CAVS in the News

Carden Arbor View students help former student with charity
By Sandra Emerson on December 13, 2011 8:59 AM

Students at Carden Arbor View School recently helped out an alumni.
Jessica Bhatia, who graduated from the school in 2008, founded the Heart2Heart Charity Foundation two years ago.
Students gathered donations for the charity, which raises money and awareness to help pay for Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting for low income patients in India.
"I started this foundation because there is a growing need to support those with heart disease in India. My grandfather passed away in a small village in India, and may have survived if he would have had the right care," Bhatia said in a news release from the school. "Due to insufficient support for those with heart diseases and prohibitive costs in India for preventive care, I decided to start this foundation to help others. My goal is to reduce the number of deaths from heart disease in India annually."

Throughout the year, students at the school participate in community service programs to help others.
For more information about Heart2Heart Charity Foundation visit http://www.wix.com/jessicabhatia/heart2heartcharityfoundation.

Carden Arbor View School hosted Chamber mixer
By Sandra Emerson on November 22, 2011 9:26 AM

Carden Arbor View School hosted the monthly Chamber of Commerce mixer on Nov. 16.

There was a ribbon cutting in celebration of the school's 30th anniversary.

"This is an exciting year at Carden Arbor View School, as the school began celebrating its 30th anniversary year in September," said Terri DiMarco, director of development at the school.

The mixer included presentations by the Chamber of Commerce officers, city and community members, Sen. Bob Dutton's office and a visit from the Upland Mayor's office.

The school provided appetizers and beverages to all guests.

Prizes were also raffled off.

Carden Arbor View School is a non-sectarian, spiritually diverse, values-based school at 1530 N. San Antonio Ave. in Upland.

Carden Arbor View students donate iMacs
by Sandra Emerson on October 4, 2011

Five middle school students and their school adviser at Carden Arbor View School delivered 12 iMac computers to the principal and students at Camino Nuevo Charter Academy in Los Angeles last week.

"When I attended Carden Arbor View School in the early 1990's, I could have never dreamed I would be a principal at an inner city charter school and have my school be the recipient of computers, especially from a school I once attended," said Sean Holiday, Camino Nuevo Charter Academy's principal.

"Our school is so proud to have these new computers, that will help provide the skills that can positively transform the lives of so many students, and support our students continued learning, growing and giving to make ourselves and our community a better place for all."

The students donated the computers in the spirit of Carden Arbor View's philosophy to encourage appreciation for life, learning, beauty, people and wisdom, superior standards, culture and fairness as well as a respect for work, whether it is school, volunteer or professional, according to a Carden Arbor View news release.

Carden Arbor View is a independent private non-sectarian school at 1530 N. San Antonio Ave. in Upland.

The school has reached out beyond the country's borders by sending shoes to children in Kenya, developing a pen pal program for middle school students in Tanzania.

Students have also donated books for military kids through the Bryan Brewster Foundation and Army's United Through Reading program.

They gathered food and created Thanksgiving baskets for San Antonio Community Hospital in Upland. They have collected hundreds of diapers for needy families at the Foothill Family Shelter and donated holiday gifts to Steven's Hope For Children.

"When we found out there was a need for computers at Camino Nuevo Charter Academy it was a natural to support one of our own alumnus and help other students at a school who will benefit from their use for many years to come," said Cathy Edwards, head of school at Carden Arbor View.

Camino Nuevo Academy opened in 2000 in an abandoned mini mall in Burlington. The building was transformed into a school for students in grades K-8.

Today the campus serves more than 500 students with a curriculum tied to state standards and an emphasis on the arts, environment as well as parent and community outreach.

They operate on an extended calendar year and maintain an average class size of 20 students in K-3 and 28 in grades 4-8.

The school also offers a developmental bilingual program and curriculum offered to students in grades K-5.
Read more: in the Upland News Daily Bulletin

Carden Arbor View School Celebrating 30 Years
By Sandra Emerson on September 12, 2011 1:59 PM

Carden Arbor View School recently kicked off their 30th school year.
Students and staff returned to class on Aug. 31.

Students and their families as well as staff members shared a celebration cake on Sept. 2 during the school's Friday assembly.

