2015-2016 Student of the Year, Misael Ponce.
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Once again it was standing room only as the teachers of the Fillmore Unified School District (FUSD) addressed both the Board and staff regarding their contract negotiations. During Public Comments all the teachers stood in solidarity as Brian Ricards read a statement written by Jennifer Beal, Fillmore Unified Teachers Association President. Beal could not attend due to a medical requirement.

The statement began, "Since December during the public comments time you've been hearing from the hard-working teachers of Fillmore. These teachers who work directly with the [students are the] reason we are all here, the children of Fillmore. Teachers who on their own wrote statements and read statements, trying to inform and shine a light on their desire for competitive salaries in Fillmore." He went on to state that after the last Board meeting negotiations continued but the "District still refused to increase its salary offer....by handing over the same proposal from the previous meeting....it was very apparent the District was not going to offer anything higher than their previous offers." Beal's statement continued with calls of monies that were directed toward repairing the Middle School roof coming from the General Fund ($1.7 million) to be used to raise teachers pay "this year to pay off the roof loan, (the District used General Funds) so that money could be freed up next year. Plenty of money to give teachers a competitive raise.....Another example, perhaps take a little bit out (of) the millions sitting in textbooks and supplies." Beal suggested the District let the reserves dip down closer to the legally State mandated 3% and that even during the recession FUSD's reserves were above it. Beal wrote that this year the reserves are projected to be 6.97% which is 3.97% above legal requirements. "(I)f you take the new district approved sports medicine position and add that cost to the newly recommended district level position for purchasing that equals over a 1% raise? Doesn't it? Priorities, you feel you need to spend money on administration positions and not to the teachers salary schedule to create competitive salaries with other districts in the county." At the conclusion of Ricards reading of the statement all the teachers in the room gave a loud and extended applause.

There were two others who addressed the Board during Public Comments, John Scoles and Cindy Blatt, both speaking of their concern with access to the all-weather running track at Fillmore High School. Scoles asked the Board to consider extending the public access hours from 5p.m.-8p.m. when there is no school activity. Blatt reminded the Board that the Rotary Club had raised the money for the access gate, but at that time they did not expect such limited access.

The meeting began with two recognitions. The first went to the 2015-2016 Student of the Year, Misael Ponce. Ponce, who has had to overcome a number of personal challenges, has never received a grade less than an A and is in the lead for valedictorian. As Board President Virginia de la Piedra handed Ponce his plaque she commented, "This is really outstanding....tell your mom and dad we're really proud of them too." When asked where he planned to continue his education, Ponce replied "Berkley" to which everyone in the room stood and applauded as Ponce stood humbly and smiled.

The second recognition went to the boys soccer team. Both the Board and Staff agreed to putting the teams accomplishments in a documented resolution which reads; The Fillmore High School 2015-2016 Boys Soccer Team achieved an overall record of 21 wins, 4 losses, and 3 ties, thereby winning the Frontier League Championship and a 1st seed in the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section Division VII playoffs and it was a district accomplishment to win the CIF Soccer Region Championship; and whereas the players, manager and coaches have shown great talent, sportsmanship, determination and hard work; and whereas the coaches deserve special thanks for having willingly donated their time to this activity; and whereas the record of achievement of the person listed below deserves commendation from the entire community.

The players and coaches all received an Award of Recognition Certificate. Players: Angel Acosta, Kevyn Garibay, Everardo Magana, Jose Luis Ruiz, Jaime Zarate, Jesus Ballesteros, Joel Garza, Emilio Martinez, Fernando Trujillo, Marko Zavala, Cristian Candelario, Alejandro Gutierrez, Miguel Martinez, Jose Manuel Valdez, Salvador Zepeda, Kevin Galvan, Enrique Gutierrez, Alejandro Rodriquez, Jorge Valdovinos, Juan Garcia, Onofre Jauregui, Ruben Rodriguez, Andy Vargas. Head Coach, Jose Luis Lomeli. Assistant Coaches; Javier Alcaraz, Luis Cisneros, Emerio Manzano, Cipriano Martinez, Alfonso Martinez, Eric SantaRosa. Manager; Austin Contreras. Statistician; Emilio Manzano.

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Recently, fourth grade students in Mr. Spaulding, Ms. Thompson and Ms. Nuzum’s classes at Rio Vista Elementary School in Fillmore went on an unforgettable, over-night field trip to Fort Tejon State Historic Park to participate in the living history program.

