have had some turnover and are not doing nearly as well so i'm just wondering what the focus is going to be to recruit the strong principals to do some more shared leadership or mentoring. anything we can do to help the other sites. first of all, when you say middle school some people have a lot of different reactions. some would say yes, i'm there for middle schools. some will kind of run away from me. so you get a lot of different reactions, but one thing that has been really effective the last year and a half is that our middle school principals are part of an equity center of professional learning community. the work of this p.l.c. or ecplc has been really, really

powerful. in fact, i invited deputy superintendent to meet with the middle school principals not too long ago to ask them questions about what they were gleaning or what they were learning from, being part of the p.l.c. and they have shown so much growth because they have this wonderful opportunity to learn from each other, to share best practices or best leadership practices that have been very effective for them at their school sites. the principals have also challenged each other about having those courageous conversations or hard conversations about the work that they are doing. and so they have definitely become really a very effective professional learning community and they talk about these practices. they challenge each other and they follow up with each other at the next meeting. did you follow up on what you

said you were going to follow up on? and so they support each other. they challenge each other. they are a very collegial group. i don't know if he wants to say anything about the e.p.a. that he observed. i'll put him on the spot here. can i frame this differently? i appreciate all of that. i think that is great but we still have a lag in our middle schools and it feels like we have -- we have done this and it is great that they are getting the support but i wonder if there are any incentives that we're considering to draw lead sbeers the middle school arena. it is the same school that we have really had some challenges with. in elementary and high school we are seeing some really great leaps and bounds. the ways in which our leadership has changed, middle school, it

feels like, it is very different. it hasn't had the same kind of momentum that our elementary and high schools have had. i was surprised even with our high schools the momentum that has kind of picked up on that. i don't know what it is or why it is that that -- middle schools have kind of stayed the same or maybe they haven't and i'm just -- this is my own perception. but i'm wondering how in terms of leadership we're able to recruit and retain folks stay in middle school and if there are any incentives that we are considering. >> we disagree with your perception in the sense that all the middle schools met their a.p.i. targets and we are building momentum. we are continuing to always look

at leadership in terms of the best leadership, to lead our middle schools and that is a challenge that i have thrown down to all the principals. we want to see the double digit growth for this upcoming year. as a teacher, we have high expectations for our students. as their immediate supervisor, i have high expectations of our principals. that is communicated to them on a regular basis and also provide the support and guidance to do this hard work. no disrespect for my colleagues in elementary and high. for the middle delee years, it is very -- three years, it is very intense and it is also exciting work. i'll just say that. >> if i could just ask a couple of comments. i think your perceptions in

terms of middle schools, we are actually in very good company because across the nation and especially in california, middle schools absolutely have been kind of beyond the eight-ball. with that said, i think you absolutely right that the recruitment and the support and development of leadership not knowledge middle schools but in all levels is critically important to us. it pains me to say that folks are knocking down the doors to be a principal at any level. it is one of the most difficult and complex jobs and getting more difficult and complex by the day. we have absolutely seen that that has been an issue for us. we have been recruiting nationally. it has been the superintendent's directive that wherever we go outside san francisco one of our main jobs is to recruit. we're looking for talent everywhere that we can. i would also just mention one thing that i think is absolutely the gem of our community and

that is that we have given our community time as a district immense say in terms of who we choose to be the leader of our school community. we believe in that process. i think it is absolutely one of the things that makes us different for many school districts in the country. i think it is something to be valued. it does make it difficult when we look at a principal that has been very successful for a number of years in a community and have a conversation with that principal about you think it may be time for you to bring your leadership to another school, because it almost feels that we are betraying that community because we are robbing them of their wonderful principal. it is a very difficult balance for us to keep and one that we're very sensitive to because like i said we do value the involvement of our community in selecting leadership. with that said, we make no apologies for the fact that if you are a principal that

exhibits extraordinary leadership, we're going to do everything we can in the school system to make sure you're in a position to exert the greatest influence over the communities that need us the most so we make no apologies about that. i appreciate you identifying that. >> so i'm going to just -- i appreciate this last set of discussions around the middle school arena because one of the things that i've done is be a classroom teacher at every grade level from preschool to college. it was not my calling to be a middle school teacher. [laughter] it is very difficult. unless you really love that age bracket, it is not the easiest thing in the world.

