disabilities. my daughter was a train wreck waiting to happen. she deliberately flunked eighth grade because things were not working for her, and despite our great affection and dedication, we realized we had to do something else. this is extraordinary. a learning specialist we worked with, one in particular who retired at the end of sixth grade who stayed in touch with us constantly, the learning specialist said, and for what your daughter needs, we are our limits, but we want you to look darknesses an -- to look at this charter school. we at first resisted, but we investigated, and we said the learning model is different. the student population is

different. everything was different, and it was a challenge, but it looked like it might be right, and to our joy, it was, so we went from a daughter ready to drop out and be a statistic to a daughter having an anxiety attack now preparing for college applications. thank you for granting the charter. i encourage you to renew the charterer and let others have the same benefits. thank you. >> i am a 10th grade student at metro. i first i did not think there was going to come back after i found out i was going to bayview. i came back because i believe metro is the path to the future. i was really impressed when i saw the 10th graders complete

portfolios. i know this was the kind of project are wanted to complete. i know i could help% my work when i am in college. i think it is important to bee prepared and to get ready for the future. when it seems hard, metro has ways to protect us. when teachers stay late and do whatever it takes to make sure i guessed the grave -- make sure i get what i want. i know a d will not get me to college, and i like how no one at metro will accept that as a grave. good metro is a great school for people who think that all schools are the same period of people who think metro is the same as -- for people who think all schools are the same, metro is like a family.

metro cares about coming together as a school that supports each other. because we are small, i feel like i get lots of attention. i know i am struggling, and when i need help, i can expect my teachers and the advisers to help get me back on track. this is important to me that i can stay focused and make my family proud. thank you. >> i am part of metro. [speaking spanish]

>> i am on the true parent. i represent a lot of parents, not only me. we came to a conclusion i would come here because some of them are ashamed to come talk to you because they do not speak english like me. guar>> [speaking spanish]

>> what basically brought us together is our language, and we are like a family. and we have our great psychologist who has helped our children. we refer with homework. he calls the kids, and the psychology they get when they do not feel ok. [speaking spanish]

>> it is great for our children. we have the security of the teachers are with us. we are like a family. these are different schools from the other ones. i have another child who went to public school, and now he is in city college. >> [speaking spanish] >> as i have seen through my experience with my child, public schools are great, but if you

put a kid in a charter school at the intermediate level, he might as well continue on the same path. >> [speaking spanish] >> i represent all the parents that have gone through this sensitive situation where we want to ask you to please reserve this school because it has helped us very much. >> [speaking spanish]

>> i know the time is limited, but i have year experience of working out a charter school as well, and i know how could they are. thank you very much for listening to me. good night. >> i am in ninth grade student at metro. this is my first year in high school, and i am very happy to have it at metro. i chose metro because it gave me a good seal when i visited. i chose metro because of its small size, the way people treat each other, and the performing arts program. i like performing arts, because

when i was younger i took acting classes, but i never felt like i got a true opportunity to perform, and i know i've metro i would have an opportunity to get hands-on with performing arts every day. another reason why i chose metro is because of its size. and my middle school was small, and i really enjoyed it. i thought this would be a good option for me. when i visited last year, i note his teachers were very supportive i knew if i got off track, i would always have someone to help me get back on track, and i knew because of the drama class this is a place for me. i have to build stronger relationships with mine and teachers. -- with my teachers. my math teacher is a patient. i feel supported by the teachers

and know they will help me do my best. i have also enjoyed participating in my drama class. during our last project, we performed in front of the entire class. i like to the activity because it helped me see myself from another person's perspective. metro is all about getting students ready for the next lovell and making sure we are challenged. i feel everyone can reach their best at metro because students get specific health they need in the areas they need as well. -- students get specific help in the areas they need it as well as a. >> thanks for having us. my name tis kenta. i am a first-year teacher at metro.

i have been teaching for five years, and i have probably learned more active metro transformative latthan i did iny four years as a public teacher prior to this. three things make that possible. metro is for a projects-based learning. at the end of the day, we want our students to show that using their hands and voices and everything, not just paper and pencil, so it is well-grounded. no. 2 is we start every unit with an essential question, so that makes everything super irrelevant for students and teachers and makes the students work harder, and it allows them draw connections between what they are learning when their

everyday lives. during our staff meetings on wednesday, we are very purposeful about making everything cross-curricular, so if i am teaching something in science and they are teaching something in math, they remember more because they are focused on realizing that subjects are connected and not independent, so at the end of the day, this promotes great teaching, and great teaching promotes great learning, and you really see that in the students at metro, and my metro church on the back says, we know, we do, and we reflect, and i think that sums of metro.

thank you. >> good evening, president, superintendent, commission toward greater i come as one of the parents. two of my daughters go to metro. one graduates this year. her name is sarah smith', and se started as a junior. carry-on was started in ninth grade -- nearianna started in ninth grade. i had to decide whether to put them in public school or charter school to prop them for college, so the school is not just an institution of education. it has changed my daughter's life.

