helped me out a lot. -- and she helped me out a lot. ughest times of my life. and i do not know what i -- i do not know if i would still be practically alive if it was not for her. after meeting this wax -- after meeting miss wax, i wanted to drop out. she made me keep in school and keep my grades up. eventually, i was able to graduate and attend the sacred heart cathedral prep with people scholarship in a program that provides everything, and i do not have to pay anything, because the parents really

cannot afford the school, which is something i also think her for because i do not know what high school i would be in or where i would be if it was not for her. the difference she made -- the lsps making school is a huge difference. i know my story, my theme, is big, but there are thousands of kids that have where stories than me that do not have anybody to talk to. and i know many of them. there is a group in the mission that is called young life. many of those kids seek for help in middle school. that is when i think it is most important to get it, because that is the key part of your life, because you do not know anybody. you need help from people to guide you, and you cannot find much of that these days. in school, they think your whole life is inside the laws, but we have a whole life outside the laws, outside of school.

mostly, everybody in school does not know that. they just think we go to school, go home, eat, and sleep, and that is it. that is not our lives. we have more things to worry about. it is really good to have somebody like her at school, and just everything. she helped me stay in school. she also plays soccer. i have been in versus the since my freshman year at sacred heart cathedral. and she helped me stay in that. she knew it was a good opportunity permit to get my mind off things aside from school, and because she knows you can't be in school without having thoughts about other things. it was good that she helped me stay in that, too. i eventually -- just for now, i stay in school. i passed my freshman year. i get good grades. currently i have a 3.33. i take honors classes.

[applause] i take honors classes, and i made it to the police academy team, which is the best known players around the area of northern california. i also represent san francisco in that team, because i am the only guy from san francisco on it. i just think there should be -- like i said before, i think there should be more lsps around san francisco. even elementary schools have too many kids that seek help, but do not know where to find it. i just really want to get in everybody's mind that this is a very important job to keep in schools. thank you. [applause] >> i really want to thank both

of you for coming to speak with us today. this is really about us restoring many things our public schools need besides construction, many of the things we had to cut when prop. 13 passed, which is counseling and a lot of our leadership. i think it is really important for the board to hear how this funding impact students, and it impact your ability to learn in school, your ability to be leaders, your ability to be in a safe environment and to be successful. thank you so much for sharing your personal story with us tonight. >> i would like to recognize miss wax, who is in the audience, to stand. [applause] >> i'm want to echo your thanks for leshawn and william for

coming out and being very brave and talking about incredible impact of these programs. these young people exemplify the impact these programs have on students in our district. there are 55 students like them who are reached by these programs. these programs in gauge, excite, and enhance the learning process for our students. they are given greater exposure to pursue interests outside of the classroom, and greater support from trained professionals to help students cope with issues that may disrupt the learning process. that said, this finding supports a whole list of -- supports a holistic approach to students in schools. without it, our young people will not reach our full potential. because of the athletics and physical education, our students are more inclined to be healthy and active. we support the mental health and well-being of our students in remarkable ways you have just heard. we have created a more inclusive

community by providing translation and interpretation services to support the language diversity of the families in our district. we know parent engagement is a key factor in students' success. these students support that involvement and lead to more engagement in the school community. in light of the importance of these programs, we have formulated the following recommendations. this year, peef's budget so reductions to learning support professionals mean that a number of schools do not have social workers and school nurses. we recommend restoring learning support professionals as much as possible so that all the elementary schools, middle schools, and k-eight sites have support. in addition to restoring the reductions to the lsp program, we recommend that no further cuts be made to those programs.