we recognized from early on if we look at our school district, pre-k and five and middle school and high school, i've always felt in the past that the middle school -- was not our strength and so i'm really, really glad that we've come to focus on this because i think we can make a difference if we focus and actually implement all of these strategies that we're talking about. they are very solid strategies. one of my main concerns, though, is that in new strategies, you're trying to change something and generally, when you want to change something, it requires service, professional development-type activities and i know in middle school, you could build in some of that within your team meetings and so forth but i'm also concerned

that because of the state budget, we've had to cut our -- or eliminate so many days of professional development over the last six years that i'm just wondering do we have enough resources? do we have enough time for the teachers and principals to -- be able to learn these new strategies and get them implemented. that is a concern. >> i think commission year yee's -- commissioner yee's point is well taken. it will be devastating, but above all of that, regardless of how much money we have or don't have in this case, the students are going to be in front of us. so we have very limited

resources, but those resources will have to be stretched as much as possible, especially to provide some type of training and even if we make cuts, we have learned very creatively this year, in spite of making a lot of cuts, we're figuring out ways to find foundation and other groups to step up and fund those things that we can't fund. that will become a bigger issue in the future. one of the items there is really to try to noblize this community and start thinking -- mobilize this community and if we don't take care of ourselves and we rely on the state to do it, we're going to have a really sad school system. i think san franciscoans as they always have done, try to stand together and work on what is

going to be happening throughout state. >> another thing i want to point out in the appendix -- as much as i know, i made the statement, in the past. felt like it was a weak link of our district, the fact that so many of our -- are entering middle school, not proficient at all, it is -- is this really a callout to the elementary school come opponent, they got some better -- it is really hard for us to excel in middle school or anywhere else. as you're moving along -- as we're moving along with our

middle school strategies, the elementary school section needs to look at their strategies also. >> thank you. i have a few questions, one, i want to -- start with something. it seems like a clarifying question. on page 17 where you discuss the current conditions, that there is at least one elective course and then the first subsection says elective courses are determined by -- choice patterns and demands. i do not accept that as a reason to continue being that way.

that is one of the main things that we have to address, getting off of the clarifying issue obviously and also that we need to talk about in the context of the next issue, which is feared patterns. because so what i'm asking you in this context, is what are we doing to try to address that? it isn't ok that some middle schools have a rich array of elective options because they have had them and they were left over from when we had resources and others in my view still mostly don't have that because even with -- in relatively better times, we have invested in those schools but most of those resources have been invested in -- in compensatory

-- let's make up what is the mattered with these communities rather than giving them equally rich learning environments. i want to see that in the plan. some reference at least, to how we're thinking about that and are we going to address it? and on page 21, maybe in the same regard in relation to the curriculum community, under number two, you have providing college crick through such programs as avid steps, a.c.t. explorer and word generation. that is exactly that issue. at the curriculum committee i asked that question. kids in avid, are they having other electives? in high school they have to be able to have certain electives. it is a requirement that they have them. to have an enriched experience.

but they are -- even though the programs may may be enormously beneficial to them, they are basically using up their elective time. is that what they are doing in middle school? if they are in avid and middle >> not necessarily so. these are supplementary curriculum and lesson plans. >> similarly, on page 23, the part about professional communities, and you have a common planning time elicited, and on page 25, i am trying not to have a sort of tragic live here, -- tried it live here, but adequate ability of resources -- tragic laugh here,

but adequate ability and resources. it seems there is not time to do anything, and i am personally trying to do everything i can to address the resource issue. this is a very dense presentation. i appreciate the work that is being done. i thought this looked pretty good, and i want to congratulate you, because i wanted to remind you even though our goal is because the fed tell us that or because we use the same word that every child will be proficient now by the same time, that is impossible. proficient is a high level of

achievement, so the fact there is only one component, i presume with your reference, they have shown improvement during your -- improvement. i a understand this is a complex plan. everyone has been working hard on it, and it is showing results. i would like to have the kind of reality filtered hood over this plan so somebody tells me what common planning time looks like, what we think adequate resources and support looks like and what we are providing to try to meet those things we described, even though our resources across the board -- i hesitate to call them

inadequate. they are shameful and getting worse. i do not mean to be critical, but how can we really understand what we are working on for these things, when the reference is something i know does not exist and less of it is going to exist in coming years. in order for everybody to understand what we are trying to do and how we think -- what small steps we are taking with a shameful resources we have, we need some different language or brown fat, rather than adequate for we are an -- language around that, rather than adequate. tell me i am wrong, but i have