Imagine leaving your electronic devices behind and stepping into the sounds, sights and colors of the 1850’s. That is just what the students did. They became recruits in the army to be trained as dragoons. They were issued uniform jackets and performed tasks that were typical of frontier life. At night, they slept in the barracks on straw bedrolls. Illumination was only by candle light.

The students were divided into five squads and rotated through five stations. The tasks were: blacksmith shop, carpentry, adobe brick making, candle making/laundry and, of course, kitchen. The students made candles and washed laundry on a washboard. Comments like, “My grandma has one of these!” were heard. Making adobe bricks was a messy job! The students each made a tool box in the carpentry shop. They learned just how hot it can be to work in the blacksmith shop. In the kitchen, the students chopped and churned their own dinner which was cooked over coals in a Dutch oven. The vegetable stew, corn bread, freshly churned butter and apple cobbler were delicious! The recruits helped raise the gigantic flag, with only 31 stars as was authentic for 1857. One of the highlights was the firing of the canon.

Naturally, this trip would not have been possible without the support of the parents and Rio Vista School staff. There were parents working at each station. The parents also slept on the hard floor, supervised the chopping, dipping, pounding and digging. Lots of firewood was hauled and burned. Mr. Joe Porter, Doug and Theresa Smith and Quality Paving provided the cut lumber for the tool boxes. Financial donations were made by the Fillmore Rotary Club, the Rio Vista Parent Club and many other generous people. The Fort Tejon Historical Association helped pay for the buses to transport the students. The students had fundraisers to help defray costs.

Ms. Bev Garnica, principal at Rio Vista School, said, “My daughter and husband still talk about their trip to Fort Tejon.” It was a great learning event. Fort Tejon has reenactments the first Saturday of every month. There are pictures and information on line.

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The Class of 1971 is having their 45th Class reunion on Saturday, June 11th at the 103rd Alumni Dinner/Dance here in Fillmore. Many Class members have already paid for their dinner reservations online at www.fillmorehighalumni.com.

Also, the reservation forms have been mailed out to class members. Make your reservations today. We are expecting a large turnout for the great FHS Class of 1971!! More Alumni Dinner info at www.fillmorehighalumni.com.

This article was submitted By FUTA president Jennifer Beal

Fillmore – More than 60 educators upset over the Fillmore Unified School District’s lack of a making a competitive salary offer in negotiations attended the school board meeting on April 5th. The next day the District still refused to increase its salary offer during negotiations by handing over the same proposal from the previous meeting. The FUTA bargaining team felt it had no choice but to declare impasse, which is when both bargaining teams tried to find common ground but are at a deadlock and unable to break it. Fillmore is the last district in Ventura County to settle on a salary agreement for this 15-16 school year. And it was very apparent the District was not going to offer anything higher than their previous offers.

After the passage of Proposition 30 in 2012, school districts started getting some financial relief and began to see increases in money from the state. Fillmore Unified School District has received more than $13.7 million in the last 3 years. Fillmore educators took cuts in pay during the recession years. They lost 20 days of pay (among the highest amount of furlough days in the County’s school districts) to help keep the district from going in the red. While the educators were taking pay cuts, the District’s reserves grew! The state was allowing districts to go below the legally mandated 3% but Fillmore’s reserve was always way above that. In 2010-11 it was 8.11% (5 furlough days), in 2011-12 it was 11.69% (10 furlough days), in 2012-13 it was 10.32% (5 furlough days), in 2013-14 it was 7.14%, and in 2014-15 it was 11.60%, This year it is projected to be 6.97%, 3.97% above what is legally required.

With the growing teacher shortage Fillmore could be the first to face the hardship of not being able to hire highly qualified teachers because of the lack of a competitive salary. When compared to 14 other districts, 13 in Ventura County and Las Virgenes in LA County Fillmore is ranked 13th for the average teacher’s salary with a Master’s degree, only one other district is lower! Again, it is ranked 13th out of 14 when it comes to projecting the teacher’s monthly retirement income at age 60 with 25 years of teaching. It comes up a notch for projecting the retirement at age 62 with 32 years of teaching experience to 12th out of 14. The total amount spent on teachers’ salaries taken from the district’s total expenses has decreased percentage wise over the last 5 years. In official documents from 2012-13 it was ranked 13th again out of the 14 school districts. Yet the District has no problem increasing administrative positions and salaries.

