tonight as well. thank you. [applause]

president mendoza: good evening, everyone. welcome to this meeting. our apoy poll jis for starting late -- our apologies for starting late. commissioner fewer: here. mauf commissioner murase: present. commissioner norton: here. commissioner wynns: here. vice president yee: here. president mendoza: here. >> here. >> here. men men if you'd like, please --

president mendoza: if you'd like, please join us for the pledge of allegiance. thank you. the approval of the board minutes. we have no approval tonight. the presentation to the board of education, the superintendent's report. >> good evening. first of all, i just want to give a big shoutout there of congratulations to the san francisco school of the arts for being named 2010-2011 california distinguished school and we really want to, you know, we're really proud of their efforts. there's only -- yeah. there's approximately 97 middle and high schools that are given this award this year and so to be in that top group, that shows that they're really work withing

on closing the achievement gap. i think it's really exciting. the other item i wanted to mention is that obviously yesterday the district was closed and i'm sorry to say because it was another one of those fur low days that we all dread and that's not dish don't see it as a good way to solve all of our problems but unfortunately last week we had a committee of the whole and we talked about the budget. it was outlined ow bleak our picture looks. we all know that we all think things are really bad right now and what's coming at us really shows that it's even going to get worse. that we're going to be moving from, you know, we're planning right now to cut $349 pursuant to and if you include health care costs and inflation costs, by next year a we're going to be looking at cutting $485 pursuant to in order to just maintain

this school district and that's not going to be an easy thing to do when you look at, you know, we just finished cutting $113 million for two years and for the next two years it's very clear that we're going to have to cut another $84 million. so -- and when you have a budget of about $500 million and you keep chopping $118 million, $117 million and then $80 million some more, pretty soon that budget's disappearing quickly. those are the realities that we're facing and i'm really sorry that we still have a lot of employees out there. i guess that's why i wore my pink shirt. all the pink slips that are out there. it's just a tragedy that we have to, you know, put that on the back of our great employees who are doing all they can do and i hope that this state gets its act together and starts addressing the issues before our young people end up having to pay the price. that's not a good situation. later on this evening, you know, we're going to be congratulating

lisa spinali and giving her accommodation. i really think that that's important because she's worked so closely with us. also this evening i'm excited the principal center collaborative, you're going to see some great students during that presentation this evening and hopefully having a good discussion. i think it's exciting to see that we're doing something about some of our students who have been in aging bungalows who are the most beat up bungalows in the school district and i want to thank them for being housed there so long. here's an opportunity to do something right for them and i welcome and am looking forward to their presentation. we have a lot of tough things ahead of us in the next year or two but i do think that the home way we're going to get through all of this is that everybody start working, especially pushing sacramento to make the right decisions because otherwise no matter what we do at a local level and we're lucky

here in san francisco that we have people who support our initiatives, to fund arts, music and all those things, but if you look across the entire state, all those things are going being just eliminated across this state of ours and i think that pretty soon we can't solve our way out of this issue by just cutting programs for children. i think it's unfair. so we have a lot of work ahead of us but we're in a city and in a place where we do have the attitude that things can be done and we hope that all san francisco ans stand up for our children because if we don't no one else will. thank you. president mendoza: thank you. and i actually just want to piggyback on your announcement about the horrible budget crisis that we're in the california teachers association and our very own local united educators will be conducting a week-long sitout in sacramento and there's a variety of different activities that will be coming up including legislative

activities, staying in contact with every one of our parents, appreciating our educators, talking more about the revenue and declaring a state of emergency for our public schools. and so stay close in touch with the california teachers association united et katers as this crisis really -- educators as this crisis really does become a reality for us. item c is recommendation of things. >> one of the good things is the fact that we do these rave reviews. we go out and recognize there's so many unsung heroes in our school district that we get a chance to celebrate with some of the great things that they do. and this evening i want to ask the principal at fairmont elementary school to come up and do our first award this evening. >> good evening. i was going to do this from memory but then i realized that these board meetings are on

television. i figured i'd prepare something in writing. good evening. my name is jeremy helinski. i believe that one of the most important responsibilities of an administrator is to identify and recognize the remarkable talent that exists within a staff and community. it's a pleasure and privilege to introduce to you our k-2 literacy specialist. so say that she goes above and beyond for our school and district would be the sincerest of understatements. in fact, i remember our first two conversations when i first accepted the position back in july of this past school year. the first conversation was an inspiring dialogue where we talked about reading assessments in which reading assessments would best support our teachers' planning targeted instructions and the second one was when she told me i better learn to load

