Fillmore Unified School District

On Tuesday, September 21 the Fillmore School Board of Trustees met for another regularly scheduled meeting. Member John Garnicas was not present. Coming in from closed session Board President Tony Prado first opened and then closed the public hearings related to the board approving resolutions regarding “The Sufficiency of Textbooks or Instructional Materials for the School Year” and adopting textbooks and materials for the “Structured English Immersion Program”. No comments were made by the public on this topic, or during the general public comment period.

Prado presented Sespe Elementary Kindergarten teacher Norma Vasquez with the first “Students First” award of the year, for her “dedication and outstanding work at Sespe School.” Vasquez thanked the Board and commented, “I’ve always thought of it as part of the job…it’s for the students. And community. For all of us.”

The Board Student Rep Sean Chandler reported on the preparations for homecoming, which will take place on Friday, October 1. The event kicks off with a parade, then a football game against Bishop Diego High School from Santa Barbara, followed by a dance at the school. The floats are being built in the theme of “Cartoons” and will be displayed on Second Street during and following the game.

During Board reports Board Clerk Liz Wilde commented on the “great turnout… standing room only” for Back to School Night at Fillmore High School where she also spoke with teachers regarding the new “tutorial period” or RTI (Response to Intervention), she commented “Most thought it was a good idea, that it is really working well … just needing to get into the routine of it and felt that it would be a great thing for the kids… there was only one person that I heard of that thought it was… a glorified study hall.” Later in the meeting the Board heard from Fillmore High School Principal John Wilbur who presented a “progress report” regarding the “curriculum audit” that has been done at FHS. Wilbur stated that using information gathered from a study of “90-90-90 schools”, meaning “90% minority students, 90% Socio-economically Disadvantaged and 90% [scoring well on state tests]” the FHS Leadership Team pinpointed “three main goals” that they felt were needed at the high school. First is to “create a school-wide Writing Focus in Each Department”. Wilbur reported that in the 90-90-90 schools “non fiction” writing was a focus across all subjects, he commented that this is an “on going process… we have a ways to go in terms of getting all departments to focus on [writing]”. The second goal is for teachers to “[Promote] Higher Level Thinking and Variety of Instructional Strategies”, Wilbur commented a focus of this is to bring in “more rigor” and create a system of standard lessons, so all students “no matter where they are will get the same kind of instruction.” He commented that the Science staff has really done well in creating standard lessons throughout the department. He commented, “I think we are going to make a lot of progress in this area [this year].” And finally Wilbur mentioned “the thing we are most proud of” is our ‘institutional model… the RTI.” The goal formulated by the leadership team and RTI committee is to “create a response to intervention.” According to the document handed out, the RTI program identifies students who “receive a D or an F or get a U in the previous grading period” and assigns them to a “subject specific tutorial” which will take place during an “embedded intervention period” just after lunch. Wilbur is pleased to report that overall at the “four week mark” there are “90 fewer students [getting D’s and F’s and identified for this program]... than at the end of last year.” He commented that the decline was mostly among juniors and seniors whereas they have not seen the same improvement among sophomores. Wilbur wrapped up his report in saying “I’m here to tell you the curriculum at Fillmore High School is alive.” Prado asked, “What is our status with AYP?” Wilbur responded, “[I] don’t know why the paper said we didn’t make our API… [We] did make our API which was 5 points growth.” According to the California Department of Education website FHS did achieve a five point gain in the API scores “school wide”, but did not meet the targeted growth among all subgroups and therefore did not make API. API for English Learners dropped 23 points at Fillmore High School. Wilbur commented that the decline is due to “10th graders performance… in math.” When asked by Board Member Virginia De La Piedra about why that is, Wilbur responded “We feel that we didn’t have …strong teaching ...in those courses at that time.” He indicated that the instruction has now changed. Wilbur commented that it was “7% of kids” in the class “that’s 20 kids… that dropped from the previous year.” De La Piedra commented “It makes such a big difference when you hear it like that.” Prado added “When you are in a smaller district when you have a small number of kids not performing well it enhances the percentage in a smaller district.” When the mathematics scores (FHS 2010 AYP Report) for students at FHS are examined on the CDE website we see that 257 students were tested, with 101 students or 39.3% scoring “at or above proficient”. This means that 156 students or 60.7% did not meet the states minimum standards for proficiency in mathematics. Superintendent Jeff Sweeney commented “what I appreciate hearing is that there is a collaborative approach happening at the high school.” To finish the conversation Prado commented on the importance of “[making the] curriculum audits… an on going conversation with the Board. I think it’s important for the Board to know, and to stay on top of what the situation is, we need to be more vigilant as to what API is, how it’s affecting us.”

The Board voted to authorize the District in overseeing the public bidding to begin the process of construction of Rio Vista School. The school is slated to be complete in August of 2013. This date may be altered by the contractor following the bidding process.

The Board also heard from Assistant Superintendent Mike Bush regarding a proposal from Heritage Valley Youth Track to rent the track facilities for their practice and competition season beginning in January 2011.

According to the proposal, HVYT would pay an hourly fee, and a use fee for meets to the District. Bush clarified that the group is a USA Track organization and USA Track would cover the insurance for the group while on site. He mentioned that HVYT is open to having “serious adult runners” and perhaps a “masters team” participate and use the facilities at the same time as them. After a discussion where Wilde clarified that the group would meet any restrictions regarding proper use of the facility. The Board voted to approve the proposal.

Following a presentation by the Districts Director of Budget & Accounting Janet Penanhoat the Board approved the unaudited actual budget.

All action items were approved unanimously, and the Board adjourned to Tuesday, September 28th for its joint meeting with the Fillmore City Council. That meeting will take place at FHS Cafeteria, with a BBQ for the Board and Council members followed by a public meeting at 6:00pm.