More than two dozen local high schools will field 34 teams in the Ventura County Mock Trial competition, which begins Monday in Ventura. Courtroom drama comes to life as students take on the major roles of a criminal case, including attorneys, witnesses and even bailiffs. The students will present their cases before actual local judges who volunteer for the competition. Local attorneys serve as coaches.

WHAT: 2017 Ventura County Mock Trial

WHEN: The competition runs Monday, February 27 to Thursday, March 2. The Wednesday semi-finals and Thursday finals are open to the public and the media. Competition begins each evening at 5:00 pm and is expected to conclude by 11:00 pm.

• Monday, February 27 – Rounds 1 and 2

• Tuesday, February 28 – Rounds 3 and 4

• Wednesday, March 1 – Semi-finals – OPEN TO PUBLIC AND MEDIA

• Thursday, March 2 – Finals – OPEN TO PUBLIC AND MEDIA

WHERE: Ventura County Superior Court - 800 South Victoria Avenue, Ventura, California 93009

The Mock Trial awards ceremony will be held on Monday, March 6 at 6:00 pm at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center at 800 Hobson Way. The public is invited to attend and media coverage is welcomed.

About the 2017 Ventura County Mock Trial
The competition is coordinated annually by the Ventura County Office of Education. This year’s fictitious case, People v. Awbrey, is the trial of Cameron Awbrey, a restaurant owner, who is being charged with human trafficking and false imprisonment.

High schools participating this year are: Adolfo Camarillo, Agoura, Beacon Hill Classical Academy, Buena, Channel Islands, Fillmore, Grace Brethren, Hueneme, La Reina, Newbury Park, Newbury Park Adventist Academy, Oak Park, Oaks Christian, Oxnard, Pacifica, Rio Mesa, Saint Bonaventure, Santa Paula, Santa Susana, Simi Valley, St. Augustine Academy, Thousand Oaks, Trinity Pacific Christian School, Ventura, Villanova Preparatory School and Westlake.

The winner of the county competition will go on to the state mock trial contest March 24-26 in Riverside. Ventura County has taken first place at the state level in 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

This year’s Ventura County Mock Trial logo artwork was created by 17-year-old Crismalid Lopez from Hueneme High School.

Additional information about the 2017 Ventura County Mock Trial is available at vcoe.org/mocktrial.

About the Ventura County Office of Education
The Ventura County Office of Education provides a broad array of fiscal, training and technology support services to local school districts, helping to maintain and improve lifelong educational opportunities for children, educators and community members. VCOE also operates schools that serve students with severe disabilities and behavioral issues, provides career education courses, and coordinates countywide academic competitions including Mock Trial and the Ventura County Science Fair. Learn more at: www.vcoe.org.

On Tuesday February 21st, the Fillmore Lion’s Club spoke with all of San Cayetano’s 3rd grade students. Lion’s Club Members Bill Baumgartner, Jack Stethem and Bill Edmonds spoke to the students about the Lion’s Club and their role in our community. Lions Clubs International is the largest service club organization in the world. 1.4 million members perform valuable service in 210 countries and geographic areas around the globe. Lions are friends, family and neighbors who share a core belief: community is what we make it. The Lion’s Club members gave each 3rd grader a US Flag and an informational pamphlet regarding the Flag of the United States of America. The 3rd grade students and staff of San Cayetano School appreciate the visit and work this wonderful group does for the community of Fillmore.

Pictured above are the 1st place winner Erika Sanchez and 2nd runner up Nadia Palazuelos.
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San Cayetano held its annual spelling Bee led by 5th grade teacher Ms. Kristen Dewey. All students in grades 3-5 are eligible to participate. Each class holds a preliminary spelling bee to choose the top two spellers in the class who then go on to compete with the top two winners from each 3rd-5th grade class at San Cayetano School. Our 1st place winner was 5th grade student Erika Sanchez and 2nd runner up was 4th grade student Nadia Palazuelos. Erika will go on to compete in the Ventura County Spelling Bee at Cal State Channel Islands in March. The staff of San Cayetano are very proud of our top two winner all our great spellers!

Tricia Gradias is Principal at San Cayetano Elementary.

