieved March 14, 2024. 595 S. Eucalyptus Ave. Rialto, CA 92376 - Despite the Rialto address, the school is in the San Bernardino city limits, not the Rialto city limits.
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