Carden Arbor View, 1530 N. San Antonio Ave., is a non-sectarian, spiritually diverse, values based school, according to a school news release. They provide classes to students in grades K-8.

After teaching at a Carden school and being impressed by the reading program, school founder, Claudia Humphries, said she knew she had to open a school utilizing the Carden curriculum when her daughter was in kindergarten.

"Finding a school site was difficult, and Upland Christian Church needed Sunday school rooms and leased me a small part of the present site," Humphries said in a Carden news release. "My husband and I borrowed money for the first building which is the present administration building. We opened in September, 1981 with 45 students for kindergarten through sixth grades. We were on our way."

Carden provides small class size, foreign language, focused learning for math, science and technical skills, arts, music and intramural sports as well as educational trips. They offer before and after school childcare and an afternoon tutoring program.

More than 40 percent of Carden graduates go on to Webb School in Claremont or some of the finest high schools, colleges and universities across the country, according to a news release.

"Much like a tree, Carden Arbor View School's roots run deep and branches stretch wide. It is much stronger and much larger than ever imagined and continues to grow due to the love and support it receives from our community of families and staff," Head of School Cathy Edwards said in a news release. "As we continue on this educational journey, Carden Arbor View School will always focus on where we are going. Our children the beneficiaries of this wonderful school, are provided an education filled with joy, growth, enthusiasm, dignity and respect."

For more information on Carden call Terri DiMarco, director of development, at 909-982-9919 or email her at tdimarco@cardenarborview.org

Books for Service - Bryan Brewster Foundation
Upland - Feb. 11, 2011- by Sandra Emerson Staff Writer.
Students at Carden Arbor View School collects books for United Through Reading Program for the Military children. Copy of article HERE.

September 21, 2010, Upland, CA --“Hujambo Ms. Bunting!” was the Swahilian greeting spoken by the middle school students as they welcomed Ms. Namtasha Ikaweba Bunting to Carden Arbor View School in Upland last Friday. Ms. Bunting spoke to the students as an ambassador from the country as the middle school students begin a pen pal program with students in Tanzania.

Upland Private School Kicking Off New Year
Sandra Emerson, Staff Writer
Created: 09/08/2010 08:49:56 PM PDT

UPLAND - Carden Arbor View School students last week started the new school year with a joyful cheer. "C-O-U-G-A-R-S. Cougars, cougars the best," they shouted before heading off to class.

The students' school spirit could be attributed to the school's mission and learning methods.

Small class sizes and small instructional groups are part of the teaching method at the independent private, non-sectarian school at 1530 N. San Antonio Ave.

Second-grader Gustavo Mora, 7, right, takes his school supplies
out of his backpack before heading into his classroom on the first day
back to school on Sept. 1 at Carden Arbor View School in Upland.
(Jennifer Cappuccio Maher Staff Photographer)

There is one classroom per grade and 145 students are enrolled at the school.

"When you have a class of 35, 30 students in a classroom it's very difficult to glean from them what they know and where they might be struggling and that's why you resort to tests," Head

Second-grader Gustavo Mora, 7, right, takes his school supplies out of his backpack before heading into his classroom on the first day back to school on Sept. 1 at Carden Arbor View School in Upland. (Jennifer Cappuccio Maher Staff Photographer) of School Cathy Edwards said. "Here you sit around the table with a small group of students, six or seven students in a group for that instructional purpose. You don't need to test them to know what they know or don't know, you know it."

Due to budget cuts, teacher-to-student ratio has become an issue in recent years in public school districts throughout California.

Golden State schools have a teacher-to-student ratio of 20.9 to 1, according to National Education Association rankings and estimates for the 2007-08 school year. The figures - which rank California 49th in the United States - refer to the ratio between students and all full-time, credentialed teaching staff in a school.

Carden Arbor View sets a limit on how many students they accept.

"Typically, we operate around 185 (students), so we're down," Edwards said. "The economy the last few years has really impacted our families."

The school is accepting applications.

Since the school is independent and not connected with a church, they rely solely on tuition, Edwards said.

"Public schools and schools in general I suppose are really struggling," she said. "We're not struggling financially. We're doing OK, although we are dependent on enrollment and tuition entirely."

The school has added three new kindergarten teachers and two new members to the administrative staff.