At Tuesday’s Fillmore Unified School District meeting Board members acknowledged the exemplary work of the following employees: Student of the Year, Luke Myers; Classified Staff of the Year: Lisa Cook; Certificated Staff of the Year: Jenny Bortins; Administrator of the Year: John Wilber. Special recognition was given to John Wilber for his 32-years of administration work in all of Fillmore’s schools.

The Fillmore High School Athletic Booster Club organization was also recognized for its strong advocacy and financial support of Fillmore High School athletics. Its community fundraisers have raised more than $200,000 over the years for this cause.

The opening of the Dual Language Immersion Program has been delayed, and a notice will be provided to district families this month.

The Nursing program at CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) has been named as one of the top 25 nursing programs in California.

CSUCI’s Nursing program was ranked No. 11 out of 127 California nursing programs considered. The honors came from RegisteredNursing.Org, an organization that provides information to nurses and nursing students in all 50 states.

“After analyzing nursing programs in California, it became evident that CSUCI not only supports students during their time on campus, but also prepares them for a career beyond CSUCI,” said RegisteredNursing.Org Founder and Managing Editor Brooke Wallace.

CSUCI’s Nursing program was also chosen because of the program’s high student retention rate and the high number of CSUCI nursing graduates who pass the National Council Licensure Examination or NCLEX.

Chair and Professor of Nursing Karen Jensen was thrilled to hear the news. She credits the success of the program to its faculty and the quality of the students, who are carefully selected from a large pool of applicants.

“Out of a pool of 500 applicants we select 44 for the Camarillo campus and out of 150 we select 22 for the Goleta campus,” Jensen said. “We look at their grade point average in all of the pre-requisite courses and their overall GPA. We also look at supplemental criteria, such as if they’ve worked in the healthcare field before or done volunteer hours, or if they’re bilingual.”

Jensen and CSUCI’s Nursing faculty look for a combination of academics and experience because the nursing field has become more challenging in the 21st century.

“The work is so much more complex,” she said. “There’s technology, electronic medical records, medication dispensing systems, and the patients tend to be sicker, You have to be someone secure with technology and you have to be smart enough to realize when there’s a problem and compassionate enough to make the patient feel comfortable.”

The CSUCI Nursing program was awarded an official badge to show their ranking.

For more information visit: http://www.csuci.edu/academics/nursing.htm.

About California State University Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CSUCI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research. CSUCI has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is committed to serving students of all backgrounds from the region and beyond. Connect with and learn more by visiting CSUCI’s Social Media.

Samuel Torvend

A theologian will discuss state-sponsored persecution of sexual minorities in Nazi Germany at California Lutheran University on Thursday, Feb. 23.

Professor Samuel Torvend from Pacific Lutheran University will discuss “The Passion of Robert Oelbermann: The Persecution of Homosexuals in Nazi Germany” at 7 p.m. in Overton Hall on the Thousand Oaks campus.

Cal Lutheran’s Division of Mission and Identity is sponsoring the free event in recognition of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

Robert Oelbermann was a gay German Lutheran whose life and suffering exemplify state-sponsored persecution of persons deemed unfit for life under the rule of Adolf Hitler. In 1919, Oelbermann and his brother founded the Nerother Bund youth group, which aimed to bring young people closer to nature through camping and hiking. Like many German youth groups at the time, the Nerother Bund accepted the homosexual relationships that sometimes developed within the organization. After the Nazis took power in 1933, they dissolved all independent youth groups and encouraged members to join the Hitler Youth movement. Oelbermann refused and secretly continued his association with the group.

In 1936, Oelbermann was convicted under the Nazi-revised criminal code that outlawed homosexuality. He and 13 other members of Nerother Bund were imprisoned. Oelbermann was eventually transferred to Dachau concentration camp, where he was required to wear an identifying pink triangle. He died there in 1941 at the age of 44.

In this presentation, Torvend will show how the tentative emancipation of sexual minorities was undone by an ideology rooted in fear of the other, and how persecuted people struggled to lean into life.

Torvend is the Endowed Chair of Lutheran Studies at PLU in Tacoma, Washington. He is working with an international consortium of scholars whose work on economic, political and social questions is being presented during the 500th anniversary of the Reformation this year. He teaches courses and seminars on Martin Luther, the Lutheran heritage, women reformers, Lutheran higher education, Lutheran art and music, and the Reformation. He also teaches the history of Christianity and historical courses on social welfare reform and Christian responses to hunger. He received the 2006 K.T. Tang Award for Excellence in Research.

