vieda. jacqueline reyes, theresa mcgwire and haste use. -- jesus. if you would please, to the -- come up to me -- the mic. it looks like we're missing a few folks. ok, you have a minute. >> yes, thank you. i came here tonight to ask for consideration for a young student named richard. he is being placed in a school that is very, very far from his neighborhood.

his mother had a choice, where the school is overcapacity. her second choice was to try to send the child to note -- oh, ok. the presidio school. so i came here to ask you guys for consideration. the guy has just lost his father. he also has a lot of health problems along with it, with letters from the doctor, as proof. i just want you guys to consider the opportunity for this guy to be placed near. his mom is a single mom. she is not able to be in all these places at once, so please take it into consideration. president mendoza: ma'am, would

you also like to speak? >> -- >> the child is really stressed out about the long trip he would have to make to school, and his mom really wants you to take that into consideration, if the board can consider placing the kid in the school in the sunset district, and if he cannot go to school in the sunset district than the richmond district, and his health is really at stake right now as well as not just on his physical health, his mental health. president mendoza: i know you are high on the priority list. it is a matter of everything kind of shaking out, -- before her. did we have somebody else?

darlene is already gone. many of us have your information, and we know who you are, so we will follow up with you on how far up on the list you are. because you have had your appeal approved, -- you are a high priority. we just cannot offer you anything right now. thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello, my name is ivan garcia, and i and the student body president of o'connell high school, and i am here to address to the board members that, new members, we are here to ask you why one will not be attending the school next year. he has been a member of the

school over six years. especially in working with parents, he contributes to the positive atmosphere with students, parents, and teachers. we are sad and angry to hear that this teacher, who has only been in the district for one year -- if she truly knew the work that he had done at the school, then she would knew that the decision is the right or wrong. there is a partial list over the past six years. president mendoza: thank you. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> good evening. my name is -- and i have a student at john o'connell. >> [speaking foreign language] >> i am here to ask you not to lose somebody who has been a support not just for the parents but -- >> [speaking foreign language] >> not only for the students but for the whole community. thank you. >> hi, my name is robert close your, and i am here to support josé. he is a parent liaison. i have worked with him for six years. i have seen josé work very hard formulating with parents and working hard at o'connell.

he has come right into my classroom if there is a problem. he is going to take care of it right there. he brings answers. he is the organizer of the mother's day appreciation event. this is a tough school to work at, and he shows the heart and desire that he wants to stay, so i do not know why he was let go. he has been an integral part for me at o'connell because he has been a translator and has always given me support with no questions asked. i have also seen him translate at school council meetings and other big event, so he is an integral part of the community. please take a look. president mendoza: 50. >> i work at o'connell.

there were some nights -- some words tonight that were inspiring, like transparency. i am hoping they are not just a buzz words, because what is happening right now at o'connell requires transparency. we just lost our principal in a very shady kind of way. s and now we are losing a parent liaison in a very shady kind of way. the last day of school. i will ask you to reconsider. i am not one to go through the list. you have it before you. but i would like to ask you guys to consider what it is to build the community, to build trust. and apparently is on, it takes time to grow the community. to wit him out is ripping up that trust, which we require and john o'connell for students and

our community. thank you. >> [speaking foreign language] >> good evening. my name is maria vasquez. i in your to show support for josé. because he has shown us support. he has helped the only the students but also the parents. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> hello, my name is -- and i am going to be a senior this year,

and i am here to support. every time you need something, he is there for you, and he is always there to inform your parents of opportunities they may have and everything, and also, to take someone away like that is just unfair. >> good evening, board of directors. my name is sandra, and i am from san francisco, born and raised in the mission district, and i m sorry if i speak with a lot of focus and passion in concern with this situation. i in 35 years old. i have known josé for many years, since i was 17 working in a nonprofit in the mission district. this man carries so much

knowledge. he has been helping in the mission for so many years. there are adults like me that worked in the community and on the professional level but though a lot to this man. i hope that respect is given to him that a second chance can be given to him. we are losing a resource. whatever situation is going on with economics, i know sometimes people have to get laid off, things like that. we need longevity with staff in the community, especially in the mission district, some of the bild report. josé does that. yes report with the community, the youths, the parents. my family fought to keep john o'connell in the community, and now we are here to support josé. thank you very much. >> hello, my name is teresa, and i work with an organization that does environmental justice, and

i work with the youth program. josé was also my mentor when i was working as a youth organizer in the mission, and through the years, josé has developed numerous relationships with various organizations, bringing resources. i can attest to that because josé has helped me recoup and numerous amount of young people who have done tremendous work here in san francisco for environmental justice, who have been awarded by the supervisors. they have received commendations. you guys are listening to us because we are sharing our hearts about jose. he needs to stay in our neighborhood to continue building the leadership of our young people -- i know it is a long day, and to continue building our education. please keep him at john o'connell. he is a great resource.

>> good evening, my name is -- and i am here to support the community, and i want to bring you some history of josé. he is an immigrant, came from mexico, and he has lived the struggle of being an immigrant and being able to understand and to participate in the community, and because of that, he defends and advocates for the people. all of the community that is here is here to support him, and that is proof that he is working in the community, and i do not know what is going on with the people in the authority to make changes. we have the commitment to give the community an explanation about what a person who is supposed to serve the community

is being removed. we need that explanation. we need to know what is going on. when a position is filled, -- to make a connection with the district and the people. we have to support that and to honor that. thank you. >> [speaking foreign language] >> i want to talk to you about the results that were accomplished. i have a daughter who went to john o'connell. she was attacked, and jose, with

security, they were able to find who attacked her and were able to help her. >> [speaking foreign language] >> the school is located in a very unsafe neighborhood. a person like josé is needed to keep the security, because not only does he work with the translation, but he has made us all integrated to the school. he has created programs that involve us and the parents.

