The September 15, 2015 Fillmore Unified School District (FUSD) Board Meeting began with recognizing the Future Farmers of America (FFA) students who participated in the 2015 Ventura County Fair and ended with Board Member John Garnica resigning as a board member.

Garnica, who has served on the board for 16 years, told the other members his wife is a candidate for a principal position and there would be a conflict of interest if he stayed on. Garnica spoke of the confidence he had with the present board along with the new superintendent and felt it was the right time to resign. All board members thanked him for his dedicated service to FUSD and his sharp mind would be missed. Board Member Lucy Rangel mentioned what a pleasure it was having Garnica as a student and them working with him on the board. Garnica responded, "It's been a pleasure for me."

Assistant Superintendent Martha Hernandez gave a presentation on the Smarter Balance Assessment (SBA) test results for 3rd through 8th grade and 11th grade students taken last April and May. This is the first test results being considered. There was a preliminary test run the year before to make sure the computer systems were working properly. SBA is the testing California uses in connection with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the student testing is done on a computer. A total of 12 million students in 29 states took part in the new CCSS testing. The results are not good for both the State and FUSD. A majority of students statewide failed to meet the standards including FUSD students

California has more than 3.1 million public school students that were tested in English with only 44% meeting or exceeded requirements and about equal that amount, 45%, that did not. In Math 33% of students met the standards and 67% did not. In Los Angeles which is the second largest school district in the country, only 33% of students met targets in English and only 25% met them in Math.

What the testing did find was when broken down racially there was a huge gap; Asian students met or exceeded requirements in English by 72% and white students at 61%. Latino students met the requirements at 32% and African-American students were at 28%.

Hernandez informed the board that 89% of FUSD English Language Learners (ELL) did not met the standards. In English Language Arts/Literacy, of all the 1,906 FUSD students tested, they scored 6% exceeded, 23% met standards, 29% nearly met standards and 42% did not met standards. In Mathematics 4% exceeded, 12% met the standards, 26% nearly met and 57% did not meet the standards.

Of those English scores Fillmore Middle School; tested 831 students with 5% exceeding, 26% meeting, 32% nearly meeting and 37% not meeting the standards. In Math 7% exceeded, 15% meeting, 25% nearly meeting and 54% not meeting the standards.

Fillmore High (11th grade only); 186 tested, 11% exceeding, 37 % meeting, 31% nearly meeting and 22% not meeting the standards. In math 7% exceeded, 16% meeting, 32% nearly meeting and 45% not meeting the standards.

Mountain Vista; 264 tested, 5% exceeding, 15% meeting, 27% nearly meeting and 54% not meeting the standards. In math 1% exceeded, 12% meeting, 25% nearly meeting and 45% not meeting the standards.

Piru; 137 tested, 4% exceeding, 16% meeting, 26% nearly meeting and 54% not meeting the standards. In math 1% exceeded, 4% meeting, 29% nearly meeting and 66% not meeting the standards.

Rio Vista; 230 tested, 10% exceeding, 17% meeting, 27% nearly meeting and 47% not meeting the standards. In math 2% exceeding, 11% meeting, 31% nearly meeting and 56% not meeting the standards.

San Cayetano; 213 tested, 5% exceeding, 18% meeting, 24% nearly meeting and 53% not meeting the standards. In math 3% exceeding, 12% meeting, 25% nearly meeting and 59% not meeting the standards.

Sierra High; 37 tested, 0 exceeding, 24% meeting, 38% nearly meeting and 38% not meeting the standards. In math no one met the standards with 11% nearly meeting and 89% not meeting the standards.

After presenting the test results Hernandez responded, "The achievement gap was so alarming." She discussed the importance of better English skills that are now needed to do math because "most of the math problems are word problems...much more than in the past" and added, "Math is a problem statewide." Hernandez informed the board that individual student score reports will arrive soon in their mail and there is also a comprehensive online guidance by grade with subject explained on how the questions are formatted.

Two more presentations were given during the meeting by Andrea McNeill. One on FUSD's General Budget and another on a program called Demographics.

McNeill explained that FUSD's General Fund has a revenue of $36,045,964 and expenditures of $34,275,009 with $28.5 million (83%) of the budget going towards employees salary and benefits. Of the revenue $27,914,318 come from Governor Brown's Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), $2,502,546 is from Federal funds, $1,907,230 State and $3,131,134 from local funds.

The Demographics presentation was regarding the program FUSD will be using to project Fillmore's future growth and prepare for an expanded enrolment. The web based program analysis's such things as birth rates, housing development activities, projected classroom needs and uses historical data in its projections for 6 to 10 years in the future. With the amount of Fillmore housing proposed in the near future it is important that FUSD be prepared.

The meeting began with recognizing FUSD's FFA students that received awards at this year’s Ventura County Fair. With Beef; Hannah Wishart 5th Place Market, Shelby Smith 4th Place Market-5th Place Advanced Showmanship.

With Swine; Alexis VanWhy 2nd Market-1st Advanced Showmanship-3rd Place Advanced Master Showmanship, Reanne Guerra 4th Market, Jackson Green Participant.

With Sheep; Carolina Lopez 7th Market-3rd Place Novice Showmanship, Samantha Manginelli 4th Market.

Superintendent Dr. Adrian E. Palazuelos received approval from the board to contract with Border LAN Security for an IBoss Enterprise 14600 Content Filter Appliance. This is a web filter that prohibits unsuitable material for students and staff and is a three year subscription and warranty for 2,000 workstations.

Palazuelos also discussed moving forward with the first steps regarding AB86 which is starting an Adult Education Program here in Fillmore. The goal is to provide both academic and occupational classes for Fillmore. There will be further discussions in the future as the negotiations with Ventura County on funding and location are worked out.

Other items discussed were the new FUSD website expected soon. There will be meetings with all FUSD schools the end of this month to discuss the district's and each schools' calendars.

FUSD would also like to thank the Rotary Club's generous gift of a dictionary to all 3rd grade FUSD students. Mountain Vista Elementary School President John Wilber commented on what the students learned by the visit from the Rotary Club. They learned about service clubs and the difference between the Boys or Girls Club and adult service organizations. It is often the small things young students learn that make them aware of the larger function of society.

Student Representative/Speaker of the House Hannah Wishart informed the board there is preparation for the upcoming meet with Santa Paula with the rally on Thursday at 2:25 followed by the game on Friday in Santa Paula. Also the Drama Club is holding auditions for their play, The Rainmaker, this week.