Christine Schieferle, Superintendent, Fillmore Unified School District

Written by Christine Schieferle, Superintendent, Fillmore Unified School District

September 23, 2021

This is an exciting week for Fillmore Unified School District. We began Homecoming week on Friday September 17, with a Flashes Football win against Oak Park. Our students played great, demonstrated positive sportsmanship, and our community came out and cheered on our team. Our new Flashes Spirit Tunnel made its debut and contributed to the exciting atmosphere. We thank the Fillmore Athletic Boosters Club for their generosity! On Saturday, September 18, FHS hosted a well-attended, outdoor Homecoming Dance in the West Wing. On Sunday, Trustee Morris and I had the pleasure of supervising Float Building, and we all look forward to seeing the floats this evening in the Blue and White Parade starting at 6:00 p.m. Our amazing Fillmore High Alumni Association has a great evening planned to honor and celebrate Flashes pride and tradition. We will wrap up the week on Friday, hosting Santa Maria High School for our 2021 Homecoming Football Game. These traditions are one of the many reasons why we are proud to live in Fillmore and have our students attend FUSD schools!

On Monday, September 20, Trustees and District Staff had the opportunity to attend the Agriculture Administrator’s night at Otto and Sons. I would like to thank The Fillmore High Ag. Department for coordinating a beautiful evening for the Fillmore, Santa Paula, Ventura, and Carpentaria Agriculture Career Technical Education (CTE) programs.

We’re close to the finish line for the CTE Building construction. Landscaping installation is complete, and they have checked all the irrigation lines. There are 2 final pieces of equipment will be arriving by Friday. Staff is being trained to operate the equipment. We have a Haas Mini Mill, Rotary lifts and Hunter equipment training scheduled. They are also finalizing the date for the plasma table training. We anticipate that the students will be touring the new facilities and trained on procedures and starting to train on the equipment prior to fall break and will fully move into the building after fall break. Finally, Desks are in place, the new building is getting its final clean-up and waiting for students to arrive.

On Friday, September 17, all schools celebrated Constitution Day by participating in a variety of activities from AP Government Students reciting the preamble, discussions, and lessons on the significance of the preamble and constitution. Our teachers planned engaging lessons, and students had fun while learning.

Today is the 26th day of school and we will continue to celebrate our students back in school full time. Fillmore Middle School and Fillmore High are preparing mid-quarter progress reports and will mail home to families by the end of the week. We are completing our beginning of the year testing in English Language Arts and Math and have started reading intervention at 3 of our elementary schools. We are still recruiting for intervention teachers at Piru School.

I’d like to thank our staff for their dedication to our students and for the time they are taking to implement the many new health requirements and public health mandates. I would also like to thank our families for their continued support and patience as we work through this school year prioritizing student and staff safety, teaching and learning, and social and emotional wellness. We ask that you please continue to prescreen your children each day and keep them home if they have any COVID Symptoms. Working together, giving one another grace, and putting our students first will make this a great school year. Thank you!