francisco sfgtv meeting of board of education occurring april 9, 2013, will begin

shortly. [music]

>> i'd like to call to order, board members. roll call please. >> thank you. mr. haney, miss

lee, miss norton. >> thank you. please join me in the pledge . thank you. item a is approval of board minutes. there are none tonight. item b. >> thank you president norton and i'd like to say good evening to everyone. a lot of exciting news this evening and i'd like to start by talking a little bit about

superintendent's great adventure over the last nine days. i was very honored last week to have the opportunity to visit china as part of an exchange program through the council of the great city schools and the foundation for cultural exchange who are exploring the partnership with our schools and chinese schools. i was one of five soupers from the united states who traveled to eye that to tour schools and experience their educational system. i was able to travel to five different cities. i visited the shanghai middle school, the foreign affairs school. i also visited the foreign languages school. and i was also able to do something very dear to my heart -- see the cultural arts

in china. we attended an opera in the beijing opera house. we also had a tour of the chinese national theater. part of the reason for my visit is exploring opportunities for our students and teachers to have exchange opportunities in china and our hosts were most appreciative when i was able to explain the deep value that we have in san francisco public schools for languages and language emersion programs. they're looking forward to having their teachers come visit us as much as we are about visiting them. before i go further i would like to present this formal letter of agreement that i signed. don't worry, i didn't enter any contract, but i did sign a

formal letter of undering between the san francisco unified school district and the bureau of education of hangzow stating we're going to continue to talk about establishing this relationship where our teachers will be able to study in china and vice versa and our students and principals will also have that opportunity. so i'd like to present this to you on behalf of the delegation that attended this trip. >> thank you. i'll pass this along and let other board members take a look. >> please do. on an issue closer to home, if you read the newspaper, the graduate and drop out data from the california department of education was annoyanced today and it concerns the cohort of 2011, 2012, which provides a four year graduation and drop out rate for the districts in

california. this cohort data refers to the students who started high school in 2008 and graduated in 2012. that is is the cohort. i'm very proud to say that the san francisco unified school district has a higher rate of graduation than the state average for students who started in this cohort. overall, the graduation rate increased from 88.8 percent to 88.2 percent in this cohort report. as a comparison to the state, the state average is 78.5 so once again, our community should be very proud of the work they're doing. more of our students are grand jury waiting. specifically our district also decreased its dropout rate from 10.6 percent in the 20102011 year, to just

10 percent this last year. what's going up is going up, what should be going down is going down. the state's 30.2 percent drop out rate. the district and the board has made a concerted effort to service disadvantaged communities. in that regard i'm proud to announce or pacific islander subgroup showed the largest gain in graduation rate, up one full percentage rate. the graduation rate for our african students increased 7.2 percent, up from 63.3 percent the prior year. african american rates have increased 13.9 percent

over the last two years and that's a cause for tremendous celebration for our community. unfortunately the grand jury ration rate for /hra tee no students drop edped.4 percent. however, that's /tepl /perd by the fact that last year our latino students showed a strong gain of 8.4 percent. overall our english learners almost a 68 percent graduation rate, compared to a 68.3 percent the previous year. i'd like to give a shout out to one particular school. you'll read more about this in a press release, but i'd like to highlight phillip high school because of that you are notable gains. they are the most improved high school in terms of graduation rates. the

school's graduation rate was 77.5 percent in 2010, 2011 and they just increased the rate to 87.9 percent. all of the significant subgroups of students at phillip high school showed gains as well so i'd like to congratulate the principal and his hard working teachers and classified staff, parents and students for the wonderful work they're doing to make these kind of results a reality. so congratulations to them. more good news is on its way. i'd like to highlight an opportunity that or sixth grade students had last week. mayor lee has been very vocal about

focusing his mayor ship on focusing support for middle school students in our district. so we're been working to craft an investment strategy, really engaging our private sector employees, creating a strong science, technology, arts and maths focus, starting with the district's comprehensive middle schools. more than 2000 of our sixth grade students attended a preopening event at our exploretorium last week. this was a great treat for our students. the students and staff present from all reports

-- and i was getting texts in china with pictures. sorry, it'll be expensive, but i think it was worth it. the text and pictures said people had a wonderful time. lots of joyful learning in those pictures and we look forward to sharing with you in the coming weeks our stem steam implementation strategy so you understand what that looks like. i'd like to offer con grand jurylation to our hill crest elementary school for being /aeu /warbded the 2013 community schools award for excellence which is given by the coalition for community schools of the united states. this is a national award. it's provided to highly effective and efficient community schools and hill crest has been selected from one of three schools across the nation that it meets the criteria. so congratulations to the principal and his

incredible staff for demonstrating what community schools is all about. >> that's ending on a high note, i must say. thank you. item c, recognitions of commendations. item d. >> facts annual youth summit was hosted last friday and it went very well. we would like to give a special thank you to those who spoke at the summit, associate we would like to thank the student speakers at the event. some highlights with the asb where asb officers from each school shared best practices with each other to

help strengthen the asb's. this was a great jumping off point for having more youth involved. vote for the candidate who you think would be best to be the voice of the students of the school district. and all schools must have the surveys and ballots completed by friday, april 19. >> moving forward, although the year is quickly coming to a close, we are -- grab and go program by allowing students to eat breakfast in class during first period and the action for childhood arrival program. we are supporting the work of the youth commission has. our curriculum /kreut me has met with kevin regarding teacher feed back surveys and we will

work with superintendent on the questions on the survey. we would like to advertise for the summer jobs plus program allowing for students to get a job over the summer and students who qualify are ages 14 to 24 so to get involved call 211 or email match bridge at uwuba.org. >> thank you so much for the report. and i would love to work with you on the gat got resolution. >> item s. public comment on consent items. everything is just general public comment. the pack report -- item e, parent advisor council report.

>> good evening. my name is gloria. i am a parent. i'm not feeling well so i apologize for my voice. i want to give a report on the redesign of special education service with doctor blanco and her colleagues a coupling weeks ago and she was able to give us some background and answer some questions relating to parents act saying information and navigating the system. we staffed at the information and

resource conference sponsored by the support services with children with children with disabilities, we did out reach and had surveys and i was really happy to see every well and you guys supporting the pack's work. i wanted to say thank you for that as well as mentioning the pack. we had a lot of people come over to the table after you guys spoke and wanted to know a little bit more about the pack and how they can be involved so really appreciate that outreach. and also we were really glad to hear that the district echoing its commitment for equity for all students with disabilities. this allows for students with