One Hart Awards

Each month the District recognizes staff, students, and community members who exemplify the Hart District core values. Congratulations to our One Hart Award winners!

March 2026

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Nicolas Zamora Community
Nicolas, a senior at Hart, was recommended for a One Hart Award for showing outstanding kindness and integrity for the community. After witnessing a hit-and-run accident involving an older teacher from nearby OLPH School, Nicolas went out of his way during his lunch period to return, provide dash-camera footage, and make sure that teacher was safe even though he was not obligated to do so. His compassion, responsibility, and willingness to step up in a stressful situation truly reflect the character this award represents.

Danny Ross Creativity
Danny Ross is the creative problem solver behind the scenes at Academy of the Canyons. No matter the technological challenge, Danny finds a solution, often one we never would have imagined. He responds quickly and resolves issues. When technology falters, he does not just fix it; he improves it. He is often the first to respond and never leaves a problem unfinished. Our campus continues to run smoothly every single day because of his creative solutions and diligence.

Carla Tuttle Community
Carla Tuttle is the Office Manager and Registrar at AOC. She keeps countless systems running smoothly, and anticipates needs and makes sure every detail is handled. Carla is our gardener in every sense of the word, quite literally tending to the flowers that beautify our campus while also planting ideas, nurturing relationships, and helping solutions take root. She notices what needs attention before anyone asks. She cares so deeply about our school and helps our entire community grow!

Scott Barker Caring
On every campus there is that one person who serves as the ultimate safety net; at GVHS it's Scott Barker. Known for a commitment to finding a way, he is the first to step into a gap—whether this means covering an extra period for another teacher, supporting our basketball program, or stepping onto the field to coach a team in need of leadership. Scott's extra efforts aren't just stepping up in the moment but a deep-seated commitment to student and staff success. For our students, he ensures no learner falls through the cracks, offering a steady hand and an open door to anyone seeking guidance. For his colleagues, he is the collaborator, constantly sharing strategies and time to ensure the entire team is equipped to reach our kids. Scott's willingness to sacrifice his own time to better the school makes him invaluable to the GV community and an inspiration of selfless service.

Bradley Grose Community
Brad Grose is a co-founder of Santa Clarita Grocery, a completely volunteer-run food pantry serving thousands of Santa Clarita families in need. He has built an organization that embodies compassion and unity. Through the Youth Leadership initiative, he inspires young people to lead with empathy and responsibility, including many Hart District students. Mr. Grose uses his talents to lift others, strengthen families, and make Santa Clarita a better place for all.

Joe Stasen Caring
Joe is an amazing teacher. His quiet demeanor and steadfast professionalism is only outdone by his commitment to student success. He is always there to help support Canyon High School in all our endeavors. He is a long-standing staple of our Cowboy legacy, and we are a better school as a result of his commitment in caring for all of our students. Thank you, Joe. We truly appreciate you.

Brendan McCann Community
Brendan McCann truly cares about the community of Canyon High School. In addition to being an incredible Digital Media Arts and AP Studio teacher, he finds the time to create and design various logos, t-shirts, banners, and signs for all our school needs. His creativity is unparalleled, and he always goes above and beyond to help out every Cowboy on this campus. Thank you, Brendan, for everything that you do. We can not wait to see what our t-shirts will look like next year.

Campbell Laraway Community
Campbell Laraway is a senior at Canyon High School. Campbell’s mom showed her an Instagram post from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles about volunteers making handmade valentines for children in the hospital. The post motivated Campbell to get involved, and with the help of a few close friends, the group made 308 valentines to share a note of caring. We want to commend Campbell on her gracious way of contributing to the community.

Kayleigh Brower Courage
Kayleigh Brower wears many hats at Canyon. She is a social studies teacher and EL and WASC Coordinator. Kayleigh takes pride in her career and it shows through her students and her commitment to Canyon. Kayleigh is receiving this award because she has the courage and determination to set her students up for success.

Lorraine Fulleman Caring
Lorraine Fulleman is a huge part of the Sierra Vista community and gives our students many educational experiences in the library. Mrs. Fulleman goes above and beyond with making sure students have access to their curriculum and she also participates in engaging lessons that help support student learning. Mrs. Fulleman is a wonderful librarian and her heart is always to see our students become better at reading comprehension. She has a love for books that exudes into our school community.

Stephanie English Community
Stephanie English has served the Santa Clarita community for two decades through the Los Angeles County Fire Department, as a trusted field representative for Los Angeles County Supervisor Katherine Barger, and working on the boards of numerous local non-profit organizations. Stephanie is known for her responsiveness, strong leadership, and deep community relationships. Her character and leadership have inspired her peers. As she retires, she leaves a legacy of pro-active leadership, meaningful collaboration, exceptional commitment to community service, and lasting impact.

Patsy Ayala Caring
Santa Clarita Mayor Pro Tem Patsy Ayala’s service to Santa Clarita began long before being elected to City Council, with a deep desire to build community and create opportunities for others. She has become a trusted bridge between local government, families, schools, and community organizations. She is a tireless community leader and was recognized as the 21st senatorial district Woman of the Year in 2013, a reflection of the respect she has earned across the community. Patsy Ayala is someone who shows up - in council chambers, schools, community events, and in moments of celebration and crisis.

Viane Muyomba Caring
Viane is an exceptional and outstanding Instructional Assistant at Rancho Pico. He is calm, patient, supportive and has built tremendous rapport with his student. Viane is a true professional each day and can always be counted on to support his student and anyone else in the classroom. He has a great attitude and has been a tremendous addition to our team this year.

Amanda Stieff Creativity
Amanda is the PE department chair who continuously finds solutions and develops effective systems that involve hundreds of Arroyo Seco students enthusiastically each class period. Amanda is a positive, professional person. It is easy to find kids who will say, “She is so nice!”

Monica Rogozik Caring
In a profession of caring people Monica still stands out for how she knows students as individuals. This allows her to know how to motivate kids and make appropriate adjustments for their current level. Kids appreciate how understanding Mrs. Rogozik is of who they are as people.

Troy Best Courage
Troy's replies on the radio say a lot about his willingness to take responsibility, "How can I make your day better?" Kids say he’s willing to be just silly enough. He coaches the Seco Girls basketball team, and spends many winter nights at the scorer’s table of local basketball games.

Chris Cooper Community
Chris builds a steady environment of success in the PE program. He provides structure with a smile. He can see the value and potential in any student, and knows how to encourage and praise kids with all skill levels.

Darren Stieff Community
Darren provides a well run program while showing a fun spirit. He anticipates needs and makes smart adjustments. He is motivating and keeps a variety of activities for kids. Kids see someone they can rely on who also has a good sense of humor.

February 2026

Dawn Anderson Caring
Dawn is a longtime instructional aide at the Sequoia Program whose dedication, consistency, and care have made a lasting impact on students and staff. She wears many hats and supports wherever needed, from assisting with IEP preparation and classroom organization to working directly with students and providing transportation support when necessary. Dawn consistently answers the call with grace and reliability, and her quiet leadership and compassion help create a stable, supportive environment for our school community. She is deeply appreciated and truly deserving of the One Hart Award for caring.

Hala Mostafa Creativity
Hala is a valued new member of the Sequoia team whose presence has quickly become a saving grace for our school community. As our front office support, Hala serves as the first point of care and connection, managing daily operations, supporting the administrative team, and ensuring the needs of both classified and certificated staff are met with consistency and professionalism. She plays a key role in maintaining the integrity and flow of our campus operations, always stepping in wherever needed. Beyond her operational excellence, Hala brings creativity and heart to her role, often personally preparing homemade treats as a way to ensure staff feel seen, valued, and appreciated. We are deeply grateful to have her as part of our team and proudly honor her with the One Hart Award for creativity.

Shazia Shah Caring
Shazia is an outstanding school psychologist who goes above and beyond in her work. She is committed to helping students achieve success with social/emotional supports and spends her time caring for her students, interns, and staff. She is a professional in all aspects of her work, and she is always looking through a positive lens when problem solving different issues that may arise. She shows love and care for others and she is a rock for our Sierra Vista community.

Marbella Salazar and Team Caring
Marbella and her team really know our Golden Valley students. They take time to connect with our students and even know their individual likes and dislikes. They not only nourish them with food but with positive interactions. It's amazing how hard this team works to make our students feel safe, wanted, and cared for.

Wendy Salkeld Caring
Wendy is the health technician at Hart and shows tremendous care for all of our students and staff. Whether in the office or out on campus, Wendy cares for each and everyone when it comes to sickness or injuries, she is on top of it! Wendy has been at Hart nearly 15 years and has been wonderful ever since she started.

Prescott Littlefield Community
In a heartbreaking situation, Prescott stepped into a leadership role for the SC Flyers Hockey community. He brought dignity to a difficult moment and carried that responsibility with grace and compassion. Leadership means facing challenges, sadness, and moments of joy, and he did so with integrity every step of the way.

Zeina Al-Hennawi Caring
Zeina always says, “it’s no problem.” Whatever our school needs, whatever our students need, the answer is always the same. She never hesitates or shies away from any challenge, and her dedication to the growth and progress of our school and our students is constant and genuine. We are so grateful for her leadership as our ROOTS President and as one of the most caring and generous members of the AOC community.

Danielle Lahey Community
Danielle is an exceptional teacher who deeply cares about every student’s success and works to create the positive, inclusive culture that defines Valencia High School. Through her leadership on our Guiding Coalition, Danielle helps make Valencia an amazing place for students to learn and for teachers to teach. We are proud to celebrate her impact on Viking Nation.

Gloria Locke Community
Gloria Locke is recognized for her contributions to the Santa Clarita community. Gloria recently created illustrations of Black leaders in the Santa Clarita Valley and assembled them into a book to document the history of Santa Clarita and help people learn about the accomplishments of these individuals.

Anna Beth Carpenter Creativity
AnnaBeth brings an innovative, creative approach to lesson planning that truly engages students in English. Student discourse is a consistent and meaningful part of her classroom, and she transitions seamlessly from one topic to the next. Her lessons are thoughtfully designed around high-interest themes that resonate with 8th graders, and students genuinely enjoy learning in her class. Beyond the classroom, AnnaBeth serves as Rancho Pico’s English Department Chair, an Achieve teacher, and a valued member of our Guiding Coalition. She is known for thinking outside the box, offering insightful ideas, and collaborating to find thoughtful solutions to complex educational challenges—all while keeping student learning at the center of her work.

Gordon Preston Courage
Gordon is someone you can always count on to start our Rancho Pico faculty meetings on a positive note by sharing a “Good Thing.” He genuinely values our school community and isn’t shy about expressing his appreciation. As our RPTV Advisor, he’s incredibly flexible—graciously handling last-minute additions to shows with courtesy and a smile. He empowers his students to take ownership, trusting them to produce broadcasts that are consistently professional and well run. Gordon is also a collaborative member of the history department and unfailingly supportive whenever help is needed. Above all, he’s simply one of the kindest people you’ll ever meet.

Brooke Bechtel Caring
Brooke Bechtel defines what it means to care. Students don’t just learn in her room - they thrive, fueled by a positive and consistent environment that is rooted in her unmatched patience and kindness. As the leader of La Mesa’s Living Skills program, Brooke has created an educational sanctuary for her students, support staff, and families.

January 2026

Kevin Kane Caring
Congratulations to Kevin Kane as he received the ‘One Hart’ award in the area of Caring. He steps up when we need him to take care of our grounds. He is one of our fabulous custodians that always does his work with gratitude and with a smile. He is always there when we need him and he is very supportive and helpful with all of our school events. We appreciate his hard work and his attention to detail.

Stephen Evison Community
Over the last five years, Stephen Evison has fundamentally transformed the boys soccer program, building a powerhouse defined by elite competition and exceptional character. By holding his players to the highest standards, Coach Evison has instilled a deep sense of confidence in his students—proving that success on the pitch is driven by the same discipline required for academic achievement and mutual respect. We are profoundly grateful for the tireless time, energy, and passion he pours into our Golden Valley students; he is not just coaching a game, he is mentoring the leaders of tomorrow.

Shanna Mann Caring
For her students, Mrs. Shanna Mann is that rare blend of challenge and comfort. She refuses to lower the standard, believing that "good enough" is the enemy of greatness. Mrs. Mann sets student expectations sky-high, but never leaves them to climb alone. Whether it’s staying late to troubleshoot a complex problem or offering a word of encouragement during a setback, she provides the support necessary for every student to reach their peak. Mrs. Mann is the quintessential outside-the-box thinker and her impact radiates far beyond the classroom at Golden Valley. She is the first to arrive when a colleague is overwhelmed and the last to leave when a school-wide initiative needs that final push. Her kindness isn't just part of her personality; it’s her professional mission. Mrs. Mann is the supportive presence on campus, always ready to lend a listening ear or lend a helping hand. In her world, there are no silos—only opportunities to work together, dream bigger, and ensure that every student and staff member feels seen, capable, and inspired.

Ron Heller Community
Ron is a pillar of the Sequoia community. For six years as Sequoia’s campus supervisor, he has been a steady presence on campus and plays an important role in fostering a sense of connection and belonging among students. The genuine care and respect he shows our students is evident in the relationships he has built—so much so that students often look out for and protect him when situations arise. The One Hart Award is given to Ron for his consistency, care for students, and dedication to Sequoia.

Lynn Holmgren Caring

Lynn’s care for students is evident in the meaningful connections she builds with them each day. Through her approach to teaching, students who previously found English challenging have developed a sense of confidence, engagement, and pride in their learning. Lynn’s compassion for Sequoia students extends beyond the classroom, as evidenced by her efforts to build community partnerships. Through these partnerships, she helped secure a generous donation that allowed each Sequoia student to receive one to three items from their wishlist, making the holiday season especially meaningful and joyful for our students. Lynn’s dedication to her students, her commitment to community, and her genuine care for all students’ well-being reflect the Hart District’s values and beautifully exemplify the spirit of the One Hart Award.

Ashley and Hailey Stuart Community
Ashley and Hailey Stuart are both very involved in community service, participating in many clubs and activities throughout their school careers. In addition, they started the TPUSA Club at Saugus High School with the goal to unite students from all walks of life. They recently worked closely with businesses and community members, and overcame obstacles, to plan a large successful community event.

Michael Patti Community
There is a saying that "people may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel." If that’s true, then there are nearly three decades of students and staff members who feel incredibly lucky right now. Michael has been a pillar of our district since 1997 and has influenced the lives of countless students and staff. Mr. Patti is deeply vested in student success. Whether it’s sitting with students to walk them through a difficult concept, advocating for them with stakeholders, or being the loudest cheerleader on the field, his commitment is steadfast. He is the first to offer a helping hand when a colleague needs it and always greets us with a smile, regardless of the hectic day. In 28 years, that unwavering positivity hasn't dimmed. Thank you for being the Hart of La Mesa.

Richard Gonzalez Caring
Richard is always ready to jump in wherever he’s needed, and his support for our students is truly constant. His warmth, kindness, and genuine smile greet students every single day at AOC, helping make our campus feel welcoming and safe. Richard has become a trusted and beloved presence in such a short amount of time in our community, and it’s clear in everything he does that he cares deeply about our students, our staff, and the heart of AOC.

Chris Rippe Creativity
Mr. Rippe creates countless ways to support his students in learning and growing. He regularly shares valuable insights with parents and kids. With Mr. Rippe, Arroyo Seco has a champion of student motivation.

December 2025

Ann McCann Caring
Mrs. Ann McCann possesses a quiet, yet profoundly brilliant, presence. Her warmth and genuine kindness are immediately apparent; she is an attentive listener who consistently makes everyone feel seen, valued, and understood. Mrs. McCann excels as a proactive problem-solver, dedicated to supporting every student who seeks her assistance. Collaborating with her provides teachers and peers with critical insight and actionable opportunities to better serve our Golden Valley students. This unique fusion of empathetic compassion and inventive aptitude establishes her as an inspiring cornerstone of our team, motivating all who work with her.

Linda Storli Caring
Linda Storli has served her community and the students of the Hart District for more than three decades. Following her 30-year teaching career at Canyon High School, she served nine impactful years on the Hart District Governing Board and helped to accomplish many good things during her tenure. She was also involved in the formation of the City of Santa Clarita and appointed to the first Parks and Recreation Committee. Her consistent lifetime service and volunteerism are founded in her compassion, care, and concern for others.

Mackenzie Frame Community
Mackenzie Frame cares deeply about the students and community of Academy of the Canyons, and his dedication is evident in every role he serves. As our ASB Advisor, MTSS Coordinator, and 12th grade history teacher, Mr. Frame consistently goes above and beyond to support students academically, socially, and emotionally. This year he brought our students together for our very first school-wide pep rally. His focus on connection, school spirit, and shared experiences has been incredibly uplifting and has strengthened our sense of belonging as a community. In addition, Mr. Frame has spearheaded the Senior Capstone Projects at AOC, providing students with authentic opportunities to engage with our local community, address real needs, and grow as compassionate, responsible citizens. Mackenzie is a thoughtful, dedicated educator and an outstanding teammate. His care for his work, his students, and the AOC community is genuine and unwavering.

Doug Labus Community
We are proud to recognize Doug Labus for his outstanding contributions to the AOC community. As our Math Department Chair and a dedicated Bible Club mentor, Mr. Labus leads with insight, compassion, and a deep commitment to our students. He creates a warm and welcoming classroom environment where students feel valued, supported, and encouraged to grow not only academically, but also personally. His care for students extends well beyond the classroom, and his mentorship has made a meaningful impact across the campus. Bible Club continues to be packed each week, a reflection of Mr. Labus’s genuine enthusiasm, encouragement, and willingness to support students wherever they are. He is always present, always approachable, and always focused on what is best for our students and our community.

Scott Maxwell Community
Scott Maxwell is a valuable part of our Saugus community and he exemplifies community in every sense of the word. He is a teacher and a football coach. Students appreciate his kind, sincere personality and staff enjoys his commitment to collaboration. He serves our community in any way he can.

Michelle Rivas Creativity
Michelle Rivas is receiving the One Hart Award for creativity and caring. As a math teacher at Valencia High School, Michelle strives to make math engaging and approachable through creative lessons while working to genuinely connect with and support all of her students. Her positive energy, care for kids, and willingness to support her colleagues make her a standout member of the Valencia family.

Sharon Romero Community
Sharon Romero is retiring after 25 years of service to Valencia High School. Sharon has been a steady, caring presence who supported countless families, students, and staff as she always went above and beyond to make sure everyone felt seen and valued. Her commitment, kindness, and deep connection to the Viking community have left a lasting legacy at the family of Valencia High School.

Michelle Lutz and Amber Calhoun Berger Community
As our PAC President and Vice President, Michelle and Amber have been an absolute dream team these past two years. They have a gift for making every family feel welcomed and excited to get involved. They want all events to be done exactly the way the school envisions them and execute all details with class and precision. There is always so much Michelle and Amber are working on behind the scenes, and they do so in the most selfless ways. You won’t find two kinder, more giving people. They’ve made Rancho Pico a better place and we are so grateful to have them on our team.

Chris Lougheed Community
Chris Lougheed is one of the cornerstones of our La Mesa school community. As a trusted member of the faculty, he is a tireless advocate for both students and peers. Chris possesses a unique ability to use an abundance of positive energy, creativity, and quick wit not just to engage students, but to help them truly believe in themselves and their potential. Beyond the classroom, he provides that spark for professional growth and consistently encourages colleagues to trust their instincts and bravely try new things. His caring nature and community-building mindset has created an environment where everyone—staff and students alike—feel supported, valued, and inspired to succeed. We can all agree that Chris is one of the many heartbeats on La Mesa’s campus.

Alexis Weddle Community
Alexis Weddle has been a wonderful addition to Castaic as our choir director and has had an immediate impact on our community. Enrollment in the program has grown and students are having a blast, including a guest appearance by a number of our adult transition special education students at the recent winter concert. She embodies the value of community at Castaic.

Lori Meottel Caring
Lori Meottel, Castaic’s health technician, is one of the most caring individuals on our campus. Not only does she take care of all students, she educates others, connects with families, and is calm and cool under pressure. With the addition of our adult transition special education program and their high medical needs, she has gone above and beyond to ensure their school experience is good, even when they’re having a tough day. Her genuine care for others is commendable.

Debbie Rocha Caring
Debbie Rocha’s work brings joy and emotional relief to our students at AOC —especially during stressful times like final exams. Her commitment to caring for our youth reflects the heart of our community and models what it means to truly care for others. Debbie founded Straightening Reins in 2011 after the tragic loss of her daughter, turning her grief into a source of healing for hundreds of youth. Straightening Reins provides equine-assisted and interactive therapies to improve adolescent mental health, offering a safe, nonjudgmental space where young people can grow emotionally, build life skills, and find support through interactions with horses and other animals. She leads with compassion and dedication, ensuring no young person is turned away and creates an environment where students feel safe, supported, and empowered.

Brandi Davis Caring
The selection of Brandi Davis for the One Hart Award for caring and community is a well-deserved recognition of her unwavering commitment to the Placerita Junior High family. As an Assistant Principal, Brandi doesn't just manage the school; she nurtures it, consistently going above and beyond to ensure that both students and staff feel seen, supported, and valued. Throughout this past fall semester, her "special touch" has been evident in everything she does—from her thoughtful attention to detail to the extra hours she pours into making Placerita a warm and inclusive environment. This award serves as a celebration of her tireless work ethic and the deep, genuine care she brings to our campus every single day.

Rachel Berger and Bridget Hammer Caring
Placerita also honors the incredible contributions of Rachel Berger and Bridget Hammer, two educators who exemplify the spirit of student-centered care. Rachel, a dedicated math teacher, consistently goes the extra mile to ensure her students don’t just learn formulas, but truly thrive, providing the personalized support needed to boost their achievement across all mathematical disciplines. Alongside her, Bridget Hammer brings a similar passion to her English classroom and her leadership of the Miner PRIDE Program, where she empowers students to reach their full potential by championing positive behavior and character. Together, Rachel and Bridget’s tireless work this past semester has created a culture of excellence and kindness that resonates throughout the entire Placerita community.

November 2025

Chuck Ojala Creativity

Chuck has been with the District for nearly 10 years and immediately demonstrated his talents as a skilled carpenter when he joined the department. Chuck always takes pride and ownership of each of his projects and maintains a professional approach in the planning, execution, and follow through of all tasks assigned. We can be certain with Chuck, that it will be done right and built to last.

Jesse Machtolf Creativity

Jesse has been with us for just over a year and has been a huge asset to the team. He has been able to dive right into the vast array of electrical work for the District. With any challenge presented, Jesse has been able to apply his strong troubleshooting skills and diagnostic abilities and carry out extensive repairs. With all jobs big and small, Jesse's skill set certainly shines brightly.

Phil Rosas Creativity

Phil is a District veteran with almost 32 years of service. His knowledge and expertise of the District’s plumbing and grounds infrastructure is invaluable. He can be counted on in any circumstance to be responsive and attentive to any situation that presents itself on a daily basis. Phil is truly a mentor to all of his colleagues and is an amazing resource and helping hand to anyone in need.

Corey Stone Creativity

Corey is the newest member of the M&O team and has hit the gate running. In his first six months, he has already demonstrated a fantastic work ethic and utilizes his strong skill set to take on all plumbing challenges presented. His positive attitude is infectious throughout the shop and we look forward to many more years of service with Corey.

Joanne Ainsworth Community

Santa Clarita Valley Food Pantry Executive Director Joanne Ainsworth has used her leadership and management skills to transform the Food Pantry and provide services to the entire community. She has initiated partnerships with the LA Regional Food Bank, the city, and local schools. She truly believes in the mission that no one should ever go hungry. We are grateful for her partnership to support District families in need of support. (The award was accepted by Andrew Taban, Food Pantry Board President Elect.)

Burrill Family Community

The Burrill Family was presented with a One Hart Award for community for their many years of dedication and service in the Hart District. Casey, Brady, KristIn, and Jennifer are current Hart District teachers. Jerry Burrill is a former Canyon HS teacher. Casey was the founding baseball coach at West Ranch, Brady is an assistant coach, and the whole family has contributed to the baseball program over the years. Additionally, the family sponsors a baseball scholarship each year to help students further their education.

