>> as parents we feel frustrated not only at chavez but all the schools where latino children go because we feel like we've been given the run-around specifically about specific information we've asked for in this process, and in general, you know, five to six years ago there were 16-20 kids per class and the classes have gotten too large and we ask that state officials and district officials take the time to look at really what's happening at our schools and figure out how to give the best

education to our children. [speaking in spanish] >> at our school one of the

things that we really want is an assistant principal. mostly because our principal doesn't have time to meet with teachers or to supervise them the appropriate way because she has too much stuff she has to handle and so that we would like there to be an assistant principal. also, that the district needs to come and hold the administration accountable to ensure that the kids are getting the proper education that they deserve. >> thank you. and thank you for translating. next speaker, please. [speaking in spanish]

>> good afternoon, my name is dennis, i'm also a parent of a child at cesar chavez elementary school and also want to talk about how frustrating the process has been in general. right now at cesar chavez as parents we're preparing for the school reform and what we would like is the district to support the parents as we go forward with this reform process, and in addition, on the grant, we'd like for the district to ensure that the parents -- the vision of the parents is taken as part of the application.

>> thank you very much. next speaker. >> my name is luis esperoza and am at the community center and have been working closely with the parents at cesar chavez. and also at the high school which is on the list. so like the parents have stated, we've had several meetings with many different officials, state, federal, local officials. it's been really, really frustrating i think in general. there's just a lot of information. it's a short period of time. it's a short process. we understand that the district and the school board and everyone's trying to get the information at the same time at everyone else but it's just been a little difficult because we've had very specific questions and i think just to a certain extent the parents have felt very frustrated and feel they're not getting a straight answer even saying -- we don't know" or "we're trying to figure it out, too" and being

upfront where the district is and transparency in the process is one of the things that's been extremely frustrating for the parents. and also because of the amount of meetings we've had i think the turnout for today is so low because just at cesar chavez this is our fourth meeting this week around s.i.g. and the s.i.g. process and it just goes to tell how important this is for a lot of parents. and think that because of the frustration about the process strategically what we've decided at cesar chavez or the parents have decided is stop kind of protesting about the process. we think in general the process has been kind of unfair but that strategically we keep on protesting the process that we're going to be left behind on the decisions that are going to be made to affect our school. what the parents have decided is they've decided they want to start looking at reform and what margaret said about this being the beginning and what the parents need to do in order to engage and in order to

educate themselves and in order to figure out how they can make informed decisions and educated decisions about the process they see at their school so that's where we're at and we'd like to ask the district to support our parents in that process. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> my name is alberto leon from cesar chavez. i have two students that attend that school. i would like to mention it's a fabulous school with fabulous resources. i wanted to comment on meetings with the community. i feel that up until this point in time meetings have been recently established, it would be great if it became a two-way street not just a one-way street and us looking out for the school district but the school district coming out and looking out for us. there has been that participation from the school district lately but hope it continues on to the future. there's been a very high

frustration, especially including myself and within our community over the s.i.g. no information has been uniform, basically we hear what the state is saying. we also heard what was said by the u.s. deputy as well which didn't correlate at all with the state and that's how i guess a lot of these changes have come about. also, these children are bilingual. i'm not just speaking of the children of a latin origin but speak of albie lingual children. the testing be some way reformed to be where they can be tested in their language as well and see what their competency is. we can take a naturalization test. we can take a driver's license test, an i.d., a business app, etc., in other languages. i'm almost done, i'm sorry. i know my time is up. also, we have to have a clear

vision, a mission and it needs to be clear all the way through. and people need to be held accountable, not just at the school level but also at a district level. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. thank you for being here. next speaker, please. >> hi, my name is jose guadeloupe estevan martinez and i'm the guardian of one student. and also i -- [inaudible] >> one of the things i'd like to say to both bodies is we need to know more about what is going on in the schools to really come up with a good plan. i mean, we're talking about there is a lot of e.l.d. students, you know, and the first thing i see in the minutes on my -- in the s.a.c.

