(l to r) Briana Mendoza, Jimena Cortes, and Aurora Aguilar with Mrs. Catalano listen and sing to “This Land Is Your Land.”
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Piru students listen to guest speakers.
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Serviceman Val Pillado speaks to Piru students.
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Story and Photographs courtesy Luanne Schaper, Teacher, Piru School.

September 11, began with a celebration of “Patriot’s Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance” at Piru Elementary School. Students, staff, and community members gathered at the school’s flagpole to honor and recognize the dedication of community members in the military and all those who contribute to preserve the freedoms students and all people have in the United States.

Principal Leticia Ramos welcomed those gathered and offered a salute to our soldiers and local heroes, the police men and women and firefighters, who keep our communities safe. On behalf of the school she thanked and remembered all the men and women who gave their lives so that all of those attending can continue to enjoy the freedoms they have. Students sang “This Land Is Your Land.” Then school employee Tom Rodriquez raised the flag to the gathering’s chorus of “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” Following the Pledge of Allegiance, Ms Ramos introduced community members Reggie Ruiz and Val Pillado who are servicemen and school employees Sam Cardona and Frank Hernandez who are veterans. Guests spoke briefly to those attending. Students were reminded that they too can aid our country by taking part in community service. Teacher Claudia Cornejo, then encouraged students and parents to join her on Saturday, September 19 for a beach clean up in Ventura. The ceremony ended with the singing of the “Star Spangled Banner” and a procession past the flag pole where students placed flowers and notes to those who have served.

Fillmore Police Chief Tim Hagel is shown with San Cayetano School Peacebuilder’s and their certificates: Andreah McElroy, Justine Pacheco, Luis Carrillo, Anateresa Jimenez, Mariah Garcia, Julia Pace, Daniela Piceno, Serina Valenzuela, Jared Rhett, Anissa Rhodes, Wendy Carrillo Garcia, Alina Cardenas, Stephanie Magana, Joe Guinta, Taylor Wright, Jazmin Gil, and Rubi Torres.
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San Cayetano Principal Jan Marholin is shown with the Peacebuilders for September: (l-r) Isabela Regalado, Alyssa Andrade, Elissa Johnson, and Austin Gunter. Congratulations!
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On Monday, September 14, 2009, San Cayetano School kicked off its citizenship assemblies with Captain Tim Hagel, Chief of Police. Students were recognized for good citizenship and character. Captain Hagel spoke to the students about what a good citizen is and how being a good citizen can help the students in their everyday lives as well as highlighting the positive character traits. Each teacher chose a student from his or her class whom showed excellent character and peace-building skills. President, Julian Calderon and Vice President, Christina De La Mora assisted Capt. Hagel in handing out the Peacebuilder certificates. The Peacebuilders for September are: Elissa Johnson, Austin Gunter, Isabela Regalado, Alyssa Andrade, Andreah McElroy, Justine Pacheco, Luis Carrillo, Anateresa Jimenez, Mariah Garcia, Julia Pace, Daniela Piceno, Serina Valenzuela, Jared Rhett, Anissa Rhodes, Wendy Carrillo Garcia, Alina Cardenas, Stephanie Magana, Joe Guinta, Taylor Wright, Jazmin Gil, and Rubi Torres. Julian and Christina then introduced the Character Counts Award. The Rainbow Foundation sponsors one deserving student each month with a one hundred dollar savings bond. The award went to a responsible, kind, and hard-working fourth grade student. Zachary Tipton, from Mrs. Walker’s class, was chosen by the fourth grade teachers as a model of outstanding behavior and kindness to the other students. To conclude the assembly, Julian and Christina introduced the Attendance Award prizes. Each month all students who are at school, on time, are given an orange 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 will draw from the tickets for two new bicycles.

Megan Louth

Many congratulations to the Fillmore Flashes Football team on their victorious win over Bishop Diego this past Friday. The first home game of the football season is this Friday September 25! Be sure to come out and support the team and show your Flashes pride. The first Renaissance night of the school year is being held on Wednesday at a new venue; the Sespe Auditorium at the District Office. The theme this year is Renaissance Round Up, a flashback to the old west. Renaissance scholars from the past school year who reached a 3.5 and above will be honored. In other academic news, the high school exceeded their API goal from the previous year. We were supposed to reach a goal of 700 and accomplished a 725. Students will be recognized throughout the year with reward cards and an API Celebration Day is planned for the spring.

