we hope you consider it. thank you so much. president yee: two more minutes. >> stacy bartlett, parent of immersion student in first grade. this is my daughter and her best friends. i want you to see how diverse our community is and this is why we're here. we want to keep our community in tact. the one of the things that we think is not being addressed is the growth coming. we have the physically largest attendance area in the city and one elementary school to serve it. there are 66 seats that come in every year. this year, based on 2010 census data, we're drawing from about 200 students. that is 2 1/2 times as large as the 2000 census data that i think was used when attendance areas were drawn up. now in 2015, there will be 444 children knocking on your door and where will we send them to school all in the daniel webster attendance area not to mention last week the giants said they would build 1,000 rental units

in mission bay and where are they going to school in if there's only 66 seats available, where are these kids going to school? patrayo kids is expanding, operated on the daniel webster campus. at our school, we serve 25% low income families and have great diversity there, as well. this was built to serve as a feeder to daniel swebster and it's working. 52% of our graduates go on to attend daniel webster elementary and that percentage is rising. increasing capacity means more patrayo graduates and hopefully seeking daniel webster at a high rate. this year, graduating 23, next year, 32, after that, 48 graduates a year. with only 44 seats for spanish immersion, where are these kids going to go to school? president yee: last speaker. >> i'm michael rose. i have two students at san francisco public unified right now. i've got a fourth grader at star

king and kindergartener at daniel webster. i can tell you from my experience that daniel webster is a successful school and we have a plan for success. stacy tried to fit it all in there in a short period of time but there is a plan for success. i encourage you to review that if you haven't already done so. we would like you to continue to support the successful program. i think you can see both by the community's involvement, by the administrators, the test scores i know are there but we see signs that cracks are starting to form. i.s.a. is a huge barrier for people what they come to school and tour. we hope you'll reconsider and create a daniel webster k through 8 program. thank you. president yee: thank you very much. i'm going to call up the next grouping now. i gave 17 minutes. paul revere group. kelly lee smith, allen alvarez,

floritas barias, shelly shakira. guadelupe. actually, you guys figure out what order you want to speak in. you have 15 minutes as a group. ok? [speaking spanish]

translator: my name is floorita

barias. i am a mother of second grade. and also i am here to request to maintain the support they're giving to paul revere, also the idea to keep all the teachers for the next school year, also keep the principal, ms. salmon, who has been the leader. because she's the one who has influence of the teachers for the academic and all the kids. i would like to say thank you for all the support to the

school. but also i would like to ask to give them the same opportunity to our kids. in order to keep ms. salmon because she has made a big change in the school. so our kids will compete with other kids from other schools that are more advanced. so please take this into consideration and keep ms. simon so our kids keep being successful and progressing. thank you.

[speaking spanish] translator: good evening, my name is patricia bennas. [speaking spanish] translator: i am a mother of a kindergartener and i am her teacher. [speaking spanish] translator: last year, i went through the selection process for the school of my kindergarten and when i found out i was going to be at paul revere, i was very impressed with the direction for the following year. [speaking spanish]

translator: i've been very happy with the goals and the discipline for students and that our director, along with teachers, is making goals for the students and pushing them academically so that they advance the following year. [speaking spanish] translator: i am so happy to find out that we are keeping our teachers in the school and the signal that consistency is so important. i thank you for that and i ask you to keep consistency with our director and bringing her back for that continuity. thank you. [speaking spanish]

translator: good evening, my name is frances. i also have a student in kindergarten and this is the second time i have come to speak to you. [speaking spanish] translator: i am here to request that you keep our principal with our school and also thank you for bringing back our teachers at paul revere next year and also consider bringing back our principal. [speaking spanish]

translator: i want to ask you to bring her back because she's done so many things for the school, especially discipline. [speaking spanish] translator: and please, please give us an answer for our principal next year. thank you. >> good evening, i'm shirley chickery. i have two daughters in paul revere. i'm here on behalf of my family. i would like to share all my observations during my first daughter when she started her preschool, since 2009. the behavior of the students before, they were so aggressive. if you only -- if you will only visit paul revere during that time, the children, they are so behaving differently from now because before, when we went to

will paul revere, we saw this middle school children, they're kicking the gate just to enter the school, and i said, i feel so scared, i said, i don't want my children to see this kind of behavior. so i would like to support our principal, ms. salmon, because when she came to paul revere, she changed a lot of this behavior. she stopped this kind of behavior that the children showing around the neighborhood. it's like now they are more peaceful. they don't kick the gate, and then they are -- they have their discipline in themselves. and then about the attendance, before, even the parents, they don't have discipline.