is the position to help those students have been cut and tried to have meetings with our principal and -- [inaudible] >> and i know it's hard. but i want everybody to stop -- i think the funds are allocated to that kind of e.l.d. so why we have to cut that, you know? and why have to hold the government is going to give us money to restrain that and may be double. so that's one of the things i think we should have planted in the new plan. [inaudible] will be at the md administration of the principal. the other is security. in my school, i don't know if you know, there was an explosion a couple months ago, could have killed like a lot of kids. i thought it was like not good to return the kids that day. i let the principal know but, you know, it's not happening. we just went back. i sent a letter to the

principal, carlos garcia, it was nothing, you know. it happened today. yesterday, as a matter of fact, a kid was being harassed by a dude in a car and i was in my car and i saw the kid was not engaging with this guy in conversation and i kind of followed -- [inaudible] >> thank you so much. thank you. next speaker, please. >> i'm just going to give about one minute of my time so he can finish his statement. >> the way it works, let me ask you a question, can you tell us what else happened? >> the thing is that nothing happened at my school. i reported and write and done everything and now i feel harassed and my principal is put in a place -- you know, the dean said she didn't say that and then my principal called me up yesterday and told me are

you part of the team or not? i just want to say i came here because i see the thing, as a kid able to do in a statement to protect himself when he has been a victim and do it any time, anywhere they feel to or they have to go to the principal first and do it. i think it's very important we have the liberty to express ourselves and if somebody committed a crime or not, should be protected by both bodies and the school and everybody and all the students in it, as a matter of fact. and i think should be a complete investigation of what is going on in my school, the battle has been burned. they don't open the bathrooms, the kids protest. there are no bathrooms open. i would love to see, especially you and the district come and work inside my school and see what is going on with it. thank you very much. >> i'd be happy to follow up with you. i'd be happy to give you my

card. thank you for your comments. next speaker, please. >> hi, i'm lorraine orlandy and 79 of the paul revere p.t.a. thank you very much for this opportunity. we at paul revere are trying to take the situation as an opportunity that seems to be the buzzword today, though we share many of the frustrations that have been expressed here by representatives of other schools, the lack of clarity, kind of a lack of guidance or direction that we've had so far. we understand that in some case there is simply are no answers to these questions but in our case because we moved relatively quickly to organize and respond to the situation, we would ask the district to give us clarification as soon as possible. for example, on the question of whether paul revere will be a transformation school or under a different model. we already have a working group formed that is developing specific proposals for the use

of any s.i.g. money that would come our way and philosophically we feel that we are a transformation school in the sense we've already undergone a turn around and complete reconstitution. so we want to be sure that we're in alignment with our goals and our vision of ourselves and our future are in line with what the district plans to put forth. all of that means better communication, i think, with the district, better than the communication that we've had so far. we also are concerned about the timing of all of this. just quickly to catch you up, we've had a series of community meetings immediately early in the process, largely because our -- of a decision by our leadership, by our principal he would step down which meant we needed to respond right away to the other issues and not fight for our principal and we've since, having had two very large community meetings, also had at least two teacher meetings, had several other meetings with community members

through the principal, etc., has collected a lot of information which is now going into a relatively sophisticated grant proposal. a lot of which was already touched on by marg rat brodkin. >> thank you so much. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, everyone, my name is rachel agora and i thank you supervisors for putting this on the agenda. i'm here mainly because i'm the community convener and also community engagement at bernheight community center and am here to support the leadership at paul revere preparatory school. i've been at both community meetings and attended and assisted in those, a few p.t.a. meetings, as well as many monthly community collaborative meetings at paul revere school and i'm proud to say i continue to be inspired by the level of engagement, dedication, and leadership of the parents, school administration, teachers, students and

