This year, Colton High School introduces our newest Spanish teacher, Joe Perez Alarcon.

Students enjoy coming into his class everyday. He is always welcoming them with a positive attitude.

Perez’s goal is to help his students become fluent in Spanish and encourage them to dive deeper into Spanish culture by committing to visit the 21 Spanish speaking countries of the world.

He was once inspired by his own Spanish teacher in High School, who encouraged him to go to college and master the language. Perez attended college for eight years, along with studying abroad in Spain to further master Spanish, science and education.

During his summers, Perez enjoys traveling to Spain, inspiring him to further explore and encourage his students to do so as well.

This year, Colton High School introduces a new face in the math department Holden Anderson. 

Anderson is a Geometry and Algebra 2 teacher who just started teaching this year. He graduated from USC in 2021, and during his four-years at college, Anderson earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees.  

“I can see the school spirit here at Colton, which I think is really awesome,” Anderson said. “I think it’s awesome to be able to teach close to where you live and have an impact on your community.”

Anderson is from Arlington, Virginia where he grew up close to Washington DC. When he went to school a teacher inspired him because of his enthusiasm as a student. During the pandemic, he had to do school from home and do his assignments for college (USC) across the country.

Danny Salazar is one of Colton High’s newest History teachers. 

Before teaching, Salazar was an Insurance Claims Adjuster. That did not stop him from taking a mentorship role with those he worked with as well as with clients. Teaching always came to him naturally, even though he never intended to become one.

“At every job I’ve ever worked at I’ve always been teaching people how to do their job, excel at their job, and be the best at their job,” said Salazar.

When Salazar realized he wasn’t happy with his job, he decided to pursue teaching, going back to school to get his Masters degree and teaching credentials. He chose to teach History since that’s what interested him the most.

Though work is an obvious part of Salazar’s life, what his life really revolves around is his daughters. He is constantly encouraging them as they pursue success in both high school and college.

This year, Colton High School is delighted to welcome a new addition to the English department Abigail Humphrey. 

Humphrey is looking forward to starting this year at CHS, holding high expectations and excitement for her students, wanting to see how the grow and develop in English  

She particularly enjoys watching her students’ confidence in public speaking grow as the year progresses. 

Humphrey appreciates students who engage with her and learn about her personality. 

Though she does dislike when students have a negative self-perception. Which is why in the classroom Humphery keeps a rule where you should treat oneself and others with respect.

Colton High welcomes their newest special needs resource teacher, Flavonne Henry, who brings a positive and passionate attitude to work daily.

Making sure her students pass and graduate is important to Henry. She doesn’t want her students to belittle themselves into thinking they can’t succeed. 

Throughout her adult life, Henry has been told to become a special ed teacher because of her patient behavior and calming voice.

Before moving to Colton, she worked as an elementary school resource teacher, but felt like she was a better fit for high school students.

“I decided to teach at Colton because it’s a high school.” Henry said. 

Henry’s goals are to teach her students why high school is important, why showing up to class on time is worth it, and why they should care about their futures. 

After fourteen years Colton High School reintroduces Danielle Gutierrez as the new Algebra 2 and Precalculus Teacher. 

“I always liked math. I was always pretty good at math,” said Ms. Gutierrez. 

In the past, Gutierrez worked as an AVID tutor during her highschool days. Also having worked at Cal State as a college tutor. 

Before she found her love in teaching, Gutierrez worked as an event planner for 3 years, where she found out that helping people brought her joy.

Gutierrez loves helping and watching her students learn things that may seem difficult. Her favorite part of her job is seeing her students’ faces realizing they can do it.

“So I think it’s just like the connection with people and being able to see other people learn is a really cool part of the job.”

With the retirement of Diane Brown last year as Colton High’s work experience teacher, this year students are getting help from a new teacher: Lauren Rumpf.

Prior to taking on work experience, Rumpf taught AVID. After  24 years, she wanted to try something different…like helping students who have jobs get the credits they need to graduate,

Rumpf’s path to becoming a teacher began in high school where she had a very mean and condescending English teacher. This experience motivated her to become a teacher so no one else would have to have a similar experience.

Before becoming a teacher, Rumpf worked at a multitude of jobs, like Pacific Sunwear, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and even as a substitute teacher.

Fun Fact: Ms. Rumpf has two dogs named Smudge and Po who are very spoiled. She really loves elephants and went to Cal Poly Pomona.

Christopher Palomo is our newest math teacher at Colton High School 

Out of all the jobs Palomo could have chosen to pursue he decided to become a teacher thanks to a math teacher he had back in high school who happened to become a role model for him, since growing up Palomo didn’t have a father figure in his life. 

Palomo chose to teach math because he enjoyed nerdy topics. He found math similar to riddles since like riddles, equations are fun if you know how to solve them. So as he’s grown older this mentality has stuck with him.

Palomo’s goal for his classes is to get his students a passing grade, he helps the students he notices struggle and helps keep their grade up.

While Rich Boutwell is new to Colton High as a U.S. History teacher, he is hardly new to teaching. He has done previous stints at both Grand Terrace and Bloomington High. Now Colton students get an opportunity to experience his approach to history.

Boutwell also teaches at the University of Redlands where he teaches future educators, realizing that it’d be easier to teach these courses while having a different school perspective. 

“Colton community is different in that it needs this and Grand Terrace needs this and

Bloomington needs this” Said Boutwell “ So as a teacher you got to be able to do this, this, and that. 

Boutwell is more than just a teacher. He is also a literal rockstar, having had a short career as a professional musician in a variety of bands.

When he isn’t teaching, Boutwell is spending time with his family and continuing to play music.

Colton High School welcome’s Jorge Melendez, the newest ROTC coordinator who is excited to make a difference in helping students accomplish anything! 

Melendez is starting his first year at CHS bright and with a ton of passion to help his students understand the meaning of responsibility, respect for others, and respect for themselves. 

“Disciplined enough to do the right thing, success is going to come, it’s going to come on its own.” Melendez isnt talking about misbehaving or discipline, he’s talking about creating good habits.

Melendez teaches his class in groups to help students develop their confidence and leadership skills and to help them make wise decisions.

Interesting fact: Melendez was in the Marine Corps for 23 years and in those years he was either training or in combat, afterwards he became a contractor, then a Immigration service officer and now a teacher at Colton High School.