The June 29 School Board Meeting was fraught with tension as criticism underlined public comments. Ventura County resident Mary McClennan expressed her concern for the county’s children and explained that she had been hearing of teachers being harassed and children being refused transfers, so she had come to “find out what’s being done” in the Fillmore schools. McClennan called the situation “ridiculous” and referred to a “failing school” several times.

School Board President Tony Prado responded by saying he was not sure what failing schools she had in mind, and stressed, “Harassment of any teachers is intolerable. And it’s really important to understand that harassment of teachers in any school district across the United States is intolerable. I wholeheartedly agree with you on that comment. And in the Fillmore Unified School District, to the best of my knowledge, there is no harassment of any teachers.”

Ide Ramirez then took the mic to register her displeasure in receiving a letter announcing that Piru Elementary Principal Leticia Ramos would be getting a transfer, apparently with a promotion. “She clearly showed the community, the school, that she was incapable of handling her position. Attending activities outside the school, her mannerisms with acting out with the parents, it’s just, it’s incredible,” Ramirez alleged. She questioned the Board’s motives for the move, suggesting, “because, she needs to be covered up? Or what? She needs to be babysat a lot more closely with you guys?” Ramirez also submitted a complaint for an unexplained cancellation of a School Site Council meeting at Piru Elementary scheduled for that day. She said she saw no notice posted and hadn’t received the customary phone call, and pressed the Board for an answer regarding why the meeting wasn’t held.

Ramirez further inquired, “How is a plan being brought forward when we’re not even in school? Shouldn’t this have been available a long time ago, and you’re barely coming forward with it, now?” She also echoed McClennan’s sentiments in criticizing the superintendent, “You know, Mr. Sweeney, your position is up for review. You clearly showed us in the five years you’ve been here … I mean, the school system has been going more and more down. With all due respect, these schools are failing. You guys are not fooling anybody. The middle school is failing, horribly. Your elementary schools. I am not even going to let my daughter take a chance to attend your high school or middle school.” Ramirez then held up a document, saying, “Here I have a petition with about a hundred signatures that we’ve been collecting; a lot of people in Piru want these teachers to stay in their positions. What are you guys going to do about that?” She asked why, as the Piru charter didn't go through, the Board continues with budget cuts. “How are these kids going to be educated with the amount of students that you guys are putting in the classrooms? The schools are already failing; how much worse do you guys need? When are you guys going to wake up and make a change? You guys already have the highest dropout rate. What else? It’s ridiculous.”

Prado replied, “Let me inform you that the principal at Piru has not been promoted. Transferred, possibly; promoted, no. So you’re wrong in that aspect.” He defended the District’s handling of transfers, explaining, “Parents can apply for transfers. But whether they get approved or not depends on the criteria that the District has to follow. And whether the other sites of the districts are willing to accept them. And other districts will say one thing but we have information that says they will only accept a certain kind of student.” Correcting Ramirez with the information that “Mr. Sweeney has been with the district for only four years,” Prado continued, “You’re also very, very wrong about the dropout rate. We don't’ have the highest dropout rate in Ventura County. The dropout rate this year, if I’m not incorrect, is 2.4%. That is very low, for any district in the United States. So when you say the highest dropout rate, you’re misinformed and misleading. You need to be careful when you come before the board and make certain statements. Because they’re incorrect. I don’t know where you’re getting this information.” Prado advised, “You need to get your facts correct. Come to the District Office. Talk to the proper people in District Office, and you’ll get proper information.” Ramirez countered from the audience, “So what, I can get more computer glitches that you guys submit?”

Before the Board moved on to the next agenda item, Board Member Virginia de la Piedra expressed her puzzlement of Ramirez’ assertions of there being many people unhappy with Ramos, sharing her own perspective: “All the calls I get have been on her behalf, saying how well she’s done and how happy there were having her there.”
The rest of the meeting was marked by discussion of heavy cuts to the 2010-11 school year budget, which waits for cues from the State’s budgeting.

At the end of the meeting, Prado returned to his objections to the allegations of educational failure submitted by the speakers. “It’s a highly, emotionally charged term, and it’s politically induced by the Congress controversy in the schools throughout the United States,” he said. “Because a school could be doing very well but because they haven’t reached a specific number which is irrelevant to teaching, having been a teacher at a school that had a score of 800 API, we still had kids that were failing. So does that make the school a failing school? I would challenge anyone that wants to accuse us of being a failing school, tell that to our seniors that just graduated. And tell that to our seniors who are going to Ivy League schools. That are going to Stanford … Tell them that they’ve participated at a failing school. Tell our teachers at our high school that we have failing teachers in schools. Or tell that to our middle school, or all our elementary school teachers who work very hard, and ask them if we have failing schools. It’s a misnomer. It’s a misstatement. And for anyone to come from the outside and telling us here in Fillmore that we have failing schools, I think they should concentrate on where they come from, and tell that community about their failing schools.”

Board Member John Garnica added, “I’m a parent of both a graduate and two girls that are attending Fillmore schools. I have a vested interest in this community. To me, my girl, who’s at UCLA right now—and she’s studying Spain—had an outstanding education from outstanding educators. And the thing that I tell people, and this is not just in school, but for life, what you put into it is what you get out of it. So if you don’t put something into it, and you expect to get a golden egg, you’re going to be sadly disappointed.”

A recording of the meeting can be found at http://www.fillmoregazette.com/school