"It's very rare for us to hire new faculty because we don't have a lot of turnover. Teachers stay," Edwards said.

Carden Arbor View, which was established in 1981, is one of more than 80 schools nationwide that use the teaching methods of Mae Carden, which focus on the teaching of the whole student.

The school also discourages pressure and rivalry and fosters individual growth and independence. Parents are encouraged to participate in school life.

"When you think about educating the whole child, that's a term that is overused and you can probably find it in everyone's mission or vision statement, but the reality for us is that we do value that education of the whole child and the whole child is greater than just themselves," Edwards said.

Teachers aim to prepare students for life and to become active community members.

Students will collect items for charity several times during the year, such as diapers for the Foothill Family Shelter and toys for Steven's Hope for Children.

"One of the things we do talk about is real joy comes from giving, not from taking," Edwards said.

Maria Castaneda's daughter has just started the eighth grade at Carden and has been enrolled at the school since second grade.

"I visited here in second grade and I noticed that they don't just teach academics," Castaneda said. "They teach the whole student, so they teach community involvement, civics, volunteerism. All these things you won't see in any other school. On top of that, their academic program is beyond good. They learn Latin, Spanish and they're just well-behaved students. They're great."

Edwards contends many parents chose to send their children to the school because of the values that they learn on top of basic academics.

"When parents are choosing our school, I think they're choosing the opportunity to choose the attitudes and values that their child would spend their day in," she said.

Trish Poupard wanted her two children to gain more than just a regular education.

"I really think they need these extra skills to get them higher," Poupard said. "It's not a matter of getting just crammed full of information and dumping it. It's more of `how are you thinking? Why did you think of that? Were you nice to your neighbor? Did you talk to your neighbor about this project?' They're really involved."

sandra.emerson@inlandnewspapers.com
909-483-8555

Classroom techniques

Carden Arbor View School in Upland embraces curriculum developed by Mae Carden, an educator during the mid-twentieth century.

Carden's curriculum addresses the development of the whole child, combining high academic standards with high expectations in personal and character development, according to the school's website.

Reading, writing, spelling, language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, poetry, French and handwriting make up the core academic program in the K-8 school.

The school also provides instruction in music, art, computer science, physical education, and motor development. High school level Spanish instruction is offered as an elective in eighth grade, according to the website.

Depending upon the grade level and subject, students spend between 25 percent and 75 percent of their instructional time in small groups.

Students also participate daily in a school prayer, a thoughtful meditation on appropriate attitudes and behavior, a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, and a patriotic song.

Source: www.cardenarborview.org

Carden Arbor View school students, staff donate gifts
Sandra Emerson, Staff Writer
Created: 12/14/2009 03:51:30 PM PST

UPLAND - Students and staff at Carden Arbor View school spent some of their Christmas shopping time buying gifts for 36 ill children in the area.

The gifts were donated Friday to Steven's Hope for Children Friday, a Upland-based nonprofit that collects toys every Christmas for sick children and their families.

"The students love it," said Cliff Dean, Carden Arbor View physical education teacher and student council adviser.

"The children are very small and very young and have very serious medical problems and I think that makes (the Carden students) appreciate their health when they read a child a month old is waiting for a heart transplant or has cancer, so it's very touching."

The students were broken up into spirit teams that included 17 pupils. Each team had to shop for two children - a young child and an older child.

When Dean dropped the gifts off at Steven's Hope, he decided to sponsor two more children.

Last year, the spirit teams sponsored one child each.

Carden Arbor View is a K-8 non-sectarian private school located at 1530 N. San Antonio Ave. in Upland.