lastly, we recommend that improving transparency around funding decisions for the 33rd programs, understanding the process by which decisions are made by funding reductions, and program considerations -- and program continuations will help include the community in that. thank you. we hope you will consider these recommendations. this year, we will continue to inform the public about peef and it's important to students and their families, as well as getting feedback from community members about the impact and priorities. we will not work with parent groups, community organizations -- we will network with parent groups, community organizations, and others to build awareness. we will direct students to hear about student perspectives. we will form peef priorities for

our schools. >> comments and questions from the board? commissioner yee: i want to join president kim's words about the youth who came out to speak today. thank you for sharing your stories, because there were very powerful. these are the type of things the public have to hear. sometimes, we get a chance to hear some things, but there is just not enough. there are so many of the stories that are out there, yet it is not being told. i am glad you are here today. go back to your friends. if they also have had the same positive experience that you have had, ask them to step forward to tell their stories. really, san francisco has to hear this. thank you very much. commissioner norton: first of all, i want to thank you gentlemen for coming and talking to us. it really was very powerful to hear your stories.

i think you are both impressive young men. i cannot wait to see what happens later in your life. i am sure you are going on to great things. i do have a question for our committee, particularly around the recommendation about the transparency around the button. can you be -- around the budgeting. can you be a little more specific about what did not happen this last year that you are recommending should happen in subsequent years around the third third and subsequent communication about that? >> there are a number of things within the third third budget. we have a reserve fund which was removed from the peef funding formula. that was $4 million, which is a significant chunk. we had lsd cuts that were quite significant. students are concerned about losing the lsps at their school.

the third thing is we had the violence prevention programs eliminated, which according to last year's statistics served 10,000 students. but that was eliminated, and the implementation of the replacement program, restorative justice -- i do not know well -- i do not know how well that has been. i will not go into that. but all those are decisions that were made, let us just put it that way. i think in the future we can be more specific in recommendations as to the overall budget. obviously, there are certain conduct restraints where the school district is $100 million in the hole. so i understand all that. but if we are going to be a community advisory committee, if we are going to participate in the process, we want to participate in the process. commissioner norton: just to

make sure i understand, it sounds like what you're saying is there was not any outreach to the committee about the decisions being made about the third third. it was after the fact thanks for your recommendations, and now we going to do something different with the money? >> yes. [laughter] it is a stark way of putting it. commissioner norton: i am sorry to interrupt. but in this moment you are an advisory body to the board of education. and with the most candor, you can advise us. that is what we are requesting. if it is that all possible, i would like to be as direct and as candid as possible about your experiences. and try not to mince words. i am not indicating you are doing that, but these are some

of the few times that we have with you, and we would love -- i can say personally that i want to hear every possible new ones -- nuance that you need for us to know about your circumstances and situations and what you have to deal with and manage, so that we can help you help us. >> well, i think overall there was not much clarity from school leaders around what was being done with funds they had in the budgets prior years. and there was uncertainty in terms of the lsp position for how to really address that need when there were some severe cuts to that portion of support we were getting at the school, particularly to the violence prevention. it was expressed that there was a certain amount of autonomy around with that money was used for, and there were able to

build on things and, you know, start to see an impact. and the board went in a different direction with a new program, but they just kind of felt like they were not explained -- it was not explained to them clearly, so they were just confused and sort of distraught, and maybe a little frustrated. you obviously have leadership. you have a direction you want to take the city. and the funds came directly out of what they're trying to do before. so i guess more exchange and collaboration is what they were seeking in future fund decisions at that level. commissioner fewer: i want to extend a note of appreciation to all the members, because i had served on the committee, i know,

for many, many years, so i know it is time consuming. i know some of the meetings and very light. i know it is completely voluntary. i would like to thank you for your participation in this. and then i would just like to say that i want to thank you for listening to all the stories that people told you. and i know that you were out listening to the community this year, and reading all of these comments from people, and i am sure there are many more, this really brings it to life about what the money is about. and i think these are the kind of stories that we do want to capture, because we will have to renew this money in 2015. so the stores are out able -- are valuable. it is the impact of the stories like you gentleman shared with us today. we hope we are compiling this so we can show the voters that this has been a good thing for the children of san francisco.

