Special Education Director Mary Williams and Program Specialist Krystal Sarabia-Rocha presented the Fillmore Unified School District (FUSD) Board an overview of FUSD's Special Education Program (SEP). FUSD has a total of 540 SEP students throughout the district.

Since 2002 the FUSD student percentage with disabilities has increased by 11.8%. The largest increases are in Autism (12X). Autism continuing to be on the rise with a 2009-2010 survey indicating Autism is 2.9% nationally, and a 9.9% population in California. Boys are four times more likely than girls to be diagnosed with Autism. Orthopedic Impairment (3X) is FUSD's second largest increase and Intellectual Disabilities (2.5X) the third.
The categories of disabilities range from physical impairment to learning disabilities. FUSD's largest three are; Specific Learning Disability with 292 students (54.1%), Speech and Language Impairment with 106 students (19.6%) and Intellectual Disabilities with 42 students (7.7%).

Special Academic Instruction at FUSD serve both mild-moderate and moderate-severe disabilities and is styled to meet each students' needs. Through the Resource Specialist Program the student receives intensive instruction in specific areas, such as math and English, for part of the school day and attends regular class the remainder.

With the Special Day Class Program the student receives most or all their instruction in a class made up of other classmates with similar disabilities with an average of 13 students per class. Students work together with other non-disabled students providing interaction that might not happen otherwise. Both students gain by the experience.

Students with severe disabilities are served by the Severely Handicapped Program. This includes students with intellectual disabilities, emotional disturbance, multiple disabilities and has an average class size of eight students.

Each school varies in programs it provides with Sespe Elementary offering an early and late morning preschool class for Moderate-Severe students. By starting before age 3 problems are identified early. San Cayetano Elementary offers four classes for k-5th grades; Mountain Vista Elementary two classes for k-5th grades; Rio Vista Elementary two classes k-5th grades; Piru Elementary one class k-5th grades.

Fillmore Middle School offers seven classes for 6th-8th grades and Sierra High School offers one support class of one period. Fillmore High School (FHS) offers 16 various classes for grades 9-12th (presently FHS has 15 students with 5 from Santa Paula School District).

FHS also offers a post secondary class for 18-22 year olds where students are taken off campus to receive hands-on experience in practicing regular daily needs such as shopping and interacting with the public. Deaf or hard of hearing students are serviced by Ventura Unified School District.

Related services offered are: speech and language therapy, behavioral support, psychological counseling and transportation. Special health care procedures offer help with tube feeding, insulin support and diabetes plans. For physically impaired students occupational therapy is provided where students improve basic motor functions and reasoning abilities, helping them carry out their daily tasks with more confidence and independence. Students with physical injuries or illnesses are provided physical therapy to regain range of movement and control pain.

An item that was a General Obligation Bond Refinancing Overview originally addressed at the October 8, 2015 FUSD meeting and presented Tuesday evening to the Board for approval. The calling in of two series of bonds for refunding came at the request of Assistant Superintendent Andrea McNeill who saw a way to lower the property school bond tax in Fillmore. The refunding will save property taxpayers over $1.6 million with no cost to the FUSD General Fund.

Current interest rates are near historic lows thus providing FUSD the opportunity to refinance previously higher interest bonds. This is done similar to refinancing a home. The savings will be passed on to the taxpayers through lower annual property tax assessments. These savings are anticipated to be a yearly high of $9.91 in 2017 and reducing slightly each year and ending in 2027.

Another item up for approval was a new math course. The Mathematics 3/Enhanced Mathematics 3 Course is the 3rd course in the integrated pathway that meets the UC/CSU Algebra 2/Math 3 requirements for acceptance on a college application. The unit value is a one year equivalent course study. The objective is preparing students for college level mathematics and beyond.