On Tuesday, June 1, 2010, the Fillmore School Board of Trustees met for a regular public meeting. As usual Public comment was the first order of business, with Board reports, action and discussion items rounding out the meeting.

During public comment the Board heard from several community members about inquiries regarding how the District is assessing student progress and what programs are in place to improve student achievement. Mrs. Rita Avila, a parent from Piru, put the Board “on notice’ regarding her request of an accountability report. Avila mentioned Board President Mr. Tony Prado’s recent comments regarding his disregard of State test scores and Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) data regarding the District. Prado did respond that he did in fact believe testing to “be very important”, but that the No Child Left Behind program is currently under debate. The Board also heard from Mrs. Mary Ford who spoke in favor of having a local resident, Mrs. Cynthia King, a certified mediator, help with the issues in Piru. District Superintendent Mr. Jeff Sweeney did thank and agree with Ford regarding the help that King can bring, and Sweeney reported that King has in fact been invited to act as a mediator in the community of Piru. Sweeney provided some background on King, including that she has returned to live on the King Family Farm on Guiberson Road and has worked with many schools and with many small towns in the past, as well as large corporations and companies. King will begin the mediation process immediately by meeting first with Piru teachers and staff and then with School Board members.

Board members also heard from Ms. Sheila Duckett regarding the continuing discussion regarding the School Resource Officer. Duckett asked the Board to consider that the cost of the officer is a “luxury item we can no longer afford”. She asked what the “magic number” of parent signatures is, that would convince the Board that they could stop funding this position. Duckett also suggested that since the high school and middle school solely use the SRO that they should pay for the position out of their own “site budgets”.

Starting off the Board Reports was a report from Student representative Garrett Riley. Riley presented information on the events going on in the final weeks of this school year, and that the seniors are excited for graduation, and other year-end festivities, but not so excited about finals. Riley has served as the Board student rep for two years, and received comments of praise and thanks from the Board members for his service, and especially for his humorous stories. Following graduation from Fillmore High School this month, Riley will be attending the University of California at San Diego in the fall and will be majoring in Aerospace Engineering.

More discussion was given to the issue at Fillmore High regarding the proposed physical education contract. Board Member Mr. John Garnica made a motion to have the proposal presented by administrators at the high school be reworked a bit and brought back before the Board for a vote at the next meeting. This motion was passed. This means that the proposal presented by physical education teachers at the high school has been set aside, along with the concerns over non-credentialed coaches being allowed to give “PE” credit to qualifying students who participate in an athletic sport.

Assistant Superintendent, Mr. Michael Bush presented a report on the current budget “crisis” in the state education system, and presented how FUSD can expect to be further impacted by recent events in Sacramento. Bush reported that the amount the district receives from the State for each student is likely to be reduced by $220 to $285. This is a total budget decrease of about $150,000.00, in the overall budget of about $29 Million. On the bright side, Bush did report that there are no more proposals for staff reductions at this time, and that he believes the district can get through this budget reduction by “behaving a lot like the State” and implementing “one time solutions” over the next year. Bush also commented on a recent program implemented by the Governor to transfer Redevelopment Agency funds to school districts. While this means that communities will not benefit from these funds as they may have planned, it does mean that local schools will receive some funding, and the State’s burden is reduced. Locally, the Piru Redevelopment Agency has diverted $211,671.00 to Piru Elementary School, and the Fillmore Redevelopment Agency has diverted $2,384,857.00 to the other schools in the District. Bush reported that FUSD received all of this money last week.

During the agenda item listed as “Facilities Update” the Board discussed a series of Williams Act complaints filed earlier this year regarding safety issues at Piru Elementary School. Mr. Bob Sube, Director of Facilities and Construction for FUSD presented information focusing on the complaint with the fire alarm system. Piru Parent, Mrs. Adrienne Teasing, who originally became aware of the fire alarm issue in January of this year, commented after the meeting, that she is thrilled to hear that the issue has been fixed and that the State Fire Marshall is coming to Piru to finally inspect the system. For her “it [was] not about the cost to the District, but about the safety of the kids”. Contrary to comments made by Board members at the meeting regarding the source of the complaints, Theising confirmed that in January 2010 when she was present at what principal Mrs. Leticia Ramos announced was the first fire drill of the school year, Theising noticed that the bells did not seem loud enough. School staff told her that Ramos was aware of the problem. When the problem remained Theising mentioned the issue to Ventura County Board of Education members, who visited Piru School. County Board members Mr. Dean Kunicki and Mr. Stan Mantooth referred her to the Williams Act as a way to compel school officials to fix the fire alarm and other site issues at the school. Theising along with other parents then proceeded with the process as mandated by the Williams Act. Several times she requested that the parents be notified by the District of the steps being taken to fix the problem, and was pleasantly surprised to hear the audio recording of the discussion which took place at the June 1st Fillmore School Board meeting.

Meeting adjourned to June 15th at 6pm, and June 29th. Superintendent Sweeney reported that the June 29th meeting may take place in Piru, he is waiting for confirmation on that.