Jose Cervantes Caring

Jose Cervantes has been a pillar of the Sequoia community for the past ten years. There is truly nothing he cannot do. He supports students’ learning, behavior, and social-emotional needs with patience, care, and dedication. As the classified union representative, he advocates for staff and is always willing to help others. Sequoia is incredibly fortunate to have Jose’s kindness, consistency, and teamwork as part of our community. He truly embodies the One Hart spirit.

Tom and Meaghan Williams Caring

Tom and Meaghan Williams made a generous donation to support a structured project for our school organization that benefits our students. Mrs. Williams is a dedicated member of our ROOTS board and gives so much of her time, energy, and care to our school. The Williams family is always ready to lend a helping hand and support our students whenever we need them. We are so grateful for their generosity and heart for AOC!

Jeff Blanco Community

Jeff is Hart's Network Technician and he has integrated himself in our community so well in his first year on our campus. Jeff is always very responsive and helpful in times of need. He has become part of the Hart community as evidenced by his nomination for Classified Employee of the Year. While he did not get the most votes, just being nominated in his first year was evidence of the impact he has had campus-wide.

Juan Lopez Caring

Our One Hart Award goes to Lead Campus Supervisor Juan Lopez. Juan is a caring person who goes above and beyond for our students at West Ranch. Recently, a student dropped their phone in the storm drain and Juan went down into the man hole to recover the student's phone. Juan shows how much he cares for our students and staff with his actions on a daily basis.

Lori Lanthier Caring

Lori Lanthier is a leader in our Special Ed Department. She takes an approach of ownership for our student's well-being, staff, and department. She's insightful and anticipates needs. She is the consummate professional and ideal co-worker. Lori is an individual who always has the best interests of the students in mind. She works to create a supportive environment for all students, and that behavior inspires her peers. Lori is kind-hearted, supportive, and generous. She truly wants all her peers to be successful because she knows if they are, then the students will feel that in their classrooms. She goes above and beyond her call of duty here at GV, from her commitment to the band to the compassion she shows all students. Lori truly exemplifies what a caring individual is.

Linda Mendez Caring

As one of the newest members of our team, Linda stepped into the Wellness Coordinator role with grace, dedication, and a sincere commitment to supporting our students. Within just days of joining us, students were already seeking her out to connect, share, and receive support — a testament to her warm presence and compassionate approach. Linda has seamlessly embraced her role, creating a welcoming and safe space in our wellness center and becoming an integral part of our wellness team. We are incredibly grateful for her kindness, professionalism, and genuine care for our students and staff. Thank you for bringing your heart, talent, and warmth to AOC.

Rick Patterson Community

Rick Patterson was a founding member of the Santa Clarita Valley Facilities Foundation, a non-profit corporation that was instrumental in developing sites for the Hart District, including Golden Valley High School. When the Facilities Foundation finished its work and closed, it left the district with several million dollars and additional land. The Foundation Board members worked countless volunteer hours because they saw a need and wanted to help. This is just one example of how Mr. Patterson used his time, talent, and resources to serve our community. (The award was accepted by his children.)

Mike Otavka Creativity

Mike has made a significant and steady commitment to the Hart District, working under six superintendents and two bond measures during his tenure. He has earned a reputation of trustworthiness, leading the District through countless building and modernization projects. The partnership with the City of Santa Clarita to transfer soil from the Golden Valley High School building site to be used to build Golden Valley Road is only one example of his creative problem solving. We wish you well in your retirement!

Tanis Burleson Caring

Tanis frequently shows love and concern for others at Sierra Vista by creating coffee and snack events for staff to either celebrate others, or to simply contribute to the familial culture and climate at the school. She adds what others have called the ‘Tanis Touch’ to our staff events.

Luty Neveleff Community

Luty Neveleff is a lead campus supervisor, but he never stops being a coach. He builds strong relationships with students and staff, offers thoughtful insight and feedback, and provides transparent accountability — always with a smile and a fist bump. He serves as a mentor to his team and to the many students who identify with him and his story. The assistant principals who work closely with him deeply appreciate his positivity, encouragement, and support. Luty’s presence helps make Canyon High School a great place to work and learn!

Don Madrid Caring

Don takes the time to truly understand each student and their individual needs. He is patient, kind, and dedicated to helping every student succeed. He works closely with parents, listens to their concerns, and partners with them to make sure students receive the support they need both at school and at home. His work makes our students feel safe, supported, and valued every day. Thank you, Don, for your kindness, dedication, and unwavering commitment to our students. You truly represent the heart of AOC.

Josh Lopez Community

As the hardest-working plant manager, Josh goes above and beyond every day to support our school. He leads with kindness, positivity, and a spirit of service, taking on responsibilities that strengthen both our campus and district. Josh is a consummate professional who takes immense pride in every aspect of Rancho Pico, ensuring our environment is safe, welcoming, and cared for. Always responsive and willing to help anyone in need, Josh exemplifies what it means to serve a community with heart. We are grateful for his unwavering dedication.

Taylor Tobeck Caring

While serving as a long-term substitute, Taylor has embraced the role with the dedication and heart of a full-time teacher. He builds intentional connections with every student and shows up for our community—attending ASB dances, concerts, and award ceremonies, often staying until the very last student is picked up. His open-door classroom before school, during brunch, and at lunch provides students with academic support and a safe, welcoming space. Taylor’s character, presence, and unwavering commitment make him an invaluable part of Rancho Pico.

Doug Smith Community

Frequently named a favorite teacher, Doug’s passion for history and genuine care for students make his classroom a place where visitors stay far longer than expected, captivated by his energetic storytelling. Beyond teaching, Doug serves as our HDTA representative, working diligently to support colleagues and strengthen Rancho Pico as a whole. His honesty, openness, and steady presence make him a trusted resource and a champion for building community. Doug’s commitment to students and staff alike exemplifies the spirit of this award, and we are grateful for his leadership.

October 2025

Julie Tavares Caring

Julie Tavares is one of the veteran instructional assistants at Sequoia. Her daily interactions with all students, along with her flexibility and problem-solving skills, have been very instrumental in keeping our Sequoia community safe. This extends to riding the school bus in the afternoon to ensure students arrive at their homes safely. Julie is caring, creative, and finds a variety of ways to support student success at Sequoia. Julie's thoughtful and attentive ways emulate One Hart.

Dr. Robert Tilles Creativity

Dr. Tilles has really brought social studies to life this year, dressing up often and creating engaging learning experiences for his students. He has been in costume for most of the year depending on what the lesson for the day is. He also has interactive stations where students are learning so much on a daily basis. He has truly been so creative this year in making the curriculum in US History so accessible and relevant to kids.

Chris Becker Community

Chris is the plant manager at Valencia. Sometimes we miss the opportunity to thank the person that keeps the ship running! Chris deserves this recognition for enhancing the community that is Valencia High School and occasionally tapping into his creative thinking to help our staff and students be able to come to school and have everything they need to be successful!

John Davenport Community

Mr. Davenport is a parent volunteer who goes above and beyond to support our community. While his son is a member of the colorguard, John generously shares his audio-technical expertise with the percussion section - helping to build the infrastructure for the front ensemble electronics, repair props and carts, create innovative storage solutions for competitive travel, and repurpose equipment to save resources. He sets a powerful example of parent volunteerism and the spirit of community through his passion, creativity, and generosity which benefits the entire instrumental music program and all of our students.

Keyshawn Wooten Caring

The One Hart Award is awarded to football captain #22, Keyshawn Wooten. Keyshawn consistently demonstrates caring, courage, and community—leading both on and off the field, greeting others with kindness, and building friendships without judgment. His positive example strengthens our campus culture and inspires those around him. Congratulations, Keyshawn!

Christy Alben Community
Christy Alben has a deep commitment to community service and a long history of volunteerism in schools and non-profit organizations. Christy is a WiSH Education Foundation board member and has chaired many events, including the annual Wine on the Roof, Cars under the Stars, Ascend, and Hart District’s Got Talent. Thank you Christy for all you do for our community.

Katelyn Gutowski Courage
Congratulations to Ms. Gutowski for receiving the One Hart Award for courage. This is Ms. Gutowski’s second year here at Sierra Vista and she has stepped up to be a part of our guiding coalition team, seeks out PD workshops and puts herself out there to help her colleagues growth in their curriculum. She exudes a growth mindset and is always willing to try new concepts in her math curriculum as well as share new ideas with staff.

Constance Bisacchi Caring
Constance consistently goes above and beyond in supporting student success and well-being. This year amongst many student centric initiatives, she enthusiastically volunteered to serve on the Equity and Diversity Committee, mentors multiple student clubs, and demonstrates a deep commitment to fostering a supportive, inclusive, and emotionally healthy environment for all students. We are grateful for her leadership, compassion, and unwavering dedication to AOC. Congratulations Constance — and thank you for shining so brightly in our community!

Jacy Patt Caring

Through her work at Action Drug Rehab, JC has saved many lives and made a lasting impact on families in our community. She leads by example, sharing her time, help, and compassion. She embodies resilience in overcoming challenges and is an example of thriving after adversity and giving back to her community.

Erica Hardbarger, Kaitlyn McGinley, and Amber Feldman Caring

Erica Hardbarger, Kaitlyn McGinley, and Amber Feldman are three Centurion teachers who represent the core value of caring. They collaborate together to run our Common Cents club. The primary focus of the club is for 11th and 12th graders to hold events to support 9th and 10th graders. Every year these three teachers come to campus during the summer to prepare welcome activities for our freshman during registration week, including our Freshman BBQ and campus tours. They don't stop there. Throughout the year this club, under the direction of these amazing teachers, will offer events to support 9th and 10th graders as they prepare for finals and the rigor of high school classes. These teachers lead by example and show what it means to care for students.

Jean Schwartz Caring

Jean is our ASB account tech at Castaic HS and is an invaluable asset. She has been here since the school opened and knows everything about everything. She is the first to volunteer, runs our student store, comes to almost every school event, and can always be counted on to get the job done. She's simply amazing.

Elliana Samora, Lucas Bowers, Alan Hanoun, Isabella Lopez, Madelyn Ripley, Anari Senegar, and Nicole Villalobos Gomez Caring

La Mesa is honored to work with truly special students with extraordinary hearts. The One Hart award is about more than kudos, titles or tasks—it's about impact, character, and stepping up when it matters most. Nicole, Anari, Alan, Lucas, Isa, and Mads are prime examples of what it means to lead with compassion and purpose. They stepped into a role in our new Yes I Can program not fully knowing what it would entail, but taking up the challenge for inclusion. They’ve formed genuine, lasting friendships with our students with challenges, students that often can feel isolated from their peers on campus. These relationships are built on trust, kindness, and understanding. It is an absolute honor to present the One Hart Award for caring to young Lobo leaders who truly embody the spirit of service, compassion, and inclusion.

August/September 2025

Heria Chow Caring

Heria is always willing to lend a hand and go above and beyond for others. Her involvement in every aspect of school life at Canyon makes a lasting impression. We are so grateful for her positivity, generosity, and commitment--she truly embodies the spirit of our school! Thank you for brightening our days.

Bill Cooper Community

Mr. Cooper has made significant contributions to Santa Clarita through his leadership and volunteer work with non-profit organizations and public agencies. His long-standing commitment to improving the quality of life for Santa Clarita families makes him a vital asset to our community.

Kellie Kontis Community

Ms.Kontis is a history teacher that goes above and beyond in education with students, staff and parents. She is always there to give a helping hand and makes sure every event she is a part of at Sierra Vista is special for everyone.

Selina Thomas Community
As Chairwoman of the Valley Industry Association, Selina Thomas leads initiatives that strengthen community and business ties throughout Santa Clarita. She is dedicated to educational advancement, serving on the WiSH education Foundation Board and providing internships and scholarships for Hart District students through her HR consulting firm. Thank you for your commitment to our community.

Kathy Norris Community

Kathy Norris, CEO/President of the Valley Industry Association (VIA), has been a champion of local business for the last three decades, playing an integral role in a number of initiatives and events aimed at assisting Santa Clarita businesses to grow and prosper. She has led Connecting to Success, an event designed to equip Hart District students with necessary workforce skills, for the past 23 years. She is also a key partner in the creation of the VIA Education Foundation, the fundraising arm of Connecting to Success, in addition to numerous roles with other non-profit organizations.

Alex Figueroa Courage
Alex Figueroa exemplifies courage through his unwavering dedication to students, staff, and the entire Sequoia community. He consistently takes initiative, stepping in to protect and support others with kindness, attentiveness, and strength. His presence brings a sense of safety and care, and his actions reflect a deep commitment to ensuring a positive and secure environment for all. Alex is a true model of courage for the Hart District.

Valentina Santos Caring

Valentina Santos is a Spanish teacher, department chair, and overall superwoman. She has been an integral part of Canyon High School for over 28 years. She is always kind, professional, and supportive. She is greatly respected by both staff and students and makes CHS a better place every day.

Gina Stevens and Carolyn Olsen Caring
Gina Stevens and Carolyn Olsen shared a passion to serve youth leaving the Los Angeles foster care system without parental support and co-founded Fostering Youth Independence in 2017. Since that time they have celebrated 119 graduations, helped 85 youth secure safe stable housing, arranged emergency financial assistance for 155 youth, and worked to coordinate one-on-one mentors.

Cheryl Hanks Community

Since taking over Castaic's ASB program in January of this year, Cheryl has done a fantastic job of increasing student involvement on Castaic's campus. Our student section at football games has grown from a handful of students to hundreds. Student participation in rallies and dances has also seen large increases. Beyond ASB, Cheryl also leads Castaic's Leadership program, training nearly two hundred students each fall in the skills necessary to keep Castaic a safe and inclusive campus. We are so grateful for Cheryl's contributions to the Castaic school community!

Joseph Ebreo Community

Joseph always brings a smile and positive energy to our La Mesa community. He shines a bright light every day when he walks on our campus.

Christina Dronen Community

Christina’s greatest passion is serving others. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Finally Family Homes which partners with young adults who have aged out of foster care or are facing homelessness through safe housing, life-skills training, and relational support. Young people receive connection, dignity, and hope along with resources at the Oasis Center. Finally Family Homes has supported many Hart District students with holiday gifts, graduation gifts, caps and gowns, life-skills workshops, shoes, clothing, toiletries, and shelter for the unhoused.

May/June 2025

Julie Murray Caring

Julie Murray is Placerita’s ASB/Counseling Secretary and always shows her care for our students. This year she established a student assistance fund and did multiple fundraisers across the whole school to help students in need. She goes above and beyond to ensure every student feels supported, often checking in with those going through difficult times. Julie’s dedication and compassion have made a meaningful difference in the lives of many on our campus.

Kristi Frame Community

Kristi Frame is receiving the One Hart Award for her strong commitment to the Hart District community. Whether serving as a special education teacher, PAR consultant, or District TOSA, Kristi has always brought her positive attitude, dedicated work ethic, and outstanding leadership skills to whatever position she holds. We are so appreciative of all she does for our students and staff.

Suzette Valladares Community

California State Senator Valladares’ dedication to our community is evident in every chapter of her life, from leading Southern California Autism Speaks to serving on community boards and championing causes that matter to local families. Her commitment to building a safer, more affordable community for our children reflects the spirit of the One Hart Award. Her leadership, compassion, and dedication inspire us all.

Ali Monfared Community

Coach Monfared has elevated the Canyon boys' basketball program to unprecedented heights, guiding them to a CIF championship and establishing a legacy of excellence. His unwavering commitment to high standards has transformed the team into a powerhouse, both on and off the court. Recognized for his leadership, he was named CIF-SS Coach of the Year, a testament to his dedication and passion for the game. He instills discipline, hard work, and accountability in every player, ensuring they meet his rigorous expectations. With a heart that beats yellow and green, Coach Monfared is more than just a coach—he's the heart and soul of the program.

Melissa Coleman Community

Melissa Coleman is a caring and compassionate educator. She is a leader who is always open to meaningful conversations and shows genuine pride in being a La Mesa Lobo. Her dedication to students knows no bounds—she consistently goes above and beyond to support them. She is always open to sharing ideas and collaborating with others. Long after the final bell rings, she’s often still here, working hard and sending a warm good night to the custodians. She brings fun, laughter, and a great sense of humor to our campus. Our students and community are lucky to have her. As a special education teacher, she is her students’ number one champion and advocate.

Vince Ferry Community

With over 30 years in education, Vince Ferry is known for always being positive and uplifting students. He puts students first in all he does. He is highly regarded by students and staff and has made each school that he has worked at a better place.

Mary Walsh Courage

Mary Walsh is awarded the One Hart award for representing the core value of courage. Mary serves as the West Ranch Registrar and has had many courageous conversations over the years. In addition, she always acts with integrity and kindness

Lee Schollnick Community

Lee Schollnick is awarded the One Hart award for representing the core value of community. Lee serves as the West Ranch Assistant Registrar and works with our community to provide campus tours, answer questions, and provide constant support throughout the enrollment process.

West Ranch is fortunate to have such a great team in the Registrar's office.

Josh Kunz Community

Josh Kunz saw a need on the Valencia campus and built additional bike racks because there wasn’t enough room with the current setup. He also took it upon himself to build seating, with District approval, to be added to our planters in the middle of our campus. Thank you Josh for bringing valuable and useful additions to our campus for our current and future students.

Von Hougo Community

Mr. Hougo exemplifies the value of community, so much so that our whole Saugus administration team dressed up as him for our last staff meeting. He puts our Saugus community first on a daily basis, whether it be working with students, teachers, or parents. Mr. Hougo is retiring and we are going to miss him, but we know he will always be a part of our community.

Deputy Hensley Caring

Deputy Hensley exemplifies the value of caring. He shows how much he cares for the Saugus community by talking with students, meeting with teachers, and supporting administration and parents. He has established positive relationships with all of us and we rely on him daily to keep our campus safe. Thanks for all you do Deputy Hensley!

Aidan Standard-Mojica Courage

Aidan Standard-Mojica exhibited great courage when he saved a child from a vehicle on an extremely hot day. He sprang into action when he noticed a small child sweating profusely and crying in a locked vehicle in a shopping center parking lot. He broke the window of the vehicle, got the child out, and called the police. We're so proud of his bravery!

Paola Jellings Caring

We are proud to present the One Hart Award to our incredible Canyon Parent Advisory Committee President Paola Jellings in recognition of her unwavering dedication and hard work in supporting our Canyon staff throughout the year. Her commitment, care, and tireless efforts have made a meaningful impact on our school community, and we are truly grateful for all that she does. Congratulations and thank you!

Evelyn Maldonado Community
We are thrilled to recognize our amazing Canyon Office Manager Evelyn Maldonado for her outstanding "can-do" spirit and exceptional problem-solving skills. Her unwavering support and dedication to our staff throughout the year have truly made a difference. Thank you for being such a reliable and inspiring part of our team—congratulations on this well-deserved honor!

Val Quay Caring

Val Quay defines the very definition of caring and inspiration. She is one of the most inspiring and caring educators and human beings in the field of education. She takes time to truly get to know her students and work with them not only in learning history, but also in their growth as human beings and 8th graders moving onto high school. She leads by example and is a role model of care, inspiration, and kindness not only to her students, but to our staff and families!

Lisa Simmons Community

Lisa Simmons has cultivated an incredible community of love and support for our English Learner families and students as our EL Coordinator at Arroyo Seco. She continually keeps our EL families involved throughout the year. When you walk into her classroom, you can feel a warm, positive, family environment of learning and support. Mrs. Simmons creates a family community of high expectations with support for our EL and English scholars of readers, listeners, speakers and writers in her classroom, as well as making connections to real life experiences for her students. The community she has built in her classroom is one of warmth, respect, support and kindness.

Jennifer Ambrose Creativity

Weather, busy schedules, and curriculum bring up different problems that need a creative mind to solve. As the assistant principal (AP) over athletics, facilities, and the science department, Jennifer Ambrose never gives up finding a way to help our students, staff, and activities. During her 21 years in the Hart district, Jennifer has contributed as a science teacher, volleyball coach, consulting PAR teacher, and spent 11 years as an AP solving daily issues.

Dan Kelley Courage

Dan Kelley is a PE teacher and has been the head Grizzly Football Coach for 11 years. From winning our first Foothill League game to making two CIF-SS Championship games, his leadership has helped cultivate a culture and environment that student athletes want to be a part of and parents want to support. The academic achievements of our student athletes have improved to all time highs and the pride the program brings to Golden Valley and the community is outstanding. His courage of accepting and building this program is exceptional.

Sue Alterman Community

Sue Alterman was a Golden Valley parent who joined the Parent Advisory Council (PAC) and became president from 2012-2016. She has remained as PAC advisor from 2016 to the present. She began subbing as a clerical support staff member in 2014, became an assistant principals’ secretary in 2017, and moved up to office manager in 2021. Sue Alterman is the example of community and a Grizzly forever.

Rachel Villanueva Community

Rachel Villanueva served as PTSA President for the 24-25 school year, but this was her third year being on the E-Board. Over the course of her three years with us, Rachel has promoted the River Hawk Community with positivity day-in and day-out. Rachel has given more than a full-time job at Rio and is here almost every time PTSA is involved; whether sponsoring an event, manning a table, or doing something for our staff or students, she is here. She is a true advocate for ALL students at Rio, especially our Special Education students, and she is always willing to share ideas and help us think out of the box and reflect on our practices. Rachel and her son will be very missed by our Rio community!

Sam Piltzer Community

Sam Piltzer has served in ASB for two years and was our President this year. He has amazed staff and parents alike with his reflective, articulate, and thoughtful nature when it comes to caring about his Rio Norte community. When Sam looked at improving the culture and spirit of Rio Norte, he sought input from students and guided his peers through conversations to ensure their plans were realistic and beneficial to our community. He represented Rio at PTSA E-board and Association meetings and also served as one of our representatives for the Student Communications Council. Sam ALWAYS has a smile on his face, is ALWAYS positive, and is ALWAYS helpful to anyone on the Rio campus. He is truly a remarkable young man.

Kyley Antonio Caring

Kyley Antonio has served our Rio community through two years in RioTV and became a significant leader in the program this year. I had the pleasure of getting to know Kyley better this year because she was a significant lead on the "Bennett Crew" in recording and editing my weekly messages to our River Hawk students. Kyley is thoughtful, diligent, and cares deeply for ensuring RioTV represents and showcases all students and cultures in our community. She also is ALWAYS smiling, ALWAYS positive, and ALWAYS helpful to her classmates and our staff. She is going to conquer the world one day with absolute kindness!

Cindy Martinez Courage

Cindy Martinez has blossomed so much in her time at Rio Norte and amazes us with her courage to be an active part of our Rio Norte community and to encourage her peers as well. Cindy has worked hard over the last couple of years to push herself. She attends intramurals, rallies, lunch activities, and school events and loves to interact with her fellow students. She loves the library and courageously stepped up to be a student service and learn how to be an active contributor in the library. Cindy shows her courage every day in just being a River Hawk who celebrates ALL of us. We love Cindy and will greatly miss her!

Bob Kellar Community

Mr. Kellar’s name is synonymous with service, leadership, and heart. He has been a steadfast pillar in Santa Clarita, serving on the City Council for 20 years (with four terms as mayor), as president of the Canyon Country Chamber of Commerce, and on numerous local boards. During that time he has championed public safety, responsible growth, and supporting local businesses. He sets the example that true leadership is about service.

April 2025

Peter Wong Caring

Peter Wong is organized, diligent, and thorough in all aspects of his work. He treats everyone with great kindness, care, and understanding. He has the ability to meet a student where they are and employ strategies to move them toward success! As a case carrier at West Ranch, he is extraordinary with IEP meetings and paperwork. We appreciate everything Mr. Wong does to support his students! Peter Wong is the epitome of patience.

Michele Spargo Community

Michele is a campus supervisor at West Ranch who greets every student, every morning. She knows them by name and always has a smile or positive comment to create a welcoming community at our school. Students and staff enjoy her positive interactions and the support she provides to our school.

Carl Goldman and Jeri Seratti Goldman Community

Carl and Jeri are the owners of KHTS and have significantly enriched the Santa Clarita Valley. They have been instrumental in supporting local non-profits, serving on many advisory boards and organizing major fundraisers and community-wide events. They have demonstrated dedication to serving the community and have received recognition, Carl as Santa Clarita Valley Man of the Year and Jeri as Santa Clarita Valley Woman of the Year, for the impact they have made on our community.

