To the Editor:
The following is an excerpt from a letter delivered to the Fillmore Unified School District office earlier this week.
Dear Superintendent Sweeney and Fillmore Unified School District School Board,
On February 17, 2010 a group of concerned parents from Piru Elementary School submitted complaint forms under the Williams Act. First, we submitted our Williams Act forms to our Principal, Leticia Ramos. She accepted, initialed and dated each complaint form. We then tried to submit these same forms to the Fillmore Unified School District (FUSD) office. Katy Hadley refused to accept our complaint forms. Her basis for this refusal was the FUSD School Boards policy on uniform complaints. Our complaint forms were then literally, thrown back at the parent delivering them and she directed her secretary to make the parent 10 copies of the proper form. The five parents available at that time promptly filled out the FUSD Williams Uniform Complaint Procedures form and returned them to Mrs. Hadley’s secretary along with the original complaint forms. Mrs. Hadley was not in the office when we returned.
The following is an excerpt from the California Department of Education (CDE) website regarding Williams Act Complaint Procedure.
Williams Settlement complaints regarding instructional materials, emergency or urgent facilities conditions that pose a threat to the health and safety of pupils, and teacher vacancy or misassignment may be filed anonymously. Schools shall have a complaint form available for these types of complaints. Schools will not reject a complaint if the form is not used as long as the complaint is submitted in writing.
Your Local Educational Agency (LEA) clearly is in non-compliance with this Educational Code. Why does FUSD feel it is expectable to deliberately break the law?
As elected officials the FUSD School Board has an obligation to serve the best interests of the children and community at large. As parents we would like to know why the FUSD school board has a board policy 1312.3 in place that is in blatant violation of state law 4621(c) and 4680(c).
It is the responsibility of your LEA to insure that our children are educated to the fullest of their potential and in a safe, hazard free environment. Your LEA must also function in compliance with State and Federal laws.
As parents and community members we want to know what you are going to do to remedy this problem.
Sincerely,
Concerned Piru Elementary School Parents

To the Editor:
I wanted to say what's right with Fillmore. On Saturday, February 20, I was surprised to see ambitious young women picking up trash on my street (Burlington) and the bike path by River Park. I asked them what group and cleanup event they were with and they said Big Brothers and Big Sisters. They were giving a day of service to the community for a free day at Disneyland. What a pleasure to see youth creating value.
Philip Ray
Citizen of Fillmore

To the Editor:
Since June 14, 1777 Congress proclaimed the "Stars and Stripes" the national standard of the United States. This standard became the symbol of presenting our "patriotism and devotion" to our country by displaying the flag. But over time the displaying of our flag has become drastically less and less. Observation has shown that on any one of our designated holidays, maybe ONE out of every ten house-holds here in Fillmore display the flag. It is sad that we as Americans do not take the time to show we are proud to be Americans.
It matters not what your political persuasion is or that the economy is in such a sad state of affairs, there is no reason we can't show our pride and patriotism. The United States is still the greatest county in the world.
The cost of a flag is minimal. There are numerous organizations/stores which flags can be purchased. Displaying our flag is not limited to certain holidays only. They may be displayed year round. On our next holiday, as you leave and return from work or home, look around your neighborhood as to just how many flags are displayed. NOW HOW ABOUT YOURS?
Concerned Americans
Ray and Judy Dressler
Fillmore

To the Editor:
One of the newest laws for highway driving was effective Jan. 1, 2010 and includes a hefty fine when you pass a car pulled over by the CHP for a traffic violation. NOW you are required to move into the empty lane to your left or slow and pass at only 20 miles per hour in this situation. All motorists should be aware of this new law and follow it or face a big fine. There has been very little about this for public information so many are not aware of it but it needs to be followed.
Marie Wren
Fillmroe

To the Editor:
Re. Rich McKee’s front page comment in last weeks Gazette concerning the Brown Act: McKee’s original claim was triggered by a complaint involving an improper email from our interim city manager that was responded to by three council members. The impropriety of the email was quickly spotted and “cured” prier to the complaint and McKee’s original demand; the City rightly claimed that his lawsuit was groundless. McKee dropped that issue and filed on grounds of an improper closed session meeting based on a technicality that the city settled out of court.
McKee inferred that last year the City paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees because of the City Attorney’s bad legal advice that gets the city sued. I looked at every dollar for legal fees paid out in 2009 and found McKee to be absolutely wrong in his claim and his denigration of the City Attorney. The biggest part of the money paid for the cost of litigation was around $220,000 (this figure may be reduced to $155,000) for the sales tax issue. It has nothing to do with poor legal advice from the City Attorney and if we don’t pursue it we could lose over $1 million a year for around fifteen years.
Bob Stroh
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Dear friends,
Soroptimist International of Fillmore and the "S" Club of Fillmore High School invite you to attend a meeting to be involved in a Community Service Picnic. We are trying to organize a good old fashioned picnic with games and hopefully a lot of community involvement. We invite you to attend our informational/organizational meeting to learn how you can showcase your non-profit organization at our picnic. Our goal is to get Fillmore more involved in it's organizations and inform people of the opportunities out there for them. Please see the attachment for your invitation letter and remember to save the date: Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 7:30 pm at Fillmore High School, Room # 49.
If you know of any non-profit organizations out there please pass this letter on them as well so we can get as much involvement as possible.
Thank you everyone and we hope to see you there!
Kathy Vargas
Soroptimist International of Fillmore

To the Editor:
In response to the editorial comment regarding Clarence Freeman, the “present” Pole Creek debris basin is not of the same design Mr. Freeman commented on all those years. The current basin has been redesigned and is much larger due to requirements set out by Ventura County Watershed Protection District. Maybe they listened to Clarence after all.
Patti Walker
Citizen of Fillmore

To the Editor:
Mr. Freeman was a great man. I work for the Boys & Girls Club, one day one of the club members needed to interview an engineer. We looked in the FIllmore phonebook and found Mr. Freeman's name. I called him and asked him if we could interview him over the phone and he said, I can do better than that, and he came to the club and spent about 2 hours with the club member talking about his experiences and his schooling. What a great man!
My question is in regards to this statement:
I keep remembering the warnings of the late, great, Clarence Freeman, may he rest in peace. I’m hoping his conclusions were wrong, but he was a very intelligent man with great experience. We’ll see.
What warnings did he make? Did it have anything to do with the river or the new basins?
Thank you.
Cindy Escoto
Fillmore

To the Editor:
I am beyond anger when I go to are local Laundry mat and lose $7.00 of my hard earned money. I know it may be only 7 bucks but to lose it and not get my clothes washed makes me mad! I went to the so-called new laundry matt by the Dollar Tree. They are suppose to have all new washer/dryers! Well I put my money in and I had to wait until the cycle ended and had no clean clothes! It just took my money and didn't turn on.
There was no number! No nothing! Who runs these places?? Its funny they sure make money off us people that rely on these crappy places!
Jennifer Pillado
Fillmore

To the Editor:
On December 23, 2009, my husband’s birthday, I went to the Bardsdale Cemetery to take him flowers. To my shocking surprise the manager and his friends or workers were playing golf on the cemetery lawn over the grave stones. I was very hurt and thought that was very disrespectful and rude.
Don’t they know the difference between a golf course or park and a cemetery? I hope they will show their respect to the dead in the future.
Frances Limon
Santa Paula