Jeff Sweeney
Superintendent Fillmore Unified School District

“Good Day, Recall that the District had filed a writ against the Ventura County Office of Education following a disagreement we had over the interpretation of an Interdistrict Transfer Policy. On Monday, we received the results of the writ hearing. The following will summarize the findings. I have also attached a more in depth informational page.
The writ the District filed asked the judge to rule in two areas: 1) Rule on the interpretation of Education Code… In essence, which Interdistrict Transfer policy should be implemented? The County’s first policy (The one we are currently using and the one that was used four years prior to our implementing it.) or the County’s second policy. 2) Overturn the decision of the VCOE Board regarding four families who were allowed to leave FUSD under the new VCOE Board policy; and in summary…
1) The judge declined to make a decision on whether the County’s first policy (our interpretation) or its second policy was correct. In other words, he did not take a stand on who was right nor interpret the law for either one of us; and
2) The judge ruled that the four families do not need to enroll in Fillmore because the issue is moot and does not need to be resolved. What does this mean? He said the application for the students to leave was for the 2007-08 school year, and that he does not need to rule on this as the school year has passed. He did not consider that the students are enrolled this year at Santa Clara; he only ruled on the narrowness of the fact that the school year in question has passed.
As the court chose not to advise us in this matter, we will continue to use our current interpretation of the policy until further notice.
Fillmore’s Board will discuss this decision in Closed Session next Tuesday. Feel free to contact me or Evalene Townend for more information.”
Enclosed attachment dated December 8, 2008: Fillmore Unified School District, Office of the Superintendent, Writ follow-up:
“The Fillmore Unified School District believed that the Ventura County Board of Education was in error of their jurisdiction when they, in June 2007, reversed their long-standing policy governing Interdistrict Transfers for all Ventura County schools. We believed they based the change of this policy on an erroneous interpretation of Education Code, therefore the need to have the interpretation resolved by the Court.
Fillmore’s implementation of the issuing of Interdistrict Transfers was based on a policy that the Ventura County Board of Education had endorsed for four years prior to the County Board reversing their decision. Fillmore used the prior policy that instituted a 3% cap (of total students enrolled) on the number of students who could transfer out of the District, allowing the District to honor parent rights for those who might want to pursue other educational opportunities, but at the same time maintaining the rights of those families and students who chose to stay and work in the District. The District has been implementing this policy in anticipation of today’s ruling.
The District is disappointed that the ruling makes no determination in regards to whether the County’s first interpretation or second interpretation is correct. As a result, the ruling does not require Fillmore to change its policy regarding the 3% cap. This policy simply states that the Fillmore Unified School District will allow up to 3% of students living within the District to leave and attend other schools outside of the District, as long as the requests to leave adhere to Education Code.
The District’s Board, administration, and legal counsel will study the decision and determine its next step in the near future.”