The topic of discussion at Tuesday’s Fillmore Unified School District (FUSD) Board Meeting was the an action taken by the Board on the adoption of the layoff notices sent out last month. Todd Schieferle, Director Human Resources, asked for final approval of the layoffs by the Board. Schieferle informed the Board that both attorneys, Margaret A. Chidester representing FUSD, and Fareq M. Hishmeh representing the Certified Teachers Association, came to an amicable agreement, thus avoiding a full hearing and the additional expense. Schieferle stated, “We’re running out of options….this had nothing to do with performance, it had to do with seniority.”

School Board Member John Garnica commented, “We have to go through this every year. This is something we had no choice in.” He went on to say that other schools had layoffs last year and are doing more layoffs this year and that Fillmore held out until there was no other option. Superintendent Dr. Alan Nishino remarked, “Every time there’s no money it’s a local decision, but when there is money it’s Sacramento’s decision. When it comes to the tough decisions we have to make them…we’re 47th in funding.” Nishino was referring to being 47th in funding per student out of the 50 States. Nishino also reminded those in attendance that the “…budget is still being hashed out and there are two competing initiatives on the ballot…they may be a deciding factor for next year.”

Also on agenda, Jennifer Weir, District Office Special Populations Coordinator, announced that the nine first place winners of the 9th Annual Migrant Speech & Debate Tournament will represent Ventura County competing against other 1st place winners at the California State Tournament. Four Fillmore students will be given an extemporaneous topic that will require a great deal of research and preparation. Fillmore’s debate team consists of five students who must present the researched topic in front of judges and defend their point of view against another team. The students will be judged on pronunciation, appearance, presentation and knowledge of their topic.

The tournament will be held on Saturday, May 5, 2012 at Cordova High School in Rancho Cordova, California, which is located a few miles east of Sacramento. Students and coaches will be flying out of Burbank Airport on Friday and returning on Sunday.

Nishino told the Board FUSD is headed in that same direction and will soon have mock trials and debate teams, to which Assistant Superintendent Michael Johnson added that FUSD is the first school in Ventura County to push the writing standards to meet the Common Core Standards that the State of California adopted last year. The goal of the Common Core Standards is to produce high school graduates prepared for college and careers with the skills needed to succeed. Johnson informed the Board that starting next year FUSD will be incorporating the standards into the 6th thru 12 grade curriculums and the following year the primary grades will be added. Since FUSD will be the first in the county to incorporate the Common Core Standards into the teaching curriculum, the rest of the county will use FUSD’s curriculum as a model.

And, the high school 2012 Graduation Ceremony which will be held at the Fillmore High School Stadium June 7th at 7:00pm and the approval of last month’s layoff notices.

The ceremony is being coordinated with the City of Fillmore to aid with traffic and safety. Last year there were not enough ticket takers at the gate; this year the number of ticket takers will be doubled. Also, many of the graduating seniors gave staff/teacher tickets to attend the graduation. That will not be necessary this year; there will be seating to accommodate the staff.

All seating is in the bleachers and each senior will receive 11 tickets. A lottery was held to determine the order of tickets with all front row bleachers and north of the entrance reserved for elderly and handicapped. Tickets will be distributed at the graduation practice and students will be informed of their assigned seats at the end of May after seating is determined.

End the short meeting, during the public speaker forum, Vanessa Herrera author of the children’s book “The Pirate and the Mermaid’s Curse” announced her book signing for May 12th. Herrera, who has a disability, told the Board, “I could have settled for less, but I wanted to work for myself.” Herrera was a student at FUSD and Board Member Lucy Rangel was her teacher.