Fillmore Unified School District administrators told the board they expect stable enrollment near the district’s recent average of about 3,700 students, highlighted efforts to reduce interdistrict transfers and reported a 94% teacher retention rate and 81.5% of teachers holding clear credentials.

Roger Adams, assistant superintendent for human resources and student services, presented site‑level enrollment trends, interdistrict transfer data and staffing metrics. Adams said the district has averaged roughly 3,700 students outside the pandemic years and that common reasons families give for transfers are parent employment, childcare needs and continuing enrollment in the district where students previously attended.

Adams said the district’s interdistrict transfer count for 2025–26 was about 75 so far, and that number typically rises over the summer. He noted that many transfers represent students who enrolled elsewhere in early grades and have continued in those districts rather than a large, new outflow from the district.

On staffing, Adams said Fillmore Unified is nearly fully staffed, reported a 94% retention rate for current staff, and that 81.5% of teachers hold clear credentials. He described a teacher satisfaction survey of educators employed three years or less, which produced a 40% response rate and identified priorities including protected planning time, workload balance and relevant professional development.

Administrators then discussed attendance. District leaders presented a tiered approach to raise the daily attendance rate back toward a pre‑pandemic target of about 97%: tier 1 focuses on culture, daily outreach and site‑level campaigns; tier 2 expands recovery options such as Saturday academies, intersession programs and short‑term independent study; tier 3 targets intensive interventions for chronically absent students, including School Attendance Review Team (SART) processes.

Elva Gonzalez Nares, director of expanded learning, multilingual learners and quality programs, described the new attendance‑recovery program created under Senate Bill 153 and how the district intends to use it. Under SB 153 the district may allow students to “bank” up to 10 days of attendance recovery for apportionment purposes, subject to specific requirements: immediate supervision by a certificated employee; instruction that is substantially equivalent to the regular school day and aligned to grade‑level standards; staff‑to‑student ratios of 10:1 for TK and 20:1 for other grades; and minimum instructional minutes per recovered day (TK 180 minutes; grades 1–3 230 minutes; grades 4–12 240 minutes). Attendance is taken hourly and tracked separately from regular day attendance.

Gonzalez Nares said the district will allow summer 2025 programs beginning July 1 to bank recovery time that parents and students can apply to future absences during the 2025–26 school year; the current summer scholars academy runs June 16–July 16 and sites were enrolling students. Administrators said Saturday schools, intersessions and expanded‑learning opportunities will be part of the recovery toolkit and that the district will monitor results and scale offerings if needed.

Board members sought operational details. Trustees asked about thresholds that trigger attendance letters and SART referrals; staff said the district flags chronic absenteeism at 10% of enrolled days and that automated attendance letters are issued early (attendance letter 1 after three unexcused absences), with site‑level meetings and SART processes escalating for continuing absence. Trustees also asked about short‑term independent study, the interplay between banking and Saturday programs, and whether specialized programming or childcare challenges were driving transfers.

Administrators said they will continue outreach to commuting families, increase community visibility (tours, social media and partnerships with local sports groups), and promote independent study options such as Heritage Valley Independent Study for families seeking flexible online models. Adams asked sites to run targeted campaigns, protect planning time for teachers and use teacher feedback to refine workload and professional development.

No formal board vote was required for the informational presentation. Staff said they will return with monitoring metrics and recommended attendance‑implementation steps for the coming year.