Camarillo, Calif. Sept. 22, 2009 – The Martin V. Smith School of Business & Economics at CSU Channel Islands (CI) recently won two awards in a national Business Strategy Game program run by a company of the same name.

Dr. William P. Cordeiro, Director of the MVS School, said that each semester students in Business 499 are divided into teams and enter an online business strategy game with teams from all over the world. Last year there were 3600 teams competing from 209 universities worldwide.

The business simulation game starts all competitors on an equal footing: equal sales volume, revenues, profits, costs, and so on. CI business student groups are in competition with other student companies in other universities as they begin their competitive decision making and strategy formation.

“This is as close to real life business applications as you can get,” said Cordeiro. “In accordance with our interdisciplinary approach to learning, this project includes a group approach to work, pressure under deadlines, and integrated decision-making.” All of the simulated activity parallels CONTINUED »

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Last week San Cayetano Elementary School had student speeches for those who were running for the office of ASB President and ASB Vice-President. Pictured here is Christiana De La Mora who is giving her campaign speech to San Cayetano students. Christiana ended up winning her bid for the Vice-Presidency. Our new San Cayetano ASB President is Julian Calderon. Both students are 4th graders. Upon the election results the student officers were immediately put to work a few days later, hosting the monthly Peacebuilder Assembly. The ASB staff leader is Ms. Dewey.

Hello community! My name is Megan Louth and I am the new Commissioner of Publicity for the high school. As we enter the fifth week of the school year, I am excited to report that FHS is in full progression. In the welcome back festivities Back to School Night was held with a great turn out and the seniors won the welcome back rally. Fall sports have all started their seasons; football, cheerleading, cross country, girl’s golf and girl’s volleyball. Girl’s volleyball did an excellent job defeating Channel Islands in their season opener. Coach Woods is asking for all the support for the team so please stop by and cheer the girls on. He is also requesting any generous donations to help the girls have the best season possible. Please contact him at 805-794-7439 for more information. The first home game for football is Friday the 25th, please mark your calendars. The entire high school staff and student body would like to encourage the public to have Flashes pride the whole year; celebrating a hundred years of Fillmore excellence.

James Botting is Author of Bullets, Bombs, and Fast Talk.

Ventura, CA - Over the course of his career, James Botting would rescue hostages from an armed gunman; save airline passengers from a desperate skyjacker; deliver a kidnapped baby back into its parents’ arms; watch helplessly as a crazed madman commits mass suicide with his followers; help calm a prison riot; and much more. He’d come close to death a few times—sometimes perilously close, escaping in various ways. As he writes in his book, “Sometimes we were good, and sometimes we were lucky.”

After Botting’s retirement from the FBI, he worked in the film industry serving as head of security for a major studio. He then served as Chief of Police for the Ventura County Community College District for six years, from which he recently retired. He will be speaking on his life in the FBI and signing books available for purchase on Thursday, September 24 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the Reading Room of the Evelyn and Howard Boroughs Library on the Ventura College campus. Light refreshments will be served. For information on the event, please call 805-654-6462.

Sounds like the latest fiction hero from Vince Flynn or James Patterson, but Bullets,
Bombs, and Fast Talk isn’t a novel, and James Botting isn’t a fictional character. He was an FBI agent whose career saw him take part—sometimes peripherally, more often personally—in almost every major hostage incident over the course of his twenty-five years as a hostage CONTINUED »

Fillmore Unified School District

FILLMORE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2009
5:15 P.M. – CLOSED SESSION
6:00 P.M. - REGULAR MEETING
627 SESPE AVENUE, FILLMORE, 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 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 Conference with Real Property Negotiators (Government Code 54956.8) 707 First Street Negotiators: Mike Bush, Constance Swindt School District Pupils (Education Code 35146)
o Expulsion Case Number 09-10-01 Labor/Negotiations (Government Code 54957.6)
o Update; Direction to District Negotiators CONTINUED »

Grad Nite Live's Sandwich Meal fundraiser put on by Central Station is coming to a close Wed. Sept 30th, if you have purchased a ticket you have to use it on or before the 30th of September. Thank you for supporting Grad Nite Live and a big thanks to the senior students that participated in selling........Good Job!!