she is my shyest daughter out of four girls, and she was a shell when she got to metro, but now she does public speaking, and she has volunteered in projects, and the school has opened my daughter's eyes, her understanding. it has equipped her and empowered her, and i graduated from mission high school. i spend a little time at city college, and i did not want my daughter's going to these big public schools, because i know the chaos and confusion. i have been there and done that. this school is at hunters and waved when is a tower of knowledge that needs to be poured into the communities of the community can be empowered, so i am asking you to back-to- school and renew this program -- to back up this school and

renew this program because it is changing lives. [applause] phon>> my name is christina, ani am and 11th grade student. i want to talk about why metro has made a difference for me. metro has made a difference in my life because it has put me on track to graduate on time and make sure i am needing my requirements. my last school was very vague, and i did not feel like people knew me. as a result, i have wasted a lot of time. metro has made a difference because there was a lot of focus on me and my needs. i use my time and effectively and cannot wait to go to college. as of a few resident, i know how few options there are.

i know how proactive mature is about building strong relationships, and i know they -- how proactive metro is about building strong relationships. >> i am suzanne. this is my seventh year as a teacher in california and my fifth year at metro, and i wanted to tell you why i teach at metro and why i would strongly prefer not to work anywhere else. i have the opportunity to tell you about our approach to project-based learning. i am encouraged by the interactions that take place.

i believe we live in a culture of the creates a cap on critical thinking and that it is common, and there are things we are discouraged from talking about, especially high school students. one thing i truly appreciate about metro is that now our students are real people in a real world and are very capable of being particulates in the region being articulate. at metro, there are not topics that are off-limits, so we encourage students to question

everything, and we really encourage them to question everything so they can be when agents of change. i believe they have a right to be angry, but there are real reasons to be a great in the world. -- reasons to be angry and the world. it should be used to better understand what are the problems in society and be motivated to change them. good >> i need you to wrap thought. >> the connection between these things awhirl and not what students have completed is an

attack on hopelessness, our real hopeless as. >> i need you to wrap up. >> can i say one more thing? >> no. you have gone well over your charm. >> i am one of the teachers to join metro in its first year. i prepared a lot of remarks, but i do not think they are as important anymore because they were said by other people, and instead of saying the same thing, i want you to think about the remarks tonight. now we ask you to go beyond just regurgitating information, and and i hope you sought in our students' voices that metro is about going beyond regurgitating knowledge end not encouraging

students to become thinkers on their own, and instead of telling you the rest, i want to say you have heard a lot about what we believe metro stands for, and so we have a lot of people who did not have a chance to speak, so i would like to have everybody who believes metro stems for something important to stand up now just so you see the impact it has had on this room. >> good evening. i am the principal at the arts and technology high school. this is my second year as principal, and i want to thank you for listening to the comments of the community. they come from a passionate place, and they are rooted in some deep history, and i want to thank you for taking the time to

complete a thoughtful review of our charter. we appreciate the time you have given us at the meetings in the past couple weeks, and we have really been grateful to the commissioners who have come in the past week or so to find out more about our community and meet our teachers and let me guide them are round, so i thank you very much. we are thrilled about our new home. we could not be more proud. we have been working extremely hard since february when it was announced we would be moving, and we truly feel fortunate to be here to discuss our direction and mission, to make all current and future metro students realize their dream of being a successful college. we have lots of representatives

that can answer any questions you might have, and i would be happy to participate in that conversation. thank you very much. >> comments from the board? >> i want to point out it was pointed out i gave an erroneous report, and i do apologize for that. i was thinking about the budget committee curios -- about the budget committee. >> this is regarding enrollment

and budget. i did not know what the current enrollment is right now, so if it is a lot less than 174, when we received the renewal common reader received the renewal, was it budgeted for how many students? >> i do not recall exactly in the budget pages, but i know the budget in last year's proposal that was presented, when we spoke to weeks ago, the current involvement was 125 i believe, and i expect they were enrolling students over the past week or so, especially our the beginning of the school years a weaker against a staff report on their

current enrollment at the new location. >> in regards to current enrollment whether they have surplus or reserves to get them through the year, and whether or not the enrollment is under projection next year. we know it is going to take some time where they could bring the enrollment back up because of the rules. >> that was the main conversation at the budget committee. and i know nancy was also in the audience if we need to respond to the. i have the budget pages in front of me, so i can jump in.

>> just to enter your question about current enrollment, that is changing on a daily basis. last week it was 125 students. we had another family coming today to register as well. those numbers are lower because of the late announcement of us moving last year, and we lost some attrition over the summer. one of the interesting things is we are operational. students and families were able to come and see the site as opposed to hearing it, and we have not seen any tidal waves, but it is a trickle of fact, and it comes and goes, and we feel very it stable about our

enrollment season coming up. >> the second part of that question is because the projection was based on 174? >> we knew we were relocating the school at that point, so the budget for metropolitan is 130. >> that answers pretty much my questions. >> thank you. commissioner fewer: i had the privilege of taking a trip out, and we observe the building itself. i commend metro for putting down roots and growing a high school

in that community. it was something who were unable to do ourselves, and i want to commend you for having many students there. i think the of reach you have done to the communities has been excellent, considering you are getting a lot of children from the community. i think they are making our real efforts to build enrollment and to meet the needs of the students and the community and also believe some of the fears of parents. i hope you are very successful in the site, and it is the site

are previous superintendent and would have us the showcase. we have not been able to maintain it. i wish you much luck. >> i want to thank nick for meeting with me yesterday. i really enjoyed it. the instruction was great. the kids were wonderful. i really thought it was terrific. this is the problem i have. i have a couple of problems. i continue to have a problem with his three, and non -- with history, and it is ironic. having been told you have to give us another chartere because

it will not work -- now it is the opposite. i do think it does little ironic. have a little trouble getting over the ongoing tension. also there are huge investments being made. how are you doing? -- that have been made in the school district over the years with all kinds of presumptions about what