Antonovich Endorses Fortine for College Board

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bruce Fortine
(661) 253-0060 •  fortine@earthlink.net
For more information, please visit www.BruceFortine.com

Los Angeles County Mayor and Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich has endorsed Bruce Fortine’s bid to serve another term on the Santa Clarita Community College District Board of Trustees. Fortine is running for re-election to Seat 4.

“For more than 25 years, Bruce’s leadership on the Santa Clarita Community College District Board has had a very positive impact on the students and faculty of College of the Canyons,” Antonovich said. “With his experience, knowledge and passion, he will be a superb representative for our Santa Clarita Valley residents attending College of the Canyons.”

Fortine is asking voters to allow him to continue serving the college he helped create and to provide experienced leadership through what will inarguably be challenging times. A board member with a proven track record of educational leadership and business experience, Fortine has a perspective unique among the College of the Canyons Board of Trustees, having been elected to the board in the college’s formative year of 1967.

“I am honored to have received the endorsement of Mayor Antonovich, whose ability to get results for the citizens of the Fifth Supervisorial District has been proven time and again over a remarkable career of public service,” Fortine said. “He is intimately knowledgeable about what’s required to govern a community college district, having served himself as a trustee for the Los Angeles Community College District.”

Antonovich, a native of Los Angeles County, has served the 2 million residents of the district since 1980. As a government and history teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District in 1966, Antonovich credits his fifth-grade teacher for the inspiration to enter public life. In 1969, he was elected to the L.A. Community College Board of Trustees. Three years later he was elected to serve in the California State Assembly, where he served three terms.

During Fortine’s tenure, he has overseen a college that has grown from a first-year class of 735 students in 1969 to a dynamic, two-campus college with nearly 25,000 students today. The college has grown considerably during Fortine’s service, consistently ranking as one of the fastest-growing community colleges in the country.

Under his leadership, the college has added a second full-service campus in Canyon Country, the innovative Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook University Center, and the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center. He has played an instrumental role in developing and supporting bond campaigns that have helped the college introduce new, cutting-edge educational and training programs, as well as state-of-the-art technologies and facilities to accommodate them.

“The importance of College of the Canyons to this community cannot be understated,” Fortine said. “The college has played an important role in changing so many lives – at last count, nearly 200,000 people have taken classes here. It’s also a vital engine that powers the local economy by helping businesses become and remain competitive. We’ve developed partnerships not only with private industry, but local school districts and government agencies that have helped many thousands more.”

Fortine has helped establish and nurture numerous college alliances and partnerships that have directly benefited the community. They include:

• Academy of the Canyons, the William S. Hart Union High School District’s wildly successful “middle college” high school on the College of the Canyons campus.
• The Performing Arts Center’s K-12 Arts Education Outreach Program for local elementary school students.
• Training programs developed in cooperation with the Los Angeles County Fire Department and Sheriff’s Department.
• The nursing education facility at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital.
• Myriad training programs developed in cooperation with private industry.
• Numerous partnerships with non-profit organizations.

“The important thing is to make sure College of the Canyons remains the constant, positive force in people’s lives that it always has been,” Fortine added.

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