Ventura College offers classes on the workings of insurance companies, insurance and risk management to equip individuals, business owners and students to take full advantage of the benefits and protections under the various types of individual and commercial insurance policies available.

Registration is now open for two classes starting in January 2010 – Insurance Fundamentals, BUS V71 and Property & Liability Insurance, BUS V72.

Designed for business operators, the general public and business students, the class on Insurance Fundamentals, BUS V71, opens the door to the broad field of insurance, explains how insurance companies operate and are regulated, the functions of underwriting and claims, and introduces the various types of insurance available to individuals and businesses.

Protection from legal liability and damage to CONTINUED »

THOUSAND OAKS, CA. California Lutheran University will mark Ventura County’s World AIDS Day 2009 with a series of events exploring the epidemic both locally and globally.

The commemoration will begin with an exhibit called “Condom Tree” from Tuesday, Nov. 24, through Wednesday, Dec. 2, in the Kwan Fong Gallery of Art and Culture in Soiland Humanities Center. Michael Pearce, chair of CLU’s art department, will explore World AIDS Day through his representation of safer sex methods.

A documentary titled “Little Secrets” will be shown at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 30, in Lundring Events Center in the Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center. The film features 10 HIV-positive teenagers who challenge themselves, their disease and the whitewater rapids of the Salmon River. A discussion will follow the screening.

The main events will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 1, in Lundring Events Center. Starting at 4:30 p.m., a Positively Speaking Panel of local residents who are HIV-positive will share their stories and answer questions. A light dinner reception and discussion will follow at 6 p.m.

Two keynote speakers will share their perspectives on AIDS starting at 7 p.m. Evelyn Gonzalez-Figueroa, associate director of AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) International, has worked with HIV/AIDS since the mid-1980s. During the last decade, she has focused on community-based research with an emphasis on analyzing cultural gaps in HIV/AIDS prevention. She has also developed programs in Los Angeles, India, China and Latin America.

Matt G. Mutchler, a community-based researcher at APLA and sociology professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills, will discuss “Sexual Health Communication Between Young Gay Men and Young Women: ‘Gay Boy Talk,’ ‘Girl Talk,’ and Why It Matters for HIV Prevention Practices and Policies.” Mutchler has researched the social and cultural contexts of young gay men’s sexual lives for more than 18 years.

The evening will conclude with a candlelight vigil.

Working in conjunction with the HIV/AIDS Coalition of Ventura County, CLU’s Wellness Programs and Center for Equality and Justice are sponsoring the free events. For more information, please contact Wellness Programs at (805) 493-3950 or wellness@callutheran.edu.

Fillmore Unified School District

FILLMORE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009
5:15 P.M. – CLOSED SESSION
6:00 P.M. - REGULAR MEETING
627 SESPE AVENUE, FILLMORE, CALIFORNIA

AGENDA
5:15 p.m.
I. CALL TO ORDER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
II. ROLL CALL
III. PUBLIC COMMENT ON NONAGENDA ITEMS, PETITIONS
This is the time and place to address the Board. State law prohibits the Board from acting on issues not included on the agenda; however, requests may be made for discussion of specific topics at subsequent meetings.
IV. CLOSED SESSION
The Board of Education will meet from 5:15 to 6:00 p.m. to consider matters appropriate for Closed Session in accordance with Government Code Sections 3549.1, 54956.7 through 54957.7 and Education Code Section 35146. If the Board does not complete Closed Session discussions at this time, the Board may adjourn to Closed Session at the end of the regular meeting. DISCLOSURE OF ITEM(S) TO BE DISCUSSED IN CLOSED SESSION School District Pupils (Education Code 35146)
o Expulsion Case Number 09-10-03
o Expulsion Case Number 09-10-04 CONTINUED »

California State University Channel Islands

Camarillo, Calif., Oct. 30, 2009 – Four CSU Channel Islands (CI) Art students have been announced as finalists in the 2009 Media Arts Festival awards competition. The 2009 Media Arts Festival, which will be held on Nov. 7 at Cal State Fullerton, gives talented students studying film, video, and interactive media within the 23-campus California State University system, an opportunity to present their work for critical review and recognition.