Craig Jaffe Courage

When Craig was asked to help out with the Hart girls lacrosse in the middle of their season, he hesitated, but I think he has found a new hobby. You will find him on Fiscus Field, with a pinny on, running around playing lacrosse with the girls and coaching at the same time. His day job as a campus supervisor at Hart takes a lot of courage, but none more than the job he has done taking on the field lacrosse program and making it a positive end to the year.

Patricia Frat Community

Mrs. Frat is so dedicated to helping our school community by helping with fundraising for our staff. Mrs. Frat is committed and dedicated to Sierra Vista and is always willing to help wherever she can. She is a positive and caring parent that goes above and beyond for our school.

Deborah Leavitt Creativity

Deborah is our dedicated teacher-librarian and instructional/professional development coach. She brings an incredible level of care, commitment, and professionalism to everything she does at La Mesa. In her role as teacher-librarian, Deborah works tirelessly to keep our library vibrant, relevant, and engaging for students. She deeply values its role in our school community and is always ready to support teachers—frequently inviting entire classes in for lessons, research support, or to simply foster a love of reading. As our instructional coach, she has a sharp eye for data, designs thoughtful presentations, and organizes meaningful professional development. Creating and leading PD is no easy task—it requires time, energy, and empathy. Deborah does it all with grace.

Kirsten Aragon and Scott Wesselhoff Caring

Kirsten Aragon and Scott Wesselhoff are extraordinary campus security leads at Arroyo Seco Junior High! The warm, welcoming community they build with our students and safe environment is the very backbone of our campus safety. They know the exact pulse of the school every day and are swift in action on any campus security concerns. Kirsten and Scott have built the strongest team with their leadership, care, and concern for our students, staff, and community. We are so grateful to have them both!

Marisol Arietta Caring

Marisol Arietta has been the President of the Golden Valley Boys Soccer Booster Club since its inception. She has done a fantastic job of organizing events and fundraisers and creating a strong booster club. She, along with the other booster club founding members, have made sure our boys have top notch equipment through tireless fundraising campaigns, outstanding team lunches to boost morale, and most importantly that they feel connected to the school, community, and soccer program. Additionally, Marisol has pushed for community outreach, organizing collections for wildfire victims and the SCV homeless shelter. When I think of an ideal model of parent participation, I think of Marisol Arietta.

Brian Necessary Community

Brian started in the Hart District in August of 2000 at Sierra Vista and served as an assistant principal at West Ranch and Hart before joining the Grizzly Family. His contributions to the district have been tremendously appreciated, and his service to Golden Valley has been incredible. His attendance to various activities is remarkable. His ability to recall student names is second to none. His organization and planning are very well calculated, and he is the go-to for technology related issues.

Sirley Hovsepian Caring

Mrs. Hovsepian teaches our Medically Fragile Living Skills class at Rancho Pico. As one can imagine, Sirley's students require the most delicate of care and attention throughout every minute of the day. You can rely on Mrs. Hovsepian to foster meaningful and caring relationships with each of her students' families so that she and her team of nurses and paraprofessionals can provide a compassionate and meaningful educational experience for her students. Even in high-stress situations, Sirley and her team maintain a calm, reassuring presence and provide the care required to always serve the needs of her students. We could not ask for a more caring and empathetic teacher for our medically fragile students.

March 2025

Summer Flaherty Courage

Mrs. Flaherty takes on many hats, including managing and maintaining our Sierra Vista garden that benefits all students and provides a place for multiple opportunities for lessons. She is our EL coordinator, she teaches our new CTE Achieve classes, provides field-trip opportunities and runs our Bring Change to Mind club. Mrs. Flaherty is an outstanding employee and we appreciate all of her hard work and care for our school community.

Cynthia Ross Courage

Cynthia showed tremendous courage in stepping into the role of overseeing the mid-cycle WASC process at Hart this year along with her responsibilities as Instructional Coach and PD Team Leader. Cynthia teaches AP Government and is the Social Studies Department Chair. It takes tremendous courage to take on all of those jobs and to do them well, with excellence, compassion, and a deep commitment to the success of both students and the broader community.

Jennifer Glick Caring

Jen is our Assistant Principal over WASC, but cares for so many more on our campus. Jen oversees English Learners and performing groups, where an extra level of care is needed for many students in those groups. Jen goes above and beyond at Hart in order to have effective and efficient programs as evidenced by the most recent virtual mid-cycle visit from WASC!

Alison Bertola Caring

Mrs. Bertola’s dedication to her students at La Mesa shines through in every aspect of her work as a teacher, team leader, yearbook advisor, and sponsor of our annual 7th-grade Medieval Times field trip. Her exceptional teaching brings history to life, engaging students with interactive activities that make learning both fun and meaningful. As a team leader, she leads by example, always willing to support her colleagues. Her kindness and genuine care for each student's well-being creates a warm, supportive classroom environment where every child feels seen, heard, and encouraged to reach their full potential.

Kristin Scott Community

Kristin Scott received the One Hart Award for the incredible way she builds community and fosters a sense of belonging at Rancho Pico. As ASB President, she not only plans exciting events but also ensures that every student feels valued and included, always leading with kindness and caring. Her courage shines through in the way she mentors others, steps up to challenges, and leads with confidence, never hesitating to support those who need it. Kristin’s creativity is at the heart of everything she does—whether she’s designing new activities, problem-solving, or making ASB a warm and welcoming space. Her dedication to strengthening the community through caring, creativity, and courage makes her truly deserving of this honor.

Mariana Benavides and Sandy Cho Caring

From the moment they were hired, Mariana and Sandy hit the ground running and both have maintained a tremendous amount of professionalism, poise, and kindness. They were naturals at developing positive relationships with all the students they work with, and they are also both extremely proactive in their role as BIAs. Mariana and Sandy are always in sync and aligned with each other, students, and other staff they work with. They are dedicated individuals that make a difference in their students' learning. They truly make the ultimate BIA dream team at Rancho Pico!

Jesse Marshall Community

Jesse Marshal illustrates the very core of the word community as one of our counselors at Arroyo Seco! He works very closely with our families in support of their students with social/emotional, peer relationships, strategies to help students with peer conflicts, as well as working with our academic teams in supporting students’ attendance, behavior, and academic achievement and numerous other supports for our kids. Jesse also works with our CCR/CTE community in organizing, planning and implementing classes for our 8th grade students and this year for our 7th grade students as well who were able to take our CCR/CTE classes after school. In addition, Jesse co-leads our Honor Society organization and student recognition, which honored over 500 plus students at our Honor Society Ceremony. Jesse continually goes above and beyond for our students, families, school, and community at Seco!

Mike McCleary Creativity

Mike McCleary illuminates his creative talents in our CTE Design and Modeling and Robotics classes at Arroyo Seco. His work in enhancing our students’ artistic talents with critical inquiry connected to real-life context creates a classroom environment of exploration and creativity. In addition, Mike leads our Robotics club which for the first time participated in the County Robotics/Engineering Tournament. Our students had the opportunity to demonstrate their creative talents at a deeper level outside of the classroom with their entries into the tournament coached by Mr. McCleary.

February 2025

Liz Wilson Caring

Assistant Principal Liz Wilson oversees the master schedule and facilities, among other things, at Hart. Her caring demeanor makes the relationships she builds critical to the success of the school. Working with department chairs and the counseling department to create the master schedule is no small task, and her care and effort does not go unnoticed. She also cares greatly for the condition of the school and works tirelessly with our custodial staff to make it look presentable for our staff, students, and parents. She also goes above and beyond when it comes to caring for our staff by obtaining cards for those in need and over the holidays from the administration. Liz Wilson is definitely deserving of this One Hart Award.

Jennifer Dagcuta Community

Jennifer excels at building strong, collaborative relationships with both internal and external stakeholders. Whether working with District leaders or LEA business departments, she maintains a positive, solution-focused approach that fosters teamwork and trust. Her willingness to mentor colleagues and share her knowledge has empowered many within the SELPA, contributing to the overall growth and success of the team. Her work embodies the spirit of excellence, compassion, and a deep commitment to the success of both students and the broader community.

Jake Goosen-Brown Community

Coach Goose has been the head varsity football coach at Hart for one year now. But since his time hired as coach, he has also been a long-term substitute teacher on our campus and a special part of the Hart community. Jake has given back to Hart both in the classroom and on the field. Sharing this award with him during the last PE class he subbed in a few weeks back, with his students present, made it a special opportunity to allow him to feel how much he has been embraced at Hart, making him a true community member here.

Scott Arnold Caring

Scott is a solution-minded teacher who not only advocates for all of his students, but also has made a meaningful and positive impact as Department Chair for our Special Education Dept. He goes above and beyond every day and that unwavering commitment to support all stakeholders is valued and appreciated by all.

Stacy Furr Caring

Stacy always shows a caring spirit with her actions and in her demeanor. Stacy fosters animals, and students enjoy them in her classroom. She referees in our local community. She is always willing to be where our students need care and support here at Sierra Vista. We are thankful to have such a wonderful employee.

Ana Mathers Caring

Ana possesses so many incredible qualities and skills that she literally serves as both our social worker and wellness coordinator at Rancho Pico. Ms. Mathers continuously develops genuine and close relationships with our students, families, and staff AND she takes on additional roles such as being our DFY and Bring Change to Mind advisor. Because Ana is a cherished and invaluable member of our school community, she is receiving the One Hart award for caring and community.

Ashley Hoerber Caring

Ashely Hoerber is our office manager at Saugus. She was given the One Hart Award for caring. She cares for our staff everyday by ensuring our school runs smoothly. She works tirelessly to make sure both our classified and certificated staff have everything they need to do their jobs. She is a friendly face in the front office and always looks for ways to support staff.

Nicole Arteaga Caring

Nicole is the epitome of kindness and positivity no matter the circumstances. Her unwavering dedication to La Mesa is evident in the way she interacts with everyone, creating an environment where students, staff, and families feel supported and appreciated.

January 2025

Judie Blevins Caring

Judy Blevins has been inspiring students in her history classes for a long time at Placerita. She is also the advisor for our Safe School Ambassadors and National Junior Honor Society, and she serves on our Council on School Culture. She does all these things through a lens of caring and creativity. Her students appreciate her sense of humor and the way she dives into her lessons with much energy and compassion.

Annabella Dos Remedios Caring

Annabella Dos Remedios is an exceptional instructional assistant who works tirelessly to build strong, meaningful connections with her students at Placerita. Her patience, kindness, and caring create a supportive learning environment where every student feels valued and capable of success. She goes above and beyond to meet their individual needs, always offering encouragement and guidance. Her positive impact is felt not only by the students in her class but by the entire school community, making her truly deserving of the One Hart Award.

Zach Koebel Community

Zach is a Hart High graduate who has taught at Hart for 23 years. Zach does an amazing job teaching AP Psychology and also is our REACH Coordinator, getting students who are first generation college-bound prepared for college. Zach is receiving this award for community as he is a driving force on our Council for School Culture (Guiding Coalition) and also coaches three different basketball teams at Hart. He is a varsity assistant for both the girls' and boys' teams and just recently took over as the JV boys' head coach. Zach encompasses what it means to be a team player and is an excellent teacher and coach at Hart, giving back to the community who gave to him while he was a student here in the 90's.

Daylyn McCarty Courage

Hart High School student Daylyn McCarty is being recognized for her courage. Daylyn gave a speech at the SCV Boys & Girls Club Great Futures Breakfast in October. She shared her story of how and why she began attending the Boys & Girls Club and the impact it has made on her life. Thank you Daylyn for your courage to be vulnerable and using your story to inspire others and make a positive impact.

Mary Sirchia Courage

Mary Sirchia is a wonderful teacher that is dedicated to the students at Sierra Vista. She has been our math department chair for the last 30 years. She makes sure that students have everything they need to be successful in math. Mrs. Sirchia has the courage to advocate and make changes for the betterment of students. She is passionate about her subject and this transfers over to her development of math curriculum and her heart to help others on our campus.

Everett Zoller Community

Everett Zoller is being recognized for making a significant positive impact on our community. During the early release due to the fires, Everett stepped up in an extraordinary way. In what was a stressful and fast-paced situation, he volunteered to serve as a runner, assisting with the early dismissal of students after the mandatory release from College of the Canyons. Everett’s actions are a shining example of the kindness and sense of responsibility that makes the AOC community so unique. He truly stepped up when it mattered most, and I know we are all so grateful for his contributions.

Josh Grattan Caring
Josh Grattan, our wellness coordinator and social worker, is being recognized for the One Hart core value of caring. Josh has done remarkable work this year making our wellness center accessible and supportive to our school community. Josh goes above and beyond to care for our students and staff. We are extremely proud of Josh and all that he does to Care for West Ranch!

Mike Killinger Community

Mike Killinger is the epitome of what community represents at Valencia High School. As an educator, he is willing to step in where needed, and as the Athletic Director, he goes above and beyond for ALL students. He goes beyond the job description and truly sacrifices his time to the athletes of Valencia and is always available when the need arises.

Ashley Thomas Caring
Ashley Thomas gives of her time with dedication to caring for the students at Valencia. She is one member of an amazing counseling department where Mrs. Thomas gives her time and guidance within and outside of the school day. She is available to her students and helps guide them through overseeing our MTSS plan for assisting our students to achieve beyond what they think they are capable of.

Katherine Gettman Courage

It is with great appreciation that we recognize this teacher for her dedication, passion, and commitment to La Mesa students. Over the years, she has gone above and beyond in the classroom, not just teaching, but inspiring and encouraging students who walk through her door.

Carrie Carrizales Community

In addition to co-organizing our Student of the Month program at Rio Norte, Carrie is our PBIS Coordinator and runs our SOAR store four days a week at brunch for students who earn SOAR bucks. As our coordinator, she was instrumental in getting the SOAR program up and running to acknowledge students who are upholding our values of Striving for Success, Owning Our Actions, Accepting Differences, and Respecting Ourselves and Others. At Student of the Month, teachers now celebrate students for those same values. Carrie believes in creating a positive culture on campus and enjoys finding ways to celebrate the good things our kids do every day.

Leanne Bonilla Courage

Leanne taught history for 20 years and is a quiet leader on Rio Norte’s campus who is highly respected amongst her peers. This year she left her comfort zone, working to get her CTE credential and is teaching our new Exploring Career Pathways program. It was not an easy transition, as she quickly realized the set curriculum really needed to be significantly adapted for many students, especially those in Special Education. But as Leanne always does, she handled it with courage and tenacity to ensure all of her students could access the curriculum and benefit from the centers and activities they work through. She is passionate about student learning and continues to look for avenues that build student confidence and success.

December 2024

Walter Purdy Community

Congratulations to Walter Purdy who received a One Hart Award for his commitment to the community and his tireless pursuit of caring.

Kathleen Barr and Tracy Moscoe Community

Kathleen is our WASC coordinator and is being recognized for all of her efforts in leading the West Ranch community through a successful mid-cycle visit. Her tireless effort made the process seamless and reflective of the work we do at the Ranch. Assistant Principal Tracy Moscoe is also being recognized for her assistance in the WASC process and the important task of writing the mid-cycle report.

John Howard Creativity
John has been a teacher at Hart since 2002, and for the last 15-16 years has been responsible for Hart TV. He is constantly adapting and changing, like recently when he had to adjust the daily show to five minutes only. We are thankful for the outstanding level of creativity he constantly shows with all video production here at Hart. Recently, John and his students created a student insight video that we will share at our next faculty meeting to give a look inside the variety of our students’ lives. It is this type of project that shows off the creativity that he is getting this award for.

Chris Printz Courage
Mr. Chris Printz is one of the few original Grizzlies. He has established himself as a leader on our campus and has created one of only two Capstone Advanced Placement (AP) programs in our district. He has also coached our boys basketball program on two different occasions, including two Foothill League Championships. He has supported our district by being an admin intern three summers, and he helps GV admin on a regular basis. His belief and support of GV is unwavering. His teaching has evolved and his exceptional coaching is very ethical. In honor of his relentless COURAGE and leadership, GV recognizes and thanks Chris.

Molly Castaneda Community
Every minute of her workday—and far beyond—is dedicated to helping those in need. While most of us are winding down at home, Molly can be found visiting families at 8:00 p.m. or working late-night events to support the community.

George Velarde Community

George is a dedicated and passionate teacher and coach who goes above and beyond to connect with his students and athletes. He takes the time to truly get to know each individual, fostering a supportive and motivating environment. Known for his encouraging words and commitment to excellence, he has led his teams to the State level multiple times, inspiring them to achieve both personal and collective success. His leadership and genuine care make him not only an exceptional coach but also a mentor who leaves a lasting impact on those he works with.

Samantha Holcombe Community

Samantha is a driven teacher and coach who brings energy and dedication to everything she does, both in the classroom and on the volleyball court. This year, she made history by leading her volleyball team to the State tournament for the first time in Canyon’s history, a testament to her vision, hard work, and belief in her players. Her enthusiasm and commitment inspire those around her, fostering a culture of determination and teamwork that pushes her students and athletes to excel.

Hala Sanoufi Community
Hala Sanoufi is Academy of the Canyon’s ROOTS President (our PTSA) who goes above and beyond, dedicating her time, energy, and resources to support students, staff, and parents. From organizing hot cocoa snack bars during finals and staff luncheons to assisting with Coffee with the Principal and attending every event, she embodies commitment and compassion. Her countless volunteer hours have created a welcoming and supportive environment for the entire AOC community. She cares about every student and makes everyone feel supported.

Bill Johnson Community
Bill is dedicated to the practice and art of creating a strong, creative, and caring team that supports all students, teachers, and families. Mr. Johnson is a master at developing genuine, sincere, and long-lasting relationships with our community. Bill is a natural leader, teammate, and mentor to Rancho Pico. He is one of the original Mustangs, a catalyst of student learning, and most deserving of this award.

Jim Klipfel Courage

Mr Klipfel exemplifies courage. He has the courage to take on new challenges at Saugus High School. He is involved in many activities on campus. This year he added Construction Teacher to his long list of titles. He is amazing in the classroom and the students in Construction class are engaged and excited!

Saugus High School Counseling Team Caring
Our Saugus High School counselors, represented here by Department Chair Salim Raza, show caring everyday for our Centurion students, staff, and parents. They go above and beyond to ensure we are all supported.

Petra Panster Caring
Dr Petra Panster is always available for students and staff. She makes caring for us look easy as she is always calm and supportive. She has wonderful insight and practical ways to help in difficult situations.

Bunny Feranda Community
Bunny Feranda is the Events Coordinator at MB2 in Santa Clarita. MB2 has graciously hosted GV for school social events the last three years and they also sponsor our Student of the Month Program. Bunny believes in supporting schools and students and she is very deserving of GV's One Hart recognition for community.

Daniel Elliott and Christol Tracy Courage
Daniel Elliott and Christol Tracy have done a truly incredible job with our 7th grade Literacy Pilot. Christol pushes into Daniel's History 7 class to support literacy. They both have shown immense courage and creativity in the development, planning, organization, research, and implementation, infusing literacy within the History 7 standards. It is truly remarkable the growth seen from their students and the day to day reflection they have put into this program in supporting our students' literary needs. Their courage and creativity shines through with all their planning and implementation of our Literacy Pilot which we hope to grow next year!

Marisa Mares Caring
Marisa Mares wears so many hats as Science Department Chair, Guiding Coalition Team Member, Department Chair Team Member, and supporting new and long-term sub teachers within her department over the years. She is a complete team player at all times and a strong, calm, supportive leader within her department, our Guiding Coalition Team and within our school. When you see her around campus she wears a smile and a comforting demeanor and is always willing to try new ideas and concepts in her class and within her department. She ensures all voices are heard and supported and always gives a helping and supportive hand to her colleagues!

November 2024

Mike Copenhaver - Community

Congratulations to Mr. Copenhaver for receiving the One Hart Award in the area of community. You have a positive influence on your students at Sierra Vista and you give students experiences and opportunities for growth when they perform in their classes or outside in the community.

Jessy Holen - Community

Jessy has been a long-term substitute at Hart High School on two occasions. From the beginning of this year, she has been in an English position and we could not be more happy with the work she has done. Her students adore her, and her colleagues enjoy working with her. Jessy embodies being a part of the Hart community and we are giving her the One Hart Award for just that - community. Her time in English is over, but she has quickly jumped into another long-term role at Hart and will be finishing out the semester in science. Well-versed in all subjects, being “community-minded” is exactly what makes Jessy Holen stand out.

Markus Andrade - Caring

Markus is instrumental in the daily tasks of the District Warehouse, including but not limited to, receiving deliveries, checking in and processing paperwork for those deliveries, preparing stock items and orders for delivery to the school sites, driving the large box truck to deliver those items to the school sites, and maintaining stock items in the warehouse. He helps ensure the schools have what they need to fulfill their educational mission.

Markus exemplifies dedication, compassion, and an unwavering work ethic in every aspect of his life. He consistently demonstrates a positive attitude and a remarkable willingness to exceed expectations. He is always ready to assist his coworkers both professionally and personally, and his approachable nature and genuine empathy create an uplifting environment that motivates and inspires those around him.

Jeff Lindstrom - Caring

Jeff oversees the Maintenance and Operations team who handle the mechanical, electrical, and structural systems of all District facilities and school sites, including heating and air conditioning, plumbing, electrical, and other general maintenance items. He also takes on many other special projects and tasks including the coordination of high school graduations and most recently an emergency radio study to help better prepare the District for future emergency situations. Jeff does whatever it takes to ensure our facilities are functioning properly so that we can accomplish our primary role of educating our students.

Jeff is THAT guy. He is the one who has all the tools and always makes time to help. He is the one guy that never seems to get frustrated, and the guy that people feel free to turn to in times of need. He conveys the feeling that he is there for just you, even though he is being pulled in a million different directions. Jeff is THAT guy. Jeff leads his team with empathy and compassion, ensuring they have the resources they need to accomplish their goals and tasks.

Anthony Marrow - Caring

Anthony Marrow served in the U.S. Navy for 20 years. He has coached youth sports, adult sports, and served as a referee in Santa Clarita for many years. Coach Tony serves as a role model to the young people he coaches, inspiring them to push themselves to excel in all things. He is also the recipient of the President’s Volunteer Service Award. Another way Coach Tony cares is by taking photos at Hart District sporting events so that parents of students who can’t attend have an opportunity to see their special moments.

Susie Nohles - Caring

Susie Nohles is simply one of the best campus supervisors GV has had. She is a co-lead and has done one of the most outstanding jobs leading our team of campus supervisors. The position is one of the most challenging, as today’s youth seem to have an interesting way of communicating back once asked to abide by established rules. She keeps her team going and visible. She is a student favorite and the GV Staff adores her. She is an exemplary demonstration of “care.” We are going to miss Susie as she announced she is retiring in December.

Frank Chang and Linda Truong - Community

Frank and his wife Linda were proud and supportive GV parents from 2009-2015. They were always GV supporters as owners of S & S Donuts on Sierra Highway and Via Princessa. They retired on Friday, 11/8/24. They are receiving this award in honor of serving our community for the last 15 years as parents and business partners. Thank you both for raising such a wonderful family and supporting GV.

Mayda Thornton - Community

As Valencia's Social Worker, Mayda goes above and beyond for the students and families in our community. She received the One Hart Award for just that, community and caring. Her organization in helping families during the holidays does not go unnoticed, and Valencia is lucky to have her a part of the team!

Valerie Van Oss - Caring

Valerie oversees the Fiscal Services team who handle all of the financial systems and processes for the District, which includes Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Budgeting, Attendance, ASB Accounting, Internal Auditing, Grant Funding, Payroll, and Benefits. She also takes on many other special projects and tasks including fiscal calculations for negotiations and reporting to the County, State, and Federal governments, just to name a few. The work that her team does everyday ensures that our teachers and staff have the resources needed to educate the students of the Hart District. From processing paychecks for our employees, to paying the bills to keep the lights on, their work is critical and often goes unseen by most.

Valerie leads her team with compassion, empathy, and love, ensuring they have all of the support and resources they need to accomplish their personal and professional goals and tasks. She truly cares about the Hart District and it shows in her selfless dedication.

