>> good afternoon. and welcome. welcome to san francisco. my name is lisa villareal, and i am here during this lunch representing not only the coalition for community schools, but also president and ceo of these and francisco foundation. she could not join us to introduce the mayor of san francisco. let me tell you a bit about our mayor and let me tell you about the passion he has for community schools. rarely do we find an elected official, and mayor that comes with so many vital skills and experiences that relate directly to powerful community

engagement. from his early days as managing attorney for the asian law caucus, to key positions including the director of employment relations, director of the human rights commission, the director of city purchasing, director for public works department, and finally, city and administrator prior to his election. mayor edwin lee has experienced every civic perspective. his dedication and a passion for children and youth are evident by his extraordinary support for the san francisco department of children, youth, and families. one of the first national city based initiatives to support children and youth. to be matched only by his outstanding partnership with the san francisco unified school district that is one that many districts across the united states within the -- would envy.

they have forged a partnership to deepen schools and embrace the full-service community schools initiative across the city of san francisco. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the forty third mayor, and the first asian-american mayor of the city and county of san francisco, mayor edwin m. lee. [applause] >> thank yo, lisaou, lisa, for t introduction. welcome to san francisco, how do you like the weather? first of all, i want to thank her and marty from the san francisco foundation and sam hernandez that is not with us today. they are doing a good job with our educators to make sure that the school district is never isolated. i knolerned that -- learned

that a long time ago. the best cities are the ones that place education at the very center of what we are trying to do as mayors. i want to welcome the mayors of lincoln, nebraska and hartford, connecticut. thank you for being here. i want to welcome the various school board members and administrators that are here today on this important topic of community schools, thank you for coming to san francisco. thank you for taking this opportunity to learn from each other how we can do better. i was talking with my education adviser, hydra mendoza. it doesn't go a week that we don't talk to each other about the value of education.

whether it is hurt, carlos garcia, or the incoming superintendent, we will always place education at the center of our agendas. that is what we have to do. i can't conceive of any city in the country who would not place education the highest part of their agenda. it just doesn't seem like you are a city if you don't do that. in san francisco, we value that because we are knowledgeable. we know how important it is not only for our kids, but the role of education and everything that we do. and the fact that our community school concept is alive and well and our city -- in our city. we have had those years where we look at the school distct and we say, wait a minute, we don't

have to work with them. they are a state agency. and the state gave it up and they keep giving it up. we keep having to respond. for me, i am sick and tired of responding to what the state is not going to do that we have to anticipate the bad news and we have to embrace these school districts and to make sure that they are always part of our city. that is why we have been working on ideas and programs to make sure the health department is engaged. to make sure our public safety agencies are engaged with the school district. our mayor's office, the budget office, the board of supervisors. all the other elected officials have to find some way to engage our school district, the administrators. that is why i have been talking all morning about how to get a meeting with the ceos. yes, our principles of our school district.

they are like the ceos. we have to engage everybody to make sure that we are doing the right things to balancing all the things that they need to run a successful school property and a school program. i benefited from public education many years ago. now that i am 60, those years are being recollected slower. as a recipient of public education, i have known for some many years that i was and passion that -- i was passionate about succeeding as an individual. there are more barriers to success these days. financial barriers. every time we turn around, there is another barrier presented to successful education. that is why the cities must be involved and the community schools have to be a concept that everybody embraces.

i want to thank you for holding this important meeting here because we have been trying to champion the whole community schools concept. we know that the success of our kids have to do with everybody being involved. from army dunton to carlos garcia -- arne duncan to carlos garcia and everyone involved with this movement, we have to involve everybody at the early stage. we can't let our schools fail by allowing them to be isolated. with your help, with your ideas, with the programs that are the foundations that we are coordinating and implementing, the greater idea is to involve everyone else in the community with our schools, that is going to be, i think, the way out. the only thing -- the other thing that i would like you to know, the other efforts are to involve more of our businesses

with our schools. in san francisco, we are leading the effort to make sure that the technology companies in of a -- innovate and find success as part of our city. i would like that success of innovation that many technology companies are bringing to their businesses to also happen with our school district. i know that if we can innovate our way to better taxi dispatch is like we are doing with technology companies were better ways to service delivery, we can also innovate ways in which education can be a greater part of every kids' lives and all parents. and making sure that we can use technology and the business community to do that. we will be introducing these ideas, working with our principles, working with the school boards and the superintendent to make sure that we can also link the businesses

that are doing great things and discovering fantastic ideas of businesses. we can also link them to the school districts and make them an innovative part. thank you for being here, thank you for sharing, and thank you for being part of our great movement of community schools in our city and our country. thank you very much. [applause] >> enjoy your lunch, we will resume the program and about 10 minutes. -- in about ten minutes.