Board Member Prado

The Migrant Education Speech/Spelling & Debate Winners of 2014 were presented by Diana Vides and Coach Marisela Gomez. The winners of Combined Prepared and Extemporaneous English Speech were; Jimena Cortez 1st Place 5th Grade, Anahi Pascual 1st Place 6th Grade, Giselle Perez 2nd Place 6th Grade, Aimee Ramos 3rd Place 6th Grade, Diana Perez 3rd Place 7th Grade, Yulissa Fregoso 1st Place 10th Grade, Jessica Cortez 1st Place 12th Grade. Montserrat Infante won 1st Place 9th Grade for Combined Prepared and Extemporaneous Spanish Speech. Four first place winners from Fillmore will be going to the Speech & Debate State Tournament in Santa Maria representing Ventura County on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of May.

[editor's note: Board Member Prado's most recent Letter to the Editor entitled "Mary Ford, you have no integrity" may be found in the April 17th "Letters" section of of this website.]

A new superintendent was announced at the April 15, 2014 Fillmore Unified School District (FUSD) Board Meeting which was held in the auditorium. With close to 100 in attendance, it was a gamut of high and low emotions as seven Public Comment speakers scolded the Board; the Board later responded to statements and accusations.

The meeting began with recognition of the Migrant Speech & Debate Students and their coaches. Also on the agenda was the Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Test Preparation and a profile of the potential non-graduating senior. Items that were not on the agenda, but part of disclosure were the resignation of six FUSD employees: Superintendent Dr. Alan Nishino 6-30-2014, Assistant Superintendent Michael Johnson 6-30-2014, Fillmore High School (FHS) Principal Russom Mesfun 6-30-2014, Director of Special Projects Gary Mayeda 6-30-2014, Athletic Director Matthew Suttle 6-12-2014 and IA Special Ed. Michelle Alvarez 4-14-2014.

Video of the April 15 meeting

The Board introduced Dr. Adrian E. Palazuelos as the new Superintendent for the 2014-2015 school year, who then gave a short speech in both English and Spanish. Palazuelos, who grew up in Oxnard, has worked in Ventura, Fresno and Sacramento counties, having worked most recently as the Associate Superintendent of School Leadership and Support in the Notomas Unified School District located in Sacramento. His employment is a three year contract at $165,000 per year with a $7,500 paid moving expense. The contract also includes the following stipends: an annual $1,500 technology, monthly $500 automobile and $150 phone.

The Migrant Education Speech/Spelling & Debate Winners of 2014 were presented by Diana Vides and Coach Marisela Gomez. The winners of Combined Prepared and Extemporaneous English Speech were; Jimena Cortez 1st Place 5th Grade, Anahi Pascual 1st Place 6th Grade, Giselle Perez 2nd Place 6th Grade, Aimee Ramos 3rd Place 6th Grade, Diana Perez 3rd Place 7th Grade, Yulissa Fregoso 1st Place 10th Grade, Jessica Cortez 1st Place 12th Grade. Montserrat Infante won 1st Place 9th Grade for Combined Prepared and Extemporaneous Spanish Speech. Four first place winners from Fillmore will be going to the Speech & Debate State Tournament in Santa Maria representing Ventura County on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of May.

During Public Comments Sherri Wright was first to speak. She specifically wanted to address a letter written by Board Member Tony Prado, stating Prado's letter had not correctly represented what happened at the March18, 2014 Board Meeting involving her and Karen Ashim. Wright called Prado a "bully" and chastised the remaining Board Members for not speaking up to defend Ashim during that meeting. She went on to say that Prado's accusation of racism was unfounded and finished with most of those in attendance standing and applauding.

Isela Larin also spoke in defense of Ashim as did Debra Hoffman who represented 24 FHS teachers, many who stood in line directly behind her as she spoke. Hoffman specifically focused on Prado's complaint of racism stating that before he wrote such accusations he should have researched the issue and given data to back it up. Hoffman took great offence with the word "lynching" used by Prado and ended with saying he (Prado) has added to the problem. "You wrote a letter of disrespect....you have brought shame to the district."

Mark Kandel read a letter written by a 2013 FHS graduate stating how much he had been helped by Ashim. The student is now attending Cal Poly Tech and stated how shocked he was to read Prado's letter adding how little Prado must know about Ashim and her contributions to students.

