Fillmore Unified School District

All School Board members were present for the regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, November 16th. No action was taken from the closed section, which was reported to include discussion on two expulsion cases. No one was nominated from the Board to the CSBA (California School Board Association) Delegate Assembly.

During standing reports, Board Clerk Liz Wilde reported on the recent meeting with the City of Fillmore regarding the status and process of opening the track up for community use. Wilde commented, “We’re getting closer to getting a solution regarding use of the track… now the issue goes to the City Parks and Rec.” During his report, Board President Tony Prado commented on his attendance at the meeting with the City regarding the Track as well,“[The meeting] was well attended… it was well represented by the community.” Prado commented on the report given by Assistant Superintendent Mike Bush regarding the current situation with the track and football field “he emphasized that it’s important for people to realize that it’s not the old situation we used to have… it’s different now… but we’re doing everything we can to… make sure they (the community) have access, of course that’s been my number one concern that the community have access.” Issues being looked at now are how to monitor and control people going in and out to use the track. Prado commented that it is the intention that not only the “competitive” runners have access but also the “recreational” users. “It’s important that [the City] Parks and Rec take the lead in this area”.

Regarding watching the 100th game between Fillmore and Santa Paula, Board Member Mike Saviers showed a small smile when he said, “I sat in the middle… I was sad but not real sad.” Saviers has ties to Santa Paula but lives in Fillmore as Board Member Virginia De La Piedra good-naturedly reminded him of where his loyalties should lie, “Remember where you live” She instructed. All Board members shared the sentiment of expressing thanks to all involved in the 100th game planning, set up and presentation. Board Member John Garnica shared that sentiment and added the Fillmore Boosters to those deserving recognition for their contribution to the event. Jane Munoz a parent and staff member at Piru Elementary School who is also a member of Band Boosters was in attendance, and reminded the Board about the great performance of the Band at the 100th game. Prado agreed that the Band should be commended. Band Leader Greg Godfrey and show choreographer Colleen Anderson were recognized for their efforts with the band performance. Newly elected and soon to be sworn in Board Member Elect Lucy Rangel was in attendance, and commented on the induction of 82 players into the Football Hall of Fame. “It took four hours to get through all 82 players… it was really wonderful to hear about all of their accomplishments.” Rangel went on to thank Fillmore High School Principal John Wilbur, and staff members Lynn Cole and Debora Curnett for organizing the event.

District Superintendent Jeff Sweeney asked all elementary school principals to report to the board on their school status, progress and plans. First to present was San Cayetano Principal Jan Marholin, then Mountain Vista Principal Chrissy Schieferle followed by Sespe Principal Rosemarie Hibler and finally Piru Elementary Principal Tricia Godfrey. Each principal shared the sentiment that collaboration and hard work were being used at their schools. Marholin touted the Science and Math advances made at San Cayetano “[we] really rocked on Science and Math.” She explained that they do need to focus on English Language, especially with English learners. Marholin shared the story of the Robotics team sharing spare parts with a competing team and thus winning the Character Award at the Robotics competition as a demonstration of the character building success on campus. For Mountain Vista, Schieferle presented the great improvement in API “our API jumped 39 points this year.” She attributed it to targeted assessments, and focusing their intervention with students based on specific needs of that student. According to Schieferle, if they continue on that path, and meet the goals they’ve set for this year, the school will be the first in the District to exit Program Improvement and enter the category of schools in the state that are meeting the state standards for proficiency across all groups within the school. In answering the question ‘What is Mountain Vista doing to make these gains?’ Schieferle said every day they ask the questions “What do we expect our students to know? How will we know if they learned it? What are we going to do if they have not?” This along with having “a majority of our kids in core instruction,” is what she feels lead to improvement in all demographics and skill levels. She also indicated that “high expectations” are a factor in student achievement. Each principal indicated their staffs’ recent and ongoing plans to visit Mountain Vista to replicate what is being done there with success at their sites as well. Following the four presentations, Marholin shared that “the four of us… have never worked harder together to do the best that we can do for our kids.” Garnica asked each principal to list “For your school what is the biggest strength and one area where you can improve most?” Marholin responded, “Our strength is our team… the whole school. What can we do better? We need to do better with our English language arts, and that is where our focus is right now.” Schieferle responded “Our strength is our collaboration, and that we face the facts. Sometimes they are not pretty … Mountain Vista runs seven days a week…the hard working staff. Area to improve… assessment driven instruction.” Hibler responded, “For Sespe the expertise and experience that our staff has, the dedication and hard work… dedicating a lot of time and hard work to the community. At the same time that is also one of our weaknesses, when giving 100% to the students…when analyzing data it’s not what you want to see.” She continued “Having wonderful expert teachers, and looking where we need to go” is where their focus will be. Godfrey responded, “[Our staff loves] to be in their classrooms, loves to be in their school…they work really hard…[We are now learning] that you have to have data driven instruction. We need to learn how to do that, and in order to learn that, we need to work on our weakness which is looking at data and looking at best practices so we are doing professional development in house to learn those things.” All Board members shared the sentiment that they are glad to see all campuses working together. Schieferle ended with a comment “One of the reasons we switched to differentiated core (targeting instruction based on student level) in 4 and 5 [is to meet the needs of all students]. One wonderful thing about Fillmore is tradition that also hinders us in many ways. We tend to say this is the way we’ve done things … traditionally when you think of elementary [it] is the … heterogeneous classroom where the superhero teacher meets the needs of your English learner to your third grader who is reading at a 8th grade level…I think what we’re seeing is breaking that a little… it’s the teamwork… you can’t do it alone. Continuing with collaboration, takes teachers trusting and letting go of their 33 students.” Prado directed his comments at the four principals “the pressure is on you four to perform and I would hope that we can see you again. We need to know where are you? Where is your school? ... It’s a challenge… the bottom line is how well your teachers perform is going to tell us how well the students perform and if the students are not performing some changes might have to happen. You guys perform you guys stay on, you don’t perform you guys gotta move on. The pressure is on the superintendents and on the assistant superintendents.”

All action items were approved. Sweeney indicated that with the Board’s approval he would be interviewing people in order to select someone to come in to train the Board on December 11. The estimated cost is $1800.00 for the training. The Board gave Sweeney the go ahead.

Annual Organization Meeting for the Board is set for the regular meeting on December 7th at 6:00pm. Meeting adjourned to December 7th at 6:00pm.