toner into the xerox machine. now, i'm pretty good that the now thanks to monica. there's nothing that monica won't do for our school and our community. when she went on maternity leave we attempted to create a list of her job responsibilities for the substitute and after about the 30th item we decided that there was no way on earth a substitute was going to be able to do half of what we were putting on this list. she goes so far above and beyond for our community. i'm originally from upstate new york, we're huge hockey fans and the biggest commendation we can give a goalie is if we say that the goal where ay would stand on his head for his teammates. i truly believe that monica would stand on her head for our school, for our community, for our staff members. she's just that good. and from being an active member of our school council to helping our elac make sugar cane skulls, there's pretty much nothing she won't do, organizing our orientation, running incredibly engaging literacy groups for our

struggling and emerging k-2 readers, she's a reals a tote this school and it's a pleasure and dmb -- she's a real asset to this school and it's a pleasure to introduce her to you. a big round of applause for monday carks our literacy specialist -- for monica, our literacy specialist. >> i just want to dedicate this to the students because they are why i do what i do every day. and also my team members. thank you very much to the board for so few chances where teachers get kudos. we mostly get raspberries so i accept this on behalf of all the teachers out there that accept their conditions and come to school with a smile everyday and a lot of love for kids.

>> next i'd like to calm up co-director jordan smith. are there any of jordan's staff here this evening? >> do you guys know where he is? >> no. [inaudible] >> maybe we'll wait later on and if they come in we can give it to them or something. you're the ones receiving? then why don't you come on up?

>> san francisco unified wishes to honor the school for being a great group of teachers and mentors. education is a people business and we're only as strong as the people who work with our children and keep our schools open and running everyday. thank you for all you do and congratulations on receiving this well-deserved special service award. >> thank you very much and on behalf of my two co-workers and brent albert who is actually not here, we try very hard everyday and we give it our all.

president mendoza: this evening we have with an action item. i need a motion and a second, please. >> so moved. >> seconded. president mendoza: thank you. this is in commendation to lisa spinali authored by commissioner murase. commissioner murase: in accommodation to lisa spinali, for the past five years lisa spinali has led the san francisco school volunteers and the combined san francisco education fund, san francisco school volunteers as executive director, focusing work on tackling the barriers to academic achievement by partnering with people. whereas her career is dedicated to expanding community investment in public education since she graduated from the harvard business school, beginning with the position at american express where she was on loan to meche corps, the pioneering program to engage

young people as teachers in public schools nationwide. whereas in 1963 san francisco volunteers has promoted volunteerism among community members in our public schools and since 1979 san francisco education fund has created important private sector partnerships to expand resources to classrooms. drawing from the distinct strength of each organization, under the leadership of ms. spinali, the two respected organizations were merged into a single san francisco education fund. therefore be it resolved that the board of education for the san francisco unified school district commends lisa spinali for her distinguished tenure at the san francisco education fund and wishes her its best on her future endeavors. congratulations, lisa. >> thank you for that reading. president mendoza: before we present there this to you, we'd like to invite any public comment on this. so if there's any public speakers on behalf of lisa you're welcome to come up as we

all stare at your staff. you don't have to. and then any comments from the board or the superintendent. commissioner norton. commissioner norton: i would just like to ask the author if i could add my name onto her resolution. commissioner murase: of course. president mendoza: i just want to -- i'm obviously going to support this resolution. but i have to say that lisa has just been an outstanding partner, not only for san francisco unified, with many of the organizations that we work with and we're really going to miss having you at the fund. you've been a real stellar and solid support and we wish you the very best in all of your endeavors. you always know where to find us and you're always welcome to come and help any time as a

fabulous volunteer which you continue to promote throughout our school district. thank you so much for your years of service, lisa. >> thank you. i i would just like to also add my voice to the chorus of kudos to lisa spi nell -- spi naly. i will tell you as far as keeping children always first, lisa spi nalia has always been first and -- spinali has always been first and foremost of keeping the children of this district first and foremost. she's been a true partner to the principals and teachers and staff members at our schools and as it relates to our work in social justice, she's been a true thought partner and although we're sad to see her leave her position, we're very, very fortified and very happy by the fact that she will remain a san franciscan. so we're all going to benefit from her expertise. so i just want to say thank you on behalf of all 55,000 kids in

our school district, thank you, lisa, for all you've done. president mendoza: thank you. roll call, please. commissioner wynns: yes. commissioner fewer: yes. commissioner maufas: yes. commissioner murase: aye. commissioner norton: yes. vice president yee: aye. president mendoza: yes. >> that's unanimous. president mendoza: congratulations, lisa. >> so i just -- goodbyes are not my thing. so, i'll be seeing you very soon i'm sure in many way