Kim Kurowski - Community

Kim Kurowsky is the 2024 SCV Woman of the Year. As board liaison for the Soroptimist’s Dream It, Be It program, she presents conferences at district schools designed to empower young women. Her dedication to breaking cycles of poverty, violence, and abuse through education and mentorship make her an exemplary candidate for the One Hart Award.

Dale Donohoe - Community

Dale Donohoe is the 2024 Man of the Year. He has helped improve the community in so many ways, as a board member of the Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital and through involvement in other community organizations. His contributions are numerous and impactful. His dedication and generosity have made a significant impact on the lives of those around him.

Tracy Cobos - Caring

Tracy is our lead campus supervisor and is recognized and celebrated for the core value of caring. Tracy is hard working, a team player, and contributes significantly to Rancho Pico's positive culture and climate. We can always count on Tracy to develop solutions for our school that make our site a safer and more respectful place to work. She goes above and beyond, with a smile, when asked to take on miscellaneous responsibilities. We are truly grateful to Tracy for the positive impact she makes on our campus daily.

Jennifer Sanchez - Caring

Jennifer Sanchez is an instructional assistant in the Special Education program at La Mesa. She is loved by staff and students. She is committed to the success of our special needs students. She is a great role model for students and staff alike.

Nat Honig and Christy Foster - Courage

Nat Honig and Christy Foster are our instructional coaches at Seco. Their courageous leadership has been inspiring to see, as well as their preparation, design, organization, and implementation of PD's this semester. They constantly think from the teachers' perspective and consider the needs of our students and school when planning and presenting PD. The PD's are focused on supporting the vision of MTSS Tier 1 Best First Instruction and our PLC work. This work takes time, and they both have taken on this role with courage, positivity, and passion!

Lily Shaffer - Creativity

Lily Shaffer has done such an amazing job taking over our podcast program at Seco. Her creativity in coaching and guiding the kids is sensational. She has taken so much time to learn different aspects of podcasting in order to teach her kids to grow in confidence, inspire creativity, and give her students a true sense of student ownership of the podcast. Lily's creativity, passion, and dedication are contagious to her podcast class and shows in the work her kids are producing with the Seco Scoop!

Jenny Bretthauer and Nancy James - Creativity

Jenny consistently leads and empowers her yearbook students to produce an incredibly creative yearbook with unique and relevant themes year after year after year. This year, they've added photo backdrops for every spirit day at Rio Norte, and instead of telling the students to roll them out slowly, she lifted her students up and allowed them to run with it. Her students have worked together to produce fun and festive scenes allowing ASB and our student body to snap some amazing photos in front of creative hand drawn photo backdrops. We appreciate Jenny and the creativity she brings out in our students.

Nancy has created one of the most amazing art classroom atmospheres I've had the privilege of visiting. Her room is a favorite to go into because there's a beautiful sense of calm and peace when you enter. Her creativity brings about wonderful assignments and projects that her students truly enjoy. Even when art is something they feel they're not good at, she helps them figure out how to get from start to finish, while allowing their creativity to shine through. She took a leap of faith three years ago moving from math teacher to art teacher and we are so grateful she did because her talents are making a positive impact on many!

Julie Bretthauer - Courage

Julie Bretthauer received this award in the area of courage. This is for leading us at Sierra Vista into conversations about standards and grading, and helping every academic department focus on literacy.

October 2024

Maya Yiadom and Maddox Espinosa Community

These students are receiving the One Hart Award for community. Maya and Maddox organized and ran the Culture Fest 2024 where they invited every high school in our valley to represent different cultures on their campus including American, Korean, Mexican, Filipino, Vietnamese, Indian, Middle Eastern and others. Their goal was to bring all the schools together. These two represent the best of Valencia High School.

Angel Barrientos Community

Angel is one of our esteemed SCIA's and anyone who has had the pleasure of working with him will immediately attest to how kind, friendly, and easy going he is. He is a true team player who is always willing to help out the rest of the school community. He goes above and beyond his call of duty and has a genuinely positive attitude.

Iris Penate Morales Caring

Iris is the epitome of a professional. She serves as a SCIA in our medically fragile Living Skills classroom and is always kind and positive. She is also extremely dedicated to serving the school and students. At all times, Iris remains calm and collected and handles all situations with grace and poise. Parents, staff, and students alike all love and appreciate Iris. She is truly someone who contributes to such a positive school environment in our community!

Lenny Graves Caring

Lenny Graves is an exceptional Special Education Teacher. He is generous with his time and always makes himself available for students to help them succeed. He goes above and beyond to make each student/family feel like they are the only one on his caseload. He will literally do whatever it takes to help a student achieve success, and then celebrates that success. He is completely student centered and a gift to his students and West Ranch High School.

Kathy Kemple Community

Kathy Kemple is an extraordinary campus supervisor who keeps us safe every day. She knows every kid's name and story. She embeds herself into every group on campus that needs a mom. She is truly kind and caring. We are lucky to have her. Thank you, Kathy, for everything.

Maribel Herrera Caring

Maribel Herrera is a calm, quiet hero who always puts her students first. Her math classroom is a peaceful, productive, and successful place where students are welcomed and respected. It would be easy for Maribel to fly under the radar with her quiet demeanor, but her successes should be shouted from the rooftops. Thank you, Maribel, we are so lucky to have you.

Mike Garcia Community

We would like to thank Congressman Garcia for his service, working for the betterment of our community. In addition to advocating for California’s 27th District in Washington D.C., over the last three years he has organized over 30 charitable events to benefit law enforcement, schools, and the Santa Clarita community.

Ambar Palacios Caring

Ambar Palacios is the receptionist at Hart, but she worked out of class at the end of last school year and the beginning of this school year as an assistant principal's secretary. Ambar did an amazing job and continued in her role as the Sunshine Club (gathering flowers/cards for staff who have lost someone). She is getting this award for caring because when we were able to hire a new AP secretary, Ambar took the time to train the new person and make them feel welcomed at Hart. Ambar is an awesome receptionist and the first face/voice you hear when coming to Hart, so it is great to have the most caring person there!

Troy Best and Will Hornstein Community

Troy Best and Will Hornstein have been instrumental in establishing our after school boys and girls basketball intramural open gym practice every Tuesday and Wednesday. Both Troy and Will are giving our kids a sense of community with their peers and sports by creating teamwork here at Seco! Due to their designing, organizing, and implementing the open gym practices two days a week, over 100 kids have been able to take advantage of this after school sponsored event. Kids come to school excited in the morning about getting the opportunity to practice and enjoy their passion for basketball!

Dawn Anaya Caring

Dawn Anaya, our AP Secretary, illustrates the definition of caring every single day at Seco! She welcomes kids, teachers, and families with a smile and genuine caring nature providing support, guidance, or just a listening ear. Staff frequently stop by to talk to Dawn, who brightens their day with her positivity and empathy. She creates such a calm, supportive demeanor that inspires those around her. Subs have said many times that they always want to come to Seco since they know Dawn will take care of them. Dawn is one of those one-of-a-kind special people you meet in life that leave a lasting impression of kindness, care and concern for every person that she meets, and your life is that much better knowing her.

Nan Yun Creativity

Nan is truly a remarkable individual and an asset to our Lobo community. She embodies the rare combination of being the ultimate collaborator and an efficient multitasker. She has the ability to juggle multiple responsibilities while maintaining a calm and patient demeanor in the often chaotic AP office. She is a problem-solver and never shies away from staff when we say, “So, we have an idea…” She takes that challenge and creatively turns it into reality. Possibly best of all, she has a quiet humor that brightens our days when we need it most.

Diane Hamburger Community

Diane has been in the District longer than any other site administrator. She exemplifies community, creativity, caring, courage but she especially represents community as she works every day to support our students and staff. She has been a part of the Saugus community for a long time and always does her best to support us.

Ron Martellino Community

Ron Martellino is a wonderful campus supervisor at Bowman. He connects with our students, greeting each as they enter campus, and he also instinctively knows how to best support everyone. We appreciate Ron beyond words.

Wayne Shapiro Community

As the WASC Chair, US History Department Chair, and former ASB Advisor, Wayne Shapiro is always at the forefront of supporting our students and staff. His enthusiasm and encouragement make him the first to cheer for our students, fostering a positive and inclusive atmosphere.

Dr. Shapiro is a passionate advocate for our special education students. He generously shares his best practices for differentiated instruction, ensuring that all learners can thrive in the classroom. His innovative and dynamic teaching style not only engages students but also inspires his colleagues to enhance their teaching methods. He also participated in our after school Ukulele arts enrichment class with our students and joined the community fun! He is a reliable and supportive colleague, always willing to lend a helping hand or share a word of encouragement.

Mitzi Mandel Creativity

Mitzi is an instrumental part of the Rio Norte campus and has been a part of our Leadership Team for years. She is an out of the box thinker and has played a critical part in brainstorming some very creative solutions for the benefit of all students and staff. She is a team player who seeks to find creative ways to boost student engagement and success.

Jamie Crissman Courage

Jamie is an incredible Instructional Assistant who goes above and beyond to support her students and her teachers each and every day. Over the past two years Jamie has been through a lot, displaying courage where many of us would want to give up. Despite the challenges she has faced, she consistently shows up for her students and her Rio Norte family and gives all of herself to support and care for them.

September 2024

Karen Cirricione and Kate Povletich Community

Karen and Kate, our girls cross-country coaches, have helped raise awareness in the community for the need to adopt pets by working with the Castaic Animal Shelter. They've brought the entire cross-country team to run with the dogs at the shelter and have been featured on NBC, CBS, the Signal, and Telemundo for their efforts. Many pets have found forever homes because of them and the team!

Catherine Nicholas Courage

Catherine is not afraid to fight for extra sections and programs. She fights like a bulldog for CTE, Beyond the Bell, and advocates for her site and students in every conversation with whomever will listen. Never underestimate the petite, soft spoken Catherine. She’ll roar for what is right. In her tenure as a leader, she has often had to make the right decisions that were often the most difficult decisions. However, she does everything with grace and poise, no matter how challenging the situation is.

Dolores Huerta Courage

Dolores Huerta, a legendary civil rights leader and co-founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW), was honored with the One Hart Award by Golden Valley High School. This recognition celebrates her relentless commitment to fighting for civil rights and her extraordinary courage in advocating for social justice.

Throughout her lifetime, Huerta has championed the rights of farm laborers, women, and marginalized communities, working tirelessly to ensure equity, fair treatment, and voting rights. Her advocacy continues to resonate both within local communities and on the national stage, where she remains a powerful voice for change.

Nicole Keaton Courage

Nicole Keaton has shown an amazing amount of courage as of late. Due to family circumstances, she stepped back and began to share the role of ASB Director this year with Jamie Clack. The partnership between the two of them and the tremendous amount of school spirit this year has been second to none! Nicole, through taking on another class of physical education, family commitments, and working through a new ASB setup, showed incredible courage and we want to commend her for that. Great job Nicole!

CJ Shepherd Community

CJ received the One Hart award for community and caring. CJ exemplifies these values every day. He has helped build a cohesive campus supervisor team, ensuring everyone is valued and supported. He collaborates with all staff to ensure the wellbeing of students. He cares about students succeeding at school. He's respected and sought after for guidance and support by the student body. We are lucky to have CJ at La Mesa. He makes this a safer and happier place.

Naticia Beydler Community

Naticia Beydler is a community builder! Although she has only been teaching a few years, she is constantly creating community among her students, our staff, and the Deaf community. As an ASL teacher she looks for opportunities for her students to practice what they have learned. She takes students on field trips and makes sure that they are able to show off their skills at Saugus events.

Sean Ventsam Community

Sean Ventsam is our plant manager and he not only keeps our campus running smoothly, he creates a positive community on campus and also has to be creative at times. He understands how important his job is and how having a well-working campus helps teachers to teach and students to learn.

Daniel Kasten Caring

I am proud to nominate Daniel Kasten for the One Hart Award for Caring. Since joining the district nearly 15 years ago, Daniel has exemplified dedication and care, beginning his journey at West Ranch as a night custodian and rising to the role of head plant manager at AOC. His unwavering commitment to District schools, students, staff, and facilities is evident in his meticulous work and professional demeanor. Daniel's reliability and willingness to step up whenever needed have made him an indispensable part of our team. His genuine care for our students and his job is inspiring. Thank you, Daniel, for being an exceptional teammate and for your incredible contributions to AOC and the Hart District.

Michele Siner Creativity

Michele Siner is an integral part of the AOC community. As our Honors Chemistry teacher, 10th-grade Advisement teacher, and Professional Development Coach, she wears many hats. Michele is deeply invested in our students’ success, knowing each of their stories and always offering individual support with compassion. She also brings her creativity and strategic thinking to guide our staff through the ever-evolving challenges of education.

Jessica Mendez, Don Musella, and Michele EngerranCommunity

This One Hart Award goes to my incredible FLEX teachers. FLEX is our intervention program at Learning Post Academy, designed to support mildly credit-deficient juniors and seniors who need more one-on-one attention and care. Our dedicated teachers—Jessica Mendez, Don Musella, and Michele Engerran—are deeply committed to our most "at-promise" students, working tirelessly to support them academically and emotionally.

Whether it’s providing a listening ear or academic guidance, they are always there for their students and their families. Meeting in person with students, they form a unique bond as their only teacher throughout the year, becoming their number one coach and advocate. Thank you, Jess, Don, and Michele, for your incredible dedication and hard work!

May 2024

Cameron Ely Courage

It took courage for Cameron to become the only female baseball player in the Hart District. Cameron is a dual U.S. athlete (Dragon Boat team and Baseball) and is also an amazing scholar. Cameron, we know your courage will serve you well in your future!

Angel and Stephanie Nazario
Courage

While facing unimaginable heartache and pain, Angel and Stephanie Nazario have shown incredible courage and modeled resilience to students, staff and the community. They have been a powerful example as they have channeled their pain and sorrow into gratitude and love. Thank you to the Golden Valley community who has surrounded them with love and care.

Victoria Robinson Creativity

Math Department Chair Victoria Robinson has been instrumental in Canyon's deep data dive to ensure we meet the needs of students as well as increase academic rigor. You can see by our increased math scores that she and her entire department have worked incredibly hard to help support our students to attain success. She continues to find new and inventive ways to lead and we are extremely fortunate to have her here at CHS. Thank you, Victoria. Well deserved.

Patti MillerCommunity

Patti Miller is the founder and director of the Annual Hart Games. She is passionate about providing opportunities for young people with special needs, and hundreds of students have benefitted from her vision and incredible hard work over the last 12 years. Patti, you truly embody community and caring!

Mignon Stevenson Community

Mignon has been instrumental in a lot of the activities that have been taking place in the HR department this spring. She is at the center of a revolving door of stressed administrators trying to prepare for next year, stressed employees who have just been told that they will be working at a new site next year, and anxious administrators from both inside and outside the district inquiring about application details and timelines regarding our administrative openings. And she has handled it all with compassion and professionalism.

Ira Rounsaville Courage

Ira was brought in to mediate and facilitate restorative practices for many of the major conflicts happening on campuses between students, staff, and families. He shows courage by going towards conflict instead of away from it. He is an excellent listener and has a gift for reframing situations to help others become more open-minded.

Aaron Kirkland Community

English Language Arts (ELA) Program Specialist, Aaron Kirkland, is a fantastic team player who has worked with each school's English Department and grade level teams to refine the ELA Priority Standards, Pacing, and Performance Task/Benchmark Exams. He has also been instrumental in aligning this work with the new ELA textbook adaptations. Aaron is the first one in the office in the morning and the last to leave in the evening, always pitching in to any District or Ed Services work. This includes being instrumental in the recently designed Data Protocol Cycle. Aaron not only works tirelessly for the District, but he is a fun colleague who has found time to earn his Literacy Authorization while training for Ironman Triathlons.

Lorena Gonzalez Courage

Lorena has been in our counseling office as secretary for 11 years. This spring she stepped into the role of office manager while still fulfilling duties in the counseling office. Lorena has shown tremendous courage while learning at an extremely fast pace. Whether it be handling upset parent phone calls, ordering supplies for staff, arranging lunches, or making sure staff is paid, she has done so courageously and we are thankful for her willingness to step up and keep Hart running smoothly.

Scott Gore Community

Scott Gore embodies the community of La Mesa Junior High. He actively seeks out ways to make sure the students, teachers, and families of our community have what they need to be successful on our campus. He is always available and willing to do whatever it takes to help in any way that is needed. La Mesa is lucky to have him as our Plant Manager.

Dianne Van Hook Community

Dr. Van Hook is celebrating her 36th year as Chancellor at College of the Canyons. She is an innovator and creator of programs and opportunities, including the Dare to Dream Scholarship, the opening of Academy of the Canyons, and the new Advanced Technology Center, to name just a few. She is also courageous. When she was hired as COC Chancellor, she was one of only five females in lead positions across the California Community College system. Thank you for your remarkable vision for COC and tenacity to make it happen.

Joan MacGregor Community

Joan MacGregor has served the Santa Clarita community as a board member for the Sulphur Springs School District and College of the Canyons for 51 years. She is the founder of the SCV Trustee’s Association, which offers board members from districts in Santa Clarita an opportunity to meet and discuss school issues. Thank you for your commitment to community!

Mandy O’Connor Community

Mandy is celebrated for her dedication and hard work as Rancho Pico’s Parent Advisory (PAC) President. Over the past two years, Mandy’s leadership in fundraising, organizing student activities, providing food for faculty meetings, and facilitating recognitions has undoubtedly impacted the school's positive culture. Mandy’s commitment to enhancing the overall experience for students, faculty, and staff demonstrates a deep sense of care and dedication to the school's well-being. Her selfless service and tireless efforts deserve sincere gratitude and appreciation from all members of our school community.

Mona Harsolia Caring

Mona's commitment to inclusivity and compassion has significantly impacted Rancho Pico and the Hart District. Mona fosters a supportive and inclusive environment for all students. She educates and raises awareness about serving the needs of Muslim students at Rancho Pico and other schools in the Santa Clarita Valley. Mona helps to promote diversity and strengthen the sense of belonging for everyone in the school community. We are grateful for her care and leadership in helping to make Rancho Pico a more welcoming environment.

Michael Hoefflin Foundation Caring

Santa Clarita has a lot of amazing people and organizations. The Michael Hoefflin Foundation has been nothing less than spectacular. Their support of the Nazario family during their trying time has been nothing less than spectacular. This organization not only supported the family, but provided indirect benefit to our GVHS Performing Arts Band and Choir programs as they were able to get information to and from our interim support so programs could continue. Michael Hoefflin Foundation, thank you for your continued Care and support for our families and community.

Steven Boyd Caring

Golden Valley has amazing classified staff. This month we will pay tribute to a long-time district and GV staff member who has worked as a class instructional assistant and also as a one-on-one. He has a special talent for bringing calm into any classroom or situation he enters. He also voluntarily supports our school every morning, helping direct traffic so our special population buses can enter as easily as possibly. He shared his talents at Sierra Vista and Rancho Pico before calling GV home. Special thanks for his caring to Steven Boyd.

Mackenzie Beltran Courage

Golden Valley has students with a lot of stories. One story is about a young lady who struggled with challenges before and during the pandemic. When she came back to campus seeking more social life and inclusion, learning was not a priority and she found herself over a year behind in credits. She tried a new on-site online program to try and catch up during her senior year. She did this with flying colors and not only recovered all the necessary credits, but took another six classes again in order to establish A-G eligibility. She recently graduated in great standing and has matured to become a very responsible young lady and is personally blossoming. GV is proud of the courage and perseverance of Mackenzie Beltran.

Christine Mocha Creativity

Christine brings out the very best in her students. She makes them want to be the best they can be. The music that comes forth is magic. We applaud you for your creativity!

Seth Hopkinson Creativity

Seth works tirelessly as our IT tech at Canyon. He is truly a one-man show, helping everyone on Canyon's campus with all of our technology needs. He is always up for the challenge and finds innovative and creative solutions. There is never a problem too big. Seth is receiving the One Hart Award for creativity.

Kristin Ramirez Community

Kristin does so much outside of teaching English at Hart. Kristin is the yearbook advisor, where she has raised tens of thousands of dollars annually to make sure we pay on time and keep getting amazing books. She was also the National Honors Society Advisor. This year the group did a service project in the inner city giving away supplies to students in need. We are giving her a One Hart award for community.

Diana De La Maza Courage

Diana has worked at Hart 16 years, and 22 years in the district 22. Diana taught math, was the ASB Advisor for many years and was Hart’s Teacher of the Year 2021. Diana's One Hart award is for courage - the courage to always rise above and conquer fears and make Hart an outstanding place to be a student. We will miss the De La Maza family and hope that their new Tennessee home will be just as warm as Hart always was.

Marci West, Ashley Thomas, Margo Butera, Sarah Ford, Michelle Fischer, and Mike Killinger

These six individuals represent Valencia HS in a manner that is centered on caring, courage, and community. They each excel in their individual areas, with a focus on the wellbeing and success of the VHS community and students. We appreciate and value their work.

Danny Javier Community

Anyone who knows and sees Danny on the corner of Decoro and Vista Delgado you will see his positive energy, smiling face, care, and compassion as he ensures the safety of our kids every day as our crossing guard. He is a welcoming presence for our kids, family and staff each and every day and a vital part of our Seco community!

Alison Lawrence Caring

Ms. Lawrence is a dedicated teacher that goes above and beyond for her students. She also leads our California Junior Scholarship Federation where she helps develop students not only academically but also by creating opportunities for them to be successful citizens in their community through service.

Loni Anderson Caring

Loni is an outstanding assistant principal. She approaches every situation with a positive attitude. She ensures students and staff feel heard and valued. She has set a standard of kindness, caring, and support for everyone on this campus from which we can all learn. She has honestly saved countless students while giving them hope and courage to move forward and reach goals that they never knew they could attain. Thank you, Loni. She receives our One Hart Award for courage, creativity, caring, and community.

Mike Koegle Creativity

Mike consistently demonstrates creativity in developing solutions for our students. Whenever a challenge arises, he thinks outside the box and finds innovative ways to move forward. His unwavering focus on AOC and willingness to support our community is truly commendable.

As part of our small staff, Mike is always ready to lend a hand to anyone in need. He cares deeply about every student, with particular attention to our neurodiverse students. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Mike also assists with administrative duties and ensures school safety. Students feel safe and thrive in his classroom, benefiting greatly from his extraordinary teaching skills. Thank you, Mike, for your incredible dedication and hard work. We are fortunate to have you as part of our team!

Sandra Minassian Caring

Sandra Minassian is our incredible school psychologist who supports our special education students at both LPA and AOC. Sandra also dedicates her time to Arroyo Seco, demonstrating her unwavering commitment across multiple campuses. Sandra is an invaluable supporter of our school community. Her deep care for our neurodivergent students and solution-oriented approach make a significant impact on our communities. Thank you, Sandra!

Christol Tracy Caring

Christol exemplifies immense caring in absolutely everything she does for her students, their families, the English Department, Seco staff and the district. She has been instrumental in representing Seco at the district level, as we work to implement the Strategic Plan. She leads her department with the work of common assessments, IXL, sharing of best practices and does all with care, compassion, enthusiasm and positive energy. She is a stellar English teacher and an incredible human being who you can always see around campus with a smile on her face!

Nina Withers Community

Nina has been an incredible support to our teachers, students, and school as our PAC President. She is always available to organize and provide treats for our staff, set up PAC fundraising opportunities, and give back to our students with our 8th grade PAC scholarships. She went above and beyond this year with Staff Appreciation Week by not only organizing treats, lunches, and decorations for our staff everyday, but also giving each staff member the beautiful pots that she was able to get donated. Her care, compassion, and positive energy is felt by every staff member. Nina is a treasure to our school, students and staff!

Bubba Sanchez Community

After 24 years in the Hart District, Bubba retired this May. Bubba cares so deeply for his River Hawk Community. Opening Rio Norte in 2003 as Plant Manager, Bubba quickly came to know everything Rio. However, what made Bubba so special was his connection to the people - students, staff, parents, and our community facility users alike! Bubba is the kind of person who would do anything for anyone because to him, it made the school he loved so much a better place for people to be. We thank Bubba for his years of service to the Hart District, but more importantly we applaud Bubba for his dedication to Rio - once a River Hawk, ALWAYS a River Hawk!