Overton Hall is located on the south side of Memorial Parkway near Regent Avenue. Livestream and on-demand video recording will be available at CalLutheran.edu/live. For more information, contact Melissa Maxwell-Doherty at 805-493-3589 or revmmmd@callutheran.edu.

Sierra High School Students were able play all roles for the mock trail.
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Written by Kimberly McMullen
On January 24, 2017, Fillmore’s Sierra High School attended a field trip to the Hall of Justice at the Ventura Government Center. The Street Law class, which is an introductory law course, toured several courtrooms. The class witnessed the traffic calendar which included interaction between the Judge, Deputy District Attorney, and the Public Defender. Additionally, the class sat-in on a Felony Criminal Trial and was able to observe testimony from an expert witness on direct and cross-examination before a jury. Further, the class was given the opportunity to conduct their own mock trial in a Superior Court courtroom. The case involved the trial of a defendant who was being prosecuted for burglary. The students played all of the roles in the trial. Class members played the following roles: the judge was Luis Salgado, Sarai Vargas was the district attorney, Brandon Nava was the defense attorney, Aaron Cerda was the defendant, and witnesses were played by Gianfranco Malagon, David Estrella, Shanya Escoto, and Daniel Mynatt. The bailiff was Samuel Cabrera, and Emmanuel Roldan was the judicial assistant. The rest of the class served as jurors. The courtroom served as an interactive classroom as students were able to apply their learned skills in a real setting.

This field trip was made possible by VC Innovates, which is a Ventura County collaborative endeavor that brings educators and community partners together to apply innovative experiences to the education experience and help students prepare for college and careers. Additionally, docents from the Ventura County Bar Association assisted in the success of the field trip by serving as guides to the various courtrooms. Besides providing field trips, VC Innovates, schedules inspirational speakers from law-related careers to give presentations at Sierra.

The Street Law class is part of the Legal Services career pathway of VC Innovates and Sierra High School is one of several schools in the county participating in the Legal Services pathway. The course Street Law is based on a curriculum created by Georgetown University Law Center. Students are studying Criminal Law and Procedure, Torts, Contracts, Constitutional Law, Family Law and Consumer Law. Course instructor William Chavez and school counselor Kimberly McMullen accompanied the class on the field trip.

Daniela Cisneros - Cal State Fullerton
Alicia Olvera - Cal State Channel Islands and Cal
State Sacramento
Bryana Priebe - Cal Lutheran University and Cal
State Channel Islands
Janet Mendez - Cal State Channel Islands.
Derek Flores – Cal State Channel Islands
Alejandra Rodriguez – Cal State Channel Islands
and CSU Humbolt
Fatima Urbina - Cal State Channel Islands
Crystal Pinedo - Cal State Channel Islands
Jessica Cobb - Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State
Fullerton
Virginia Rodriguez - Cal State Channel Islands
Roman Tarango - Cal State Fullerton
Andrea Arredondo – Cal State Channel Islands and
Dominquez Hills
Tristen Riddle – Cal State Channel Islands
Alyssa Ramirez – Northern Arizona & Cal State
Channel Islands
Luke Myers – Westmont
Mireya Cruz – Cal State Channel Islands
Marisol Martinez - Cal State Channel Islands

(l-r) Jordyn Garnica, Spelling Champion and Runner up Isaac Armenta.

Mountain Vista Elementary School’s Spelling Bee went into overtime Thursday, January 19. The auditorium was abuzz with excitement when thirty 3rd, 4th, and 5th grader students competed. After over 20 rounds, Jordyn Garnica emerged victorious when she successfully spelled the champion-round word “FRUSTRATED.” Isaac Armenta is the runner-up. The next phase of competition is the Ventura County Spelling Bee which will be held March 4, 2017 on the Cal State Channel Islands campus. Congratulations Wildcat Spellers!

CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) will receive a grant of almost $250,000 from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) to develop four-year teacher preparation programs.

California is experiencing a shortage of K-12 teachers with science, mathematics, special education and bilingual education credentials, so this grant will enable CSUCI to graduate career-ready teachers in four years, rather than the usual five years.

