(l-r) Virginia De La Piedra recognizes Joe Ricards (and all of Fillmore's FFA members) for wining many awards at the Ventura County Fair.

The first order of business on Tuesday, September 20 at the meeting of the Board of Education for the Fillmore Unified School District was to recognize the many awards received at the Ventura County Fair by students in the Fillmore Chapter of Future Farmers of America. Of note and in attendance: Marc Zavala- First Place (out of 300) for Swine Showmanship, Swine Reserve Grand Champion; Macie Wokal- Reserve Grand Champion Replacement Heifer; Aaron Largon- First Place Steer Showmanship; Sierra Blankenship- Second Place Swine Showmanship. The Fillmore FFA took first place for keeping their area ship shape. The Board then presented Joe Ricards with a certificate acknowledging his dedication towards, and support of the FFA program in Fillmore.

Student Representative Sammy Martinez reported on the events currently going on during Homecoming Week at Fillmore High School. Various games and events are taking place culminating in a parade and dance this weekend. The end of the quarter is fast approaching and in October the Senior Ball will take place.

The first speaker during public comment was Norma Perez Sanford, “I’m here to say Thank You.” She explained how she has been “holding onto the Dr. Neil Schmidt Family Resource Center” in Fillmore and that it is time for her to move on. Sanford commented on the many generous donors and volunteers who contributed to provide needed items to families and children in Fillmore through the Center and thanked the Board for the opportunity to serve. Next a resident of Piru, Danny Golson presented a question to the Board regarding an “impact fee [given to FUSD in] February 2011.” In written correspondence obtained by the Gazette FUSD was paid $269,414.64 in impact fees from Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation (CEDC). This payment is meant to mitigate the effects of growth in the District resulting from the current construction of farm-worker housing on East Center Street in Piru. Golson asked the Board “How [was that money] divided [among the schools]?” Board President Virginia De La Piedra reminded Golson that the Board cannot legally respond to questions posed during public comment but that she is sure the information can be obtained. Later in the meeting, during the time allocated for the Superintendents report, Director of Business Services Michael Bush responded to Golson’s question, “Developer fees can only be used to mitigate future growth [and] cannot be used for modernization of existing classroom units.” He further explained, “[the impact fees have been] set aside to mitigate growth in the district… it will be used to mitigate growth.” Bush was unable to respond to a question of how it will be used to mitigate growth prior to the press deadline. California Education Code Section 17620 states, “The governing board of any school district is authorized to levy a fee…against any construction…for the purpose of funding the construction or reconstruction of school facilities.” XXX In addressing another question Bush explained how Edge Development, the general contractor building Rio Vista School, is receiving payments. He explained that in 2006 FUSD “entered into a mitigation agreement with Griffith Homes which subsequently was assumed by Hearthstone”; he went on to state that the agreement outlined how the District would work with the developer to “apply for State money.” That was done and FUSD received a State grant for Rio Vista. Pursuant to State law that money was deposited in an account with the Ventura County Office of Education and will be used to pay construction costs as bills are signed off. Bush reported that so far the State funds are paying for “Contractor [fees], architect fees and the DSA Inspector [fees].”According to the materials provided to the Board, FUSD paid Edge Development $368,087.48 on August 2, 2011. Bush then informed the Board on the ongoing State budget process and how it is likely to lead to midyear cuts this school year. He informed the Board about Governor Jerry Brown’s veto of SBX1 6 which according to the Governors press release dated September 16, 2011 would have “[required] the Director of the Department of Finance to consult with legislative leaders on alternatives to the cuts outlined in the [State] budget and thereby raise questions that could affect the Sales of Revenue Anticipation Notes and General Obligation Bonds.” Essentially Brown was concerned about the States credit rating and maintained the “trigger” language contained in the approved budget. That language leads to automatic cuts in several areas including K-12 education should the State revenue not meet projections. Bush reported that at this point those projections are not met, thus he expects midyear cuts for FUSD to be triggered in December. The projection for this fiscal year was that State revenue would be up $4.1 billion from last year, Bush stated “Not only are we [not ahead $4.1 billion], we are $134 million short of last year.” When the automatic cuts take place, according to Bush, it will result in $350 per student reduction for FUSD, resulting in a total cut of $1.2 million. Bush reminded the Board that those cuts will result in the elimination of “100% of our home [to school] transportation and 4% of our revenue limit, our general purpose monies.”