Nominated in the Interactive media category are Charlotte Ferguson (www.charlotteferguson.net), a senior Art major from Ventura, for her interactive website Velouria Vodka (www.velouriavodka.com); and Katherine Thompson, a senior Art major from Ventura, for her interactive website www.kmtdesign.com. Nominated in the Television category are Luke Sommer (www.modernhumandesign.com), a senior Art major from Ojai, and Kellam Cunningham, a senior Art major from Camarillo, for their commercial Xtreme Dog Walking.

Distinguished CSU professors and industry leaders choose CONTINUED »

Fillmore High School juniors, seniors, and non-graduates from the Classes of ‘08 and ‘09 will have the opportunity to take the CAHSEE exam. On Tuesday, November 3, 2009, FHS will be giving the ELA exam. Then on Wednesday, November 4, 2009, FHS will give the mathematics exam. Testing begins promptly at 8am in Room 49.

This testing cycle is only offered to students who have not passed one or both parts of the CAHSEE. Later in the school year, sophomore students will test.

For more information on CAHSEE testing, please contact Fillmore High School Assistant Principal Ellen Green at 524-6109 or egreen@fillmore.k12.ca.us.

Ellen Green is the Assistant Principal in charge of state testing at Fillmore High School.

The Fillmore Lions Club has announced that this year's Student Speaker Contest will be held on Monday February 1,2010. The topic will be "Universal Healthcare-How will it affect us?" The topic is very timely and important to all of Fillmore's students and citizens because it is about our good health and our finances. The outcome of this debate will affect all of us for years to come.

Chair Bill Edmonds states that the total prize money going to the overall winner will be $21, 325 in college scholarships and cash. The local Fillmore winner will get $75 with the runner-ups getting $25.The winner will go on to compete with the winners of other near-by communities. All High School age youth who live within the Fillmore Unified School District boundaries are eligible to compete .This includes home taught students as well as Fillmore residents who attend other high schools as well. This also includes foreign exchange students.

Students who wish to enter may contact Bill Edmonds (524-4839) or Josh Overton-the FHS drama and language arts teacher. Edmonds emphasized that this public speaking exercise will be very worthwhile to the students and interesting to their parents and the community. Public speaking competition will also look very good on college applications and resumes. Students should get started early because it takes time to develop and practice a good speech.

VENTURA: The Survivor Empowerment Project encourages survivors and friends and family members of survivors of domestic abuse, violence and rape to design t-shirts in an attempt to break the silence and end the violence. The Project will be hosted by the Psychology Club on October 28 (Wednesday) from 8 a.m. — 2 p.m. on the lawn between the LRC and the Science Building. T-Shirts are provided and the public is invited to participate by creating a tribute t-shirt, visiting the resource booths and hearing the speakers.

SPEAKERS
• Domestic Violence within the Hispanic Community, 8:30-9:am in UV-2
• Victims Advocate, District Attorney’s office, 9-9:20am in UV-2
• Domestic Violence, Cycle of Violence, 9:30-10:20am in MAC 201
• La Shonda Blunt, Date rape & date rape drugs, 10:30-11:20am in UV-2
• Dawn Reid, Sexual Abuse, 11:30-12:20pm in UV-2
• Julie Mairs, Violence and Sex Trafficking, 12:30-1:20pm in UV-2

INFORMATION AND REFERRAL BOOTHS:
• Interface Children and Family Services
• UCLA Santa Monica Rape Treatment Center
• Rainbow Alliance
• Tri–Counties Domestic Violence Services
• Planned Parenthood
• Lideres Campesinas
• District Attorney’s Office-Victim Services
• Soroptimist International of Los Angeles
• VC Health and Psychological Services
• Coalition to End Domestic Violence

For additional information, please contact Professor Lucy Capuano Brewer at 654-6400 ext. 1395 or Public Information Officer Alisa Moore at 654-6462.

The Fall Harvest Festival will be Thursday Night Oct. 29th at San Cayetano. This year the festival is being sponsored by The Wells Fargo Foundation. The festival is from 5-8PM. All four elementary schools will participate in the event. There will be lots of fun games and plenty to eat! We look forward to seeing you at the event. Stop by and say thank you to Wells Fargo for supporting our elementary schools!

