FHS Teacher Matt Dollar and FHS Retiring Counselor Al Arguelles. FHS students had elected Dollar High School Teacher of the Year and Arguelles High School Staff Member of the Year.

The Fillmore Unified School District (FUSD) Board Meeting was held June 2, 2009. The meeting was a striking mix of celebration and sadness, as the Board honored retirees, awarded “Be the Change” certificates, heard about preparations for the Fillmore High School (FHS) Graduation June 4th, heard a teacher and student presentation on the robotics program, and reviewed plans for the budget. On the good side, FUSD has just acquired three new school buses for only $20,000 thanks to an Air Quality Control Board grant. On the bad side, FUSD will barely be able to meet June payroll. As part of the consent agenda, the Board approved a Personnel Order which included New Employees Rosemarie Hibler and Leticia Ramos, who will be the Principals of Sespe School and Piru School, respectively.

The Board awarded “Be the Change” certificates to FHS Teacher Matt Dollar and FHS Retiring Counselor Al Arguelles. FHS students had elected Dollar High School Teacher of the Year and Arguelles High School Staff Member of the Year. Board President John Garnica said that the two had changed FHS for the better.
The Board honored the District’s retirees and presented them with certificates and small gifts. The Retirees are: Judith Clark, Tony Held, Al Arguelles, Robyn Arguelles, Ruth Prado, Harry Burns, Ann Reynolds, Carolyn Diaz, Rosa Supina, Geri Lunde, Margaret Giblin, and Marv Kwit. Most of the Retirees were present. Several said that their work had been an honor. Board President John Garnica characterized their contributions as “tremendous” and “incredible”.

FHS Principal John Wilber provided an update on preparations for graduation. The track will be partially covered, and students will be instructed to wear shoes that will not damage the track. This year’s dress code prohibits leis. The students will be searched for nuisance equipment, and bussed directly to the stadium. Any cameras or cell phones found on students will be confiscated until after the ceremony. There will be a “balloon-check” where guests will be required to leave all balloons before entering the bleachers. Teacher Matt Dollar will be speaking this year. Parents can meet the graduates in the high school quad after the ceremony. Graduation will be June 4, 2009.

San Cayetano Elementary School Principal Jan Marholin introduced Teachers Melanie Schrock and Brandi Walker. The teachers presented a slide show about the first year of San Cayetano’s Robotics Program, which was developed as part of the NASA Explorer Schools Project. Schrock and Walker spent a week at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) last summer preparing for the program. This year, all Fourth and Fifth Grade students at San Cayetano had the opportunity to participate in the program during two-week sessions, and representatives from each classroom participated in an after-school robotics program starting in January. Eventually, 8 students in two teams (red and blue) competed against other schools in the Southern California NES NASA JPL Robotics Competition. As reported in an earlier Gazette article, Fourth Grader Taylor Wright and Fifth Grader Angelica Mercado traveled with Walker to the 2009 NES National Student Symposium in Houston, Texas to present their robotics projects. Both girls narrated the slide show so that the Board could hear about their experiences. Marholin thanked the students and teachers/coaches for their hard work, and noted that the robotics program would expand to the Second and Third Grades next year.

Superintendent Jeff Sweeney presented the District’s policy on Intradistrict transfers. The Board and Administration have been concerned about possible overcrowding next year at Mountain Vista Elementary. To avoid overcrowding at Mountain Vista, the District proposes freezing all new transfer permits at Mountain Vista with the exception of new kindergarten siblings and children of new staff. The District also wants a policy stating, “Once a student is admitted during a school year, his/her continued attendance for the remainder of the year may not be denied.” Changing schools mid-year can be highly disruptive to students and, as a staff member in the audience pointed out, a student who switches schools might not be able to get into the after-school daycare program at the new school due to waiting lists for such programs. According to Sweeney’s presentation, the policy’s guiding beliefs are: school districts should follow the law; school districts should effectively manage resources; students and parents should have choices; a balance is needed between parent rights and district programs; all students, regardless of socio-economic status, should be treated the same; schools should be safe environments for students; siblings should be permitted to attend the same school; and some staff members perform better when their children are nearby. Education law states that no student who lives within the attendance boundary of a school can be displaced by a student from outside the attendance boundary. Although law and policy lists being a victim of violent crime at school and a persistently dangerous school as high priority reasons for an intradistrict transfer, Sweeney explained that the actual Fillmore students assigned to each school tend to be 1) within the school’s attendance boundaries, 2) siblings of attending students or children of the school’s staff, or 3) others who have requested a transfer. The Administration is working to provide an accurate estimate of student enrollment at Mountain Vista for next year. A letter the principal sent to parents asking whether their children will return and new attendance software should help. If the school has higher enrollment than anticipated, class sizes will be increased (with a slight increase in teachers’ salaries) to avoid the expense of hiring more teachers.

Assistant Superintendent Mike Bush provided a budget update. FUSD is having difficulty meeting June and July’s payroll because the State has delayed its payments to the District, causing a cash flow shortage. Bush said that he has the June payroll covered. FUSD is working with the County to borrow cash, but one of the loan qualifications is a balanced budget. Bush has a plan for balancing the 2008-2009 Budget, which currently has a shortfall. The mandated cost reserve will be used, any unrestricted positive balances will be used, and any remaining deficit can be backfilled with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) money. The preliminary 2009-2010 School Budget must be ready for public review on June 16th, and the staff is working hard to balance the hundreds of accounts involved so the budget will be ready. The 2009-2010 School Budget must be adopted on June 23rd. There will be a public Special Budget Study Session on June 9th. The Board and District plan to keep all remaining staff through 2009-2010, but might have to reassign people depending on regulations attached to incoming money. Although the FUSD Budget will be adopted on June 23rd, it can be modified as necessary depending on what the State does with its budget. Garnica said, “It’s a deadly serious position we’re in.”

The City of Fillmore has entered an unexpected budget crisis, and City Employee Bill Bartels has informed Mike Bush that the Council will probably not be available for a joint meeting previously scheduled for June 30th. The City would like to reschedule for July or early August. The School Board does not usually meet in July.

Superintendent Jeff Sweeney reported that he had received from FUTA, the local teachers’ union, a report on their survey regarding the potential cut of one calendar day for the 2009-2010 school year. According to the report, 75% of surveyed FUTA members opposed the cut. There was no information on how many members participated in the survey. Garnica mentioned that a teacher at Sespe Elementary had told him that there was confusion regarding the difference between having a furlough day and cutting a calendar day. According to Garnica and a teacher in the audience from San Cayetano, many teachers at those two schools were under the impression that cutting a calendar day would hurt retirement benefits. In fact, the opposite is true: furlough days can reduce retirement benefits, but cutting a calendar day does not. Members of the audience from Mountain Vista and Piru Elementary Schools said that the difference was clearly explained to teachers at these schools. John Schaper, a Piru teacher, said that teachers were not opposed to cutting calendar days, but wanted to wait and see whether the State government would require a 10-day cut. Another person in the audience said that people were opposed to the wording of the proposal, not the concept.