they will come like 9:30 but it's supposed to be at 8:00. now they are arriving before 8:00. and about the cafeteria, we need a lot of help in cafeteria because the children, they need a lot of attention. if they're eating, they are not focusing on their food, they are playing a lot. we need people in cafeteria so hopefully you can pay attention and give help to paul revere school and about the growth of the paul revere academic. i am particularly more on academically because i always check the grade schools of the paul revere. their target is more than that. i am congratulating ms. salmon for giving a lot of inspiration to our students so please keep

our principal and i would like to say this is funny. even one child, i observe and i enter the school, she's just a kindergarten, she was crying and she said that oh, mommy i'm late. you see the difference from before, that the children doesn't care about punctuality but now even this little child, she knows they're responsible for coming early at school. thank you. that's all. >> my, my name is molly, i'm a third grade teacher at paul revere. i've been there for five years. thank you for your attention and consideration. for the first two years at paul revere, i tried my best. i was left alone. i didn't get a lot of direction, a lot of feedback, a lot of observation and when sheila came in, the change was immediate. i was observed and given feedback on a regular basis. we had best practiced modeled at

every single staff meeting we went to. new curriculum came in. i had a third of my class pulled out on a daily basis for intensive small group reading instruction and i also felt very supported on my path to becoming a better teacher and i'm proud to say that according to the benchmark testing which we do at paul revere which is more than the c.l.a., we also do the c.a., 3/4 of my class is proficient in english language arts and in math so i feel success this year that i did not feel prior to ms. salmon coming to our school. ms. salmon is not perfect. many people have grievance with her which i totally respect and understand. i personally think our immersion and enrichment programs need work but i feel she knows this and listens to everybody when she can. we're exhausted from working so hard. please allow us to continue on this path that will lead to success in this school.

thank you for your attention. >> good evening, my name is carmen leanne and a parent of two children at paul revere school. i am one of the parents that originally participated in a protest at the beginning of the year. the main reason i participated in the protest was because i was concerned that some voices in our school community were being excluded. i was also worried that some of the disciplinary policies implemented at paul revere were unhealthy for the children. the protest sparked much needed conversation regarding these and many other issues at the school. over the last few months, our principal, the teachers, the administration and p.t.a. have striven for inclusion throughout the community. through outreach programs and other activities i've been involved in. also, the meetings have been conducted in spanish and english. many of the policies have been clarified and altered. i feel my children are safe at the school during the day.

i would like to say that removing principal salmon at this point would undermine all the work our community has done over the last year. i am willing to work with the current administration for positive achievement and growth at paul revere. thank you. >> good evening. thank you for bearing with us. last but not least i hope. i just wanted to share, maybe ask you to start thinking about paul revere as not as a school with promise but potential. we're on our way to be the next success story in the district of the thank you for your support. we are able to maintain our wonderful teachers and just to give examples, we are really lucky with the teaching staff we have and to be able to keep them and to continue them working on the instructional practices, all the work that has gone into it to take it to the next level, that's huge for us. also what is i think the first

in all of your history, not only that you made it possible for the teachers to stay for the first time, the overwhelming majority of the kids want to come back because of ms. salmon's leadership so that's, again, it's a change of perception of the school. we're on our way to really make a difference. i know that there's been parents have raised issues and said there was not enough attention for everybody in the community, there were communication issues, behavioral issues, and this has been a very big priority and we have made great progress on that. we now have, thanks again for your support, vice president of culture and climate and is present daily in the annex k through third grade, working together, reaching out to the parents that had issues and we're building relationship and it's made a huge difference. there is a lot -- been a lot of improvement in communication. there's now a procedure that

whenever there's an issue, those issues, issues get dealt with in 24 hours. there is a communication made. i was brought about because the parents, what they wanted, those recommendation of how communication should happen is then brought back to sheila so we put a lot of things in place that address those legitimate concerns. so also we've worked very hoard strengthening our community because as several of the board members point out, this is what will help us move to the next stage and we have made a lot of progress there, as well. we have had a lot of work with the building bridges committee. we now have an african-american parents group. that was a voice in our school that was not heard very well. we have that. president yee: the group has four more minutes. >> it would be great if you could start thinking of -- we're

not a school with problems, we're a school with potential and with your continued support, we can make this happen. >> good evening, thank you for hearing us. i'm andi hanson, a third grade teacher at paul revere. upon hearing that the decision to keep sheila was still pending, i tried to wrap my head around what it would look like next year to enter a year with new leadership and honestly, i became very disheartened and even now talking about it i'm realizing i just don't know how the school can survive another drastic change. the changes that we've made so far are working and the pund -- pendulum is swinging back to center and everyone is seeing the fruits of our labor and i think that changing leadership would totally undermine all the progress we've made. thank you very much. and also, real quick, if anyone here is in support, i just want

to -- many of us are not speaking but all are representing the school so if you are here and want to raise your hands to show if you're in favor. >> [speaking spanish] translator: good evening, my name is julio. i am the father of a kindergartener and i am very happy with the current administration. i would like that the administration continues the same so that my student continues learning and being successful in school. thank you. >> hi, i have two kids at paul revere. i'm on the p.t.a. board and i'm at school every day

volunteering. i'm here to sincerely thank you for your courage and your foresight in preventing layoffs at paul revere and second to encourage you to renew sheila salmon's contract. two years ago, our community came together and thought long and hard about what kind of principal our school needed. we chose sheila salmon. paul revere is a tough school with tough issues and we need a tough principal. we are so fortunate to have that in sheila salmon. we don't need a principal who will sugar coat our challenges. we need someone who will be straight and honest with us and challenge all of us to strive for better. we are so fortunate to have that in sheila salmon. change is hard and at the beginning of the school year, some people showed they didn't like ms. salmon's reforms. there were unfortunate scenes back then but i saw her handle difficult situations gracefully and respectfully and she has since initiated many programs to address concerns and bring them on board with reforms.

