Tuesday night’s Fillmore Unified School Board Meeting (FUSD) focused on Transitional Kindergarten, the English Language Learners (ELL) Pacing Guide Task Force and changes to Advanced Placement class requirements.

This fall FUSD is implementing a two year program called Transitional Kindergarten (TK) for children whose 5th birthday falls between September 2nd and December 2nd.. What this means is students who attend a TK class will have a year of preparation before attending kindergarten in the 2013-2014 school year. Those students’ whose birthdays qualify them for TK, along with those who have not had any preschool, will be scheduled for a basic school readiness screening and the results will be discussed with the parents.

Not all FUSD elementary schools will be providing TK. For those children whose home school does not provide TK an exception is made allowing them to enroll in a school that will offer TK; transportation will not be provided and once they start kindergarten they must enroll in their home school.

A lottery will be conducted at the district level and students will be assigned a school, but enrollment in a straight TK class is not guaranteed. There may be situations where a TK and a regular kindergarten class would be combined due to location or student numbers. Which schools and how many will have TK will depend on the number of students whose birthdays fall between September 2nd and December 2nd.

English Language Learner/Director Jennifer Weir gave a presentation on the Task Force for English Proficiency. Weir is developing a course of action and formed a team to analyze data and a plan to address the four years FUSD has failed to meet all Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives (AMAO) that are part of the California English Language Development Test (CELDT). Most noticeable was the 2010-2011 school year which saw a decreased of 9.4%.

The total student enrollment at FUSD is 3,855 of which 1,369 (36%) are English Language Learners (ELL). State law requires students in kindergarten through grade twelve whose home language is not English take an English skills test. The test measures how well a student can listen, speak, read, and write English and helps to identify students who need to improve their skills. Schools also give the test each year to students who are still learning English. There are five performance levels: beginning, early intermediate, intermediate, early advanced, advanced.

The CELDT 2010-2011 data for FUSD’s ELL student body is; 14% are Beginning, students understand simple phrases spoken in English and begin to speak a few words to communicate basic needs; 20% are Early Intermediate, students understand and respond to simple school tasks in English and speak using phrases and short sentences; 36% are Intermediate, students speak, read and write in English on familiar topic and can retell simple stories, participate in school discussions and speak using full sentences; 24% are Early Advanced, students are developing close to native-like proficiency in English and participate in increasingly complex school tasks; Advanced, which is not part of the percentages, students speak read and write English in a manner that resembles a native English speaker and participate fully in all school subjects.

The Board wanted a more accurate understanding of which students were in each of these categories and asked that at her next update Weir give the actual percentages of high school, middle school and elementary school students that fall into these categories.

There will be a change to the Advanced Placement (AP) classes starting next fall. All Fillmore High School (FHS) students attending an AP class will be required to take the AP test at the end of the semester. In the past this test has not been administered, yet the students received the bump in their grade which brought up their grade point average (GPA). The AP classes are designed to allow high school students the ability to receive college credit. Honors classes also receive a bump in grade and help a student GPA but can not be used for college credit. With today’s cost of continued education taking AP classes in high school can help financially and leave room for other needed college courses.

Sean Morris with the Sunrise Rotary Club informed the Board the gate to the running track will be installed the week of the 16th and that due to the generosity of Fillmore’s residents the donations of over $7,000 were collected in less than four weeks.

Superintendent Dr. Alan Nishino announced that Martin Farrell with the Fillmore Gazette will be donating a plaque to be placed at the school district entrance displaying the Teacher and Student of the Year. Each year the honored teacher and student will be added. Nishino also told the Board the safety gate at San Cayetano Elementary School is going up and the next school to receive fencing will be Piru Elementary, but that site will be a bit more changing. Once Piru is completed, Nishino said, “Surveillance cameras will be installed…that’s going to be a priority of mine.” The high school will be first.

Dr. Michael Bush, Assistant Superintendent Business, reported to the Board that the State Budget may be revised, but because there hasn’t been much activity recently in Sacramento he couldn’t give particulars. Nishino responded, “I don’t know how they expect us to budget when they don’t (budget)…instead of doing things for us, they’re doing things to us. Pretty soon we’re going to hit the breaking point.”

Sammy Martinez, FHS’s Speaker of the House, announced the April 17 Art Club’s Art Show along with April 27th testing and the Spring 2012 fund drive to pay for the chalk needed to maintain the “F” on the hill.