On Monday, October 5, 2009, San Cayetano School recognized good citizenship and character at their Peacebuilder Assembly for the month of October. Patty Walker, the Mayor of Fillmore, came to speak to the students about what a good citizen is and how respecting others is important. She talked about how we can be good citizens to help our school and community. Each teacher chose a student from his or her class whom showed excellent character and respect in the month of October. Julian Calderon and Christina De La Mora, the San Cayetano ASB President and Vice-President assisted Mrs.Walker in handing out the Peacebuilder Awards. The Peacebuilders for October are Christian Hernandez, Luke Hernandez, Donovan Estrada, Alotl Aparicio, Evan Almallio, Aaron Carranza, Nathan Alverdi, Robert McElroy, Noelani Sanchez, Gustavo Granados, Connel Ferguson, Robert Gonzalez, Bryan Arnett, Sabrina Belat, Diego Magana, Angel Mejia, Angelica Rivas, Joseph Cronin, Felipe Gonzalez, John Chavez, and Liliana Lemus. Mrs.Walker then announced the San Cayetano Character Counts Award of a $100.00 savings bond sponsored by the Rainbow Foundation. Mrs.Walker presented the Character Counts Award to a deserving second-grade student. Jennifer Martinez from Ms.Harbert’s class was chosen by the second grade teachers as a model of kindness and respectfulness to the other students and school community. To conclude the assembly, students were reminded to turn in their Perfect Attendance tickets. Each month all students who come to school, each day, on time, are given a purple raffle ticket. The students place their tickets in a box and one ticket is drawn. The student whose ticket is drawn is given a NASA backpack with the book Max Goes to the Moon in it. Each month, the tickets will be put into a larger box that will be kept until the end of the year. In June, Mrs. Marholin, the principal, will draw from the tickets to give away two new bicycles. Roberto Magana won the Perfect Attendance Award for October.

This week at the High School is celebrating homecoming! The theme this year is Dr. Seuss. On Monday the week was kicked off with a party at the bus garage. The week will be filled with dress up days for the students. Float Building will be going on all week starting at 3pm and going till 9pm at the Bus Garage. Each class has picked a specific Dr. Seuss book to be the theme of their float. On Friday the floats can be viewed by the public at 2:50pm during the Homecoming Parade. The parade route will start up at the high school and will end at central. Come out and support the classes. During the homecoming game king and queen will be announced. Voting for Class and Senior Court went on in the week prior. The Homecoming Dance will be held Saturday at the Boys and Girls Club. Ticket costs are $2 with ASB sticker; or $5 without sticker. The dance begins at 7 o’clock and ends at 11. Good Luck to all classes and the football team. Let’s have a fantastic week of school spirit!

We are very excited and pleased to announce that Wells Fargo Foundation will again sponsor the Fall Harvest Festival at San Cayetano Elementary School on Thursday October 29th from 5-8PM. This event is a fundraiser for the four local elementary schools. Once again we will feature Lou Hoover’s famous cinnamon rolls as a charity booth. This year’s recipients will be the local fire and police agencies for their Toy Donations during the holiday times. With Wells Fargo as our sponsor we know this year will be bigger and better than ever. The Lions will be BBQing tri-tip sandwiches and there will be games and food for all. Come for the games and stay for dinner. This is truly a community event. Come say hi to your local Wells Fargo personnel. For information about the event or to purchase tickets in advance call 524-6040.

The Fillmore High School Band is alive and well, and happening as a seventh period high school class. The Fillmore Band Boosters are making plans to purchase new uniforms for our hard working musicians. The existing band uniforms were purchased 25 years ago. There are currently 51 members of the marching band, and only 35 uniforms can be pieced together. A band member described the uniforms as old, smelly, and in urgent need of replacement.

Band Director, Greg Godfrey, estimates the uniforms will cost around $30,000. Plans to raise money include designating a portion of every band fundraiser to the uniform account, creating several special fundraisers, and asking the community to contribute. Our students need uniforms they can wear with pride.

The Fillmore Band Boosters are a group of parents and music lovers who support all Fillmore and Piru school bands, which includes high school, middle school, and elementary level music students. The Band Boosters assist the music programs by providing supplementary funding for all areas of the music program including instruments, instrument repair, transportation, uniforms and sheet music.

Donations are always welcome and may be sent to:
Fillmore Band Boosters, PO Box 1008, Fillmore, CA 93016

The group meets the first Monday of each month, except when it falls on a school holiday, at 6:30 PM in the High School Band Room. For more information, contact Band Boosters at 524-6137. All contributions are tax deductible.