Allison Lee Caring

In addition to keeping up her academics and dancing numerous hours a week at her studio, Allie is our ASB President and serves on the Student Communications Council. She received the One Hart Award for caring and community because she exemplifies these qualities and embodies what it means to care about her River Hawk community. She is liked by peers and adults alike and is someone her fellow student body can look up to.

Ben Cerini Courage

Ben Cerini is one of our most spirited River Hawks and was awarded the One Hart Award for courage, because he comes in and faces challenges every day that most of us have never had. He does so with a smile, persevering through some of the most difficult tasks he's given and has won the hearts of every peer group on our campus. If you need someone to brighten your day, Ben is right there, and he inspires me to be courageous even when faced with tough decisions!

Khloe Urquico Creativity

Khloe has been on RioTV for two years. Taking a leadership position this year, she was tasked with the production of the principal’s weekly message to students. She is a role model and leader for students throughout campus and utilizes her out-of-the-box thinking and creativity to help bring new elements to our broadcast. She is always incredibly positive and is exceptional at managing her time, the show, and her school work and has even volunteered her video editing skills to help elementary schools in our valley.

Rafael Love Caring

Placerita would like to recognize Rafael Love for his outstanding commitment to caring about his students. He is continually being patient and caring no matter the circumstance. He spends extra time with each student as needed to help them be the best they can be. We appreciate all his efforts as a caring teacher!

Leslie Tasevski Community

Placerita would like to recognize Leslie Tasevski for a One Hart Award in the area of community. Leslie is our assistant principals’ secretary and works patiently all day with all of us to make our school community the best. She also meticulously organized our awards program for our eighth grade students and she creates a welcoming community for everyone.

Sarah Warrender Community

Sarah Warrender was our PTSA President this past year. Sarah has a passion for bringing the parent and business community together to support Rio Norte students and staff. She is Rio Norte's biggest parent cheerleader and spends countless hours working with her executive board and our parent volunteers to enrich our River Hawk community's experience during their two years at Rio. Rio has been her second home these two years and we are going to miss her terribly. Congratulations and thank you to Sarah!

Diane Untalan and Elena Davis Courage

Diane Untalan and Elena Davis were presented with the One Hart Award for Courage for their leadership in their departments and for the outstanding job they did putting together our two-day UDL staff development. While amazing teachers who love being in front of their students, like many teachers, being in front of the staff is not their comfort zone. They worked numerous hours to bring meaningful PD to our staff and so many of our faculty stated it was one of the best PD’s they've been a part of in some time. They are also an integral part of our PD team, thinking out-of-the-box and keeping in the forefront what is valuable to teachers for the best interest of students.

Darryl Stroh Caring

Darryl Stroh is our PE Department Chair, coordinates our intramural program, and is a member of our PD team. He truly cares about a quality PE program for our River Hawks. He puts countless hours into having the best intramural program that can be offered and even when another department member is being paid, he is still there to support them, help with organization, and lend a hand. He is passionate about providing our River Hawks with opportunities to enrich their experiences because he cares most about what's best for students!

Heather Cruz Caring

As a Functional Academics teacher, Special Education Department Chair, and member of our PD team, Heather lives and breathes the attributes of caring, courage, creativity and community every day. She cares about her students and her staff, she shows courage when challenges arise, she is creative in her out-of-the-box thinking to ensure her students get what they need, and works with all staff to help support our Special Education students. In the end, everything she does is for her River Hawk community, from the students and parents to her department and our general education staff. We thank Heather for her commitment to Rio!

April 2024

Ed Masterson, Sue Tweddell, Hillary Broadwater
Community

The William S. Hart Union High School District is proud to present the One Hart Award for community to the Valley Industrial Association (VIA).

VIA exemplifies our mission of preparing "every student" to be "opportunity ready" through their Connecting To Success program. This program connects businesses with schools, introducing underclassmen to essential workplace skills and fostering valuable community relationships.

The Hart District deeply values VIA's partnership in preparing our students for future success. Congratulations and thank you to Ed Masterson, Sue Tweddell, Hillary Broadwater and the rest of the VIA team for modeling the best aspects of community.

Isaac Zamora
Community

Isaac is a teacher at Placerita Junior High School, but he is also the Varsity Track and Field Head Coach at Hart High School. We are awarding Mr. Zamora with the One Hart Award for community because he has gone above and beyond for Hart. An excellent wood shop teacher at Placerita, Mr. Zamora creates great connections with students. One of those connections extended from the classroom to coaching, but again to the Hart Associated Student Body. Mr. Zamora helped construct a moveable, folding brace to hold up large signage for our school rallies. This has made our rallies even better and it was indeed our ASB students who were very grateful for Mr. Zamora's help. What a true community leader that Hart and Placerita share!

Jennifer Jones
Caring

Mrs. Jones received the One Hart Award for her caring spirit. She is always so thoughtful to leave cards for Sierra Vista staff members for every holiday. She thinks of others and is a hardworking individual that really cares for her students well being and success. Mrs. Jones continually promotes kindness with her thoughtful cards, caring spirit and kind gestures. Mrs. Jones is a wonderful asset to our school.

Amanda Markovich
Community

Mrs. Markovich has been a wonderful asset to our Sierra Vista team this year. She was awarded the One Hart Award for community service. She has worked really hard to increase attendance at Sierra Vista. She reaches out to parents/students and gives them resources to help better their lives. She always has a smile on her face and she is loved by all.

Jim Tanner, Laury Strauss
Community

Both Jim Tanner and Laurie Strauss are outstanding role models for the students, staff and families of the Santa Clarita Valley. Despite being retired for several decades, they continue to inspire and guide the next generation of leaders, exemplifying integrity, kindness, and a positive attitude.

Their ongoing presence in Santa Clarita ensures a continuous flow of wisdom and support. Both Jim and Laurie have been instrumental in shaping the strong sense of community we cherish - a core value that fosters a thriving learning environment for our students.

I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have known these two men and to have benefitted from their advice and counsel. Congratulations Jim Tanner and Laurie Strauss on being awarded the One Hart Award – specifically for modeling the core value of community.

Jake Berkowitz
Community

Our athletic trainer, Jake Berkowitz, was awarded Canyon's One Hart Award for community and caring. Jake is a tremendous asset to the staff and students of Canyon High School and the Hart District. Jake's commitment to our student-athletes encompasses both the physical and mental aspects of student life. He spends numerous hours ensuring our students are safe and well taken care of. Thank you, Jake. We appreciate all you do for us.

Brandon Chang, Kent Gao, Omkar Guha, Jayden Cho, Michelle Diaz-McCormick
Community

These students were recently named finalists for the National Modeling The Future Challenge. Their original research found that by 2030, a forecast of about 90% of the fentanyl overdose casualties in California will be directly linked to Snapchat. These students were supported by West Ranch teacher Mrs. McCormick and Andrew Poullit with the Actuarial Foundation. The group is currently in the process of discussing the research with the office of L.A. Mayor Karen Bass to see how the city of L.A. can attempt to combat the fentanyl crisis. West Ranch commends this group for its efforts in using math to create a better future in our community.

Signal news article

Modeling the Future Challenge news article

MFTC Team #16925 Research paper

Eric Olsson
Community

Eric Olsson received a One Hart Award from Castaic HS for community. Eric worked for the Hart District for over 30 years as a teacher and a coach. For the past couple of years, he has served as a long-term substitute teacher for many Hart District schools - most recently at Castaic. As a teacher, Eric fully invests himself in the school community, no matter where he is working. His ability to make connections and form relationships with students and staff is second to none. In the short amount of time he has been at Castaic, he has had a profound impact on our community and has become a "fan" favorite amongst students and staff.

Robyn Siroky
Caring

Robyn Siroky is the first friendly face that you meet when you enter Bowman's campus. She exudes kindness to everyone who enters our doors. Robyn is not only our attendance secretary, but she does so much more. She is an all around amazing person whom we all truly appreciate. Robyn Siroky encompasses all four of the One Hart values, but especially caring.

Christy Foster
Community

Christy Foster instills care and community in her work with our School Ambassadors supporting the Drug Awareness Program with the Saugus Union School District and our incoming 6th graders! She helps support giving back to our school by positively encouraging her students to participate in campus beautification. Also, she has created a community of care environment in her classroom with her passion for math!

Juan Guzman
Community

Juan Guzman exemplifies such care and concern for his one-on-one student each and every day! Juan always stops to practice social and emotional skills with his student by meeting and greeting staff members. He fully engages with his student in the work, labs, and group collaborations in each and every class to support his student to his full potential. In addition, Juan is a huge support to the teachers in all of his student's classes and always has a smile and positive spirit!

Sonia Martinez
Caring

Placerita's One Hart Award this month goes to our incredible Registrar Sonia Martinez. Sonia exemplifies the essence of compassion and empathy in her daily interactions with colleagues and students alike. Her genuine concern for the well-being of others, coupled with her unwavering commitment to fostering a supportive environment, makes her a beacon of care within our community. Sonia's dedication to going above and beyond to ensure that everyone feels valued and supported truly embodies the spirit of the One Hart award for caring.

March 2024

Stephanie Linn Community

Stephanie Linn first stepped up when a teacher went out on leave over 10 years ago. For two to three years, she stepped in on almost a full-time basis to fill that position until this teacher retired. Stephanie took over three different math preps (Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra Prep), was the lead on the Algebra Prep, and even attended district meetings as our math representative out of the goodness of her heart.

She's stepped in swimmingly for many of our math teachers (and others) over the years, has battled cancer, and has supervised countless AP tests and CAASPP settings. Her kids graduated from Hart High School and she has truly been a treasure to our school. She has been the definition of community for the Hart family. She is moving to Santa Barbara and will be missed here at Hart.

Andrew Shousha Community

As the Music Teacher at La Mesa, Mr. Shousha goes above and beyond to make the climate and culture of La Mesa an inclusive, supportive and....fun place to be. He helps his fellow teachers and never turns down an opportunity to work with students or activities to continue to make La Mesa shine!

Pilar Shiavo Community

California Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo makes a difference in our school district, community, and across the state. She understands the critical need to speak up for those who may not have a voice to speak for themselves and to work hard for equality and fairness for all. She is identifying innovative opportunities to help address these needs locally and across the state. She has helped the district address equity and inclusion through her support of the wellness centers, providing $123,000 for wellness support. She is a true partner to the Hart District.

Deputy Allison Hook Community

Deputy Hook has a deep connection to West Ranch as she graduated from our school. She puts a lot of time and effort into keeping our community safe. She recently participated in a halftime show at one of our basketball games with our drumline students. Deputy Hook goes above and beyond to support our students and we are grateful to have her in our community.

Julie Casady Caring

Julie Casady, our speech pathologist, reminds us of what is good in the world. She is a great example of someone who always has a positive presence. She has great energy and truly cares for our students. When she is in an IEP, she always adds positive energy and speaks to parents with a smile. She also speaks in a very understanding way. She is loved by everyone. When she walks into a room, students hope it is their turn to work with her. She brings so much joy to our students and teachers. Many of us would not be able to function without her.

Deputy Andres Rubalcava Courage

Deputy Andres Rubalcava displays courage everyday when he works in many difficult situations. He demonstrates community when he helps all of us at both Hart and Placerita keep our campuses safe. However, he is also a very caring person as he has demonstrated repeatedly to us as he listens to every student that brings a concern to him. It is an honor to work with him every day.

Alfredo Manzano Community

Saugus Boys Basketball Coach Alfredo Manzano exemplifies the core value of community. He creates a close knit community among his players and he also ensures that the basketball team is always making a positive impact on our Saugus community as whole.

Madison Marshall Community

10th grader Madison Marshall makes a positive impact on the Saugus community daily. This year she started our Black Student Union to ensure that all students on campus have a group to connect with and a community to be part of.

Bailey Posey Community

10th grader Bailey Posey leads our Saugus Equity and Diversity Club. She enhances our Saugus community by working with students and adults to make sure that all students feel valued and listened to.

Megan Cooper Community

Megan Cooper is an amazing Grizzly. GV has over 20 alumni as staff members. One Grizzly is simply complimenting GVHS by making GVHS her life. This young Grizzly graduated from GV in 2012. She was a solid student who ran track and set records. She returned to work as an instructional assistant in 2017 and has helped coach track for the last six years. She is now co-head coaching in a still strong track and field program, despite some of the most challenging circumstances. She has supported GV in much of her life as a student, instructional assistant, assistant and co-head coach, and soon to become an eligible teaching candidate. GV thanks Megan for her commitment.

February 2024

Seema Gupta Courage

Seema has worked as a school psychologist at Hart for 29 years. She has the courage to have run many triennial IEPs, initial IEPs, or manifestation determination IEPs over the years. She has the courage to work with endless numbers of families to ensure their children get the proper placement and specialized academic instruction necessary to be successful. But above all else, Seema has had the courage to hang in there at Hart for almost 30 years!

Susan Lundin Caring

Susan Lundin is a counselor plus. Susan works closely with our faculty, administration, and families to ensure our students are served academically, socially, and emotionally. Susan is the first one to say “I'll do that” if she believes it is good for the kids. She is a leader on our campus who oversees Bring Change to Mind and co-coordinates Teen Truth and MTSS. She came to us with expertise in suicide prevention, PBIS, and 504s. She is caring and kind. We are so fortunate to have Susan Lundin on our team.

Sonia Pishehvar Caring

Sonia works with our employees to ensure safety and make things better, and she does it all with a smile and without complaint. Sonia oversees the employee accommodations process, bridge assignments, claims against the District, fitness for duty, hazardous materials, the Heat and Illness Prevention Plan, employee training opportunities, and the District’s Workers Compensation program. Thank you, Sonia, for all that you do for us.

Karen Wiederhold Community

Karen Wiederhold is our registrar and she exemplifies community. She works hard to make sure that all our student records are up to date and she is always willing to do extra to ensure that our Saugus community is taken care of.

Keith Rust Creativity

Keith Rust has been awarded the One Hart Award for his creativity. Keith has creatively worked to bring an Advanced Graphic Design course to our school. In the process, Keith obtained a CTE credential which resulted in a new CTE pathway being offered at our school. Keith's creativity can also be seen in the daily lessons he delivers in his Art and Digital Art classes.

Stephanie Cotcher Community

Stephanie works with every campus in the district and is an amazing clinician. She and her therapy dog, Telly, are the first to arrive on a crisis scene and the last to leave. She is incredibly passionate and brings people in the community together during tough times.

Kelli Sandusky Community

Golden Valley is blessed to be part of an amazing community that has many people and organizations that support us in various ways. Josten’s has been a partner of the Hart District for 32 years and for all of Golden Valley’s 18 graduations. Kelli Sandusky, a very special person and stellar community member, has been running the show for Josten’s in SCV for 20 years on her own, after 12 years of being an associate. GV is so fortunate to have her also reside here in the SCV as she drives throughout the valley to make sure invites, caps and gowns are all ready for our senior graduates. She is also very extremely generous with her support. We are so fortunate to have Kelli and Josten's as partners here at GV as well as with the entire Hart District.

Brandon Gonsalves Creativity

Brandon Gonsalves is our teacher librarian and is an incredible asset to our school and team. The rapport he has with our teachers is wonderful and he can often be seen in teaching partnerships out in classrooms bringing his creativity directly to students. His library is absolutely packed day-in and day-out, before school, at brunch, and lunch because he creates creative displays giving students opportunities for discovery and engagement. He has also partnered with one of our science teachers as the co-advisor to Robotics because he cares so much about providing rich opportunities to our River Hawks. We thank Brandon for his creativity and for caring so much about our River Hawk community!

Courtney Straka Community

Professional Development Program Specialist, Courney Straka, was recognized for the core value of community. In a very short time Courtney has built a collaborative Professional Learning Model. She has produced an interactive Professional Development (PD) newsletter that has built community as well as supporting collaboration and teamwork. She has also supported schools and individual staff members with any needed or desired training, the most popular of which is Artificial Intelligence PD in content areas. Courtney also reaches the community outside the Hart School District through her continued work with the Medal of Honor Society where she connects educators and students with real life Medal of Honor heroes and reinforces the core values of character development and selfless service. Courtney is also a great team player and fun to work with in Ed Services.

Gina Painter Community

Gina Painter is our Theater teacher and she exemplifies the core value of community. She works tirelessly to ensure that all students have a chance to be part of our community through theater arts. Students and staff alike love attending our plays and musicals because Ms. Painter does such an excellent job working with our talented students.

Kristin Wilkins Caring

Kristin is an amazing counselor, serving our students academically, socially, and emotionally. She works closely with our wellness team and presents at parent forums and staff meetings. Kristin co-chairs our Teen Truth and plays a vital role in our school’s CTE program. She gets to know our students as individuals as she guides them through their middle school years. We are grateful to have Kristin at Rancho Pico serving our community.

Dawn Herbert Courage

Dawn Herbert is one of Saugus High School's CTE Business teachers. She shows us everyday what it means to be courageous. She has increased the enrollment in both the club she sponsors and her CTE Pathway. She teaches her students to be courageous advocates for learning.

January 2024

Heather Bernabe Caring

Heather's unwavering dedication to English Learners new to the country, coupled with her extraordinary level of care, is truly commendable. Ms. Bernabe consistently plans intentional lessons that connect and engage her students, fostering a sense of belonging. As a valuable member of the Professional Development and MTSS teams, she actively contributes to collaborative initiatives and shares her expertise.

Her exceptional level of care, combined with leadership, innovative teaching methods, commitment to student success, and groundbreaking curriculum development, makes Heather an exemplary candidate for this recognition. Additionally, Heather has single-handedly created the District's newcomer curriculum, running a model program that exemplifies innovation and excellence in supporting English learners.

Courtney Schmitz, Lisa McWilson, Nadya Limon Community

These three ladies go above and beyond for La Mesa. These parents volunteer every Tuesday and Thursday to support La Mesa's HOWL store where students can redeem their earned reward points for prizes. Thank you for your dedication and commitment to the students of La Mesa!

Kerri Johnson Caring

Kerri Johnson is a GV Teacher who has demonstrated tremendous caring in her 11 years as a Grizzly. She has supported our GV Athletic Department, ASB, Administration, PE Department, and the entire GV community. She has coached, been an Athletic Director, and made spirit wear for so many of our teams and groups. She is one of the most positive and uplifting people to be around. She has hosted many GV Staff Socials and is someone everyone enjoys working with. GV is honored to have Kerri Johnson as a Grizzly.

Deputy David Martinez Courage

Deputy David Martinez works diligently to support our school, connect with students, and ensure our school safety. The Bowman school community truly appreciates our School Resource Officer! For this, Deputy Martinez was awarded the One Hart award for courage and community.

Baxter Frick Community

Baxter Frick received the One Hart award for the outstanding work he does creating a community of learning for his students and for our school. He goes above and beyond regularly working with students in his history classes as well as coaching students in cross country, track and running club. He does an excellent job creating community in everything he does.

Lauren Sperber Caring

Lauren received the One Hart Award for continually creating a caring community in her classroom. She works hard everyday to support her students and meet their needs to help them succeed. She is regularly championing student needs to help give students the opportunity to be successful in their academic work.

Viviana Valenzuela Caring

Viviana is a treasure as our Wellness Coordinator. The “Break Room" is a welcoming, safe environment where she conducts various counseling groups, works with kids one and one, and is always available to support our counselors and Admin with social/emotional wellbeing strategies for students. In addition, Viviana always steps in to conduct student conflict mediations to ensure all students feel heard, loved, and supported as well as giving them strategies when conflicts arise. Students absolutely love Vivanna for her caring, empathic nature!

Erika Garcia Community

Erika's community feel in her classroom is apparent right when you walk into her room! She holds the students to high expectations in a welcoming, safe, community atmosphere. In addition, she leads our School Culture and Climate Council in promoting student voice and continuing to build student culture. Also, she initiated a Wellness Walk on campus to support students’ social/emotional health. Erika promotes student leaders, voice, and action within a positive community environment.

Brenda Mumford Community

Brenda Mumford is an original Mustang who opened Rancho Pico and has been dedicated to the success of the students and the English department ever since. Brenda is the English Department Chair and remains excited about her Team Odyssey and the English curriculum as if it were her first year teaching. She is currently piloting a new textbook with online resources, and it is inspiring to hear about her passion for teaching, learning, and middle school education.

Crystal Cooper Caring

Our esteemed school registrar, Crystal Cooper, has been honored with the One Hart Award for caring. In her role, she goes above and beyond to ensure the well-being of our school community. Crystal not only introduces new students to the office staff and assistant principals, but she also takes the time to meet with a parent daily to deliver a particular meal for a student with special needs. Her dedication to meeting the unique needs of our students reflects her exceptional care and commitment to our school.

December 2023

Gerardo Herincx Community

Gerardo is an integral part of our Canyon High School family. He not only ensures the students in his Spanish class are engaged in meaningful lessons, but he also makes sure they know he cares about each and everyone of them. As Canyon's ASB director, he works countless hours to create an inclusive, interactive environment for our students and staff. He brings the fun, but more importantly he provides us with opportunities through activities and events to learn about our diverse populatIon. We are so grateful for Gerardo Hercinx and his tireless efforts and CAN DO attitude.

Kelly Wanjon Community

Kelly Wanjon is the Attendance Tech at Arroyo Seco. She was previously a campus supervisor and wears many hats in her role. She is the first person that people see when they arrive on campus. She always greets our community members professionally and with a smile and makes them feel at home. In addition to attendance, she works with teachers, students who need assistance, and parents who are dropping off items or picking up students. For all of these reasons, Kelly is receiving a One Hart Award for everything she does for our community.

Doug Stuart Creativity

Doug Stuart, English teacher at Arroyo Seco, has been working with students for more than a decade in recruiting, coaching, and selecting individuals to represent Arroyo Seco in the annual Santa Clarita Valley Business Group Speech Contest. These students compete against 8th graders from all of the district's junior highs. Thanks to Mr. Stuart's dedication and expertise, Arroyo Seco always does well in the competition and one of our students took first place overall this year! For all of these efforts, Mr. Stuart is being recognized with a One Hart Award for Creativity.

Jevin Smith and family

Jevin Smith Creativity

Golden Valley parent Jevin Smith is well-known to the GV community for his performances at school pick-up. Periodically, Mr. Smith dresses as a famous performer and dances to popular songs when picking up his kids from school, to the enjoyment of all! Many of his videos have gone viral and he was featured on the Today Show. Thank you for sharing your creativity and making coming to school fun!

Nina Zamora Caring

Nina Zamora’s leadership sets the tone for the welcoming, positive culture and climate at Bowman. Her caring heart, passion, and dedication to the Bowman community are clearly evident. She makes sure that everyone who walks through the doors at Bowman knows that they matter.

Craig Williams Creativity

Craig is a social studies teacher and athletic director at Hart. During a recent class visit, I found Craig dressed up as a judge, holding a mock trial for Napoleon during his AP World History class! Students argued from both sides of the trial and Mr. Williams presided over the arguments as judge - he even sustained an objection! Also, overseeing the winter sport of soccer, Craig has had to be very creative in the scheduling of officials as the ref association is currently on strike against CIF. Craig is creative in many ways, but we are lucky to have him at Hart. Always a nominee for teacher of the year, Craig Williams gets this One Hart award for creativity!

Maysen Bagge Creativity

Maysen Bagge exudes creativity with our students, staff and school. She elicits, organizes and directs staff to participate in our school rallies which is overwhelmingly a student body fan favorite. In addition, her creative input into our school rallies has proved successful among students and staff. She continues to go above and beyond with our cheer program in supporting activities for our cheerleading community with Friends Cheergiving, Secret Santa, Car Show, and with supporting our school athletes with creative cheer routines.

Mia Blanco Community

Mia is not only an amazing student and actively involved in ASB, but she also works at West Ranch HS, through the athletic training department and sports medicine. She is also involved with the District Student Communication Council. Mia embodies the Bowman Bulldog spirit.

Bella Salas Caring

Bella takes incredible care of our students through her role in food services. She knows each student by name and greets them everyday with kindness and care. We all appreciate Bella!