Fourth graders learn about friction at school in Upland
Sandra Emerson, Staff Writer
Created: 03/13/2009 02:50:40 PM PDT
Upland: Fourth graders at Carden Arbor View School were given a scientific mission that even many of their parents appeared to enjoy.
The students were instructed to build mazes entirely from household scraps to demonstrate the cause and effect of friction on marbles as they moved through the maze.
Weston Martinez, 10, worked with his father to personalize his marble maze with a picture of a fish that he caught.
"I just really like fishing, I love to go fishing," Weston said. "So I made mine after fish."
He said he learned about the different stages of friction along with other scientific components.
"I learned a lot about gravity too," Weston said. "If there's no gravity, things keep going on forever and ever and never stop."
Like many of the other students, Martinez said he and his father stayed up all night to work on his maze.
The parents were allowed to help with the projects, even though the students were the creative force behind the marble mazes on display Friday morning.
"They're enthusiastic about their child's education," head of the school Cathy Edwards said. "The children feel that and are more interested in participating.
Ethan Yoh, 10, had a blue maze that worked smoothly when he had to show it off.
"It's fun because it's a competition but not a competition," Yoh said. "It's all about having fun and racing."
Victoria O'Camper, 9, used different types of materials to help control how quickly her marble travelled through her maze.
"There's a bunch of ways to create friction," Victoria said. "We took pipe cleaners and tried to make it slower but it went faster."
Sandpaper, glitter and cotton were some of the common household items that could have been used to slow down the marbles.
The students were timed on how slowly their marbles moved through the mazes before reaching the end.
"They've been really excited," fourth-grade teacher Kelly Poloskov said. "We talked about it every day, and they had questions every day."

School Helps Needy
By Sandra Emerson, Staff Writer, Daily Bulletin
Article Created: 11/07/2008 10:11:27 PM PST

UPLAND - Teachers at Carden Arbor View School contend that no person is too young to start donating to charity.
On Friday, Carden Arbor View students brought piles of diapers to school to give to the Foothill Family Shelter, a nonprofit agency devoted to housing homeless adults and children.
"Diapers are gone almost as quickly as they come in," said Lindsee Ellison, interim intake and donations coordinator at the shelter. "By the school doing this, we don't have to turn away anyone that comes in."
The nonprofit has a list of items it needs, with diapers being one of the most needed.
"With the economy the way it is, diapers are expensive, and a lot of people can't afford them," Ellison said.
LastCarden Arbor View School students Kavan Nakai, left, 9, of Rancho Cucamonga, and Noah Kelber, right, 9, of Upland, stack diapers for the Foothill Family Shelter during a morning assembly Friday at the school in Upland. (Thomas R. Cordova/Staff Photographer)
year, Carden Arbor View was able to collect 12,000 diapers for the nonprofit, said Melanie Brooks, director of development at Carden Arbor View.
"Foothill Family Shelter has a need for diapers, so we as a school decided to help," Brooks said. "This year, we hope to have 15,000 diapers."
Despite donating such a large number of diapers, the school is considered small compared to others in the city. It has kindergarten though eighth-grade students and has one class in each grade.
The students have donated to other organizations in the past and plan to keep donating this holiday season.
"We want the students to be knowledgable of their responsibilities as citizens, and as citizens they have to give back to the community," said Cathy Edwards, head of school at Carden Arbor View. "We want to introduce them to the facets of that responsibility, which is reaching out beyond their little circle at school."
sandra.emerson@inlandnewspapers.com (909) 483-8555

Inland Empire Magazine - September issue - 2007

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

Upland Woman Founded Carden Arbor View School
Liset Marquez, Staff Writer; Upland/Claremont City News
Article Launched:11/16/2006

Claudia Humphries of Upland was not pleased with the public school system, so she decided to start her own school -- Carden Arbor View School in Upland.

"I had been a public school teacher all my life, teaching at Whittier. Then, one year I substituted at a Carden school -- Mrs. Carden taught me that year," she said. "I fell in love with the curriculum, there was a why to everything, it was not about memorizations to everything."

In October, Carden Arbor View School in Upland celebrated its 25th anniversary.

The private school uses a method developed by Mae Carden, which focuses on the development of the child not just academically; It uses performing arts and focuses on the child's development into a responsible individual, Humphries said.

Humphries had been teaching for more than 10 years when she decided to open up the school, and she still teaches grammar and history.

But opening the school was not easy. Humphries said she almost lost everything she owned when she decided to build her own school.

"I thought to myself I can start a school by myself, I'll get a mortgage on the house," she said.

Which is what she did, and for five years she did not get paid more than
Advertisement$500 a year.

One day, during her daily trip up and down San Antonio Avenue to take her daughter to preschool, it occurred to Humphries that she might be able to use empty land adjacent to and owned by Upland Christian Church.