Camarillo, Calif. Oct. 20, 2009 – CSU Channel Islands (CI) has announced a campus and community town hall meeting to be held Tuesday, Oct. 27, from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. in Malibu Hall 100 on the University campus.

The town hall meeting, an initiative of the CSU’s Chancellors Office and the University’s Center for Community Engagement, will provide a forum for the University and community to engage in conversations about needs and assets as a result of the current economic crisis, raise awareness of the impacts of the crisis, strengthen partnerships between the University and the community, and provide a foundation of information for the CSU to seek external funders to support community engagement work throughout California.

CI’s Center for Community Engagement, in collaboration with the Martin V. Smith School of Business & Economics, the Political Science program, Student Government, and Ventura County Together – a community collaborative comprised of First 5 Ventura County, United Way of Ventura County, Ventura County Community Foundation, and the Community Commission for Ventura County will host the meeting.

Ventura County Together will begin the program by presenting CONTINUED »

United Water Conservation District, in association with the American Ground Water Trust (AGWT), is offering a great opportunity for local teachers to learn about the science of water. The two-day Groundwater Teachers Institute will provide real-life applications of a variety of areas of science as they relate to providing water for our homes, the environment, agriculture and more.

The Institute is open to high school and middle school teachers from the Ventura, Oxnard, Santa Paula, Fillmore and Camarillo areas and is limited to 30 attendees. And in recognition of the fiscal challenges currently confronting our schools, United, together with several generous co-sponsors, is picking up the full cost of the program, including the cost to the schools of hiring substitutes so that their teachers can attend.

The program, which will be held the evening of Thursday, November 5 and all day Friday, November 6, will include tours of Oxnard’s GREAT Program Desalter and United’s Freeman Diversion Dam, and will have the benefit of presentations by water experts from various disciplines including fisheries biology, geology, agriculture, engineering and more.

Any teacher interested in the program should contact Tony Morgan or Ken Breitag at United Water Conservation District (805-525-4431) or register online at www.agwt.org/teachers/institutehome.htm.

United would like to thank the following sponsors for helping make this program possible: Blois Construction, the City of Oxnard, the City of Ventura, Famcon Pipe and Supply, FGL Environmental, Hopkins Groundwater Consultants, Hydrometrics LLC, Leavens Ranches, Limoneira Company, Nordman Cormany Hair & Compton LLP, Penfield & Smith Engineers, and Ventura County Resource Conservation District.

California State University Channel Islands

Camarillo, CA. - The science clubs at CSU Channel Islands (CI) have planned an exciting event for Ventura County students in grades K-8. The First Annual Science Carnival will take place on Friday, Oct. 23, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at University Charter Middle School, 550 Temple Avenue, Camarillo.

The event was initiated by Dr. Philip Hampton, Professor of Chemistry at CSU Channel Islands. Hampton, who is also the Director of the National Science Foundation’s Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) and the Director of HIS STEM Grant at Oxnard College, is eager to encourage students to investigate STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) majors or careers.

The Science Carnival coincides with National Chemistry Week. Hampton credited the CI biology, chemistry and LSAMP clubs with the creation of the carnival. President Mary Grabiak and Vice President Ashley Bonneau of the chemistry club, the Free Radicals, were instrumental in spearheading the development of the event. Hampton and his students worked closely with Charmon Evans, Director of the University Preparatory School, so that all science content would relate to the science curriculum covered in grades K-8.

The Carnival will feature hands-on science activities, followed by CONTINUED »

Fillmore Unified School District

FILLMORE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2009
5:15 P.M. – CLOSED SESSION
6:00 P.M. – SPECIAL BOARD MEETING
3811 CENTER STREET, PIRU, CALIFORNIA

AGENDA
The public may review or request a copy of support materials provided to the Board Members where the word materials appears.
5:15 P.M.
I. CALL TO ORDER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
II. ROLL CALL
III. PUBLIC COMMENT ON ANY CLOSED SESSION ITEMS, PETITIONS
This is the time and place to address the school board on any closed session item. State law prohibits the Board from acting on issues not included on the agenda; however, requests may be made for discussion of specific topics at subsequent meetings.
IV. CLOSED SESSION
The Board of Education will meet from 5:15 to 6:00 p.m. to consider CONTINUED »