community members there. i also want to make sure to acknowledge that the active at paul revere goes beyond its walls as i know how much it has positively impacted the rest of the neighborhood school in vernal heights. the strategic thinking of the paul revere school community cannot be underestimated so i hope the school district supports and moves forward with the transformation model for this school. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. my name is tara ramos and teach fourth grade at paul revere school. i just wanted to build off what ms. brodkin was saying about the new day for learning. i agree at these schools we need mental health service. i would like to appeal to the supervisors that you guys look into what you can do to help heal our communities because mental health services are not dressing the issues of violence

that our students are living with on a daily basis and people talk about students have post-traumatic stress disorder, more like permanent traumatic stress disorder because they're constantly living with violence and other problems. when i say that, i don't necessarily mean more police officers, i mean engaging in the difficult work of healing centuries of trauma that the communities of the mission and that the bay view hunter's point communities have been through which is the students we serve at paul revere school. and speaking on trauma, i am very fearful of these bold measures that the federal government is imposing upon us. they are not based in research and they just say, well, they're not based in research but we need to be bold. well, this bold action that they're taking is going to be very traumatic, especially in the case of willie brown school. i hear what you guys are saying, the building is not in good condition. i also am very wary and makes

me very uneasy that another school in the bay view hunter's point community will be closed and that at one of 9 schools where there are actually still african-american teachers, that that school is going to be closed. so it makes me very uneasy that the willie brown school would be closed and from these bold new measures, since we don't have the research, we can look at the experience, five years ago paul revere and willie brown both went through a process just like this under -- in the dream school under arlene ackerman. the staff was -- what was the result? what we have today. >> thank you very much. thank you. next speaker, please. hi, supervisor daly, campos and dufty and commissioner mendoza and i hope that commissioner fewer would have been here to listen. my name is richard johnson. i have a near and dear passion

to john deere and why i'm here, it was good to hear some issues about john mere but i think it was glossed over the true dynamics of what will turn john mear around as a school. one of the things is it you're going to do a community school it has to have the full support of the community. john mear, if it was going by what your placement is, it would be an overenrolled school. but due to many parents' fears of enrolling in the school, they choose not to choose their neighborhood school. so it goes back to the heart of john mear and western addition schools as key institutions. they haven't been a key institution for quite some time, especially in my neighborhood. bevan, you have a daughter coming up school age, we are reaching out, i'm an active person that goes around and recruits parents in the

neighborhood. but it's the political will of our city to address certain schools are underperforming because of their demographics. ours is the case in point of that. and until the city has, with its will, encouraging the parents and we could say the name, enroll their kids, it would balance the school. but at the same time i want to assure that the kids that have been cast there as castaways definitely get to rise with the water as the boat goes up. the other thing is also, as i said, the high needs, if your description of what the mission captured john mear to the full extent. you have very bright children. >> thank you. thank you very much. >> i do support the learning date. >> next speaker, please. i know we have also commissioner jones from the youth commission who has also

signed up to speak. thank you. >> good afternoon, my name is cassandra coe and am with -- [speaking in spanish] the program manager for the early intervention program. the institute provided help to the schools in many years and in two of the candidate schools and are working closely with new day learning at another site as well that's not identified. i just want to put a plug in here to reinforce mostly what margaret has already covered but the need -- the mental health needs of our children and families. and i'm so glad mental health and emerging mental health needs. in just the -- we have tremendous need for families to have culturally competent support where they can feel they belong to the communities. and the model that margaret was referring to really is a

comprehensive, integrated model where parents are equal partners with teachers and with staff as well as with the mental health specialists, so it's approaching the work really from the strength of the family and from the strengths of the community. in building these relationships. and we believe that we are more effective if we help students stay in the classrooms instead of being pulled out for services. so doing more and more inside support and this is speaking to the needs of teachers and providing them with the tools to understand both the mental health needs and behavioral needs of their students. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. my name is claudia hasine, at executive director of the community center. thank you very much for calling this hearing. i'm here because i first wan he i'm here because i first want to let you know how proud i am of the parents at the cesar chavez elementary school and they've really demonstrated a tremendous amount of leadership and i know it may sound like a

