Enlarge Photo

Enlarge Photo

Enlarge Photo

On Tuesday February 15th, Piru Elementary School and its proud principal Tricia Godfrey hosted a crowd of approximately 70 parents, district staff, community members and students for the dedication and unveiling of the new marquee sign. The brand new sign, paid for through community fundraising efforts of The Friends of Piru (FOP) parent group is a new and important way for the school to communicate with parents and the community. For approximately four years the parent run group Friends of Piru had it’s sights on a marquee for the school all the while funding other needs at the school. Parents at the school choose the sign and FOP wrote the check for nearly $6,000.00 At the dedication Godfrey recognized the work of John and Luanne Schaper, as well as “Mrs. Dollar… thank you so much for just not giving up.” Friends of Piru Board members and Piru residents Katherine Ponce and Maria Villa were thanked although they were unable to attend. The final president of Friends of Piru Kelly Baker was the only board member able to attend the event and receive the thanks in person. Ponce, Villa and Baker were instrumental in organizing many fundraising drives which allowed the group to purchase many items for the school, recently including: paper (nearly $400.00 current school year) headsets and supplies for computer lab, “Bellworks” books ($2,500.00), kindergarten and after school rugs, coordinating a grant for over $1000.00 in library books and supporting the 6th grade annual science camp.

At the beginning of this school year Friends of Piru disbanded due to the fact that the children of all board members either moved up to the middle school or transferred to other elementary schools and there were no current Piru school parents who had been involved with the organization in the past. Current Piru school parents formed a new parent group, Friends for Change, its new name chosen by students at Piru Elementary School. Friends for Change will be planning many new fundraising efforts to continue to supply items requested by the school.

Enlarge Photo

The third grade classes of Mrs. Bergamo and Mr. Barrera planted a Phenology garden this fall. The new garden is an addition to the existing ornamental butterfly garden installed, 2007-08, by Mr. Schaper’s and Mr. Barrera’s second grade classes. A Phenology garden is used to study the relationship of weather to plant blooms and insect activity. In Piru’s case, the plants installed are a combination of native and ornamental plants which will focus on attracting native wildlife such as hummingbirds, butterflies, and native bees (which are not as aggressive as honey-bees).

The Phenology garden will part of larger area to be completed later this school year. Piru students will record the first flower blooms and measure the plant growth from year to year. The goal of the garden is to have students record weather trends and predict insect activity. We are excited to have our students interact with their natural environment and use the scientific process to make predictions.

The garden was a part of a grant issued by the U.S. Fish and Game Wildlife Services. Kristin Lairson, Special Projects Coordinator, and Michael Glenn, a biologist with the F.W.S, worked together to bring this exciting garden and concept to not only Piru but also other schools in Fillmore. The Piru Farm Committee, parents volunteers (Beatriz Ruiz, Josefina Velgara and Vikki Galen provided healthy snacks), and the third graders worked together to help complete the first phase of the garden. It was fun to see our students excited to plant and work with nature to understand they can influence their natural environment in a positive way.

Enlarge Photo

Enlarge Photo

Piru Elementary students showing off the up-to-date playground.
Enlarge Photo

Piru Elementary school as seen from the Principal’s window.
Enlarge Photo

First grade students are hard at work in their classroom.
Enlarge Photo

Piru School is a joyful, peaceful place to be! Our families and community members are always welcome to visit at any time. If you would like to join me for a ”silent walk through” and enjoy a peek into the hard work and happy atmosphere in our classrooms, library, computer labs, or any of our facilities, please come by anytime! Have a donation you’d like to make? Our students are always in need of more supplies for our enrichment activities and projects, and Piru School always needs helping hands and eyes in order to keep our students safe, learning, and feeling loved.

This year our entire staff is focused on collaborating with and supporting each other in and outside of the classroom. We have a school wide focus on three things we do on a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis: celebrating each other (students and adults!), keeping and reviving our traditions, and serving each other and our community.

Piru School will be hosting a monthly family and community event. Our very first monthly celebration was an ice-cream social following our Back-To-School event. Our second evening on Monday, September 27th was centered around a presentation of no-cost family services provided by Fillmore Options; a free book give- away; School Site Council elections and ELAC elections, and a kick-off for our annual Scholastic Book Fair. Despite the heat, a large number of parents and students came to have a popsicle, speak with the principal, vote, and to bring home new books. Our Parent and Community Night in October will focus on nutrition, fitness and making healthy life choices.

Our students and staff use a motto as we work and play together every day: “Safety, Learning, and Love.” Classrooms are busy, student behavior is very positive and each Piru staff member is working their hardest and best to meet our students needs. Please come by as soon as you can, and feel the magic that is unfolding at our school. Our staff and our parents are going the extra mile to make sure students truly come first. I would like to join our staff in expressing our deepest gratitude to the communities of Piru and Fillmore for your care and support of our whole school, during the launching of our brand new year.

Tricia Godfrey
Principal
Piru Elementary School

Fillmore Unified School District

Since the filing of a petition on September 16th with the Fillmore Unified School District to convert Piru Elementary into an independent charter school, there have been a series of incidents in which certain FUSD employees and other individuals have distributed information about the proposed charter school which is either misleading or false, according to Richard Durborow and Chris Pavik, two of the charter petitioners.

