Arcadia’s First Avenue Middle School student-actors are out of this world. The school’s Production class of 2019 has been preparing the entire fall semester for its upcoming play “Out of This World,” to be performed December 6 and 7 in the First Avenue auditorium. The theater teacher is Susi Reck. The theater program at First Avenue has four different levels.
Arcadia Unified School District's First Avenue Middle School music teacher Michael Danielson is one of only 16 teachers to be recognized as a 2019-2020 Teacher of the Year.
First Avenue Middle School welcomes new principal Semeen Issa. Dr. Issa had been assistant principal at the school for the past 6 years and this will be her 17th year at First Avenue Middle School.
Television show “Trading Spaces” transforms teachers’ lounges at First Avenue Middle School and Holly Avenue Elementary School. Shown in photo “Trading Spaces” host Paige Davis and Arcadia Unified School District educators Karalee Nakatsuka, Megan Forbes, Regina Ringo and Teresa Oakland. The show airs on the TLC network.
Arcadia imports Monrovia Street Fair patriotic kick-off event set for July 3. It will happen weekly on Friday nights in Arcadia's downtown area, on First Avenue between Huntington Drive and Santa Clara Street.
Arcadia Unified 'lip-dubs spirit of its middle schools. Some 2,200 Arcadia Unified School District middle school students and adults are featured in a four minute YouTube video featuring Jason Derulo's "Undefeated," to show their school spirit and pride. A lip-dub video is music played over a lip-sync video, filmed in one continuous shot.
Kelsey Miller, 14, who will be a freshman at Arcadia High School, hopes to become the majorette for the school band. She started a Facebook campaign to become the first baton twirler in 30 years at the school. She has won state, regional and national championships in baton twirling. The band director Kevin Sherrill and school administrators have turned Kelsey down.
Arcadia is sprucing up nicely. Phil Wray, Arcadia City Engineer, says the city has been making improvements to road medians. He is proud to share that, "We just finished our median island re-landscaping project from Michillinda to Baldwin." More drought-tolerant plants were planted on the median. The same re-landscaping will be done for the road median on Baldwin Avenue to Holly Avenue. Future projects include rehabilitation of pavement from Santa Clara Street to Fifth Avenue.
Arcadia Downtown Street Market now on Saturdays, 5-9 PM. It is run by Green Leaf Events on First Avenue between Santa Clara Street and Huntington Drive.
Los Angeles City Fire Captain Jack Fry, an Arcadia High School graduate, class of 1978, was named Training Officer of the Year by the Los Angeles Fire Commission.
Gilb Museum of Arcadia History will spotlight Beacon Media photographer Terry Miller's 30+ year career in photojournalism, on exhibit January 17 through March 14.
Retail chain Anchor Blue, which began nearly four decades ago, with two Miller's Outpost locations in Ontario and Pomona, will close all of its 117 stores, including those in Arcadia, Industry, Pico Rivera, Montebello and West Covina. Its parent company, Anchor Blue Holding Corporation filed for bankruptcy protection on January 11, for the second time in two years. Miller's Outpost began in Ontario in 1948, when brothers Dave and Lou Miller founded Ontario War Surplus, which became Miller's Surplus. The brothers split, and Dave opened the first Miller's Outpost locations in 1972.