Fillmore High School’s new principal Russom Mesfun

The first Fillmore Unified School District (FUSD) Board Meeting of the 2012-2013 school year was held August 7, 2012 and with it the announcements of new changes to school principals, the Discovery Communications pilot program and free breakfast and lunch provided to all students.

The first day of school is Wednesday August 22, 2012 and with it comes a few new changes in school administrators at FUSD. Russom Nesfun, who worked with Oakland Unified School District, is Fillmore High School’s new principal; Gary Mayeda will now be principal at Fillmore Middle School; Chrissy Schieferle has transferred from Mountain View Elementary to San Cayetano Elementary as principal and John Wilber has transferred from Fillmore High School to Mountain Vista Elementary as principal. Todd Schieferle, FUSD’s Human Resource Officer said there are a few more positions left to be filled but did not specify what positions.

Superintendent Dr. Alan Nishino is bringing FUSD classrooms into the digital age. As promised last semester, Nishino has purchased Discovery Education as a one year pilot program in two 6th grade science classes. FUSD is the first district in Southern California to have the interactive program which is designed to accommodate each child’s learning level with virtual labs that help students learn to interpret data, draw conclusion and aid in math skills. The program, started in 2001, replaces the standard textbook with digital resources and over 10,000 videos, along with translations in Spanish to aid parents who do not speak English. Another added feature is that current events are available the next day.

There is still a question of whether every student will have home access to a computer and the internet, so a survey of 6th grade student will be taken to have a better understanding of what may be needed.

Nishino restated his desire to have all classrooms throughout the district that are the same grade level receive the same instruction and that they meet the new Common Core Standards stating, “My vision is quality education for 100% of our students.”

Nishino also presented the new Teacher of the Year plaque donated by Martin Farrell and the Student of the Year plaque. Every year for the next 12 years the new honorees’ names will be engraved and placed at the entrance to the FUSD building.

Breakfast and lunch will now be free to all students attending FUSD regardless of their family income. The District qualifies for a federal program called Provision 2 which allows schools to establish claiming percentages and serve meals at no charge to all students for a four year period. Eighty-three percent of students fall into federal guidelines as low income which qualifies FUSD for Provision 2.

Provision 2 is an option in the federal School Breakfast Program and National School Lunch Program for schools to reduce the paperwork and simplify providing school meals. It reduces application burdens and simplifies meal count and claiming procedures; schools do not have to collect and process school meals applications, keep track of meal categories, or conduct yearly verification. The schools collect application, records and tracks meal categories and conducts verifications only once every four years, at most. The program serves two meals to all students at no charge so there is no need for cashiers and little oversight.

At the end of each four year period, the State of California may approve a four year extension if the income level of the schools population remains stable. FUSD pays the difference between the cost of serving meals at no charge to all students and the federal reimbursement.

There was mention of the School Farm and many of the new occupational skills being introduced such as butchering and planting organic produce for the community. Grants are being applied for to promote the projects.