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There will be more information regarding the Conejo Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) posted here as time goes on. Return here for the latest information on our schools.
June 29, 2006 New superintendent Contini shares some
inventive views on education
Born with a bright mind and a thirst for science and technology, Mario Contini Jr. grew up outside of Cleveland dreaming of becoming a famous inventor. When he was 14, Contini created a mechanical alert system out of bicycle parts to be used by his father, Mario, who tended to drive the family's 1959 Fiat around town with the emergency brake still firmly in place. Contini's proud father shared his son's rudimentary invention with a few business associates from Fiat, a European automobile manufacturer. The next year, according to Contini, the company installed a nearly identical device in all of its new automobiles, but no acknowledgement, thanks or compensation was offered its young inventor. "It was the exact same hookup, only a little more finetuned, but of course they had a lot more to work with than I did. But for a little kid, mine was pretty good," said the generally humble Contini, who officially takes over this week as the new superintendent of Conejo Valley Unified School District (CVUSD). Contini, who's coming to CVUSD after more than 30 years in nearby Fillmore-11 as chief of schools-will be relied on to drum up plenty more of those bright ideas in the near future. The 59-year-old father of three already has two clear challenges ahead: (1) replacing a man the district sees as a superhero and (2) maintaining the success of a district that ranks as one of the best in the state. It's well known that test scores in Fillmore rose during Contini's tenure, and he said he's aware that one of his most important roles will be as motivator, someone to keep the district's staff energized. "A beautiful pond that sits stagnant isn't going to be beautiful for very long," Contini said. "So it's important that we recirculate the water and we keep enriching it and adding nutrients to the good things we have here." The new superintendent has wasted no time beginning to identify areas of need in the district. "We still have a handful of (English language learners) that need to be moved up, and we still have some real high-achieving students that need alternative opportunities," Contini said. "So I think what we really have to do is keep our eyes open and our efforts at full speed ahead to keep things improving no matter how good they are." Although the percentage of English language learners in CVUSD is much smaller than in Fillmore, Contini will still face the challenge of narrowing the achievement gap, something the California education system has struggled with for decades. He said he's a staunch supporter of challenging English learners to achieve more, not lowering standards to accommodate them. "Because ultimately what we're doing is a disservice to them. These kids are not going to be able to compete in real society . . . unless we do everything we can to get them caught up," Contini said. "We have to be real careful not to use poverty or language-the limitations these kids face-as an excuse," he continued. "It's our job to overcome the odds." Part of what it takes to overcome those odds-and to make all Conejo Valley schools better-is funding, and economically things are looking up in the district. Thanks to millions of new dollars the state has guaranteed to schools, in part because of the largest costof-living increase in many years, CVUSD will have money to spend-at least for now. Contini said choosing how to spend that money wisely is a challenge for all districts, including his own. He said he's aware some Californians aren't happy with politicians and school administrators who just want to throw money at the state's public education problems. "I think we have to be very careful, very strategic in how we spend the money. It has to be used efficiently," Contini said. "When we're looking at two programs, we have to ask ourselves, 'If we're going to spend money on program A versus program B, which one is going to produce the better return?'" Contini strongly supports competitively compensating teachers and staff, calling them "the basis of everything we do for kids." Nevertheless, the new superintendent got a healthy dose of conflict last year when the Fillmore teachers' union declared a vote of no confidence in him over an impasse in teachers' pay. Here in the Conejo, he expects to create a good working relationship with the local teachers' union, which is in a well-publicized battle with school board member Mike Dunn. "I think the superintendent is a pivot point in the relationship between the teachers, the board and the administration," the Thousand Oaks resident said. "And in my mind, the teachers and all other employees are vital because they're the ones that make education come alive for kids." When asked if he felt teachers' unions in California were gaining too much power, Contini simply said, "Unions should be strong." Asked to comment on the debate about teaching values in school, an issue that came to a head last year in CVUSD during a battle over the definition of marriage in textbooks, Contini reiterated the popular notion that "it takes a village to raise a child." "Ultimately, the responsibility for teaching values is everybody's, but it starts with the family, it starts with the home," he said. "Whether we're talking about schools or shopping malls or movie theaters, I hope all of these areas emphasize and help reinforce values and morals and ethics." Contini said he dealt with a similar conflict over reading materials in Fillmore and with a misguided parent-scare that condoms were going to be handed out at Fillmore High School. "Sometimes it's a hard call and you just have to be careful there and try to reflect the common views. Fortunately, when you take things collectively, most people do have a pretty high expectation of values and morals," he said. Contini said only by working through conflict can a district and a superintendent hope to earn the public's trust.