Principal Chrissy Schieferlie and 4Th grader Nathan Granados.

As students arrived for school at the drop of area Thursday morning they noticed something special had arrived for picture day. A mommy wildcat had moved her family of three little kittens into a dry drain just under the sidewalk. The wild kittens appeared to be about 5 or 6 weeks old and looked liked "little gray tigers". After the students settled into class the wildcat family was rescued from the drain and were placed in loving homes. Mountain Vista's school mascot is the "Wildcat", how perfect that cats showed up for picture day.

California State University Channel Islands

Camarillo, Calif., Sept. 9 - In recognition of National Preparedness Month, the Police department at CSU Channel Islands will be hosting a personal preparedness forum and fair to help individuals deal with emergencies that may arise. The forum and fair will take place on Sept. 21, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., in the South Quad of the campus. Students, faculty, staff, residents of University Glen, and the general public are encouraged to attend.

The forum provides an opportunity to hear preparedness professionals from the American Red Cross, Ventura County Public Health and the Citizen Emergency Response Team discuss important ways to be ready for an emergency.

With the threats of wildfires, earthquakes, and the H1N1 virus, individuals need to be prepared to take action, making a personal or family plan to deal with such contingencies in the home, neighborhood, workplace and school. They also need to create an emergency kit with appropriate supplies to get through the time when help may not be immediately available.

During September the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, sponsor of National Preparedness Month, is focusing on increasing public awareness on the importance of CONTINUED »

California State University Channel Islands

Camarillo, Calif. Sept. 8 – California State University Channel Islands announced that the National Science Foundation (NSF) recently honored Dr. Blake Gillespie, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, with the prestigious NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award.

The award, a five-year, $920,552 grant in recognition of Gillespie’s teaching and research in protein-ligand interactions and biomolecular dynamics, is supported by funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Gillespie’s project, ‘Binding and Biomolecular Dynamics in Undergraduate Teaching and Research,’ examines how proteins are affected by other molecules they encounter in the cell. Gillespie explained that he was focused on the forces that make biological molecules function or malfunction, that make proteins fold and unfold. Diseases like Alzheimer’s and Mad Cow are examples of proteins not folding properly. An understanding of this process will allow us to re-engineer biological molecules to do a better or different job,” maintains Gillespie.

Gillespie’s lab deals with the fundamentals of molecular biophysics. Many of his experiments and research will be woven directly into the curriculum of several CI science courses. Dr. Gillespie’s award will provide the University’s students in regular classes with CONTINUED »

California State University Channel Islands

Camarillo, Calif. Sept. 1 – California State University Channel Islands will present on Sept. 9 the results of the Camarillo Certified Farmers Market Patron Survey, developed through a University-community partnership between Camarillo Hospice and students and faculty in the sociology program at CSU-CI.

Students and faculty in the sociology program will formally present the results of the research study to representatives of Camarillo Hospice. The report will be presented by Dr. Dennis Downey, Associate Professor of Sociology, and by student Sara Griffin. The public event, which is co-sponsored by the University’s Center for Community Engagement, will be held on campus at 12 noon in the Martin V. Smith Center for Integrative Decision-Making.

Camarillo Hospice created the farmers market for the benefit of the community and local farmers and to provide additional revenue for the hospice operation.

This joint project was designed to give sociology students actual research survey experience and provide Camarillo Hospice with community-oriented data that CONTINUED »

Fillmore Unified School District

FILLMORE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 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
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 Conference with Legal Council – Existing Litigation (Government Code 54956.9)
Case 56-2008-0033-4613-ca-po-vta Conference with Real Property Negotiators (Government Code 54956.8)
707 First Street CONTINUED »