Humphries said she asked the pastor of the church if she could build a school. In turn, she would let the school use the classroom space on Sunday for Sunday school. The pastor agreed.

The biggest hurdle was yet to come -- building the classrooms. Humphries said she met a lot of opposition from the City Council, But after months of meetings and help from parents interested in the school, she succeeded in getting the permits to build.

Headmaster Cathy Edwards, who has worked at the school for 24 years, said she believes the curriculum has been the key to its success.
"We really value small group instruction," she said, pointing out that the classes max out at 21 students.

Accredited by the state of California as an independent school, there are 185 students enrolled, 26 faculty members and five staffmembers, who serve in part-time or full-time positions. Students come from as far away as Hacienda Heights and Covina to attend, Edwards said.

On just three acres, the school has been able to expand without acquiring more land. Three buildings have been added in the past 25 years, Humphries said.

"When we started expanding we really did go up as fast as we could," Edwards said.

Edwards said she originally came to the school because she was disappointed with the public school system.

"I fell in love with the philosophy that every child matters and with the belief that parents know they will have to volunteer," Edwards said.

Jackie Muhr, parent and member of the Board of Trustees for Carden Arbor View School, said the curriculum is developed appropriately for each age group.

"I was opposed to schools that taught to test, I knew there was much more to school than tests," she said.

A year after it opened, Edwards said she began teaching junior kindergartners, which is the equivalent to preschool.

"The Carden curriculum is very well integrated from grade to grade," Edwards said. "Everything is deliberately planned in the curriculum, expectations and milestones will expand to create personal responsibility."

Liset Marquez can be reached at (909) 483-8556 or by e-mail at liset.marquez@dailybulletin.com.

Students hope future city can find peace
By IMANI TATE
STAFF WRITER

Article Published:
Upland/Claremont City News
Friday, February 4, 2005

With wars waging around the world, fears of terrorism troubling the hearts of children and adults and personal tragedies dominating news broadcasts, Carden Arbor View School's Future City Competition teammates imagined a more utopian existence.

The first thing they considered when preparing for the 13th annual Future City Competition was the name of their city.

Accepting Claremont youth Scott Zylstra's suggestion, Kevin Sack and Jasneet Aulakh of Rancho Cucamonga and Aaron Day of Upland agreed to name their futuristic municipality Terra Pacis (Land of Peace).

Pacis - peace - was the word that stuck out in Scott's mind during their seventh-grade Latin lessons at the private Upland school. The four young city planners decided peace would best convey what they wanted to accomplish for the people who live, work and play in their beach side community.

The name established the mission of the city that won third-place honors in the regional Future City Competition held Jan. 29 at the California Science Center.

Jasneet, 13, and 14-year-olds Aaron, Kevin and Scott, all in eighth-grade, narrowly missed winning second-place in the regional contest against middle schools in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties.

"There were 22 points between the first-place regional winner, Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Oceanside, and second-place Stanford Middle School from Long Beach," said Gerald Blackburn, retired Boeing Company space projects' manager and Future City's judges' coordinator.

"King joins 36 other regional winners advancing to the national finals to be held in Washington, D.C., during National Engineers Week, Feb. 20 to 26.
"But there was only one point between Stanford and Carden Arbor View for second- and third-place honors," Blackburn said.

Carden Arbor View's futuristic foursome was guided by computer technology teacher Carolyn Zitar and mentored by Michael Del Castillo, a Cal Poly Pomona engineering senior and substitute teacher/phonics facilitator at Sultana Elementary School in Ontario.
The Upland team also won the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers best electrical power system award and second-place for Southern California Gas Company's energy conservation award.

The 2005 contest was the second-time around for the three boys and they inadvertently inspired Jasneet's participation this year.

"The Future City kids last year were so actively involved and appeared to be having so much fun," Jasneet recalled. "They made a presentation to the whole school at an assembly. It was really dignified. They were all proper and really knew what they were talking about. They made me want to join and be a part of that."

Kevin hopes to become an engineer and saw the competition as a wonderful way to gain hands-on experience in his chosen career.

"This contest makes you think and solve problems," Kevin said. "You think differently from when you're in a school classroom. It's more real-life situations."

Aaron agreed, noting "this broadens our awareness of all aspects of engineering. We get to look at things we'd like to be when we get older that normally we wouldn't know anything about."