not seen it anywhere the middle schools to have common planning time. i just submitted his proposal in terms of continuing next year, that it will be cost neutral. this is just a proposal to have olague start so our students start coming to school -- a late start so our students are coming to school later. that will be the common planning terms so all of our teachers can be at these formums, and i have had these conversations with my principles. with a common planning time,

that has helped with meeting those performance targets, and because teachers have less luxury of time to really sit down and discuss the police student work and what strategies have been affective -- discussed student work and what strategies have been affective. >> i would just add that if you think of a metaphor of our creek and there is a rope in the middle of that creek and there is and not in the middle of the road, if you pull the rope to one side of the creek to give planning turned to one group of schools, you are not going to be able to give it to other types of schools, so it depends on where we want to pull the knot. that is the soul of this choice we give our schools. some schools of -- sullivan's

choice we give our schools. some schools have been very creative, but it would be this ingenious -- disingenuous to say we could provide those to all of our schools. >> we were talking about programs. where are we actually talking about how we make them real? >> i think if you read the working draft, after you read that, there is a portion where it talks about how it impacts other programs are robust or not, depending on the school's.

with elective courses, i am referencing page 6 that there is a link between robust enrollment and the ability to provide equitable access and enrich learning environment. what is says is middle schools have fewer teachers and smaller budgets and less opportunity to make sure all students have equitable access to electives and enrichment programs available to children enrolled in middle schools that are five times as large, so that is why they have large enrollments. they can have those large programs or other electives and

enrichment programs. it is a numbers game, so i e- mailed ron daniels to send me a spreadsheet in terms of how that determines the funding, but that is just my assumption here. ge>> we do not know. >> i want to piggyback on what you said. i think what i want to know is let's be real about what is the quality middle school. how much planning turn is optimal, and what kinds of electives should every child have the option of taking?

i think in terms of the resource issue, we keep trying to say we are doing the same every year, but we have to be real about the things we are not doing. i think we need to be real about here is what we would do if we have the money for every school to do. i do not think we should be afraid of saying that, because it is not necessarily our fault if we cannot afford the optimal amount of planning time for the optimal choice of electives. let's not blame ourselves be honest about what we are offering and what we should be offering. >> it is ironic that you mention that, because that is except for what our discussion was an --

exactly what our discussion was. and we are going to lay out what is, and after the cuts, what we look like, and then we are going to lay out what does it cost and show what we should be common -- now we should be, and lay out an elementary school, kind of like if you go to a new england school, they say by lot every school has a full-time librarian, and i think it is imperative that we start and demonstrating what ought to be, not just talking about what we cut, and people think that is weird. if we do not lay out a vision of what we ought to be, when we do have discussions about what should happen with proposition 13 and funding in california,

what are we going to try to find? -- fund among we met this -- with the northern california students. one of our goals is to start a campaign where we say, and off. -- enough. you're going to work to develop a campaign, and this is what it is going to cost to get there. we are tired of legislators not laying out a vision of what it is going to cost to get it. unless we play of the numbers and start an initiative to make it happen, waiting for our legislators to do it is not working. >> it seems to me in doing this accounting, a big piece of

quality middle schools is schools with active parent bodies are fund raising and filling those gaps, so let's be honest about that, too, so our community knows it is not true that we think it is ok but not every school has a nurse or a library and, but that this is the difference and the inequities you experience. >> i appreciate what you read in frequently asked questions, because this is a small school issue. in the case of middle schools, we believe an important component is a choice, so we have the middle schools that are small because they are under- enrolled. those are the schools are

reference, where we have failed to look for positive and once -- for positive ones. we have filled them with schools to make up for deficit rather than have the same ones. gwe are purposely developing small schools so the middle school development -- i know all of us get a letter for some students were we say, why can i have a competitive sports dean -- sports team there might you have 100 middle school students. we are paying money to sustain an academic program where we don't have resources. we have to talk about htat, and the other part is prop 8, and i

want to remind us we need to think about trying to look at those funds through an equity lens, so per pupil funding doesn't get you antyhing if you have 100 kids, but it dgets you a lot if you have 1000 kids, so i want to think about that. i want to thank you. we have a little more to the staff recommendstion. >> we are not done yet. i am going to pass it to the deputy superintendant.