While he may be starting his first school year at the helm of the Riverbank Unified School District, Dr. Constantino Aguilar has been working at his desk in the district office since this spring.

He was brought on board for the final couple months of the 2022-23 school year, starting April 1, able to work with outgoing longtime District Superintendent Christine Facella prior to her retirement. Aguilar, thrilled to be in Riverbank, was equally thrilled that the school board allowed him the early start date, which he said provided ample time to settle in. He had the opportunity to meet students on campuses last school year, along with teachers and the administrative team. All that, he said, should help make for a smooth transition and a good start to the 2023-24 school year. The first day of classes for RUSD students is Friday, Aug. 4. Staff kickoff will be Aug. 2.

“We have four goals for this year,” the new superintendent shared. “One is parent engagement, increase parent engagement throughout the community and in all of our schools. Number two is program alignment, making sure that we’re aligning everything that we’re doing instructionally, programmatically from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade, all the way through the high school.”

Third on the list of goals is leadership development of all school leaders throughout the district and lastly, Aguilar said, is “creating that shared vision of readiness and our identity.”

Aguilar has been in education for 26 years, spending time as a Spanish teacher, head baseball coach, Associate Principal, Principal, Executive Director of Technology and Innovation and Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, all with the Merced Union High School District.

He also has an impressive list of honors, ranging from being selected as an ACSA, Association of California School Administrators, Region 9 Principal of the Year and as a Career Technical Education Administrator of the Year, among others.

He never expected to be an administrator, he admitted, instead anticipating he would always be a teacher. But it was the influence of his father-in-law, a retired school superintendent, that eventually helped him make the choice to move into the administrative field.

The tagline Aguilar has established for Riverbank is: “One Town, One Team, One Dream” and he said that was something that became apparent to him as he got to know the community.

“People are really, really proud about being from Riverbank,” he said. “When you talk to people in the community, they will always let you know ‘I’m from Riverbank and I’ve been to all the schools’ – that really goes to that One Town, identifying yourself and being proud of it.”

One Team, he said, is a nod to unifying the community, the schools, into one direction with common goals; and the One Dream goes back to the work of teachers and administrators.

“Our job as educators is to insure that we provide the opportunities so our students can dream big,” Aguilar said. “They can dream and become whatever they want; and our job again, as educators, as a school system, is to provide all of those opportunities and to make sure that students have the skills necessary to fulfill those dreams.”