In what is apparently an escalation by those opposed to the charter, this past Friday, says Chris Pavik, two of the teachers at Piru School who signed the petition were approached separately by another teacher with close personal ties to the District Office. They were both told by this well-connected teacher that the School Board will not rehire any person who goes to work at the charter school and later decides to return to the District. In addition, one signer was told that the County Office of Education has the list of the signers’ names, and that no other school district in the county will hire them because they signed the charter petition, and the other was told that the Superintendent had said that any teacher who signed the petition, but now withdrew their name, would suffer no repercussions from the District. Says Chris Pavik, “these seem like not-so-veiled threats of intimidation, and they cross the line. As far as the School Board telling Piru staff that there will be no ‘right of return’, I have heard from several sources that such a statement was made at a District administrator’s meeting on last Thursday, that principals were directed by one of the Assistant Superintendents to verbally give this warning to their staffs. Such a statement is tantamount to bargaining away from the table, because that issue is bargainable, and it is illegal for the District to go around the unions and try to negotiate with individual members. I have informed the FUTA President and a CTA organizer of what I heard, and discussed the fact that this is an unfair labor practice, and that the District must stop doing this.” At this time, the petitioners plan to turn over the name of the teacher involved, and the names of those whom the teacher implicated, to legal counsel for possible litigation.

The petitioners first became aware of this apparent misinformation campaign when CONTINUED »

From the start of this process of educational reform, it is has been the goal of Piru Charter School to value and protect the work of our school’s classified employees. During the Piru Reconfiguration Committee sessions held in the Winter and Spring of 2009, the entire staff, with input from classified staff, came up with a list of what we called ‘non-negotiables’, principles that any charter plan must include to be acceptable to the staff. Every single teacher on the staff agreed to these principles. Classified employees were informed of the meetings, given agendas and invited to participate, and those that did also agreed to these principles. The key principles the staff decided upon were:

Salary schedule equivalent or better than FUSD’s
Benefit package equivalent or better than FUSD’s
Pension- remain in STRS and PERS
Due process rights for employees (including classified employees)
Union affiliation with local association (for ALL EMPLOYEES)
Staff participation in governance and decision-making (including classified employees)
Staff selects Curriculum (including classified employees)
Retain current staff (including classified employees)

It is the intent of our charter petition, CONTINUED »

Misinformation has been given out to create fear, here are the facts:
Migrant funds will continue, All migrant programs will remain, Piru School will continue to be a free public school, More parent input (parents will be on local Piru school board), More local control, No more waiting for empty promises (how long do we wait for these long promised grant monies???? Where is the student drop-off turn around???? Where is our new safe field????). Future K-8, Smaller class sizes, Our goal is to do what is best for Piru school students; not for the district. For more information, see our web site: www.pirucharterschool.blogspot.com.

La Verdad de Convertirnos en una Escuela Charter
Mucha desinfornación se ha dado para crear miedo; aquí están los hechos: Los Fondos Migratorios Van a Continuar, Todos los Programas Migratorios Van a Continuar, La Escuela de Piru va a continuar a ser una escuela publica y gratitua, Más opiniones de los padres (padres estarán en la junta local de la escuela Piru), Tendremos un mayor control local de nuestra escuela (¿cuånto tiempo tenemos que esperar becas prometidas? Dónde está el lugar seguro que prometiero para dejar y recojer a nuestros estudiantes? Dónde está nuestra nueva cancha segura que fue prometida?). En el Futuro una escuela del kinder a octavo grado, Clases más pequeñas, Nuestra meta es hacer lo que es major para los estudiantes de Piru, no para el distrito. Para obtener más información, consulte nuestro sitio web: www.pirucharterschool.blogspot.com.

When the Piru Charter School train left the station, few passengers were on board. What was described as a “collaborative” effort now appears to represent the work of only 3 individuals with the consent of an additional few people. There was no effort to get “buy in” from more than a small handful of community members, classified staff members, nor teachers not in “the know”.

The Piru Charter School petition was written in secret. Over a year ago Piru Elementary School staff met to explore reconfiguration at Piru School to parallel the district’s conversations on reconfiguration. The conversations at Piru were to include ways to improve instruction within the current school structure, investigate the concept of a magnet school, and look at charter schools. The conversations, led by then principal Richard Durborow and long time charter advocate Christopher Pavik, began with a broad focus but were quickly narrowed by the leaders to the single concept of charter. In its discussion the Piru School staff had hoped to gain an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages associated with Charter Schools. However, the leaders rapidly took the discussion from investigation of charter schools to joining a charter association and writing a charter petition to make Piru Elementary to a conversion charter school. A conversion charter school requires the existing school to close then the newly incorporated sef-governed school is opened in its place. Many staff members believed at that point the discussion had been derailed and resulted in an end to whole staff collaboration. The conversations continued with a small group of teachers in secret. The product of these secret meetings was the petition presented to the Fillmore USD on September 16 to convert Piru Elementary School to Piru Charter School.

The founding group of Piru Charter School petitioners presenting their CONTINUED »

Fillmore Unified School District

The Fillmore Unified School District received a petition for the conversion of Piru Elementary School to a charter school to be known as the Piru Charter School. The District Governing Board will hold a public hearing on the provisions of the charter, at which time the Board will consider the level of support for the petition by teachers employed by the District, other District employees, and parents.

Based on the District’s review and analysis of the charter petition and the information gathered at the public hearing, the District Board will either grant or deny the charter. The meeting will occur at Piru Elementary School in their auditorium on Wednesday, October 21, at 6:00 p.m. Translators will be present at the meeting. Transportation to and from Rancho Sespe will be provided courtesy of the Ventura County Migrant Program.

Also, child care for elementary age students will be provided. A copy of the petition can be viewed at the Superintendent’s Office, 627 Sespe Avenue, Fillmore.