Kristy Spector Creativity

Kristy Spector is a teacher leader at Rancho Pico who goes above and beyond for our students. She is our science department chair and is piloting our social emotional learning class. Kristy collaborates with our wellness coordinator to create an engaging curriculum for our students to learn the components of wellness and social emotional health. For the culminating project in the course, Kristy arranged for her students to write and illustrate anti-bullying books to read to elementary school students at Oak Hills. In addition, Kristy runs our DFY program and advises our Black Student Alliance. Kristy is willing to offer creative programs to serve our diverse student population through intellectual and social emotional exploration.

Kathleen Lindgreen Community

Kathleen Lindgreen is our extraordinary registrar on the frontlines at Rancho Pico. She is the first one to welcome our families into our school community. Kathleen is knowledgeable regarding the detailed documentation necessary for school enrollment. She is exceptionally kind, patient, and empathic to our families coming from out of the country and out of our area. She gives them all the time they need to ensure their transition to Rancho Pico is smooth and welcoming. Kathleen collaborates with all of the Rancho Pico stakeholders in a caring way. Kathleen will be retiring in January, and we look forward to her visits and substituting at our school in the future.

Dana Bobek Community

Dana Bobek is one of the original Grizzlies. She has helped shape and mold GV and establish our GV culture. To open a school and begin a culinary art pathway from scratch was a tall task, but she did an amazing job for almost 20 years at GV. Her 25 years in our district only validates how she believes in the SCV she lives in and our GV Community. She created opportunities for students and staff to create and enjoy her talents. There was seldom an empty seat in her classes. For 25 years Dana has created a place where everyone wants to be - a community. Congratulations on your retirement.

Anne Konrad Caring

Anne cares so much about West Ranch, her students, athletes, and staff. She works so hard to support our coaches and athletes. Anne also works as the Foothill League secretary to support all high schools in our district. Anne manages her time well to prioritize her responsibilities to effectively complete everything she oversees. We appreciate Coach Konrad and her caring qualities!

Deputy Swigart Caring

Deputy Swigart exemplifies caring within our Castaic community. He connects with our students as a positive presence on our campus and also creates a safe community feel with our students and staff. Deputy Swigart takes time to get to know our students and help to support positive behavioral growth.

David Ramirez Caring

David Ramirez illustrates such care in maintaining our grounds at Castaic as one of the exemplary members of our custodial staff. He takes pride and ownership in keeping our facility looking clean, well manicured and maintained. David always takes time to make things look very special for our students/staff and always offers a helpful hand when needed.

Renee Marshall Community

Renee Marshall is one of our truly amazing parents at Castaic HS. She puts her heart and soul into creating such a community for our staff and students. Renee has helped our school earn numerous grants for our music and theatre programs. She goes above and beyond to support both programs by leading bake sales for the plays, pumpkin carving for the theatre students, and holiday parties for the music students! She completely exemplifies the word community in creating a complete community atmosphere for our students and staff. She has led, organized, and facilitated staff recognition breakfasts and holiday breakfasts where every staff member receives a gift card/certificate as a special gift. You will always see Renee at all theatre plays supporting refreshment sales and intermission giveaways!

Nina Withers Community

Ms. Withers has been the Parent Advisory Council President at Arroyo Seco for the past two years. In this role, she has demonstrated her huge heart for students and staff members. Among other meaningful endeavors, she has overseen efforts by PAC to support students in need, assist with staff recognition, and provide scholarships for outstanding students. Her positive energy and willingness to help are incredible assets to the Arroyo Seco community.

Heather Noltemeyer Caring

Heather is one of our Instructional Assistants in our Living Skills program for students with more severe needs. Heather is the epitome of what it means to care for others at all times, but especially when they struggle most. She cares deeply for the students she works with and the staff that are her family as well. Everyone who works with her will tell you Heather is a person that can ALWAYS be relied on! Heather is also a great example of courage, because she gives of herself to others all day at work AND she is back in school getting her degree and special education teaching credential. Congratulations to Heather!

November 2023

Xochi Baca Creativity

Xochi Baca is being recognized for Creativity. Being the Title I Coordinator for both Hart and Placerita, she works tirelessly to make the School Plan for Student Achievement work. She works with a budget, under federal monitoring, and with two different school site councils. She had to be creative when we were given additional Title I funds that needed to be spent at the last minute. She is extremely organized and has our budgets, program evaluations, and minutes all available and ready to go when needed. She creates and exceeds all expectations. Congratulations Xochi!

Juan Lopez and Chris Taylor Community

Juan Lopez and Chris Taylor, campus supervisors at West Ranch, are being awarded the One Hart award for the core values of community and caring. Juan and Chris both work very hard to keep our campus safe. They collaborate well, care for the safety of students and staff, and do a great job ensuring that all campus areas are covered. In addition, they both are very active in our community, working many of our school extracurricular activities. They both get along well with students, staff, parents, and community members.

Amanda Hubbell Courage

Amanda Hubbell has demonstrated tremendous courage to help her department get through a challenging time. Amanda has been acting as chair and supporting the Fall Festival for the department's three musical programs while assisting at competitions and performances. While chairs are responsible for the new state grant, it’s a first year activity with many new aspects to resolve. Her relentless dedication to the department, department members, and GV is amazing.

Yvette Loredo Del Toro Caring

Yvette Loredo Del Toro is receiving the One Hart Award for caring. Yvette goes above and beyond for the students of La Mesa! As the school's social worker, she genuinely cares for the students and families that have been placed in her care and it shows as families are receiving support for school and home as she spends time building connections with our community!

Mark Crawford Courage

Mark Crawford is being recognized for both courage and caring. Day in and day out, in his role of accepting and resolving complaints, he works with folks who are often angry and upset. He makes sure that they feel listened to and recognize that he is working with them to understand and resolve their issues.

Alicia Ruiz Courage

As defined in our Strategic Plan, the core value of courage is represented by someone who perseveres through challenges and models integrity, and Alicia absolutely embodies this core value. She has worked for the District for over 25 years in many different positions before coming to Technology, where she is responsible for just about all aspects of Infinite Campus as well as the reporting of our student data to the State through CALPADS. She has seen the demands for data from the State increase exponentially, with demands for more data, ever shorter deadlines, more complex data verifications and processes, and changes to Infinite Campus and CALPADS which has made her work more and more challenging. She always has the answers to the most complex questions about what can and cannot be done, while keeping us compliant with State requirements. Most of what she does goes unseen, but it is absolutely critical to supporting just about everything that happens at the school sites and in the classrooms. And the way she has tirelessly worked through both personal and professional challenges with grace and unwavering dedication, makes her more than deserving of a One Hart Award.

Will Barnwell Caring

Dr. Will Barnwell is a positive force at Saugus High School and exemplifies the core value of caring. He cares about his students and daily works tirelessly to support them and make sure they have many opportunities to learn. Students know that Dr. Barnwell cares about them and they thrive in his classes.

October 2023

Sue Solomon Community

Sue's contributions to the educational community, both local and statewide, are many. She is a member of the the Newhall School District Board of Trustees and has served on the California State PTA Board, as President of Council and District PTAs, President of the Los Angeles County and SCV Trustees Associations, on Citizens’ Oversight Committees and the State Teacher Credentialing Sub-Committee. Sue always keeps student welfare and education at the forefront.

Omar Sanchez Community

Omar is our amazing night lead custodian. He does an amazing job keeping Canyon High School up and running with a positive and sincere mindset. Whenever you get a chance to interact with Omar, it is always a good thing. He is kind, helpful, generous, and will get the job done no matter what the last-minute situation may be. Thank you, Omar. Congratulations on a job well done. We are so grateful to have you here at CHS.

Cristina Murillo Community

Cristina Murillo regularly goes above and beyond for the students and families in our community. Cristina works tirelessly to assist our homeless population, families struggling to obtain everyday needs, and/or students simply struggling to get to school. As a social worker, her job is based in community and she has brought the community in and made Hart a better place because of it. She sees well over hundreds of families throughout the year and truly is deserving of this One Hart Award.

Vilo Del Rio Caring

English teacher Vilo Del Rio exemplifies the characteristic of caring. He took time away from teaching his class to address a student issue outside of his classroom. He handled this teachable moment with grace and style so that the student involved couldn't help but grow in a positive way from this interaction. We appreciate Vilo's effort to ensure we have a positive culture and climate at Saugus High School.

Robbie Haring Community

12th grade Centurion, Robbie Haring, clearly exemplifies the value of community! He worked diligently to get funding and volunteers to help him carry out his Eagle Scout project of restoring the Saugus S. He went the extra mile for the Centurion community by ensuring that not only does the S look beautiful, but it also lights up. With Robbie's help, the Saugus S can continue to be a bright symbol of our community's spirit and strength.

Sue Dielentheis, Jesse Marshall, Libby Carson Caring

As a team, Sue Dielentheis, Jesse Marshall, and Libby Carson go above and beyond for our students. They are academic counselors and yet they do so much more than that. They help support the various social and emotional needs of our students. They are integral members of our school community, working closely with students, parents, families, teachers and staff members. They each received a One Hart Award for Caring.

Josh Underwood Caring

Josh Underwood is an incredible teacher. He provides his students with an opportunity to acquire technological skills to thrive and succeed in a post secondary world. He is currently our instructional coach and our 2023-24 Teacher of the Year. Josh is an integral part of Canyon's data driven instructional focus and we are honored to have him here at CHS.

Dan Davis Caring

Dan may be one of the most positive, respectful, and kind humans I have ever met. He takes those qualities and embeds them in everything he does, whether it is working with his students or supporting our staff members through his role as our Professional Development lead. Dan is an amazing teacher and his record for increasing our AP Physics enrollment and our AP pass rate speaks volumes about his passion and dedication to the students of Canyon High School.

Nokia Richards Creativity

Nokia is the co-founder and president of S.T.R.E.A.M. Global Innovations. Nokia is dedicated to creating platforms for individuals who might not otherwise have opportunities. She also launched the S.T.R.E.A.M. Parent Cafe to build parent engagement and involvement to facilitate conversations between parents and industry leaders about future careers for their children . She has helped to make vital information and resources available to hundreds of families from diverse backgrounds.

Niamani Knight Creativity

2019 Saugus High School graduate Niamani Knight is the co-founder of S.T.R.E.A.M. Global Innovations. She also founded S.T.R.E.A.M. Kids Expo, helping to connect the dots between education and careers for underestimated students. As a high school student, Niamani was involved in bringing Manufacturing Day to the Hart District. Her impact extends beyond the local community to national and international projects. Through the S.T.R.E.A.M. platform, she has helped enable over 36,000 people to connect with industry experts. Niamani is empowering the next generation of change makers.

Casey Cuny Community

Valencia High School Teacher Casey Cuny, California State Teacher of the Year, was recognized for his passion, energy, poise, consistency, and steadfastness in the face of challenges. We are thankful that you are part of the Hart District community!

Vicki Goodwin Courage

Canyon High School AP Teacher Vicki Goodwin is a courageous and caring teacher. She combines high expectations for all students with caring and support, which produces excellence and success. Thank you Vicki for helping your students grow and succeed!

Erin McHorney Caring

Erin is a caring math teacher, teacher leader, math department chair, and mother. She is an original Mustang who opened the school 19 years ago, helping to develop the middle school culture and core values that Rancho Pico still stands by. Erin believes at her core that all students can learn at high levels. She is inclusive and kind. She asked to co-teach this year, and our special education students thrive in her classroom. Erin helps students close gaps in math through her math support class and by working with WR mentors after school in Target Tutors. She also serves students who excel in math by giving them extra opportunities to achieve by taking advanced classes when necessary, coaching our Math Counts Team, and offering the AMC8 test. Erin cares for all students!

Daniel Tokeshi Courage

Daniel Tokeshi, a long-term AP Secretary substitute, exhibits courage in facing the challenges of the position and learning new systems. He has stepped into the role and immediately made an impact on the operations of the school, treating others with professionalism and care each and every day.

Aaron Fuller Courage

Aaron Fuller is our PE teacher at Bowman. Every quarter Aaron sets up Field Day, a time where both staff and students play sports, play games or even draw with chalk on the sidewalk. What is unique about field day is that it brings the entire school together. It is one of those special times at Bowman where students feel connected to teachers, staff and our school. We often speak about "Bowmanizing" students. This is a time where students become part of our wonderful school.

Angel Perez Community

Angel Perez Ruiz is a senior at Bowman. Angel is a wonderful student who always has a smile on his face and a positive attitude. Angel is liked by all. What makes Angel a proper recipient for the One Hart Award is that he helps our larger Hart community as a whole. Angel loves photography, and over the past year he has been a sports photographer for his former school, Golden Valley. He often comes to Bowman speaking of the games he got to photograph on Friday night. Recently he became part of the West Ranch Boys Basketball team as their team photographer. Angel shows dedication to his passion by helping other schools. Angel truly makes our Hart community stronger.

September 2023

Jase St. Peter Caring
Jase is incredibly dedicated to students exploring science. He goes well beyond what any stipend could ever cover and is constantly present for our kids, helping them show the strength of Rio Science in our community. He puts countless hours into Robotics and Science Olympiad after school, three and often four days a week, and spends time trying to find sponsors and funding so that we can send multiple teams as these clubs are growing. Jase cares so much about what these kids want to do and looks for opportunities for them to get additional experiences beyond competitions so they can explore career fields in science as well. We thank Jase for Caring so much about our Rio Student Community!

Jessica Haayer Courage
Jessica has faced great adversity over the last year and through it all she has handled a difficult journey with grace, perseverance and immense COURAGE.

Scott Wilk Caring
California State Senator Scott Wilk is a strong advocate for students. As a member of the State Education Committee, he is always willing to listen and advocate for students and for the Hart District.

Kaden Sasaki, Ethan Park, Arav Shah Community
Ethan Park, Arav Shah, and Kaden Sasaki have all been awarded the One Hart Award for Community. Ethan, Arav, and Kaden all organized and volunteered to host Game. Set. Hope - a charity tennis match. Ethan led his teammates in organizing the tournament at the WRHS tennis courts to raise awareness for mental health and teen suicide prevention. We had an overwhelming response from the community and had an outpouring of support to make it a very successful event. Overall, they were able to raise $5,940, $500 of which they have chosen to donate to the West Ranch Wellness Center. We are very proud of Ethan, Arav, and Kaden and their commitment and representation of the Hart District's core value of Community.

Christina Noriega Caring

Christina Noriega is a counselor at Hart who goes above and beyond. She doesn’t have a standard grade level caseload as every other academic counselor does at Hart. She takes on our special populations, EL and Reach, and oversees the advanced placement program. Christina helps immensely with the master schedule and cares deeply for her students, often advocating to the nth degree for them. We are giving this coin to Christina as she embodies creativity, courage, community, but above all is caring.

Jason Gibbs Community
Santa Clarita Mayor Jason Gibbs is involved in and actively supports many community organizations in the Santa Clarita Valley. He frequently asks, “What can the City do to support our students.”

Jameson Roberts Caring
Jameson is playing an integral role in the development of Canyon's Honor Wall. She was recently acknowledged as a Commended Student by the National Merit Scholarship and carries a weighted GPA of 4.8. She is an amazing student who cares deeply about all students at CHS.

Jill Osovsky Courage
In the face of personal adversity, Jill showed immense courage and persevered for the betterment of her students. Jill's care and commitment to her classroom, the high bar she continued to set through her lesson plans and her dedication to ensuring her students still continued to learn, whether she was present or not, took strength and courage in a time that was not easy to overcome. For Courage, we honor Jill Osovsky!

Matt Hinze Community
Matt is always willing to help anyone, regardless of the project. He facilitated our staff health fair, provides technical support when asked, organizes our blood drives, ran summer school, creates video content upon request, designed all of the new Care Text system and materials, and provides data for many different departments. He always says "yes" without hesitation regardless of the task.

Angelica Mendez Caring
Angelica works extremely hard on behalf of our students and staff in the District. Whether it's working with multiple departments to ensure that some of our most fragile special needs students have a Special Circumstance Instructional Assistant when they show up to school, or if it's making sure each staff member knows what online training is required, Angelica makes sure the job gets done . . . with a smile.

Don Zerilli and Team, Synthetic Turf Services of AZ Courage
When the Synthetic Turf Services team arrived at Valencia HS to install a new field, they focused on their goal to get VHS's field operational as soon as possible. They worked long days, nights, and weekends to compress a four week project into three weeks. They were faced with a community and school that were anxious to see a delayed project completed and responded with grace and determination to do the right thing for Hart District students.

Javier Pena Caring
Javier is a true example of an administrator that puts the needs of others above his own. He is compassionate, caring, diligent, and self sacrificing in how he addresses students and staff. He is receiving this One Hart Award for Caring and La Mesa is lucky to have him!

Carolyn McMahon Caring
Carolyn has a passion for serving our students. She goes above and beyond to assure that students have access to the services they need. Her caring and dedicated nature has had a positive impact on thousands of students each year.

Tim Hopper Community
Tim Hopper connects and builds authentic relationships with students, families, and staff. He is committed to engaging with the school's community and involving all stakeholders, increasing family participation, and building relationships. Tim is passionate about creating a more equitable school culture where all students feel valued and seen. He guides and mentors young adolescents as they learn to navigate through their middle school years and partners with parents throughout the process. Tim takes school safety very seriously. He tells everyone, "I want you to feel safe, and I want you to be happy!” Tim Hopper is a community builder at Rancho Pico!

Eunice Hong Courage
Eunice Hong is an incredible leader who perseveres through challenging situations, showing resilience, determination, and perseverance. Eunice is respected as an instructional leader and works closely with our EL, special education, professional development, and English teams. She is fair, calm, friendly, and consistent with staff, students, and families. Her unwavering dedication, strong work ethic, and commitment to Rancho Pico’s mission and core values make Eunice a role model for students and colleagues. She always leads by example and inspires others to excel.

Alex Suarez, Cesar Noboa, Alex Dunwoody, Sara Soltani and Lara Forgrave Community
La Mesa's PE Department goes above and beyond for the students! They volunteer their time at lunch, before and after school and are dedicated to the young people of our campus. They strive to connect with the students through lunch time activities and through Runner's Club after school to create a safe, interactive place for our students to feel comfortable and appreciated for being themselves. La Mesa would not be the place it is without the support from the PE Department.

Erica Galicia Caring

Erica is the backbone and the glue of the Ed Services division. She possesses all of the characteristics of the One Hart Core Values: she shows great Courage through her integrity and professionalism and always doing the right thing; she shows Community by collaborating well with everyone and appreciating others; she is very Creative and has great problem-solving skills and ingenuity; but she is recognized for Caring because all she does is due to her deep care for our students and her colleagues. For these reasons, and many more, Erica Galicia is recognized as the most relied upon person in the Educational Services Division with the One Hart Award for Caring.

August 2023

Johnathan Barnes Community

Johnathan is someone who exemplifies the value of community as he goes above and beyond his roles and responsibilities as a maintenance custodian. John is always seen at athletic events and dances to support our students. He is 100% invested in our school, our students, our staff and our programs. John defines our Coyote community as one who inspires, supports and dedicates his time to our students, families and staff!

Desmond Carter Community
Desmond is an integral part of our Bowman community as co-lead campus supervisor. He connects with all students and staff and is an essential component in Bowman's motto of YOU MATTER! Desmond is also a phenomenal basketball coach at West Ranch.

Kathleen Watson Caring
Kathleen is at the core of Bowman's values. She encourages students to persevere with writing and public speaking and is incredibly kind to everyone. She is not only an incredible teacher, but she is also a caring and compassionate person.

Laurel Priesz Community
A One Hart Award was presented in recognition of our WASC site coordinator, Laurel Priesz, who has done a fabulous job preparing the Viking campus for the upcoming accreditation visit. Laurel is professional, friendly, focused, and dedicated to the VHS campus. We are so incredibly lucky to have her serving our community.

Tiffany Night

Tiffany Night Community
As a District LVN, Tiffany goes the extra mile to support the health of all of our students. She has been instrumental in her work with student vaccination compliance, the community health fair, AED training, and supporting the various school sites.

Lisa Holt

Lisa Holt Caring
Spring and summer are very busy times in the HR department with all kinds of things going on with retirements, resignations, staffing allocations, recruitment, and hiring. Lisa is instrumental in all of these areas. When I have a question or when there’s a question at the site, the person who takes our phone calls and provides the background, context, and answer is Lisa Holt. She exhibits the highest level of customer service to all of our certificated employees.

Dave LeBarron

Dave LeBarron Courage
Dave is a great team member and has a strong sense of community. He is also a very caring individual and an ethical leader. He is tasked with many difficult assignments and important responsibilities including oversight of the textbook and library book selection process, curriculum guides, and local and state assessments. In these and all areas of responsibility, Dave always asks the question of what is best for students? Through his leadership, even in difficult situations, he is always professional and open, listening to all viewpoints. He is also always well prepared and a great team player. For these reasons, Dave LeBarron is recognized with the One Hart Award for his courageous Leadership.

Brittany Kruczynski

Brittany Kruczynski Courage
Brittany is committed to continuous evaluation and improvement of District systems and practices. She actively seeks alternatives and solutions to challenging issues. She leads her team towards excellence daily.

May/June 2023

Lucas Thirkettle Courage
Lucas showed incredible courage by sharing his story and struggles he faces on a comprehensive high school campus. He has now laid the foundations for additional meaningful messages to be shared during Canyon’s morning news announcements. Thank you, Lucas.

Deborah Rocha Community
Deborah Rocha is the founder of the non-profit organization SRD Straightening Reins and represents community through her passion and work with the Hart Horses program. Deborah teaches our students vital emotional health skills through horses and herd animals. Deborah brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise every time she visits our campus, and most importantly provides a welcoming, inclusive, warm environment for our students. Her ability to connect with the students is outstanding and we are beyond grateful. Rancho Pico appreciates your time and the work that you do, thank you, Deborah!

Kathy Hefferon Caring
Kathy Hefferon was recognized for her 40 years of service to the Hart District. She has supported all members of our Canyon community and we are thrilled to have her here as an integral part of our Canyon family.

Heather Ippolito Community
Heather has been instrumental in organizing our School Site Council bylaws and ensuring we follow all required laws and procedures. She has served as our site council president the past two years. Additionally Heather attends our District’s Parent Communications Council and shares important information with Canyon stakeholders. She is a valuable member of the CADA community and has recently been elected as President of the Gold Star Brigade, Canyon’s Band booster. Heather is an advocate for students, families, and of course teachers. Our band director said it best: She sees us for the humans we are and takes care of us, empathizes with us, and makes us feel heard.

Chitra Salloom Caring
Chitra Salloom has been a valuable employee in food service for 26 years for the Hart District. She runs a very efficient kitchen, leading all sites in productivity. Hart HS serves the most breakfasts in the District and the second most overall meals. We are giving her this award for Caring as she really enjoys serving the students at Hart and looks at the kids as her own. She particularly gets excited at catering events like the senior breakfast, where she almost always is the one leading. We've personally witnessed Chitra going the extra mile to provide students (usually special ed) something off the menu for one reason or another. In short Chitra is one of those managers who come to work every single day, rarely missing a day and if she does, she has everything laid out for her sub; who you rarely hear from, and if we do it's important that they call or email; who just handles issues as they arise; one who their staff and students love; and one you hardly ever hear any kind of complaint about. We don't tell Chitra enough how much we appreciate her.

Danielle Werts Caring
Danielle just retired from Golden Valley and was an amazing AP Environmental Science Teacher who actually started the program here. Her contributions as a teacher are commendable. However, the reason for this award is because Danielle partnered with an anonymous group that supports GV by providing tens of thousands of dollars in resources and finances for families who otherwise would not be able to celebrate the holidays. The generosity of this group is amazing and the only thing the group requested was anonymity. We are so honored to have this group partner with GV that Mrs. Danielle Werts helped orchestrate.

Patrick Geary Community
Patrick Geary was hired at Golden Valley in 2007. His impact on campus was immediately felt. He is one of the fiercest student advocates the profession will ever find. He has tremendous work ethic and fortitude. Golden Valley has not had one complaint from a parent regarding Mr. Geary. His students truly trust, respect and admire him. He is also the newly discovered liaison to our secret group that just finished its 12th year providing holiday celebrations for many underprivileged families during the holiday season. We celebrate Patrick, as he has also announced his retirement.

