Superintendent – Mr. Jerry Jennex
Email: jjennex@tjusd.net
Phone: 760-372-2803
July 30, 2026
Dear TJUSD Students, Staff, Families and Friends,
Greetings from Trona Joint Unified School District! The summer has fully come with its desert heat but the beginning of school is rapidly approaching. I just wanted to take a minute to greet you all and share a few pieces of information about the upcoming school-year as we approach 2026-2027.
The first piece of news I have to share is that TJUSD will be welcoming several new staff members this year. Mr. Daryl Bell is our new THS Principal, Elizabeth Green is the 1 st grade teacher, Jacob Sprenger is the high school PE teacher, and Trevor Arcadipane is the high school social studies teacher. Mariah Bennett has taken over as Food Service Director. Ashlie Standlee is the CYBHI Support Care Specialist and Lisa Ghramm is the CYBHI medical biller. Tabitha Valdez will be working a preschool paraprofessional and Amiah Turner will be a high school paraprofessional. Make sure to get to know these new folks in our school and community and welcome them to Trona.
Secondly, I want to let you know that TJUSD will be entering into a partnership with San Bernardino County Head Start to operate our preschool program under their program standards and guidelines.
While the details of the partnership are still in process, this partnership has the potential to provide a significant expansion of services for our students and families while helping to reduce the local cost of
running a preschool program.
Thirdly, I am excited to tell you that the district is exploring the possibility of having a special program called “Freedom Writers” visit TJUSD sometime this fall. We are working on the details but are very optimistic that we will be able to invite the Freedom Writers to Trona for couple of days of programming for our students, staff, parents and community. The Freedom Writers program is based on the book and movie of the same name. The TJUSD leadership team (board and administrators) and some of our teachers believe that their program could be instrumental in helping our school more positively engage our students and reduce issues such as absenteeism, bullying, and indifference to academics. We will keep you posted as more details emerge.
I wish you all a great start to the school year. August 13 th will be here before we know it. Thanks for your support and encouragement as we strive to “Educate, Empower, and Engage” our students!
