Tuesady night, Jeff Nigro, CPA, with the State of California, presented the Fillmore Unified School District with a “clean audit” and explained the new format and the States’ findings. Each year the State does an audit of FUSD which is part if the educational code requirement; it begins in spring and ends in December, and takes approximately 300 hours.

Ali Widmar spoke to the Board of the run around she received when trying to address the use of the running track, at Tuesday’s board meeting.

The main topics of discussion at the January 17, 2012 Fillmore Unified School District (FUSD) Board meeting were the cost of education and what funds are available after the State announced the proposed cuts. The FUSD is dealing with what schools throughout the state are facing – a $248 million cut in school transportation funding; the first state in the nation to completely eliminate transportation funding. Also Governor Jerry Brown is proposing to eliminate funding for the new Transitional Kindergarten program.

The proposed cuts take effect the second half of the academic year. Brown is calling for a new “weighted-pupil” funded formula which allocates funding to schools based on each school’s needs. Those schools with higher poverty or greater number of English learners receive greater funding.

The Transportation Funding cuts will hit hard for those school districts with a large percentage of low income students like FUSD. Many of the families do not have transportation to take the children to school and pick them up.

Another program on the chopping block is the Kindergarten Readiness Act which was signed into law on September 30, 2010 by then Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger. It pushes back the date by which children must turn five to enter kindergarten from December 2nd to September 1st. For children with birthdays that fall between Sept. 2 to Dec. 2 and are too young under the new cutoff date to enter regular kindergarten, a Transitional Kindergarten has been established. But just as schools are starting to phase in the new program, Brown is proposing elimination of funding for the classes. At the December 7, 2011 board meeting, FUSD Alan Nishino announced the start of the program with such enthusiasm only to face its elimination less than two months later.

Dr. Michael Bush, assistant superintendent, informed the Board that as a result of the California Supreme Court ruling eliminating all of the State’s Redevelopment Agencies (RDA), the FUSD will no longer be receiving a percentage of the revenue generated from Fillmore’s Redevelopment Agency. When addressing the Governor’s stated goal of eliminating the RDAs to aid funding education and schools, Bush added, “It is very unlikely we will not see any new revenue……a lot of it’s a shell game.” To which Nishino stated, “It doesn’t benefit us.” Nishino went on to say the Governor is using the kids to get his tax increase passed on the November ballot and was “very problematic…..to use our kids as a pawn bothers me.” Bush said that it won’t be clear how greatly this will affect the district until around June 30th.

Jeff Nigro with the State of California presented the FUSD with a “clean audit” and explained the new format and the states findings. Each year the State does an audit of FUSD which is part if the educational code requirement. It begins in spring and ends in December and takes approximately 300 hours.

Ali Widmar spoke to the Board of the run around she received when trying to address the use of the running track. Widmar said she has a disability that is helped by having the use of a soft track. When informing the Board of all the people she spoke with and the continued non-answered responses, those in the room laughed.

The Board approved a field trip for approximately 25 students from Piru’s 6th grade to the Outdoor School at Rancho Alegre. The date of the trip is May 15-18 and will cost $7,356. The students will sleep in cabins, share KP duty in the dining hall, learn to take 3 minute showers, go on hikes and have the chance to learn activities such as boating, archery, crafts, games, etc. After breakfast each day, plus one evening they will go on educational walks where they learn about wildlife biology, botany, geology, astronomy, nocturnal animals, and Chumash culture.