The River Restoration Project was headed by Cynthia Frutos and pictured above Laura Todes.

The February 3, 2015 Fillmore Unified School District (FUSD) Board Meeting began with two Recognition of Achievement Awards presented to the Sheriff's Department Fillmore Explorers and to those participating in the River Restoration Project. There were also two agenda items and an emergency item.

FUSD continues to move forward with upgrading its infrastructure. One important upgrade with a huge price tag is Internet Technology (IT) which also includes wireless access. Eric Tilton founder of MJT Technologies gave a presentation explaining what upgrades FUSD needs to meet today's standards.

At present FUSD is behind in meeting those standards. What FUSD is using is at the end-of-life stage; a Cisco Exchange 2003 system. According to Tilton, using it could create a "Critical communications systems such as email and phone systems are at risk of near term failure and must be updated....the server room at Fillmore High has many areas of vulnerability. The equipment is old and prone to failure, and the power backup system only supports keeping the equipment running for maybe 20 minutes during a power outage" adding there is an increasing chance that they will crash and never come back online again.

Superintendent Dr. Adrian Palazuelos anticipates a $500,000 grant from E-rate Federal funding to help with the costs of upgrading to Office 365 and moving to a Cloud server. The move will improve such things as email, instant messaging, video conferencing and file storage. Another upgrade will be wireless connection at all FUSD schools. Today wireless access is available at Rio Vista, Sierra High School and only 2 or 3 rooms at Fillmore High School. Piru Elementary recently received the Apple ConnectED grant to upgrade their system.

Presently FUSD has 37 Cisco wireless access points that can support 600 students which is managed from a local server housed at Fillmore High School. This system is not capable of upgrading to service all FUSD students.

Palazuelos told the Board, "In the future every campus and facility in the District will have wireless." FUSD is also planning to hire another IT employee, which will bring the District's IT employees to three.

Another agenda item was a presentation of the Federal Program Monitoring (FPM) by Asst. Superintendent Martha Hernandez. FPM assures legal guidelines and laws for both State and Federal are being complied with and that the programs implemented are effective. The monitoring process will take four days starting February 17, 2015. Sites scheduled for visits are the District Office, Fillmore Middle School and Fillmore High School. Items being monitored will include classroom/program observation and focus on improving teacher quality, career technical education, fiscal monitoring, physical education, English learner and education quality among other things. They will also do a compliance review of the Before and After School Program and Fillmore Middle School.

FUSD will have 45 days to resolve any findings found needing improvement.

An item that required an emergency resolution was the fire alarm system failure at Fillmore Middle School (FMS).
At present the fire alarm system is inoperable and FMS is on "Fire Watch" with the Fillmore Fire Department.
Water exposure has caused shorts and ground faults compromising the fire alarm system wiring.

Because of the urgency of repairing the system, the normal bidding process will not be conducted. Insurance is expected to cover the cost to repair the system which is expected to run $60,000 but could be higher. It is expected to be repaired in one month's time.

The meeting began with recognition of the Sheriff's Department Fillmore Explorers. These young people ages 14-21 spend a week in pre-academy training here in Fillmore then four weeks at the Ventura County Sheriff's Academy in Camarillo. Each has donated close to 400 hours to the leadership and mentoring program which requires community service and academic standards. Their advisors were Officer Leonardo Vazquez and Captain Dave Wareham and Explorers: J. Vargas, L. Medrano, N. Bartels, M. Hammond, A. Castrejon, D. Amezcua, R. Regalado, D. Ramirez, I. Graibay, J. Herrera, M. Jimenez, I. Galvez.

The second recognition went to students and staff participating in the River Restoration Project. Students from both Fillmore High School and Sierra High School participated in the cleanup. The project was headed by Cynthia Frutos and Laura Todes.

The students together removed an invasive plant called Arundo. This plant is one of the main culprits causing problems in large areas of both Sespe Creek and the Santa Clara River. The non-native cane-like grass, is a tall perennial that resembles bamboo. During flooding rhizomes break off and travel downstream where it continues to invade due to its aggressive growth and ability to survive. Once Arundo is established the area requires continual costly cleanup and maintenance because it creates a fire hazard, flood hazard, sedimentation, and erosion.

The plant collects at bridges, drainage pipes and other flood control structures, causing compromised functioning and in some instances structure failure along with degrading the natural resources. As the plant spreads the areas stop functioning as native systems. The entire ecological cycle of the riparian system is impacted which includes the habitat that plants, birds, fish, animals and insects rely on.

The students started removing the Arundo in September of 2014 with three acres completed so far, and will be continuing the cleanup.

The March 17,2015 6:30 p.m. FUSD Board Meeting will by held at Piru Elementary School, 2811 East Center Street, Piru, CA 93040 (805) 524-8251.