Brady Novean Courage
Brady Novean is Golden Valley’s one student receiving a One Hart Award this year. While there are many amazing students here at GV, Brady has a very rare disease requiring many surgeries. He's already had 26 and some have been major, requiring weeks of recovery. Despite this, Brady does not take credit for being brave. In an award winning essay he wrote, Brady says the people helping him, not only medically, but personally, are the ones that are heroes. He recognizes nurses for choosing this brave profession to help others. We are recognizing Brady for courage.

Shannon Lee Creativity
Shannon Lee is an incredible AP Studio Art student who designed and painted a mural for the Welcome Center at West Ranch High School. Shannon was awarded the One Hart award for her creativity in designing the mural. Shannon then went above and beyond and worked with her classmates to paint the mural on the first wall that all visitors to our campus will see for years to come.

Robert Garcia Community
Robert Garcia received the award for community and caring. He has jumped into the role of Bowman's custodian and groundskeeper so seamlessly. He takes great care of our school and is always willing to help. We truly appreciate him!

April Soria Community
April Soria received the award for community and caring. April's natural ability to connect with students both in and outside of the classroom is unparalleled. She is an amazing ASB director and social studies teacher. April is an essential component in building and maintaining Bowman's school community.

Ron Smith Creativity
Ron Smith received the One Hart award for creativity. His creativity helps him connect with students and engage them in computer science, video production, and digital photo. Ron’s kindness is extended to all students on campus.

Emily Wilmers Community
Emily creates a very welcoming community with students, parents and staff. She makes great connections with the students in all activities and events.

Rob Lewis Community
Rob Lewis exemplifies positive hands-on community involvement and support for our students, teachers and school. He is an exemplary parent/community leader who gives much time and support to our programs, specifically our band, color guard and music programs. Rob is always here with whatever we need as well as offers suggestions and innovative ideas. We are forever grateful to Rob and look forward to continuing to work with him as a community partner for years to come!

Joe Willard Community
Joe has been a fixture of our District for over 30 years. Joe represents the ultimate sense of community at Placerita. He keeps our community safe and is most diligent at maintaining safety throughout the campus. He also has the best collection of Converse and wears a different pair everyday.

Monica Ludlow Caring
Monica represents the character trait of caring in our school community. As the Teacher Librarian at Placerita she is always looking out for the needs of students and staff and is always going out of her way to help others with whatever need they have.

Jessica Velazquez Creativity
Jessica represents the character trait of creativity at Placerita. Not only is she a fantastic science teacher but she is always helping others with her designs and creative ways of crafting and thinking about how to make something better. She not only does this for the students on her team but faculty and staff are helped with her creative productions as well.

Rebekah West Creativity
Arroyo Seco is recognizing Rebekah West for creativity. Rebekah teaches drama and choir and led the students in an outstanding choir performance this May as well as musical theater performances of the Little Mermaid. Ms. West includes many students in her performances, which are enjoyed by large numbers of community members. Her hard work, dedication, and commitment to excellence are notable and commendable. Thank you Ms. West!

Lesley Day Caring
Lesley Day is being recognized by Arroyo Seco for caring. For the past several years, Lesley has taught junior high seminar to students at Arroyo Seco. She has continually adjusted the curriculum to meet the needs of our students. Topics covered include fostering academic success, setting and reaching life goals, self-esteem, communication, citizenship and personal responsibility. Roughly 75% of all Seco students take this class. Ms. Day's efforts in teaching this class have had a positive impact on campus in helping to develop caring citizens. Thank you Ms. Day!

Tom Beam Community
Tom exhibits the core value of community. He opens our gates everyday and welcomes students. He keeps our Saugus community safe by building positive relationships with students and staff.

Kelli Sandusky Community
Kelli Sandusky is our Josten’s representative. She represents community and this year Kelli has gone above and beyond to support Saugus. We had a lot of last minute requests and special needs for this year’s graduation and Kelli went out of her way countless times to ensure our students and staff had everything they needed to make graduation special. Her actions represent and exemplify community.

Sabina Kosek Creativity
Sabina Kosek is our library tech. She goes above and beyond daily. She exemplifies caring as she lovingly and caringly put together shadow boxes for our honorary graduates. Both staff and family appreciated her workmanship and the caring attitude it showed.

Dr. Jennifer Betty, Christine Racina, Dr. Suzan Tessier, Deputy Mike Perry, and Thomas Flores Courage
This incredible team displayed amazing courage while working on a challenging case this year. They did so with honor and integrity, with the best interest of our Rio River Hawks in mind and with concern and care for a student and family in need of their assistance. We are truly blessed to have had such a wonderful team putting their heart and soul into what is best for students.

Christian Soltanian, Diya Boini, and Caleb Jeon Community
These three students are amazing academically, but what sets them apart is the way they give to, and represent, the River Hawk Community! They are true role models for their fellow students. All three are actively involved in our campus and our valley. Christian was part of Science Olympiad, our Council for School Culture, and our Robotics Club and talks to his fellow classmates about overcoming challenges and finding their passion in life. Christian is actively involved in COC's Astronomy and Physics Club and is afforded opportunities that he speaks openly about telling students how much more school will mean to them when they find their "why". Diya Boini has also been a part of Science Olympiad, Valencia MSAs JUMP program, our Council for School Culture and represents us on the Student Communications Council. Diya is articulate, thoughtful, full of great ideas and was a wonderful representative during our Board report, speaking directly to our Board Members. Caleb Jeon was our ASB President and also represented us on the Student Communications Council and in the JUMP program. Caleb represented Rio Norte at regular PTSA E-board and Association meetings and won the District 8th grade Speech Competition sponsored by the Santa Clarita Valley Business Group where he presented to their members. Caleb also won the Rio Spelling Bee for the 2nd year and finished 3rd in the State finals representing us well in all that he does! All three of these students have done so much beyond what is listed here and have incredibly bright futures ahead!

Asha Kakonde Caring
Asha goes above and beyond for her students and our Special Education department. She works with our students with greater challenges and loves what she does every day. She is an incredible role model for her staff and the general education peer tutors she brings into her classroom to work with her students. She has high standards for everyone, including herself, and approaches everyone with kindness. She organized the Hart Games for our campus and puts together promotion for the students exiting our FA and LS programs. She is intentional in the opportunities she provides for her students and their families and is always inclusive of her gen ed peer tutors and our staff. Asha cares so deeply that she has even folded her entire family into our campus community where her father and sister regularly sub for her and her fellow colleagues.

Kim Grandbois Community
Kim helped open Rio Norte 20 years ago and is the epitome of what our Rio Norte community values. She works hard and cares deeply about student success and EVERYTHING Rio! Kim is department chair, our tech coordinator, and is on our PD Team. She's not afraid to ask questions, try new things, and look for next steps to meet any new challenge. She can tell you anything about Rio's history and helps with planning schedules and calendars to keep us on-track. She genuinely is the HART of Rio and we are blessed that she is part of our staff!

April 2023

Amy Daniels Community

Amy Daniels serves as the Executive Director of the WiSH Education Foundation. Amy exemplifies many of the Hart District core values, but especially community. Amy serves and supports students of the Hart District, leading the fundraising efforts of the foundation to provide extra resources that help ensure every student has the tools and resources they need.

Bryan Martuscello Courage
Bryan has been a campus supervisor at Hart for the past 11 years, a football coach longer than that, and most recently has been our lead campus supervisor. He has assisted with multiple student safety situations, but most recently worked through a delicate situation when we lost a student on campus. It took courage, caring, community and being creative, all of the district’s four core values, to bring together students and keep things calm on campus in light of what was going on in the community. Bryan is a veteran, serving our country, but more importantly keeping Hart's campus safe and secure, and it takes courage to do that.

Ruben Del Real Community
Wellness Coordinator Ruben Del Real has co-facilitated two wellness forums covering a multitude of mental health/social emotional topics, discussions, and activities. He also co-leads our monthly wellness department parent forums, which has helped build community and connection between parents/guardians and mental-health professionals. He leads group counseling options and has conducted male and female empowerment workshops. His biggest accomplishment is that Canyon has the highest number of students joining our wellness center per month across the district. This indicates strong rapport-building with our students and more mental-health resources being offered. Ruben is looking forward to our first ever student athlete wellness forum which will include community partners co-presenting mental health topics addressing student athlete performance, nutrition, time management, and overall athletic fortitude.

Jean Kauffman Community
Jean represents the best of the best of the Hart District and builds a sense of community wherever she goes and with whomever she serves. As a PAR Consulting Teacher, she supports our new teachers in moving their practice forward, solving what seems like impossible problems, and infects them with her contagious positive attitude, love of students, commitment to education for all, and caring heart. Thank you for all that you do in supporting our teachers and students. Congratulations!

Araksia Kaladjian Caring

Araksia Kaladjian is a school psychologist who is caring, thorough, kind, and respectful to all. She makes families, students, and staff feel welcomed and heard throughout the IEP process. She takes the time to clearly explain the process, protocol, and results associated with the assessments and IEP. Araksia is a vital part of our Care Team and our school community. We are so grateful for her expertise and all she does for our students at Rancho Pico.

Alex Dunwoody Caring
Mr. Dunwoody shows daily how he cares for his students. As a La Mesa alum, he relates to each student that he comes in contact with and consistently looks to build relationships with his students. Students look to him for guidance and the respect is given and received through their interactions. He is a valuable member of the La Mesa community and we are lucky to have him!

Broden Weeks Community
Broden was given the One Hart award for community due to his unique ability to bring students together and to promote the video production program at Castaic High School. While at the STN convention in Long Beach last month, Broden worked on a number of contests and was always there to support his peers and to support the chaperones to create such a positive experience for everyone.

Dean Acevedo Caring
Coach Dean shows a great deal of caring and support for the boys on the frosh volleyball team at Saugus. It is evident that Coach Dean has taught the boys not just the rules of the game but also how to cheer their teammates on and how to be there for each other when playing games.

Kasey Watanabe Courage
Kasey Watanabe is being selected for the One Hart Award for her courage as the new librarian. Kasey has done a great job supporting students and staff and has had the courage to lead difficult conversations to support the needs of all. We appreciate all that Kasey has done to set up the upcoming AP exams.

Penni Kern Caring
Penni worked in food service at Arroyo Seco for six years before recently accepting a promotion to Rio Norte. While at Seco, she always gave 110%, making strong connections with our students and watching out for those kids with special diets. She was also always seen outside after lunch, helping the custodians pick up trash. Thank you Penni!

Jessica Meraz Community
As ASB director, Jessica always goes above and beyond to support our Arroyo Seco community. She works with her student leaders to create many memorable experiences for students and seek out ways to recognize the efforts of those who are making positive choices. Enlisting the support of parents, Jessica has also put in countless hours to acknowledge the hard work of all of our staff members, both during Staff Appreciation Week and throughout the school year. Thank you for all of your contributions to our school community!

March 2023

March

Leticia Hernandez Community

Dr. Hernandez’s life and professional story exemplify the power of community. As a child of immigrant parents, she was encouraged by a teacher at Saugus High School to dream big for her future. Through hard work, an exceptional professional resume, and the support of many in the community, she has returned to Santa Clarita to help open the doors of opportunity to a new generation of students as the Superintendent of the Newhall School District.

David Gillum Community

David Gillum has been instrumental in sponsorship partnership with Golden Valley HS. Since 2016 his organizations have donated over $50,000 to our athletic department. The City of Santa Clarita just recognized David for his outstanding volunteering for youth sports, coaching boys and girls basketball for six years. He has also coached Canyon Country Little League for 10 years. David exemplifies someone who gives back to his community with available resources and his personal time. He's an incredible human being.

Sophia Maybin Courage

Sophia Maybin has been a member of ROTC and is a natural leader at Canyon. Her hard work has earned her a scholarship funded by the Air Force in which she will be able to receive her private pilot certification this summer. She is the proud recipient of one of the J-100 AFJROTC100 scholarships, which covers 100% tuition to a university of her choice. Congratulations, Sophia!

Sue Cahill Caring

Sue Cahill always leads with what she knows and believes is best for all students. She is fair and kind. She treats others with respect. Even on challenging days, Sue remains calm and collected. She leads by example at all times, and she is proactive. Sue goes above and beyond her job description and always thinks about ways to make good better. She is reflective, open to feedback, and genuinely cares about the students and their wellbeing.

Jeff and Jennifer Press Community

Jeff and Jennifer Press are the owners of Santa Clarita's Firehouse Subs. The Press family is always giving back, which is why we wanted to present them with our March One Hart award for community and give back to them. Whether it's a Heart of Hart luncheon (like we had when we presented this coin), or for staff events, extracurricular programs, or to the community at large, the Presses are true community partners. Many Hart students work at their sandwich shop, and they obviously care for our first responders. We can't be more thankful for the services Firehouse and the Presses provide!

Munnu Sudan Community

Munnu Sudan is being recognized for community for her involvement in supporting our boys and girls basketball teams. Mrs. Sudan has been an amazing supporter of both of our programs and goes above and beyond. As a parent of two West Ranch students, Mrs. Sudan is a great advocate for all students and has dedicated many hours to help support all students at our school. We appreciate all that Mrs. Sudan has done and continues to do for our community.

Aaron Kirkland Community

Aaron is a staple at La Mesa Junior High and his sense of community is unparalleled. He embraces being a mentor to new teachers and follows through with the professional learning community as he facilitates unifying his department, and school, so that students feel the cohesiveness of the campus where all teachers are focused on student growth. This focus on student growth is not only in academics, but on young people growing into young adults.

Eve Itaya Caring

Eve Itaya was awarded a One Hart Award for caring because of her immense dedication to our students and community. Eve exhibits, encourages and lives by a "growth mindset" in every decision, always student centered. After 34 years of teaching, she inspires all who know her. We are so proud to have her on our Coyote staff as not only an exceptional teacher but also an inspirational leader who is continually taking on tasks to grow our school.

February 2023

February

Erin McCleary Creativity

Erin McCleary is a librarian PLUS. Erin is kind, creative, nurturing, and innovative. Her library is a maker space, a game room, a reading room, a craft space, and a safe space where all students are welcome before school, brunch, lunch, and after school for enrichment. Erin is our Robotics and Science Olympiad Coach and serves on our PBIS Team. Erin is constantly looking for ways to fund and bring new opportunities to our diverse student population through the library.

Adriana De Fazio Caring

Adriana De Fazio has held down the position of AP secretary at Hart HS for nearly 30 years. I first encountered Adriana as a substitute teacher in 2001. She always showed so much care for Hart and those who came into the AP office. She continues that care today, constantly staying on top of teachers who are out and finding coverage. She is amazing. We are presenting this One Hart coin to her for the amount of care that she has given Hart HS. Thank you Adriana, you are the best!

Jim Ventress Community

Jim Ventress has impacted the lives of countless children, keeping them safe and teaching them respect for themselves and others. Even though Jim has retired from directing the SCV Boys and Girls Clubs, you will still often see him at the clubs helping children.

Kathy Hunter Caring

Kathy Hunter supports programs and initiatives that are in the best interest of students. She always puts student needs first. She is ready to help whenever needed and she takes time to explain the issues. She meets needs creatively and in any way she can.

Andy Perez-Benitez Creativity

Between lessons for English Learners and our Sierra Vista Life news channel, Andy exudes creativity.

Caren Cummins Creativity

Caren uses multiple methods in her kitchen to teach students life skills they can build upon creatively.

Kristiana Molina Community

Kristiana has worked with intention to build bridges, team build, and be inclusive with all staff in the Human Resources department. We are deeply appreciative and want to recognize her efforts in the core value of community.

Jan Daisher Creativity

Jan Daisher could be recognized for her work that promotes community, collaboration and courage, but the core value that is most recognizable is creativity. Jan has a way of using ingenuity in complex situations to complete the needed work to support ALL students. She is an integral part of the Ed Services team because of her heart for students, her "team" attitude, and her tireless work to create environments for which both students and staff can thrive. For these reasons, and many more, Jan was given the One Hart Award for creativity.

Pat Modugno, Frank Chavez, Javier Padilla

Community

These gentlemen work diligently each day to assure that the learning and work environments are ready for students to learn. During COVID, they upgraded filters across the district. In the fall, when we experienced a prolonged heat wave, they were working days, nights, and weekends to keep up with the extreme challenges, much of that time up on roofs in 100 plus degree weather. They are unsung heroes who go about their work without fanfare or recognition.

Rob Kayne, Ben Kayne Caring

Attorney and AOC father, Mr. Rob Kayne, and his son, AOC 10th grader, Ben Kayne received a One Hart Award for community. They began our AOC Mock Trial tea, and practice hours each week with our students to ensure they are prepared for their Mock Trial competitions. For our first year, they have been competitive with the private school teams and have placed. We are so proud of the work of our Mock Trial team. Thank you Ben and Mr. Kayne for bringing our AOC students together for this team.

Scot Mahotz Community

Scot has served as Canyon Country Little League President since 2011. He has given countless hours of service, including building a new field at the complex with his son, Matthew, in 2017. He also serves four other offices for the CCLL. Scot has volunteered over 250 hours on our baseball field in the last four years along with donations of seed, soil and fertilizer. His contributions and time served volunteering are amongst the most generous in Golden Valley’s 19 years.

April Rios Community

April is an amazing Golden Valley and community volunteer. She has served as a Football Booster member since 2014

and the President since 2016. She has served the Little Grizzlies since 2015. April has given countless hours and fundraisers to benefit our football program and the GVHS community. She is one of the biggest GV supporters of all time. (Her husband Henry was by her side in all of her contributions.)

Kevin Fulleman Creativity

Mr. Fulleman is being recognized for Creativity. He is a popular and engaging teacher who has done a great job of developing young musicians and building our instrumental music program, which now includes Orchestra. His recruitment videos are very creative and students love being in his classes. Thank you, Mr. Fulleman!

Justine Hooper Community

Justine Hooper is being recognized for community. She is an experienced teacher who joined Arroyo Seco in the 2022-23 school year. Not only has she contributed in her role as a special education teacher, she has made contributions to our school community as a whole. Ms. Hooper took on the challenge of leading a group of students to the Math Counts competition (for the first time in approximately 20 years at Arroyo Seco). Thank you Ms. Hooper!

Steve Paterson Community

Steve is the embodiment of community at La Mesa. As a Special Education Counselor, Steve is always accessible for his students and teachers and is always willing to jump in as needed. He also gives up his time before school, brunch, lunch and after school to help supervise the campus and guide students in helping them H.O.W.L. while on campus and helping them continue that behavior while at home as they mature through junior high! He is a valued asset to the La Mesa team and the District!

Lizzy Ng Courage

Lizzy is a phenomenal English teacher and ASB advisor. She works hard to ensure students are getting her best day in and day out. She loves her students and challenges them to learn and grow from their experiences. Lizzy showed courage in her decision to step down from ASB to pursue her National Board Certification in English. While we will miss her impact on our ASB, we fully support her in this major, courageous decision!

Valerie Bradford Community

Valerie Bradford recognizes how our community, including our school community, is changing and courageously advocates for all children and holds us accountable for doing the same.

Sal Frias Community

Mr. Frias brings in the community to increase access, awareness and opportunities for Golden Valley students. When presented with this award, he received a standing ovation from his staff.

January 2023

Name	Award	Summary
Martina Hasek	Caring	Martina exemplifies the attribute of caring. She is filling in as our office manager and everyday she cares for our staff. She always has a smile on her face and is willing to do anything to make sure our students and staff have what they need. Our school runs smoothly because of all she does.
Dave Russell George Lopata	Community	These two gentlemen are teachers and athletic directors. They are committed to creating community in their classrooms. And they also spend countless hours creating community among our coaches, athletes, and staff. This includes coaches that are full-time teachers and our walk-on coaches. These two work tirelessly to make sure our community of athletes are successful and supported. And their hard work ensures that the tight-knit community of Saugus High School is maintained.
Heidi Sternberg	Courage	Life is full of ups and downs. Heidi continues to show courage in her professional life and her personal life. She courageously advocates for her students and courageously navigates the difficult issues that life throws her way.
Kyanna Isaacson	Community	Kyanna Isaacson has been a true community partner in the Santa Clarita Valley for many years now. Kyanna is also a product of the Hart District. But what sets Kyanna apart is her opening of true community stores for many of our schools. Most recently the Newhall Jersey Mike's opened up and we couldn't be more proud of the support and generosity that Kyanna and her staff have shown to Hart High School. Kyanna was awarded the One Hart Award for community.
Greg Myers	Community	Greg is a true example of community. He is not just a groundskeeper, but you will see Greg going above and beyond his responsibilities to help La Mesa be a great place for learning. He engages with students and is proactive in getting involved when needed and at a moments notice.
Erika Garcia	Community	Erika embodies the sense of community that all teachers aspire to. She is a leader on campus and looks for ways to connect with each of her students. Every student feels welcome, as she differentiates lessons to connect with each student in her class. Also, at the beginning of the school year, she stepped in and assisted a long-term substitute so that the sub and students were in lock step with the pacing of the Science Department. Congratulations Erika - you deserve it!
Jon Carrino	Community	Jon Carrino goes well above and beyond the call of duty. In addition to his excellent work as the Director of Technology Services, he has assumed the position of District Office Activities Director to help make everyone smile. Jon is one of the big reasons why people continue to love to come to work in the Hart District Office. Thank you Jon!
Chris Siegwart	Caring	Chris Siegwart often works with people who are facing some of their worst times. She exemplifies our core value of caring. She works with every person who comes her way, pairing that person up with the correct leave and resources, and answering all of their questions.
Amy Gaines	Creativity	Amy supports the special education staff at the school sites by providing creative solutions to ongoing academic and behavior issues. She is a true team player and exemplifies the core value of Creativity.
Stephanie Yoshida	Community	Stephanie has been proactive in improving the level of service and support for staff at the Admin Center and school sites. She actively seeks opportunities to provide hands-on training and support with regular site visits to work with ASB staff. Her work has been instrumental in assisting the sites to meet the needs of their students, improve systems and processes, and break down barriers.
Carolyn Hoffman	Caring	Dr. Carolyn Hoffman was recognized for caring because of her dedication and tireless work to support our students and staff. Carolyn was recognized for caring because of her sincere care in all that she does for students and staff. She is the ultimate team player, she works all hours, and her work touches all facets of the District, well outside of Career and College Readiness where she has led our exemplary program. She has a true heart for education and in fact suggested the phrase, Every Student Opportunity Ready.
Jacy Kasheena Patt	Community	Bowman choses Jacy Kasheena Patt as our One Hart award recipient for community and caring. Jacy is dedicated to our Bowman students and works diligently to help them grow as individuals. Her caring nature is what makes her such an asset to our school community.
Jeff Holen Beth Holen	Caring	Jeff and Beth Holen were awarded the One Hart award for caring. Jeff and Beth are both extremely dedicated teachers who give so much to West Ranch. Jeff and Beth care for their own students, but go above and beyond to help all students. Jeff and Beth both work after school intervention, athletics games, and dances. They can be seen at all WR events supporting our school in so many ways.
Fatin Sako	Caring	Fatin Sako is Academy of the Canyons' ROOTS PTA President and she was awarded a One Hart award for caring and community. Fatin has given countless hours to the AOC community, always caring, showing respect and including everyone in all her projects. She spearheads many events for AOC teachers, staff and students. Fatin and her husband, Dr. Patrus are so committed to AOC's success that they generously donated funding to create the very first student wellness room in the District at AOC. Fatin has also participated in the Strategic Plan community input committee, spent countless hours on the PCC representing AOC, and participated in a WASC committee parent panel. Fatin will always go above and beyond for the AOC community to show how much the parents care about this school. We are so appreciative of the way she cares for AOC and how she brings our community together. Thank you, Fatin!