and also, to address the transparency, i agree that we need to do a better -- we can always do a better job of transparency. but one of the frustrations when i was on the committee was that we had some evaluative measures but we never sought impacts. that means that the numbers -- the device which and we got back was never about how this money -- we could say so many were served. we could say so many. but we never really talked about the evaluation around impact. when we talk about the violence prevention, for example, you remember perhaps that commissioner maufas and i came to address your committee to explain where the money it was going and where we saw it being used for, somewhat redirected from the school sites. but you might recall that when i

was on the committee that we did get reports of what the money was used for, and it was not showing impacts for violence prevention. so we saw some trips to the real world. we saw some other things that we did not know how it was impacting actually violence prevention. i am going to ask the public to be patient with us on the restorative justice monies that we are using. and i would like to also noted that it is not the entire amount of violence prevention funds that were allocated previous years. 911,000 was put to violence prevention funds the previous year, and this year to restore to justice money was cut by close to -- this year the restorative justice money was cut by about 300,000. so i think that when we look at where the money is being spent and how it is being spent, i think what the board really wants to know is -- is this

really having an impact? and what impact is it really having in our students' life? we can do quantitated numbers about how many we serve, but we are also looking for that qualitative -- what are the measures we can use that really show impact? i think what you put in your report today about a lot of experiences, and the voices of people on school sites that are serving, the parents, and the students, that is a type of very voluble information that we really love to hear, and i think the public likes to hear, too. the moneys are being spent and children and parents are really appreciating these extra moneys, particularly in this hard budget time, that there is this fund that is actually going to serving our students. i want to also say that i hope that we will, when we do more evaluation around this, that we will be able to measure the impact as far as the other

programs, like our arts and libraries and sports and athletics. what is the real impact it is having? in the next budget on the 15, we are able to show some results of that. but i really want to thank you for being part of this committee. i know that i still have one more point, but everyone i have asked to be on this -- my other appointee has said this is so much work i cannot do it. when i see you here tonight and know all the other nights you have been at these meetings, i really want to extend our heartfelt appreciation and gratitude for all your time and service to the children of this district. thank you. commissioner wynns: actually, some of my comments will follow and be in line with some of the things that commissioner fewer said. i want to thank all of you. a particularly thank you young

men for testifying this evening. i think it is a difficult thing to do. we thank you very much for that. this is what i have been thinking. i appreciate that we have -- we are evaluating the individual program funded through prope h, to the public in richmond fund, as much as we can. but i do not know and am interested in the staff meeting representation to us about how we actually can look at the -- the goals we have set for the district and how we think these resources are helping us reach them, if they are. because what i think is that there are -- most of the things, and i appreciate the work and recommendations of all committees, going back to the beginning, because really it was the committees to came up with the recommendations for the areas we should fund, especially with the third third -- the were

all mostly things that we all wanted to have in our schools. student support, mostly. the enrichment part through the first third. and help with our efforts to focus on improvement for the whole district. however, it seems to me that within that large tent or umbrella, where these are things we know are good in schools and students can use and will benefit them, and all the evidence in your report of otherwise tells us that -- we know all that. but it is not in context. that is what i am hoping that we will -- i know it is hard to do, but it seems to me we need to have a way to try to put in context all those resources, particularly the very limited resources we now have, and to say we think this is getting us toward those goals, or we think

this is nice to have but maybe not getting us toward those goals. and then we would be able, with the committee and the community, to have -- to ask different questions about the overall effectiveness, and we think this is the kinds of things we want to continue to fund. for instance, i cannot imagine we would not want to continue to fund the enrichment parts, which are restricted. i personally have been grateful that they are restricted in recent years, because we have not been able to cut them when things are so desperate. but when we go to reauthorize this, i would like to be able to see as much as we can in the broad context, so we can decide as a community but things we want to continue doing, what other things we might want to add, or the balance or what% we are spending on these kind of areas, and what on nos. the thing now is the perfect time we start to think in those terms. we certainly have not -- our

efforts toward the implementation and assessment of our strategic plan have been pretty specific. what are we going -- how are we going to develop data that will tell us about this specific goal and that specific goal? and that is hard, so i appreciate that. looking at the available data and what we need to develop to get to the specifics is good, but while we are doing that we need to talk about the big picture and how those things fit into reaching our goals. i am hoping the committee will be able to keep that in mind and work with the staff to be able to figure out and help us get that larger context. i would like to think everybody again. i appreciate your coming here again tonight. that has taken more of your time. thank you. commissioner maufas: again, let me echo what commissioners have said around your time and energy to this service. we really do appreciate it, because the board room is lonely

