2016 Ventura County Fair Fillmore FFA Participants were also recognized for their participation at this past years Ventura County Fair. Photo by Bob Crum.

At Tuesday night’s School Board meeting, Fillmore Unified recognized Rio Vista’s District Staff as heros for taking action during a flood that occurred at Rio Vista Elementary School. Photo by Bob Crum.

Brian Ricards. Photo by Bob Crum.

Brian Ricards Statemant:

In the field of education the phrase ‘It’s all for the students’ is often thrown around. It sounds good to the ear and it looks good on paper as well. However when the educators of Fillmore High School step into our classrooms, we often ask ourselves “Is it REALLY all for the students?” And if it is “all for the students,” how do these current conditions of our classrooms benefit the education of these students?

Currently there are 4 teachers at the high school who have class sizes that exceed the 34 student average per class for a total of over 170 students in 5 periods. Our contract states that these teachers will receive $250 for each student, each semester for classrooms that exceed the 170 mark. However, this does not address the daily overcrowding in the classroom which takes away from student learning. In addition to overcrowded classrooms, the lack of resources available to teachers who conduct laboratory activities and projects for over 170 students often leads to costs that far outweigh our compensation. We often have to pay for supplies out of pocket for class activities because our departments have no money to spend on anything that cannot be purchased at Office Depot. For example: having an AP Biology class with 38 students can be extremely costly and time consuming for the teacher to ensure that the students are getting an AP quality education. Also, there are currently 9 periods of classroom instruction at the high school that have student numbers that exceed the 37 students per period cap allowed by our contract. This is a blatant contract violation with no compensation given to the affected teachers. A computer lab with 30 functioning computers becomes much less effective when there are 39 students enrolled in the class. On top of these contract violations, 5 teachers have class size discrepancies of 10 or more students between periods of the same class; another blatant contract violation. When educators such as ourselves live through these conditions every day in the classroom we know that these conditions severely impede the learning of our students. How can having 39 students in a single class be “all for the students?” FUTA has met with the administration at the high school and they have informed us that “This is the best that we can do”.

So I guess the real question we have for the school board and the administration is when will the educational rhetoric match up with the everyday conditions of our classrooms? Because right now there is a huge discrepancy between what is being said in public and what is going on daily in our classrooms. These conditions have existed for many years at the high school with staff members being scared to speak up for fear of retaliation from administrators. Those days are over. So when we see a violation of our teaching contract, especially a violation as important as class size, we will be forced to file a grievance in order to protect our members and most importantly to protect our students if these contract violations are not remedied as soon as possible.

It’s time to back up the educational rhetoric with educational action. Please assist the teachers of Fillmore High School in allowing us to teach in classrooms which create positive learning environments that students need and deserve in order to become productive contributors to our society.

Thank you for your time.
Brian Ricards - Vice President of FUTA