September 3, 2005 Save Our Children from Mediocre Math I am hoping to help influence the next CVUSD School Board Election, in that our organization would like the district to provide state approved math text books and instruction to students who would choose them. We will have a voter information page on our web site within the next few months detailing candidates that support "Math Choice" and those who voted in favor of the "fuzzy math" program now in use. Currently the CVUSD is using the Everyday Math curriculum which was rejected TWICE by the State Board of Education. The secondary mission of SOCMM is to inform CVUSD parents of the sub standard quality of the districts Math Education, and provide them with resources to supplement their children's math education. Please go to our website for more
information on this very important issue:
http://socmm.home.att.net
From: Cathy Carlson mlmlcc@yahoo.com Please pass this on, and I'd like to hear from some
lawyers.
Subject: Conejo Valley Unified School District
May 24, 2004 Letter from Linda Van Dolsen to DR. Fraisse RE: The Boys & Girls Club Dear Dr. Fraisse: There have been promotions to "bring a friend for free"
which is a great marketing tool, but these "free friends" should not be included
in the numbers as if they were paying members. Something just doesn't add up
here. The District should talk to the merchants in the shopping center down the
street from Los Cerritos and see if they have seen any
drop in the number of students descending on them in the afternoon since the BGC
has opened. Just from casual observation, there seem to be just as many
students pouring into the center after school as before.
December 6, 2003 Here we go again! Property taxes for
the CVUSD! Is it needed? Hold onto your wallet !
February 4, 2002 $356 MILLION DOLLAR SCHOOL BOND ON THE MARCH 2002 BALLOT WILL COST VENTURA COUNTY TAXPAYERS $18.97 PER $100,000 OF ASSESSED VALUATION FOR THIRTY (30) YEARS. If your home is assessed at $500.000 your yearly tax bill will increase by $112.90 for the next 30 years. Let's see; WHEN ARE WE GOING TO DEMAND FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY FROM OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS? In December 4, 2001, the District's governing board unanimously voted to place a $356 million general obligation bond on the March 2002 Ventura County ballot. If passed, the bond would financially support the renovation, upgrading and building of needed facilities throughout the District. The bonds would be sold in increments over a period of 10 years. It's important to know that Ventura County taxpayers would pay $18.97 per $100,000 of assessed value on their yearly property tax bill until the bond is paid off in 30 years. The law specifies that citizen oversight committees would be in place to oversee the sale and repayment of the bonds (Oh Yea!, we have seen how well that has worked in Thousand Oaks) and the construction of each project. Want more information: List of Projects or
View the Board
Resolution for the Bond Measure
Copy of the March Ballot! NOTE: THERE IS NO MENTION OF THE CONEJO VALLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT FUNDS. DO YOU THINK THAT WAS INTENTIONAL? O WHERE, O WHERE, HAS THE SCHOOL BOND MONEY GONE? O WHERE, O WHERE, HAS IT GONE? TOO WASTE, TOO WASTE IN FOOLISH SPENDING WITHOUT OVERSIGHT. AW SHUCKS, LET'S DO IT AGAIN IT'S ONLY THE HOMEOWNERS MONEY!
August 9, 2001 RE: Community happy to see Superintendent Gross Leave" Many Conejo Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) parents are very happy to see this Superintendent leave office. These parents would be ecstatic if the other non-valued added administrative staff (School Board, Simpson, Mortimer, Bannon, etc.) would do us the pleasure and go with Gross. The Conejo Valley Unified School District Administrative office (Managers, Supervisors, Instructional personal, etc) are way over paid and provide no benefit to our children. They all could leave and no one would even notice. Then we can use the 5 million dollars a year in salary and pay for additional professional teachers, teachers assistance and other professionals that work directly with our children. Students do well in the CVUSD because a) great teachers, teachers aids, principals and other staff at each school b) Motivated students c) Parent participation d) Smart parents, smart children. The teachers, staff, active parents and good children deserve the credit for high test scores, not the School Board, Gross, Simpson, etc. Each student’s performance on tests is a direct result of each child’s commitment to study the material and their support from Teachers and active Parents. This School Board and Gross do not fix into this scenario, yet they boast about how well students achieve in this district is because of them. Nothing can be more from the truth. In these eight long years, Gross has accomplished the following: 1) Allowed the schools to fall apart while in his leadership role 2) Mismanaged the school budgets for 8 years 3) Pushed through a 88 Million dollar bond measure that was not needed 4) Wasted million of dollars on hiring Lawyers to fight parents to prevent children from receiving an appropriate education 5) allowed and approved of the district to continue to violate Federal and State Public Education law. In conclusion, don’t let the door hit you on your way out! Do us all a favor and take the rest of your Management and staff who read newspapers and take 3-hour lunches. Let’s take that money and put it to real use by hiring more teachers and staff and reward those who really deserve it. Barry Gabrielson
August
8, 2001
January 26, 2001
QUESTIONS:
SCHOOL BOARD FORUM A School board Forum Sponsored by The Network for the CVUSD Board of Trustees was held on Saturday afternoon September 16, 2000 at the Thousand Oaks Public Library on Janss Road.
The residents in attendance submitted 54 questions. The two top issues were; Overcrowding of our Schools and Developers contribution to schools There will be more information regarding the goings on at CVUSD as time goes on come back here for information as Issues are exposed!
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