Larry Ashim, Karen's husband, took issue with Prado's statement that his wife had acted unprofessional during the 2008 Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) accreditation and that her right to privacy had been violated.

The resignation of Nishino, Johnson, Mesfun and Mayeda was not announced or discussed at the meeting. Calls for the Gazette for comment on the resignations were not returned with the exception of Nishino who was expected to leave with the hiring of a new Superintendent. Nishino had an interim year to year contract with a 60 day notice and completed three years at FUSD.

An agenda item that had a huge financial impact on FUSD was the upgrade in technology needed for the Common Core Testing known as Smart Balance Assessment Consortium (SBAC). Amber Henry reported a total of 5,921 tests will be given at FUSD and as of April 15th 98% of FHS has completed the testing, 29% of Sierra High School and 2% of Fillmore Middle School. The only elementary school that has had any testing completed is Mountain View with 14%.

Mike Pace, Information Technology Department, gave an overview of the technology upgrades completed to date; 151 new Dell Computers deployed with 25 more ready to install and 256 refurbished computers deployed. Labs have been setup at FHS, Piru, Sierra High, Mountain Vista and San Cayetano with added electrical at Piru. All elementary schools have two labs each having a minimum of 37 desktop computers. Fillmore Middle School has three desktop labs and one laptop lab with a minimum of 35 computers per lab. Sierra High had one media lab upgraded from 16 to 24 computers. FHS has four active computer labs, two labs each with 40 desktops and two labs with a minimum of 36 desktops and a fifth lab with 40 desktops in progress. FUSD now has 1,000 workstations and a 150Mbps bandwidth which exceeds SBAC requirements.

The upgrading is only part of the battle in entering the technology age for schools throughout the country. Those computers must be maintained and constantly upgraded, plus the addition of wireless must be added. Pace explained it as "As soon as you get there you start to fall behind."

Michael Johnson reviewed the students’ transcripts and presented a profile of 56 senior students who are in jeopardy of not graduating in June. He did this in response to complaints that there were not enough math classes to satisfy the students’ needs and that nothing had been done since last year to address the issue of non-graduates.

Johnson explained that the issues with most of these students goes back to their 9th and 10th grade semester. He explained that all graduating students need 3 years of Math. Of those 56 students in question, today, 17 need 1 year of math; 10 need 2 years; 6 need 3 years and 5 students still have to pass CAHSEE Math/ELA. All students are required to complete 4 years of English and of those 56 students in question, 16 need 1 year of English; 9 need 2 years; 2 need 4 years. Students also need a minimum 2.0 GPA to graduate; 19 are below 1.99; 35 between 2.00-2.74; 2 between 3.00-3.43. Also required to graduate is a total of 230 credits completed. Of the 56 students 16 were able to catch up in their senior year needing only 30 credits or less. Of the 36 remaining students (8) started falling behind in the 9th grade and the remaining 28 started falling behind in the 10th grade. These were students who failed classes and continued to fail or not make up the credits needed each semester. By the time they reached their senior year they were so far behind in not only math and English but there were other reasons they may not graduate, which included; non-passage of the CAHSEE; insufficient credits-under 200; too low a GPA-under 2.0 cumulative.

Make-up courses were offered in summer school 2013 where 32 of those students attend with 27 successfully completing math requirements. In early fall remedial math and English classes were offered and students doubled up on required courses through the Digital Academy, night school, the PASS Program and Auto ROP courses. In late fall through late spring, parents were contacted with letters were sent out.

Looking at the presents data of students in grades 9-11, 50% of FHS students are behind in credits; 31% grades 9-11 have a cumulated CPA below 2.0; 20% of grades 10-11 are math deficient. This problem is continuing year after year.

The meeting ended with statements from the Board Members commenting on the accusations and comments made over the past few meetings by many who addressed the Board. Board Member Virginia de la Piedra stated there are times when she wants to say something but is not allowed to. She added, "emotions run high" and continued with, everyone has the right to write such a letter if done on their own time. "I think this team (Nishino and Johnson) has brought great things to the district in the past three years."

John Garnica, who was joining in through a phone conference, stated he agreed with de la Piedra, but also thinks the public has a right to call them on something they do not agree with adding, "We are representatives of the district and we have to be respectful.” He also explained that because they (the Board) are not allowed to disclose what is said in close session, they know what is going on and the public may not.