>> [speaking foreign language] >> we have been told but there is no money to support the students, but they have found the money to support us. they have found resources, and when my daughter was hurt and was attacked, if it was not for him, she would not have gone to school. she has no graduated from santa barbara university because he was able to help her.

>> [speaking foreign language] >> it is not only that he has created these programs. he has been a liaison not only to the parents but to the students. he has created grateful students. this is not fair, and we are not going to take it. we are not going to take this. >> hi, my name is allejandra.

i am here to support -- i look up to him, because he is always there, like, when we need him, in is just hard to see a person who really cares -- thank you. a person who really cares about us in the community to try to make, to be taken away from us, so please let him stay. president mendoza: thank you. [applause] >> [speaking foreign language]

>> my name is margarita. i do not understand. this is not fair. i do not understand why they are changing and taking josé away. i am actually surprised because he is a very good person. he has been a very important person for my daughter and my family. >> [speaking foreign language] >> i do not understand how you have come to this decision to

change a person that is good. it is just not fair, and i do not know how you came to this decision. i do not know how you came to this decision, and it is not fair. >> [speaking foreign language] thank you. >> he is not always attending to the meetings and other things, for example, when we have meetings, he is making sure that we can bring our cars and that everything is taken care of. he is an important person in the community for all of us. [applause]

>> [speaking foreign language] >> yes, my name is maria. my daughter is vicky.

she goes to john o'connell. i did not know they were going to take him away. it hurts me because he has been good to all of us, to the students, and when there is a meeting, he always goes. he is a good person. thank you. >> good evening, board of directors. my name is jose. i am also a parent at john o'connell high school. i have a niece from santa barbara. thanks to the school. it is a very aeschylus' school -- a excellent school. i have another one who went to, on the state. i also have another nephew, so i am still there. today, and when to talk about --

i would like to figure why i am going to be removed, if i am doing something wrong. professional development to better the part. i want to know why my last evaluation was given only two months ago. a contractor 50,000 to train us, for the saturdays, they are going to pay us for that, and they spent all of these moneys and sending me here in sending me their. if they did not have a plan -- a request some respect as a person, as a parent of the school, because this is very

important. know that we have no money, a lot of money that is not in the school district, and the school district has been asking that we need to work with the community, i have been doing that. the first year, i started working in the school district, so it is very important for me, began as you can send me wherever i want. i will succeed there, but i want to tell you that i was trained for almost 18 years for this age of students, high school students. i was trained with a partner of the school. i have worked with others. i work with so many student organizations, and i think it is important to make sure that we

see the work i do as a whole -- let that go to the meetings, and they say it is very transparent, so and least i can start getting used to, or train to go to middle school. otherwise comic it is a waste of money, all of this training and all of this money that was spent by may. president mendoza. -- spent on me. president mendoza: thank you. sir? >> [speaking foreign language] i want to thank everyone who has come to support him. a number of our parents liaisons have been noticed, and

i do not want to speak to the leadership of our office because they are undergoing some reorganization and some potential consolidation, so we are working closely with them. i do not think any final decisions have been made, but we're very interested in insuring that there is some continued capacity to encourage these activities across our schools, particularly in the underserved schools, and that is why we are making investments. we'll be working closely with the parent to engagement office on this situation. president mendoza: ok, that includes -- pet we cannot have -- vice president yee: i have a comment. in some of these things are going on appeared to engagement office, i guess, superintendent, can we get a report of what is

going on there? a reduction apparently is on in the district? what are we doing? >> yes, and pretty soon, the board is going to get a report from that office, and what their strategic plan and what they're going to be working on, but we will get this information before that. president mendoza: thank you. i am concerned about, and i have raised this concern before, communities being taken by surprise, so i would like to see that put into place. president mendoza: has any action been taken yet? no action has been taken yet.

commissioner: we do not want the communities to be taken by surprise. if there is a decision, we want them to know that. president mendoza: ok. >> a number of apparently is on have been noticed but not moved. i have made a note about what is happening with them, and we will get some information back to the board. commissioner? commissioner: i want to thank

everyone who came out. thank you very much. president mendoza: item number q, are there any? item number l, we have an action item, the california department of education district schools code change for alternative beginning the 2011-2012 school year. this was already seconded on may 24, and we referred it, and it was postponed to action until june 14. can i get a report, please, commissioner norton? commissioner norton: really, there was discussion, there was concern about this action, whether it had any impact on the

current policy we have, where students out of district are allowed to vote audition and attend, and the report we get from staff is no, this makes the changes to this policy. it does not make it less or more restrictive, and reform or did it back to the full board with a positive recommendation. president mendoza: thank you. and then a reading by a superintendent or staff mary richards is here. >> thank you, commissioners, president mendoza, superintendent. mary richards, executive director of the high school team. i would just read the subject and requested action if that is agreeable to the board? thank you. subject calling the department of education district's schools could change for alternatives anme