negative kind of energy but i hope what you heard today was a demonstration of the potential that parents could have as leaders in every school in these 10 schools and in every school in the district, so this is just a small sampling of what parents are capable of in terms of wanting to turn schools around. i also want to say at the same time that i want to acknowledge the district has listened. and that is also very significant. they were not necessarily planning to put chavez in phase 2 from what we heard at the beginning but because they have been willing to come out and listen to our parents and listen to the communities, both at carver and at chavez, they've made a decision that has made the community very happy. and finally, i want to say that i'm involved in a lot of exciting conversations because of this, yes, the time line is short but we're trying to take full advantage of this and from my perspective, one of the biggest opportunities, the

opportunity to align our expanded learning, after school activities with in-school learning. that is just going to make the school better. it's going to help schools achieve. it's going to help communities come together and it's going to help develop the leadership of our parents. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisor dufty, commissioner jones, ms. mendoza, sorry. supervisor campos and supervisor daly, i'm anthony jones of the san francisco youth commission. and just quickly, i go to mission high school, who you know was on the list of the low performing schools and as some of you may know, it is also a majority of our student body are english learners. and i think one of the things we need to take into consideration is that fact.

most of the schools that were on the list, a high number of them were located in the mission district. and i think what has to be addressed is that they test us in english and that we do have students who have trouble with that test. give an example, at mission high school, just last week when the schools were doing the tate tests -- the state tests. and one of the students had to take that test. and we need to take into consideration students have trouble with english and we need to definitely make some type of, i think there have to be concessions made for schools with high numbers of english learner students. because they test only in english. and even better. let's make it multilingual. that's the only information i

have. thank pufment >> next speaker, bless. >> my name is valerie tulane, director of community beacon and we want to publicly announce we have a victory by default but it's a victory nonetheless that we're able to keep the beacon at everett middle school for one more year and that we've been granted a community process. however, i do want to say i think we really need to should at the lowest performing schools and it's been mentioned over and over and even though everett isn't in supervisor dufty's district we consider that the greater mission and it's one of the lowest performing schools and it's a tragedy to move resources out of that school and we should really think about maintaining all of the performing schools with all the resources that they have, including beacon which did suffer a severe cut. i also wanted to advocate for other programs and ask the school district to support c.b.o.'s and their effort to get funding.

for example, meppy on 24th street was completely cut. they do a wonderful tutoring program and we need to have the school district help to support other c.b.o.'s and understand holistically that schools cannot be the only answer to this low performance. i also want to make recommendations as what is the school district doing to really study best practices for african-american youth and latino youth? what is it that -- what are some magic ways of teaching our students of color? there are specific strategies that work and are more effective and we really need to focus on looking at those strategies. and i just want to suggest that we do focus and that we not think that there's a defect with our youth. there's not a defect, there's a defect in how we're teaching them and we need to find comprehensive strategies to teach our kids to bring them up to their potential. thank you.

>> mr. paulson, could you hold on? i think that we have a quorum right now. we don't. can we take a very short recess until we have a quorum. >> and we are back. before you go, mr. paulson, let me read a couple more names, ann bell ibanez, claudia jason that spoke already, chelsea baylor. if there is any other member of the public who has not spoken that would like to speak, please come up. it's all yours, mr. paulson. >> thank you. [we'll make the students

so smart we'll make it seem it's a brand-new school start we're going to balance the budget just like a toy balloon yes you guys are looking to the space skies looking through the items hoping city hall doesn't forget your school we'll make the students feel so smart we'll make it seem like it's a brand-new school start school bells should be rung force fierce and all the school money in the air should be fun i know you're going to do good today because you get a great big a ♪

your school your school makes you smart and you're going to have a brand-new start feel like a school bell should be rung and all the money school in the air should be flung i know you're going to do good today because you're going to get a great big a we'll make you feel so smart we'll make you feel like your school is a brand-new start and bells in the school willing rung and all the school money will be in the air flung and you're going to do good today because you're going to get a great big you're going to get a great big a ♪