December 2022

Name	Award	Summary	Media
Christine Colton	Caring	Christine Colton is the EL Coordinator at Hart and has shown a tremendous amount of care for the English Learner population, the largest EL population at any of our District schools. As an English teacher for the past eight years, Christine goes above and beyond in terms of being caring. She cares about each of the EL students and about the EL program being successful. She leads the ELAC meetings and tries her hardest to connect each faculty member at Hart with our EL students. Christine Colton is caring and deserving of the One Hart Award.	Video of Christine Colton's One Hart Award presentation.
Jenni Frias	Caring	Mrs. Frias is receiving the One Hart Award from La Mesa Junior High in the area of caring. The moment you step into her classroom, you can see the connection she has with her students and as the school's EL Coordinator, she is constantly looking for how to make each kid feel connected and successful. She is a huge asset to the campus and to all of her students that have the privilege of being in her classroom.
April Rego	Community	April Rego was announced as this month's One Hart recipient at Golden Valley. April demonstrates such commitment to community. Her ability to establish relationships with business, churches, and partners helps us provide resources for not only Golden Valley, but also for other Hart District schools and school districts supporting our valley.
Justin Diez	Community	Captain Diez exemplifies the four Hart District core values of community, caring, courage and creativity in his work and his personal life. AND he keeps our community safe! Thank you Captain Diez for all you do for the students and staff of the Hart District and the community of Santa Clarita!
Mike O’Connor	Community	Mike O’Connor has graciously provided a myriad of photography services to the Hart District for MANY years including Board member portraits, the yearly Board photo for yearbooks, and Certificated and Classified Employee of the year photos. Mr. O’Connor embodies our District’s commitment to community and we really appreciate working with him. Thank you Mr. O’Connor!
Jeff Regez	Community	Jeff Regez is our amazing PAC president and Canyon dad. He is an integral part of making sure our staff members feel appreciated, and he works tirelessly to help support the families of Canyon High School. He is a Cowboy through and through and we are very lucky to have him as part of our Canyon family. For community - I would like to thank Jeff Regez for all his hard work.
Kim Goller	Caring	Kim is the department chair for our counseling team. We have had some significant changes this year to our counseling staff and Kim has done an amazing job of creating a kind, supportive, and highly effective working environment. Kim's heart and non-stop working mind are always focused on our students. She continuously goes above and beyond to ensure our students feel loved, supported, and successful. For caring - I would like to recognize Kim Goller for all her hard work.
Sandy Kuhn	Caring	Sandy serves all people - staff, students, and families - with supreme care. She welcomes people with a warm smile, listens carefully to them, and regularly does everything in her power to provide for people and show them love
Peggi Stoffel	Creativity	Peggi Stoffel is an extraordinary teacher and leader in music education. Peggi leads our superior-ranked orchestra and band and is getting her CTE credential in careers in the music industry. Peggi mentors teachers and is a master of a master teacher, by coaching her student teachers and modeling exemplary practice. Peggi’s gifts to the profession are known throughout the state of California. She was just awarded the 2022-2023 CMEA (Cal Music Ed Association) Middle School Music Specialist Award.
Jesika Marikta	Community	Jesika is a true example of community. She effortlessly builds community on our campus on a daily basis. She is seen as a true leader for all she does for our wonderful staff and community. We are so lucky to have her as a member of the Castaic community.
Leland Velasquez	Caring	Leland represents the core value of caring. Leland is compassionate, loving, and considerate of all students on the Viking campus. Leland is always willing to support staff and his peers at any time. He is service oriented and wants to make our campus a better place. The Viking community is grateful for Leland!
Julie Harris	Community	Julie is caring toward everyone, she is creative in resolving student issues, and she shows courage in how she conducts herself daily. But most importantly, Julie embodies what the Rio Norte Community is about. She has been a part of Rio since the beginning and she is the essence of River Hawk Spirit!
Greg Hayes Tammy Werth	Caring Creativity	Greg Hayes is a teacher at Learning Post Academy, online independent alternative school of choice. He received a One Hart award for being a caring individual. He fosters a culture of respect, kindness, and inclusivity for all LPA students, families, and staff. Greg cares greatly about the individual journeys that our students share with him - their challenges and successes. Many of our students have unique stories and backgrounds and Greg takes the time to celebrate our outstanding athletes, career-oriented students, and artists. Tammy Werth is a science teacher at Learning Post Academy and she is a very creative and solutions-oriented teacher and teammate. No matter what challenges a student may face, she is always willing to think out of the box to find a way to help any student be successful. Without a traditional lab setting, she helps students understand physics and chemistry. Creative and caring, Tammy has earned a One Hart Award.
Jason Wilhelm	Caring	Jason Wilhelm is the Social-Emotional Wellness Liaison for Academy of the Canyons. He has been in this position for two years and has led our school through a staff-wide adoption of Yale University's RULER program. He spent several weeks with team members from AOC being trained by Yale's Center for Emotional Intelligence to ensure that our school has the ability to recognize, understand, label, express and regulate feelings and emotions. Mr. Wilhelm has taught his SEL students how to lead trainings for our 9th and 10th grade students. For example, the seniors and juniors host a ROOTED day where freshmen learn about the AOC and College of the Canyons school-wide culture. He hosts "sidewalk talks" with his students to help them open up and discuss their lives. He is also leading the school in professional development in RULER training and is piloting the curriculum with his colleagues. His focus on wellness has greatly impacted our school in a positive way. His care for our students' mental health and his collaboration with our wellness department at AOC has transformed the mental health of our students. He has positively influenced our school culture and has received the One Hart award for being a caring community member.
Anthony Acosta	Caring	Mr. Anthony Acosta is a caring community member at Academy of the Canyons. Mr. Acosta has generously donated food, drinks, and paper goods to several of our school-wide events. Before final exams, our ROOTS PTA hosts a table to provide hot cocoa with whipped cream and cookie treats for our students to help them stay warm and enjoy a sweet treat before taking exams. Thank you Mr. Acosta for supporting our AOC students and bringing them together with food for these special events. You care greatly for your nephew and the students at AOC and you demonstrate this with your acts of giving.
Hannah Mistry	Caring	Hannah Mistry has spent countless hours building Castaic High School's theater program, but more importantly, she has been instrumental in helping build the inclusive and warm culture that exists at Castaic High School. We wish Hannah the best as she embarks on a new adventure- returning home to England. Hannah's presence will be felt for years to come.

November 2022

Natalie Spivey	*Creativity*	After working on elected positions that didn’t come to fruition, Natalie Spivey took charge as the ASB Spirit Commission Lead, planning all student section themes and spirit weeks on campus. She’s always trying to find ways to bring Hart together with spirit and originality. Natalie co-leads as a Hart student section spirit leader as well. She also co-hosted the black light rally we recently held. Natalie has gone above and beyond with Creativity this year and we are awarding her this coin for it.
Hope Hepburn	*Community*	This month we are recognizing West Ranch senior Hope Hepburn for representing the core values of Community and Caring. Hope is an amazing example of both of these core values. She always has a smile on her face and a positive energy that cares for all. In addition, Hope brings together the Wildcat community through her involvement in many groups on campus. One example of her dedication to the community was evident on Friday November 4th. That night, Hope did an amazing job performing as Alice in our school play, Alice in Wonderland. After the show was over, she drove over to VHS to support the football team as they played in their CIF football game. Her dedication to our school community is greatly appreciated.
Adhitya Ram	*Creativity*	Adhitya Ram is a West Ranch student who helped set up Rancho Pico’s enrichment program. He teaches the after-school coding class, Code For Kids, and coaches the Rancho Pico robotics team, Probots, who placed 2nd in their first competition. Adhitya is a natural teacher allowing students to explore, create and learn.
Matt Nelson	*Community*	Boys and Girls Club Chief Executive Officer Matt Nelson is a caring, visionary leader. The Santa Clarita Club has expanded under his leadership, opening three new locations and currently serving 1600 children and teens. Thank you for your service to our community!
Manny Cortez	*Caring*	Manny is our lead campus supervisor who truly understands and does a phenomenal job of keeping Bowman safe. He is extremely knowledgeable about our school, our students, and his role on our campus. He is a welcoming face each day for students as they enter and he is a positive role model. Manny is an essential component to our amazing school.
Ron Ippolito	*Creativity*	Ron Ippolito was Rio's One Hart Award winner for November for Creativity. Ron is a person that embodies every quality of our One Hart Award, but I specifically selected Creativity for Ron because he brings his creativity into everything he does. From teaching in the classroom to Professional Development and work with his colleagues, to the leadership he provides his RioTV students, there is a creativity I envy in everything he does! Ron leads with his heart for students and is always there for his colleagues, bringing his own spin along the way as he strives to serve others.
Cristal Arriaga	*Caring*	Cristal has a huge heart and the level of care she gives to our students and our families is great. Cristal is helpful and has the capacity to love people exactly where they are.
Janice Dennington Helio Gudino	*Creativity* *Community*	Janice Dennington is the Office Manager at Placerita as well as the CSEA Chapter 349 President. Janice is constantly working for our staff and all the classified staff in the District. She is very creative in all the ways she supports everyone and makes our days better. Helio Gudino is the Plant Manager at Placerita. He makes our school run efficiently every day. From fixing the big things down to the smallest need, he is always there for all our staff when needed. Helio is an integral part of making our school operate efficiently.
Paula Davidson	*Caring*	Paula Davidson cares greatly about the Learning Post Academy students, families and staff. She is passionate about the Hart District's alternative school of choice. Whenever a family calls and has a story to share about their child, Mrs. Davidson listens with an empathetic ear and does everything she can to help a student. She has been with LPA for many years and supported the LPA staff through many transitions. She wants everyone in the community to feel included and supported. Paula Davidson has earned a One Hart Caring award.
Kelly Abbott	*Caring*	Kelly Abbott cares greatly about the Learning Post Academy community. She is our new counselor and has worked at LPA for many years. She is deeply passionate about creating a culture of inclusivity for students. She reviews every student applicant applying to LPA and takes the time to get to know individual student stories to ensure that their academic programming is given the care and attention they deserve. Kelly has earned the One Hart Caring Award.
Sharon Garvar	*Community*	Sharon Garvar is a teacher and Project Linus mentor at the Academy of the Canyons. As the Project Linus club advisor, she oversees the program from Antelope Valley and all of Santa Clarita Valley. Sharon exemplifies what we want all of our students at AOC to be able to do - to find a passion outside of themselves to serve the greater good of the community. At a recent Make a Blanket Drive, Project Linus students were able to collect over 600 blankets to give to children and babies in need. Under the direction of Sharon Garvar, and through her Non-Profit Ventures class at AOC, students learn through project-based learning and attain skills in public relations, project management, community outreach and maintaining a non-profit organization. She has inspired students to work to serve the community and be of service to others. Sharon has earned the One Hart Award of Community and Caring as she encourages collaboration amongst students, staff and community members AND cares greatly about providing blankets to children in need.

October 2022

Vince Ferry	Courage	Vince Ferry embodies the core value of courage through his commitment to students as a leader. He not only led a staff through an experience that no educator should endure, but he also took the initiative and drive to work with a school to have it opened for the fall in just two short weeks. Mr. Ferry is a true symbol of courage and strength for the Hart District.
Tina Hepp	Courage	Tina Hepp perseveres through challenges and honors those who show integrity. Tina is our district nurse who has an office at Rancho Pico and cares for our students as if they were part of her family. We are incredibly blessed to have Tina on our campus and part of our RP team. Her expertise and help with medical situations are greatly appreciated.
June Shin	Caring	June Shin represents Inclusivity, kindness, and respect. She is Rancho Pico's classified employee of the year and is the most spirited staff member on campus, according to the students. June is kind, fun, competent, and willing to help everyone with everything!
Aaron Quevedo	Community	Aaron is only a junior, but he has done so much for Hart High School that I want to give him this coin for community. Aaron was involved at Placerita with Kidflix and started the Miner Details podcast. I invited Aaron to take over the Hart to Hart podcast and he took it to levels I couldn’t have imagined. Now Aaron runs tech and lighting for stagecraft, and, as part of a team, basically runs almost all productions here at Hart. Without Aaron’s help we couldn’t have pulled off the Larry Fiscus memorial, nor back to school night, and the list goes on and on. Aaron reflects a sense of community at Hart.
Arian Wilson	Caring	As the District's ELD Program Specialist, Arian Wilson personifies caring as she works with English learners individually at every school site. She cares deeply about their personal stories, goals, interests, successes, and challenges. She creates personalized learning paths to help them each access their education with language support to meet their needs. Arian has completely rewritten the District's EL program for Newcomers, and continues to increase and improve all the services we provide. It is truly because Arian cares so much that our EL students are able to succeed in unlimited ways.
Dennis Yong	Community	We celebrate this cowboy today who is an outstanding teacher and advocate for change in our world. He is not only an outstanding teacher but an amazing coach. His kindness and consideration for others is unparalleled and his sense of community outshines us all. Dennis receives the One Hart Award for community and as an incredible humanitarian.
Irma Virgen	Caring	This cowboy is dedicated to serving our EL Newcomers, and she puts her heart into her connections with the students. She is a collaborative and valued member of our Achieve team. Irma proactively looks out for our students as they learn how to navigate themselves at Canyon High School.
Liberty Floyd	Courage	This Cowboy is a model student and person. She is dedicated, a leader in words and in action, and is one of the most dependable students I have ever met. She has been preparing to be ASB president for years and is exemplary. She has the courage to take on anything and always finds time to balance all of her activities on and off campus. She is AMAZING. Liberty Floyd has the COURAGE to reach for her dreams.
Deputy Tarek Salah	Community	Deputy Salah plays an important part in our community by helping us supervise the campus. He also provides us with resources and services that ensure that our campus is a safe place. He is always willing to meet with students and their families.
Ira Rounsaville	Community	Mr. R is an integral part of our Centurion community. He works tirelessly to help students, staff, and families increase their mental health and thrive on campus. On a daily basis, he seeks out opportunities to build people up and spread genuine positivity on campus. Mr. R regularly looks for the good in those around him.
Sergeant Mike Marino	Community	Sergeant Marino is a hardworking individual, not looking for a pat on the back while working in service to the community. He oversees the District school resource officers, does an exceptional job to keep our campuses safe, and is unbelievably responsive to the needs of our community. We are thankful for our collaborative working relationship with him and the Sheriff's Department.
Chris Varner	Community	Coach Varner was awarded the One Hart Award in the category of community. Coach Varner has done a lot to bring together the West Ranch community in many ways, specifically through the football program. His efforts in our community have been highlighted this year with the success of the football program. Coach Varner's team went 10-0 and won the Foothill League Championship for the first time in school history. To make this year even more special, two of Coach Varner's sons are on our varsity football team. We are very proud of Coach Varner's effort to bring together the West Ranch community.
Richard Haring	Caring	Richard Haring received our One Hart award for caring and creativity. He works with our students and families to support students in being successful on a daily basis. The intramural soccer tournament that he organized and refereed was a huge success with enormous student participation.
Lizbeth Benavides	Caring	Lizbeth Benavides received our One Hart award for caring. She is a dedicated counselor who supports all students. She is a welcoming face and such a wonderful addition to our team and school community.
Kelly Soto	Caring	Kelly has been caring about students in a creative way for many years at Placerita. She is one who works behind the scenes, always doing her job in an excellent way. She is regularly developing creative ways to teach her content so that all students have an opportunity to succeed.
Lynn Lien	Caring	Lynn Lien is one of the founding staff members at Golden Valley - 19 years! She has cared about every staff member and community member while managing the main office. Her ability to listen to staff and support all needs is amazing. She is retiring soon and is so very deserving of this award for all she has done for GV and how she has served our community.
Roy Loper	Courage	Roy Loper is our Lead Campus Supervisor at Academy of the Canyons. He demonstrates the Hart core value of courage. He perseveres through challenges everyday in his line of work. We appreciate his commitment to our students' safety and wellness. Roy knows all of our students' names and supports their well being by caring for each individual student, staff, and community member. We value his courage!
Justine Bush	Caring	Justine is a great example of caring and she shows it daily in her work with the SDCLS program. She organizes the students and facilitates real life special projects for them, most recently being the selling of "pumpkins" and having the students deliver them to the La Mesa staff member. She has also volunteered to be a department mentor to new teachers and jumps in whenever needed to make every student matter!
Michelle Rubenstein	Community	The One Heart Award was given to Michelle Rubenstein for community. Michelle embodies everything we want to promote in our Rio Norte community. As PTSA President she has shown a true passion for not only expanding active parent membership in PTSA, but specifically to expand the diversity of the PTSA parent base to show a true representation of our Rio Norte community. She has been instrumental to me, as a new principal, learning and understanding the needs of our families and she exemplifies collaborative partnership that seeks inclusivity and shows a love of everything Rio!
Dr. Robert Karzel	Community	The VHS medical science program and football team recognized the support of Dr. Ronald Karzel. Dr. Karzel has supported the VHS community for more than 30 years.
Josh Benham	Courage	Josh shows courage daily in his role as ASB director and math instructor at Valencia High School.

September 2022

		September 2022
Nicole Jolicoeur	*Courage*	Nicole Jolicoeur stood by the SDCLS class last spring and was the constant for the students and staff in the program. She persevered through the challenges of adding a second class and showed up every time we interviewed teachers or instructional assistants. We appreciate your grit, perseverance, and courage to take on this new challenge.
Jenny Guzman	*Community*	Jennifer Guzman led our Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) team to take ideas that the team had previously developed on paper into a collaborative effort to launch PBIS to the entire school community during the first week of school. We have DASH posters and DASH tickets to recognize students who do the right things, act responsibly, show respect and have respect. She has set up a DASH ticket redemption system in our student store.
Josh Nowak	*Courage*	For over ten years at Hart, Josh has been a courageous counselor and has recently led the counseling department to new heights. The number of counselors in his department has expanded tremendously. This year, Josh even created his own counselor retreat and that takes courage. Balancing classes and assisting with schedules is not the easiest in August, but Josh doesn’t shy away from these hard tasks. Over distance learning, Mr. Nowak courageously created a newsletter to send out to his caseload to keep his students and their families informed. Over and over again, Josh exudes the District's slogan, making "every student, opportunity ready." Thank you Josh for your courage and contributions to Hart High School.
Vince Wheeler Carmelo Flores	*Creativity*	Vince and Carmelo represent ASB and Athletics, which through the last three years has had to be very creative to keep students engaged and involved. They have demonstrated courage and creativity while allowing our community to enjoy athletics and school activities for over 10 years each. The amount of pride they take in GV and our community is incredible. Congratulations!
Mia Tretta	*Courage*	Mia is an amazing student who has found a way to turn her pain into passion. She consistently looks for ways to improve the community around her and she is a positive force on campus.
Lisa Soares	*Courage*	Lisa demonstrates thoughtful courage. She is able to get us to look at what we are doing well, while also asking us to be reflective and identify how we can be better.
Mark Funk	*Community*	Mark continuously plays into the well being of the Sierra Vista campus, not just through his responsibilities as Plant Manager but also interacting with staff, students and all coming onto campus.
Angela Knolls	*Caring*	Angela is a team player. She goes above and beyond to assist students, parents, and teachers. Angela jumps in at anytime to provide the best service. Angela is well deserved of this award.
Cary Quashen	*Community*	Cary Quashen, founder of Action Drug Rehab, has dedicated his life to reaching troubled teens. He is a local hometown hero and an important voice in the community regarding the dangers of drugs. He embodies all four Hart District core values of community, caring, creativity and courage. Thank you Cary!
Diana Grijalva	*Caring*	Diana Grijalva is the academic counselor at AOC. Everyday, she cares deeply for each of our students and supports their individual academic and career oriented goals by creating individual education plans with every student on our campus. Diana will stop everything she is doing when a student is need of emotional support. She spends countless hours taking care of our students academic and emotional needs. She truly demonstrates CARING for AOC.
Don Musella	*Community*	Don exemplifies our core value of community. Don is a teacher in our intervention program at Learning Post Academy and he helps every student reach their goal of earning a high school diploma. He encourages collaboration and embraces the strengths of our students to help motivate and encourage them to reach their academic goals.
Tim Cotti Tracie Priske	*Community*	Tim Cotti, ASB Tech, and Tracie Priske, ASB Director, were both given the One Hart award for all they do to bring together the West Ranch community. Tim and Tracie were recognized for all of their hard work putting together our Homecoming Rally, football game activities and Homecoming Dance. They both work tirelessly to bring together the students, staff and parents to create a positive learning environment.
Joanne Sparks	*Courage*	Anyone who has seen Joanne Sparks in action would no doubt look at the Hart District core values and immediately think of Caring, because she exemplifies that value. However, Joanne was selected for Rio's first One Hart Award because of the Courage she displays inside her classroom and out, every day, no matter what challenge comes her way. She would not tell you it's always easy, but she shows up, radiating positivity and gives her all to her students and her colleagues each day she is here at Rio Norte. Joanne displays Courage not because she shows up, but because of how she shows up for everyone around her, even on her most difficult days.
Paul Kass	*Community*	Paul exemplifies the core value of Community. Paul is a math teacher at Placerita and has been the advisor for our Kid Flix Productions that produces our Miner Morning TV for over 25 years. He is continually involved in multiple programs that help our entire school community throughout the year.
Rosa Bartolovich	*Caring*	Rosa exemplifies the core value of Caring. Rosa is our head counselor and has been caring for students at Placerita for many years. She is always guiding, supporting and helping all her students walk through the stressful parts of junior high school. She is always thinking of creative ways to support all her students throughout the year.

August 2022

Name	Award	Summary
Steve Lindberg	*Caring*	Steve has taught at Hart for 36 years and is also the boys and girls golf coach. Mr. Lindberg is also part of our Equity and Diversity Collaborative and led students, before our District’s Strategic Plan motto was created, to have the same ‘One Hart’ mentality here on the campus of Hart High School because he cares so much about Hart, the staff, and students.
Kelly Seidenkranz	*Courage*	Kelly was honored with Canyon's first One Hart commemorative coin for Courage because of her determination, perseverance, respect and integrity.
Will Hornstein	*Creativity*	As Special Education teacher and co-department chair, Will Hornstein is being recognized for his Creativity in supporting all students at Arroyo Seco and for always striving to meet the needs of our diverse student population. Thank you for all that you do, Will!
Amanda Stieff	*Community*	Amanda Stieff is being recognized for her commitment and contributions to the Community of Arroyo Seco. Her efforts with the Professional Development team in guiding staff through the process of clarifying expectations and teaching them to our students have helped to ensure a positive start to the new school year. Thank you Amanda!
Rachel Villa	*Caring*	Rachel Villa, Office Manager, is the epitome of Caring. For more than 30 years, she has demonstrated patience and a sense of calm in supporting the staff, parents, and students of Arroyo Seco. Her positivity and willingness to help are greatly appreciated. Thank you Rachel!
Jan Ondra	*Courage*	Jan Ondra exemplifies Courage as plant manager at West Ranch High School. Jan has been working overtime for the last 6 months or more as a result of our custodial staff being understaffed. Jan has led his team by example by getting our campus ready for this school year for our students and staff.
Mirna Herrera Kellen Atkins	*Community* *Creativity*	Mirna has been a great example of being a servant to the community. Her efforts to welcome a new principal and office staff have tremendously helped with the transition and start to the school year. She always has a positive attitude and is always willing to jump in and offer assistance at any moment. As a veteran counselor at La Mesa, Kellen is getting the One Hart Award for Creativity as he is always looking for ways to connect with students as individuals in a diverse student population. He has proven to be a vital asset to the team at La Mesa as he consistently looks at each student as individuals that are full of potential.
Debbie Dunn	*Creativity*	Debbie Dunn is an exceptional example of an individual whose creative drive is making the Hart District a better place for students, staff and parents. She is responsible for branding the District with new logos that celebrate our core values and our fundamental purpose: “Every Student – Opportunity Ready”. Based on the input of parents, she is working with a team to update our website and is responsible for sharing daily content about the District on our social media accounts. We present her with the One Hart award and celebrate her outstanding CREATIVITY.

One Hart Awards

Chris Cooper CommunityChris builds a steady environment of success in the PE program. He provides structure with a smile. He can see the value and potential in any student, and knows how to encourage and praise kids with all skill levels.

Darren Stieff CommunityDarren provides a well run program while showing a fun spirit. He anticipates needs and makes smart adjustments. He is motivating and keeps a variety of activities for kids. Kids see someone they can rely on who also has a good sense of humor.

Chris Cooper Community
Chris builds a steady environment of success in the PE program. He provides structure with a smile. He can see the value and potential in any student, and knows how to encourage and praise kids with all skill levels.

Darren Stieff Community
Darren provides a well run program while showing a fun spirit. He anticipates needs and makes smart adjustments. He is motivating and keeps a variety of activities for kids. Kids see someone they can rely on who also has a good sense of humor.