Who should maintain the banners?

On March 3, 2015, the Fillmore Unified School District (FUSD) Board meeting began with an announcement of the 2014 Annual Community Award Honorees; Student of the Year, Fillmore High School Student David Cadena; Classified Staff of the Year, Fillmore Middle School Staff Alfonso Martinez; Certificated Staff of the Year, Rio Vista Elementary School's Mary Allyn Garcia and Administrator of the Year, Piru Elementary School's Diana Vides. The awards will be presented this Friday, March 6th at the Veterans Memorial Building starting at 5:30 p.m. Also honored will be the Citizen, Business, Firefighter, Officer and Nonprofit of 2014.

The first item discussed by the Board was a City/School District Committee Meeting held February 13, 2014 and attended by four Committee Members; (FUSD Board Members) Scott Beylik, Virginia de la Piedra, (Council Members) Diane McCall, Manuel Minjares and two Staff (City Manager) David Rowlands and (Asst. Superintendent) Martha Hernandez, sitting in for Dr. Adrian Palazuelos.

Dominating the discussion was the banner program to recognize enlisted men and women from the City of Fillmore. According to de la Piedra the program began during a joint City/School meeting about eight years ago. In attendance at that time were Patti Walker, a former City Council member, and FUSD Board Members (including de la Piedra). All agreed that it would be a great program. But De la Piedra contested that no one on the School Board agreed to fund or provide the labor to hang the banners. She had assumed that the City accepted the responsibility.

While discussing it at Tuesday's Board meeting there was talk of the banners being tattered, needing to be replaced, and some removed for filming and not put back in the same place. One member, John Garnica, commented that at the next joint meeting, which is scheduled for March 31, 2015, committee members need to discuss whether the City wants to continue the program.

Board Member Sean Morris stated that the issue should be separate and the school should have no connection. Garnica responded, "We brought it up because the City brought it up." De la Piedra stated that she would no longer use school staff to place or replace the banners.

"The City is going to have to take it on but they don't want to," stated de la Piedra, referring to the tone of the February 13, 2014 meeting.

Board Member Scott Beylik then added that the City does not want the responsibility. De la Piedra responded that only donations are to be used for the banners, not school funds, then concluded the discussion with, "If they don't want to take over the responsibility, it dies there."

The Federal Program Monitoring Notification of Findings was also discussed. FUSD had nine programs reviewed and 18 findings. Dr. Palazuelos explained that most local districts have about three findings, but usually have only three areas reviewed. The Federal Program Monitoring assures legal guidelines and laws for both State and Federal programs regarding Title I monies are being complied with and that the programs implemented are effective.

The monitoring was from February 17-20th and covered the District Office, Fillmore Middle School and Fillmore High School. Items monitored included classroom/program observation, focusing on improving teacher quality, career technical education, fiscal issues, physical education, English learner (ESL), education quality, and after school programs.

A number of findings were minor infractions explained in the Board packet as, "Pathways and components of how the materials purchased were used to benefit the students". FUSD has 45 days to resolve most of the findings.
Termite inspections started last week in all District schools.

There was an update on the fire alarm replacement at Fillmore Middle School. The school continues to be on fire watch, but the fire alarm work will be completed March 6, 2015. Testing on the new system will then be done and if found in proper order the item will be brought back to the Board for signing off. There will also be procedures in place to check the alarm maintenance in the future.

Finally the Board approved a contract with Andrea McNeill for the position of Assistant Superintendent of Business Services. No start date was provided.