The FUTA is affiliated with the 340,000-member California Teachers Association and with the 3.2
million-member National Education Association.

The FUSD administrator percentage of the District’s budget expenses increased and was ranked 1st out of the 14 school districts.

Without the true willingness of the district to work with teachers for a fair, competitive raise, the Fillmore Unified Teacher’s Association could do nothing else but declare impasse. We wish the district had lived up to its own mission statement of its core values posted on the wall of the Fillmore Unified School District's boardroom, "We hire, support, and retain high-performing staff”.

“May 2015 - Oil Spill – Refugio Beach – Santa Barbara County” This recent oil spill raises the obvious questions: Could this happen in Ventura County? What are the safeguards, checks and balances, and processes at work in the arena of crude oil pipeline safety? Are they working effectively to protect Ventura County residents, the environment, and institutions from harm? What information is available to the County to help prepare for, or better yet, avoid a crude oil spill?

The State of California is the third largest oil producer in the United States. Ventura County is the third largest oil-producing county in the State, with hundreds of miles of crude oil pipelines of various sizes and types.

The 2015-2016 Ventura County Grand Jury identified the multiple government agencies at the Federal, State, and County levels sharing responsibility for the crude oil pipeline permits, as well as the oversight of pipeline construction, maintenance, testing, repair, operations, and deactivation. These responsibilities vary by pipeline location and function.

Authority for crude oil pipelines regulation is spread among multiple government entities at multiple levels. The Federal government has ultimate responsibility for setting minimum standards for crude oil pipelines, but it can and has delegated permitting and operational oversight to the State of California.
The County’s responsibility over oil pipelines has two components:

• The permitting function for a significant portion, but not all, of the pipelines in its unincorporated areas

• First responder in the event of a spill
The Grand Jury found that no single government entity has a complete grasp of critical information such as test history, test validity, and risks associated with the total pipeline array in the county. That information does exist but is spread among multiple government entities. The information is available to the County if it chooses to access it. However, the Grand Jury found that the county does not have a thorough understanding of the state of the total crude oil pipeline array within the County.

The Grand Jury recommends that the Board of Supervisors require the development of an annual report which summarizes the state of the crude oil pipelines within the County. This report, which can take advantage of the data available from various regulatory agencies, should identify those pipelines with risks discovered during testing, as well as the risks associated with pipelines that have not been tested/verified by a third party or observer as required by the governing regulations. It should also identify those pipelines not in compliance with the conditions imposed by the Conditional Use Permits and summarize the spill events and their causes since the last report.

The complete report may be accessed at www.ventura.org/grand-jury; click on the Annual Reports tab and consult “Fiscal Year 2015-2016.”

Photos and Video by Bob Crum

The City Council meeting on the 12th of April started out on a high note with some big news. Keith Gurrola was sworn in as the new Fillmore Fire Chief, effective immediately. After Chief Gurrola swore his oath, a resounding applause came from the audience. His speech was short and humble. He mentioned the “long history of tradition” regarding the Fillmore Fire Department, most notably the Chief position. He vowed to “continue to make great strides” for the Fire Department as well as the city of Fillmore as a whole. Mayor Diane McCall was the first to congratulate Chief Gurrola and then opened it up to the other councilmembers for comment. Councilmember Manuel Minjares was the first to speak lauding Chief Gurrola’s courage to take the position. Mayor Pro Tem Carrie Broggie echoed his sentiments and jokingly highlighted the fact that Fillmore was able to steal one from Santa Paula. Councilmembers Douglas Tucker and Rick Neal noted that there would be big shoes to fill, but that the city of Fillmore was lucky to have such a capable chief and great individual. City Manager Dave Rowlands concluded with some powerful remarks. He ensured that there was a national search for the position of fire chief, but throughout this search one name continued to pop up. Everybody from the family of the previous chief to the Interim Chief Bill Herrera said that the City of Fillmore would be lucky to have such an experienced Fire Chief and esteemed member of the community.

The public comments started with a qualm about a tree on 633 Fillmore St. The individual commenting brought up the fact that the tree was only trimmed on the city’s side and not the property owner’s side. There are multiple owners affected by the tree and with the windy weather of late it could cause a dangerous situation.

It was also CONTINUED »