Director of Human Resources Todd Schieferle reported that negotiations with CSEA (California School Employees Association) are set to begin on September 21, 2011. He also informed the Board that the Alternative Governance Board presented staff at Piru Elementary School with a timeline for the year, which included dates for site visits, and deadlines. On Friday, September 23 the Middle School will receive its timeline from the AGB. Three schools (Fillmore Middle School, San Cayetano Elementary and Piru) in FUSD are working with the AGB in order to improve test scores and student achievement in an effort to get those schools out of “PI” (Program Improvement) status.

Assistant Superintendent Michael Johnson updated the Board on progress related to the instructions of Superintendent Alan Nishino to make sure that District-wide systems are in place in various areas to create a common background for learning for all students in FUSD. Johnson described two “crucial committees” that are already in place in FUSD but are being revamped under his direction, “[Their appointed tasks and] direction are going to be slightly different than in previous years.” First he described the Essential Standards Committee (ESC) “consisting mostly of elementary school teachers” and the second committee “is a K-12…Curriculum Committee”. He explained how the existing ESC has been “broken up into three different task forces.” The first, Report Card Task Force, will focus on ensuring that report cards are “standard based, so that the report card measures what the State says [is] essential for our students to learn.” The second group will work on the Pacing Guide for teachers. They will examine the curriculum and then “map it out so the standards are covered throughout the year.” Johnson explained that these guides are crucial tools for teachers to ensure that the essential standards are covered in the time available and “[they will ensure] that there is time given for re-teaching and intervention.” The third task force will focus on assessment, and it will be based on the pacing guides. Assessments will be done at the end of each trimester so that teachers will know where the gaps in learning are, and can re-teach or intervene depending on what is needed for that particular student. These three groups are working now. The Curriculum Committee is broken up into five groups that “will be looking at systems” at every campus, in every classroom throughout the District. The idea is to ensure that a second grader at Piru and a second grader at Sespe are held to the same expectations and that all adults in the classroom are held to the same standards as well, creating a common background in learning for each student. The first three groups are, Study Habits, Classroom Climate, and Teaching Strategy. Johnson continued “Two areas that really need addressing, because there is no scope and sequence that has been developed in these two areas. One is Math, we would like to have a sequence from 6th grade to 12 in the area of Math addressing three curricular areas- Pre-Algebra, Algebra and Geometry.” He explained that the hope is that the “standard offering in the 6th grade will be pre-algebra, 7th grade algebra …8th grade geometry.” He explained that the middle school has already made changes in offering algebra in the 7th grade, by looking at students who are testing proficient in Math and putting them in algebra. “We’re starting to make the changes and have high expectations of our students. Now it’s essential that when you make these changes you have support for the kids.” He explained that the Math Task Force will support teachers in determining when to re-teach, how to re-teach and when to intervene so students are not being left behind. The final group will focus on creating a “scope and sequence” throughout the District in writing. “The high school already has a program, the elementary has a program, the middle school [does not].” He charges the Writing task force with coming up with a program “that will be supported all throughout [the District].” These 5 areas are aimed at training all students in a common system “so that when they get to high school, the teachers know what to expect.” The administrators have the duty of handling the different task forces at their campus. Johnson said the goal of all of this is to have a truly “unified district” and referred to a recent statement made by Nishino “ I’ve served in two or three unified districts, and I’ve yet to see one.”
Nishino began his remarks with “If you have no plan, no target, you surely won’t hit it.” He explained “We are going to have targets and road maps to allow our kids to be successful…The big gap we have, especially at secondary, is you have kids coming from different schools with different information… they don’t have the same background…different vocabulary, sometimes different textbooks…It’s not fair to our teachers [or students, to have to test on items that have not been taught].”

All consent and action items were approved. Meeting adjourned with future meetings set for October 4 and October 18.

Meeting Video