Nurse Martha Romero RN (above) presented the statistics for FUSD showing that it has 1.5 registered nurses for about 3818 students. The California School Nurses Organization has a recommended ratio of 1 nurse for every 750 students.

On Tuesday October 5 the Fillmore Unified School Board of Trustees met for a regularly scheduled meeting. Board President Tony Prado and Board Vice President Virginia De La Piedra were not in attendance. Board Clerk Liz Wilde conducted the relatively short meeting.

Brief reports were presented by Board Member John Garnica regarding the great football game at Homecoming, and Wilde about the dedication of Sierra High, a Junior Varsity Volleyball game, and the Fillmore High School Boosters club. Wilde has received comments from those planning the 100th Year game between Fillmore and Santa Paula “[that it’s] pretty much been handled by Fillmore… if you know anyone in Santa Paula they could sure use some help.” The Board heard from District Nurse Martha Romero RN who presented the Health Services Annual Report. Romero’s report was aimed at giving the Board a better idea about “what a day is like in the [health] office.” She presented the numbers of students who received the state mandated hearing and vision tests and those that were referred to further medical assessment. Romero stressed the importance of the nursing staff for keeping kids healthy and in school. The current staff is made up of two registered nurses, one who works full time and one part time, not only because of their role in caring for the students who need regular daily care due to chronic illness, but also for the unexpected sometimes emergency situations that arise. The district nurses work to make sure that all site office staff, and teachers are trained to assist students who may need their care should the nurse not be on campus during an emergency. Romero presented the statistics for FUSD showing that it has 1.5 registered nurses for about 3818 students. The California School Nurses Organization has a recommended ratio of 1 nurse for every 750 students. Although Romero commented that very few Districts are able to meet that recommendation.

The Board then voted to approve the “Resolution for Adopting the GANN Limit”, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Michael Bush presented a brief history of how “Proposition 4 or the Gann Initiative controls how fast state government can grow, we are a subsidiary of state government, we have to report our numbers to Sacramento with all the other school districts and that is used to calculate the overall state Gann Limit to see if it’s growing faster than the population.”

All action items were approved, including a “Cooperative Facility Use Agreement” between FUSD and the City of Fillmore. The facilities listed in the agreement include Fillmore Middle School with is used for the City’s youth basketball program, and it includes the City owned facilities: Multi Purpose Center/Senior Center, Community Center, City Hall/Central Park, Fillmore Aquatics Facility and Shiells Park. Related to this the Board discussed scheduling more meetings with the Fillmore City Council to “keep open the lines of communication”, according to Garnica. The Board supported District Superintendent Jeff Sweeney’s suggestion that he take the Board’s request to meet a minimum of three times a year to the City.

The Board heard from Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Katy Hadley regarding the draft of English Language Arts (ELA) Essential Standards. “These are the standards that we feel students really need before progressing to the next grade.” Hadley commented that the standards needed to be updated because the California Standards Test (CST) “has changed over time.” A committee was formed one year ago made up of one teacher from each elementary school, it meant every month to determine the standards. Hadley also mentioned that ongoing assessment is needed instead of just waiting for the end of the year state test. She is now bringing this to the Board to approve the standards so that the assessment tests can be created. Hadley did mention the concern of some teachers that assessments may be used in their evaluation process. She emphasized that the purpose of the assessments is “to look and see where our students are… look at the third trimester [and see] if we hit the mark.”

The Board adjourned to closed session with the next scheduled meeting to be held on October 19th at 6pm.