This 2020-2021 school year, Rancho Cucamonga High School welcomes Mr. Aaron Stafford as a new physics and Green Up-and-Go Engineering teacher.

Mr. Stafford taught at Ontario High School for nine years. At Ontario High School, he taught AP Physics and robotics. Mr. Stafford built a robotics program at Ontario, and he wants to create one here next year.

Mr. Stafford used to work for the Navy as an engineer in the High Desert. He said, “It was a lot of waiting for people to get back to me, and I got bored of having to pretend to do something. So I started looking for something else, and my sister, who was a principal in Houston, was telling me about this charter school where I could teach and get certified at the same time.”

Mr. Stafford is looking forward to meeting everyone and returning to campus. Mr. Stafford said, “Hopefully, sometime soon, I get to meet everybody, the teachers and students. Right now, everyone has their masks on and goes straight to their room.”

One thing Mr. Stafford brings to Rancho is project-based learning. Mr. Stafford said, “I do a lot of projects in my physics class, so I am excited to bring that. I am hoping next year I can start a robotics class.”

One thing Mr. Stafford wants the school to know about him is that Mr. Willborn, the former RCHS principal, is his father-in-law. Mr. Stafford said, “He has been encouraging me to apply here for a while now, but it has made sense and lined up with the opportunity this time around.”

Mr. Stafford also said that in 2019, he was the San Bernardino County Teacher of the Year.

For Mr. Stafford, the best thing about being a teacher is seeing the students. Mr. Stafford said, “I was an engineer before, and I also planned on going back. However, I fell in love with teaching and being around students. It is fun to see everyone and every day is different but being around the student is what makes a good day.”

Mr. Stafford enjoys teaching. He said, “The best thing about a teacher is seeing students understand the lesson and start to see the pieces click together.”

The other thing he loves is the cool projects he has his class do. He loves seeing what the students come up with and create.

The wisdom Mr. Stafford would like to share with the students here at Rancho is never to turn down an opportunity to build new skills.

He said, “there are things you do now and that you can learn to do now that can be very beneficial in the future. So always be looking for opportunities to do new things.”