EL MONTE — El Monte Union High School District graduation ceremonies reached a new milestone this summer as 24 students received diplomas during the district’s first summer commencement. The July 17 ceremony recognized students who completed their remaining graduation requirements through summer school.
Graduates represented all six El Monte Union High School District campuses: Arroyo, El Monte, Fernando R. Ledesma, Mountain View, Rosemead and South El Monte high schools.
The district held the ceremony on summer school’s final day inside Mountain View High School’s newly renovated cafetorium. Families, friends and educators watched graduates cross a stage decorated with their schools’ colors.
The ceremony allowed students to participate in traditions they missed during spring commencements. Graduates wore caps and gowns, received diplomas and turned their tassels together.
Students Complete Their Requirements
“This ceremony honors our students and the commitment they showed in reaching this important milestone,” Superintendent Edward Zuniga said in a district announcement.
Zuniga said each graduate completed the work required for a diploma and deserved public recognition alongside supporters.
Arroyo graduate Jayden Cevallo led the Pledge of Allegiance. He later guided classmates through the traditional turning of the tassels.
El Monte graduate Brithany Torres and Mountain View graduate Roxana Ponce Castanon delivered student speeches. They reflected on perseverance, gratitude and the different paths students followed toward graduation.
Torres described overcoming a medical condition that disrupted her education.
“No matter the backgrounds or challenges we faced, we accomplished something many once thought was out of reach,” Torres said.
She also thanked teachers, families and friends for supporting the graduates.
El Monte Union Graduation Recognizes Persistence
Board of Trustees President Florencio Briones acknowledged that graduation did not arrive on the expected schedule for every student.
“Life doesn’t always follow the timeline we expect, but your determination brought you here,” Briones said.
The district reported improvement in its broader graduation figures before this summer’s ceremony. According to the 2025 California School Dashboard, its graduation rate increased from 85.2% in 2023-24 to 88.3% in 2024-25.
Those figures represent an earlier student cohort and do not separately account for the 24 students honored in July.
California establishes minimum coursework requirements for public high school graduation. Local districts establish their full course and credit requirements. Information about state requirements is available from the California Department of Education at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/gs/hs/hsgrmin.asp.
Summer school can provide another opportunity for students to complete required coursework. The July ceremony did not alter graduation standards. It recognized students after they satisfied them.
For the 24 graduates and their families, El Monte Union Graduation provided the public milestone that traditionally accompanies completing high school.
The district’s first summer commencement also recognized that students can reach graduation on different timelines. For these students, several extra weeks of coursework ended with the same achievement: an earned high school diploma.