Scott said he hadn't previously considered the composition of city services, planning, infrastructure, public safety, health, transportation, energy, senior and youth recreation, water conservation, educational quality from preschool to university levels and the effects people and things have on the environment and natural resources.

When designing and putting together a city, even in an essay or scale model, "you've gotten to consider everything," Scott said.

They'd all worked on group projects since fourth grade - studies, research and models for volcanos, the California mission system, marble mazes, weather instruments, scientific principles and drama skits - but everything was confined to traditional and classroom learning. However, Future City allows them to go beyond the walls of the classroom and textbook pages, they said.

"You've got to have critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, so you can design things that are practical and possible," Aaron said.

One of the biggest problems they initially faced was working to proper scale to create the civic model of Terra Pacis.

"When you're building a golf course, for instance, you cannot build super-giant hills, lakes and greens," Jasneet said, laughing. "Things have got to be realistic. It took us awhile to manage scale size."

They didn't let reality, however, interfere with imagination and creativity.

The MagLev, full name Magnetic Levitation, reminded one of the L which transports Chicago citizens around the midwestern town. The MagLev train floats, replacing conventional public transit systems. Suspending the rail system, they thought, would reduce congestion and accidents, be faster and quieter to lessen noise pollution.
"It's powered by opposing magnets," said Scott, the team's "idea man."

Residents may also utilize traditional buses, ferries and taxis to get around town, but they must go subterranean to use express routes. The freeways of Terra Pacis are all located underground to save space. And all cars are powered by hydrogen, electrical or solar sources for the sake of better air quality.

"It's illegal to have a gas car in our city," Aaron declared.

The Future City Competition - nationally sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers and sponsored in Southern California by the Gas Company in cooperation with a host of public and private sector engineering, planning, law enforcement, fire services, transportation and corporate groups.

The adults behind it always inject a critical issue in the overall program. Past issues have linked Future City to Hillary Rodham Clinton's Mars Millennium Project, unique ways to satisfy senior citizen services and solutions for environmental issues.

This year, competition coordinators tossed in the exploration or use of stone, sand and gravel in creating roadways.

Carden Arbor View teammates "used rubberized asphalt for all of our paved roadways," Kevin said. "It replaced sand in concrete with bits of tire rubber. This reduced the need for mining aggregates out of the Earth and also absorbed sound so the roads are quieter. It's a way to recycle tires, too."

"And it's cheaper," Jasneet interjected.

Terra Placis' energy sources include solar and hydrogen power and hydro electrical turbines located in the rivers transversing the city. The water purification plant removes the salt from ocean water and recycles it for residential and commercial uses.

In some cases, they centralized services - putting a fire station and a community center on the same site to consolidate fire prevention/paramedic, recreational, community education, daycare and senior citizen services for residents.

To combat future overcrowding, they put lots of schools close to neighborhoods. This conveniently locates educational facilities near parental homes, gives students the option of walking to school and reduces traffic congestion.

They wanted residents to have a variety of leisure options, so a botanical garden, museum, performance arts center, soccer facilities, a World Series Little League park and beaches for surfing, snorkeling and sunning are all located in Terra Pacis.

The four students said they learned a lot more than how to build a city.

"I learned you must use team work and you can't always expect things to be the way you want," Kevin said. "You learn to be flexible."

Scott said cooperative work is a life skill that will help them be successful in all aspects of their personal lives and professions. Organizing and planning are also important, he added. "You can't just put a building in the middle of somewhere," said Kevin, giving an example of the value of planning.

Aaron discovered the significance of compromise and looking at the big picture to decide what's best for the most number of people. Jasneet fine-tuned her research and oral communications' skills.

Farshad Dehbozorgi, 16, is now a junior at Claremont High School and hopes to become an attorney. He's never forgotten the lessons learned from his 2002 involvement with Carden Arbor View's Future City team.

He's still applying research and public-speaking skills, responsibility and accountable attendance in his school and community lives.

@Tag:Imani Tate
can be reached by email at i_tate@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-8544.

SimCity - Future City Competition

1530 North San Antonio Ave., Upland, CA 91786
(909) 982-9919 phone (909) 981-3221 fax