most parents at paul revere cannot fathom why her contract would not be renewed. we feel the district should be begging for her to return. i am very concerned if we lose her, we will lose some of her new stellar hires, amazing teachers that are at paul revere because of her. another upheaval in leadership can only hurt our children's education. finally i realize she came from another school district so you may not know her very well but her job is not a popularity contest. she was hired to do a specific job and she's doing that job very well. please, please, please let her continue. and i'd like any of you to please come and see paul revere for yourself and i'd like to thank dr. . [applause] who is - dr. murase who is coming this week and i look forward to seeing you then. >> my name is kelly lee schmidt

and i have a third grader and incoming kindergartener who both have spots technically at clarindon that i would gladly give up to stay at the school i'm at if i could get the word that our principal is staying. i would give up your number one dream school for everyone wants to go to, thousands of people put at number one, i would give it up to stay at the school i'm at in the community that my children love and adore and they love their teachers and they're doing very, very well in. thank you very much. president yee: thank you, folks from the paul revere community. i have a stack of other folks here but i'm not too sure they're here. >> we're here. president yee: you're here. ok. i was hoping you would be here.

ok, so here's the names. mary bevins, rachel brooks, monica swartzalander, justin sutton, nevett, wendy wan, erin qataris. come up on, go to the podium. you have one minute each.

>> i pressed the button. my name is mary bevins, the resource and literacy specialist at visitation valley school and a member of the council. >> can you wait a minute. i can't hear anything you're saying. >> boys and girls, please be quiet. show good listening. men and women, grown-ups. my name is mary bevins. i am the resource and literary specialist at visitation valley elementary school and a member of the school site council. i'm here to speak on behalf of the students for whom there is no achievement gap. the children with disabilities who are joyiously achieving, the children who traditionally have wide achievement gaps, the childrens whose lives are riddled with violence and poverty, all the children who are achieving joyuously for whom there is no achievement gap.

i am here to tell you about their teacher ms. monica swartzlander, an outstanding educator who knows how to close the achievement gap by being a gifted teacher, providing a joyous environment, holding herself couldible with warm relationships, with all her students, parents, teachers, staff and community. monica swartzlander, the teacher you fired by not re-electing her, fired without telling anyone any reason why, fired so late that she couldn't get another teaching job, fired without consulting those who know her best, her students, parents, teachers, staff and community. i'm speaking on behalf of monica students to tell you we want to keep our outstanding beloved teacher. please don't fire monica schwarzlander. thank you. >> my name is rachel brooks. i'm the resource specialist para

at visitation valley elementary. i have five children who have been through the public schools, i have one grandchild who's in san francisco unified now and i know a good teacher when i see one. i know a bad teach when i see one, too. ms. monica is a wonderful teacher and we don't understand why she's being let go. i understand there's no reason. my understanding is that the principal doesn't need to have a reason and frankly, there is no reason to let her go. and i feel it's wrong that we begrudge her another job with the school district, that's how it came down but i want to end with a note that for every parent here there are dozens who couldn't make it tonight and ms. monica has the support of the school and we don't understand and it's just wrong to let her go for no reason.

i'm going to give someone else a chance. >> thank you for listening. i am the teacher they've been talking b. i am monica swartzlander, kindergarten teacher at visitation valley elementary school. this is my second year. i've been working with children since i was 8 years old and got my first babysitting job and i haven't stopped. i've worked in japan, i've worked in private schools, public schools around the country and international. i have many, many qualifications but that's not why i'm here. i am here because i love the school they am at now. i love visitation valley, i love the community, i love the families and i have the support of the families, the teachers, tenured and non, even no nontenured, sometimes it's more difficult for them to voice support. i have support of the community members, volunteers at the school and i really hope that you are here to listen to them and their opinion and what they

would like to have happen at our school and not let it be the opinion, the vote of one person at our school who has control of my job. it is your choice and i hope that you consider their opinions. thank you. >> hello and good evening. obviously i am here in support of ms. monica. she is my son's kindergarten teacher. i also have a daughter that attends visitation valley, as well, in first grade. i myself am a graduate of visitation valley. i've been in the community for the majority of my life and one thing that we had when we were growing up is stability. since i've sent to visitation valley, we've seen two principals. i, this year, have been very happy with the progress of my son. when asked why he enjoys being in