when it is just you in here doing your work. i know that. thank you very much, especially when you are plugging away and your family is home, and you are not there with them. thank you, young men. you are fine examples of whatever school district has provided and what you have learned from it and are able to go out in the world with that information and learning, and continue to do that. others will learn from you and model their lives after you. so please do not stop. you are on the right path. thank you very, very much for coming forward today. you know we appreciate it. president kim: are you done, commissioner? commissioner maufas: no, but do you want to speak? >> i am sorry. i apologize for interrupting.

i just wanted to remind or note to the commissioners and to the school community that an important part of our work is not just looking at these programs and recommending the things, but is to go out into the community to inform the community of how these enrichment funds enriched our students, make the culture of san francisco that much broader, that much more cultured, if you will, and that it is going to be an important part of this coming year and the next two years or three years until we come to the next reauthorization. but that is going to be an important part, and that was not stressed. i did not want that to be lost in the other comments. excuse me. commissioner maufas: i appreciate that, because that is one of the things i was going to inquire about, and how we can hear more about your community conversation. i would like to figure out with whoever our leadership is going to be threat the coming years how you can come forward to us

with what the community is telling you so we can continue to be impressed as time goes on. in a quarterly meeting, i would like to hear from you more often, the committee members, about what you are hearing and how these funds are impacting students and families' lives at school sites and making differences, and how they operate. i hope that that can be a topic of discussion within the committee and we can figure out with the leadership of the board how you can come forward and related information for not just the board members, but also the public, so that messages back to the broader audience. i think that is key so they understand and hear that schools are being impacted by these funds and they're being used in the way that schools -- because for some reason, and i just think we have not messaged it well enough, i continue to hear from the public that schools do not have music, schools do not

have libraries. and i think what is happening across the state and across the country is playing like that is what is happening in san francisco. and that is not the case. but a lot of the general public do not understand that. things are very different here in san francisco. the generosity of our citizens has helped us be different. again, there are lots of folks out in the world here who do not understand we have done something quite unique, and many of our students benefit from that. again, i think all of you coming to the board meeting and sharing these stories helps get that message out. we just need to continue to figure out how to get that information to the broader public. i am very interested in hearing more about what their conversations are, but i also would like to hear from the committee in regards to how we can present information to you. because part of it, i think, is

many of you do not have the historical knowledge about the peef committee, so some of the knowledge about what happened before your time is missing. so when you hear frustration in the communities, you do not have the answers for them to understand what happened before and how it transitioned. you just know what it is now. and i get that. that makes sense. and possibly that is some of our work, to somehow make a package of the history and win it transitioned into what the committee work should be going forward, which is really doing more community engagement, which is a piece we were missing. but also what we can provide from you -- for you in regards to the budgeting process. you are explaining that to the community in context. so you have a context to explain, you know, why you are up there communicating and trying to gather information. i think that would be helpful for you. but also helpful as you explain

to the community members. so i would like for us to work on how we can provide that for the cac so they can do their work with assurances, instead of in a vacuum, if that makes sense. does that seem like that would be helpful? >> yes. but just a bit on that, in addition to the things you discussed and the things commissioner few were discussed about students served but not being able to gauge the level of impact. the think additional information -- i think additional information on exactly -- we work closely with walter about getting additional information and evaluating what is being measured for impact, so we have a detailed knowledge about what is supposed to be happening and we can ask more pointed questions to people running these programs around what is working, what is not working.

the platform currently is to hear what is going on from people in the programs, but a detailed knowledge about what the program entails and the evaluation process is going to help inform us as we go out into the community and are able to address nuances of age-specific programs on that and, and ask more questions around, you know, you have this amount of students coming. but what are you saying at the outset in terms of what you want to see by the end of the year, and how is that being tracked? just so we know. we do not know currently what is supposed to be happening. that was supposed to be given to us at the beginning of our time on the board for this year. commissioner maufas: is that because that was not a part of what was put you as a part of your practice, or