Chair and Professor of Education, Bob Bleicher, Ph.D., who secured the grant, explained that teacher candidates traditionally earn a four-year baccalaureate in Liberal Studies, then apply to become a special education or bilingual education teacher which requires an extra year of post-baccalaureate study. This grant will enable CSUCI to tighten and tailor classes so that teachers can graduate earlier and be ready to teach sooner.

“You can actually apply for a job during the final semester of your senior year,” Bleicher said.

The emphasis of CSUCI’s four-year integrated pathway will be to develop Bilingual and Special Education teachers.

CSUCI is among 17 CSU campuses receiving Integrated Program Grants from the CTC to help expand the number of teacher candidates earning science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM), Special Education and bilingual credentials.

These grants should enable the CSU campuses to triple the number of new teachers graduating each year with STEM, Special Education and Bilingual credentials. The CSUs currently graduate about 6,500 credentialed teachers each year.

“The new format not only increases the number of teacher candidates graduating annually but also provides monetary benefits to CSU students,” said Marquita Grenot-Scheyer, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Teacher Education Program and Public School Programs for the CSU.

“CSU teacher candidates will save, on average, about $20,000 by eliminating the cost of an additional year of tuition, college-related expenses and textbooks,” she added. “In addition, to incentivize more students to enter the teaching profession, teacher candidates will also be eligible for $16,000 in state and federal grants. There’s never been a better time to enter the profession given these new flexible credentialing options and financial incentives.”

CSU produces more teacher candidates than any other campus system in the state and leads the nation in preparing teachers.

CSUCI is working closely with the community colleges, especially Oxnard College, where the Dean of Liberal Studies, Art Sandford, Ph.D., is the co-project director with Bleicher.

The grant will allow representatives from CSUCI and Oxnard College to visit high schools and recruit those who may not have considered a career in teaching. It will also help Oxnard College develop new courses to enable transfer students to make a smooth transition to CSUCI’s four-year integrated teaching program.

CSUCI’s new four-year integrated teaching programs will begin admitting students in fall 2018.

About California State University Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CSUCI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research. CSUCI has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is committed to serving students of all backgrounds from the region and beyond. Connect with and learn more by visiting CSUCI’s Social Media.

The Fillmore Unified School District would like to announce an additional information night that will be held for perspective families to discuss the State Funded Preschool Program. We will be sharing the benefits of a preschool experience, program locations, qualification criteria, and family fee.

Please join us at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday December 15 at San Cayetano School Cafeteria located at 514 Mountain View St.

Please contact the Child Development Office at 805-524-8312 or 805-524-8311 for more information.

San Cayetano ASB students visited each class on Monday, November 28th to help kick off our Spirit of Giving Canned Food Drive. ASB student leaders spoke to the students about helping the hungry of Ventura County by donating canned foods and other nonperishable food items such as canned soups, canned or dried fruit, canned vegetables, dried beans, rice and cereal, peanut butter, Jelly, pasta and rice.

Dole Packaged Foods is celebrating their 2017 Rose Parade® float, SPIRIT OF HAWAII by partnering with FOOD Share (a Feeding America partner) to sponsor a food drive to promote the SPIRIT OF GIVING.

Over 300 schools throughout Ventura County are invited to participate.

Each participating school will receive a brightly colored, FOOD Share labeled collection bin that will be placed in a designated location so food items* can be dropped off beginning November 28th.

The food drive will conclude on December 14th.

The six elementary schools that collect the most pounds of food during the food drive will each be awarded a Project Learning Garden from Dole Packaged Foods and the Captain Planet Foundation in partnership with FOOD Share.

Families and community members may drop off donations at the San Cayetano Office.

Principal, Tom Ito of Fillmore High School announced today that Luke Myers has been name a Commended Student in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program. About 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation are being recognized for the exceptional academic promise. Although they will not continue in the 2017 competition for National Merit Scholarship Merit Scholarship awards, Commended Students placed among the top five percent of more than 1.6 million students who entered the 2017 competition by taking the 2015 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Tests (PSAT/NMSQT).

“The young men and women being named Commended Students have demonstrated outstanding potential for academic success,” commented a spokesperson for NMSC. “These students represent a valuable national resource; recognizing their accomplishments, as well as the key role their schools play in their academic development, is vital to the advancement of educational excellence in our nation. We hope that this recognition will help broaden their educational opportunities and encourage them as they continue their pursuit of academic success.