>> active participation, and we are looking forward to the prospect of convening for juvenile probationers. i wanted to register our support for this, our commitment to make certain that there is not a slippery slope to the remedy to any of the use that are not complying with the efforts through the tarc, that it is an automatic entry. and wanted to make sure that our cars -- precipitatioprecipis noted.

>> i have one question about eligibility. do we have that capacity at tarc? >> we do. we have staff and are fluent in spanish, mandanrin, and canto nese. and i am fairly fluent in en glish. [laughter] supervisor dufty: are there any members of the public that would like to be heard? walter is moving forward. for those that are not familiar, walter is going to warm the room with song. >> ♪ so glad you made it you made it to school on time

evryday -- everyday i'm glad to say you made it ♪ ♪ you get a big grade that's a you were there every day i am so glad you made it you're playing hide and seek with school always missing don't be a fool i want to see you there in school so be there and i know you're going to make it ♪ ♪ you're going to make it with an a today every day,e verywhere --

everywhere i will see you in school in september see you when the time in school is new i will see you in september or lose you to missing class again don't lose it ♪ ♪ try to remember the kind of september when you're in school, and you were there and cool try to remember the kind of school in september and be there every day on time ♪ [applause]

supervisor dufty: thank you, walter. i never quibble with song selection, but i am going to show my age and say i expected you to send "welcome back, kotter." >> i just wanted to say that i support tarc, and i look forward to collaborating with the staff and the agency. i wanted to remind everybody that it is not only students with currency issues, but we need to cater to the families. a lot of issues stem from the families. there are the psychological effects and violence that goes hand-in-hand with the community. i know for english learners, a

lot of times they don't understand what they are taught in school. a lot of times, they gravitate toward each other. when one or two have friends, they don't go to school. they may not be on the streets, but they may be somewhere in their friends' homes, and they are alone in the house. what do we do about those children, those people with truancy issues? i wanted to remind the staff and the tarc to be mindful of that. talking with the immigrants, the latinos, and the asian population. supervisor dufty: any additional speakers? seeing none, we will close

public comment. i want to thank all of the speakers for updating us. we look forward to coming into visiting the center this fall, looking forward to a partnership with the school district and the providers to make sure that we are doing our share. with that, we will continue this item to the call of the chair. madam clerk will call the next item. >> it is a file number 100571, safe routes to schools and muni safety. supervisor dufty: this is something we have taken on before to ensure safe conditions for young people that are going to school. what are wanted to do first was bring up a representative of public health, there with --

they are with dph and the safe routes to school and outreach program. we also have someone here from the transportation authority. we wanted to make sure that this came before the board of supervisors, but it has not been shared with the school district. i wanted to make sure there was good information about this. i'm sorry, with the commissioners. welcome. >> thank you for the opportunity to speak. in the interest of time, we were asked to speak for four or five minutes. we will run through this very quickly. we are running the safe route to school program in san francisco. the main purpose is actually to promote active walking and

biking to and from school. that is the main overarching goal. it will increase pedestrian and bicycle traffic safety. it will decrease traffic and it -- congestion and improve air quality. it will reduce childhood obesity by promoting activity. there is a lot of research that shows it will increase academic performance. it will also provide eyes on the street. we hope to get much more schoolchildren and their families out there walking and biking. why do we need safe route to school? in 1969, half of them were walking. it is now about 15%. about a quarter of morning traffic are caretakers driving their children to school.

as you have read, childhood obesity is a major topic. it has tripled in the past 30 years. it addresses multiple issues at once. it is a national movement. we have programs throughout the country. i am proud to say it is here in san francisco. we had a half-million dollar -- $500,000 grant. the public health department, obviously the school district, the bicycle coalition, the mta, the department of the environment is a recent partner. we just worked in five elementary schools this year'. we will add 10 more.

we will start making invitations, so we will be working with a total of 15 schools next year. these are the schools we have worked in this year. we worked and bryant elementary which is in district 9. george washington carver, the bayview hunters point neighborhood in district 10. we worked in district 11 schools in the amazon area. sunnyside, and sothe sunset district. the first criteria is looking at the enrollment. if the school has over 50%, we want to make it realistic to ask the children. >> is there a handout?

>> id don't have the power point, but i have a fact sheet i can get out. and i can obviously get you copies of the power point afterwards. we work with the model that most safe routes to school programs huge. education, encouragement, enforcement, engineering, and evaluation. our program is focused on safety, teaching pedestrian safety skills in the second grade and biking skills in the fourth grade. there is walk to school day, back-to-school day, and enforcement is self-explanatory. we tried if it does infrastructure improvements, and evaluations to measure our program's success.

through their role at the county transportation agency, we were awarded another $500,000 to continue the program through 2011 and 2013. the thing that i want to stress is that at the same time, the policy is going to change at local schools. this will make it much more realistic to ask families to walk and bike to school. we will do a special outreach to each incoming gray. -- grade. we will do a lot of outreach to the caregivers, especially at candor orientation. that is also being contributed to poor air quality around the

school. and then do some training about school buses to help increase that element of our program. i really want to thank you for the opportunity to speak, and i will give you a copy of the power point. we are excited to bring this program finally to san francisco. supervisor dufty: commissioner kim. commissioner kim: in terms of the schools you will be adding -- >> is the question which ones? we decided that we are going to invite all of the elementary schools to participate. we're going to send an invite to all of them. they will respond to us, and we will look at the criteria we have. we do want to ensure geographic

equity to make sure that at least one if not more is in each supervisory district across the city. we want to make sure that half of their students are living within a mile of the school, and what helps launched a program is to see if they have participated in any evidence that show an interest. but have they participated in walking to school days before? we look at the applications we have received and pick the schools that way. commissioner kim: and just because it is a program that is already being initiated, there are some community groups and other organizations that are working with safe passages for children to walk back and forth, and they actually partner with the high school students to volunteer to watch elementary school kids back and forth. it would be great to partner with them because they have an existing program and they're

trying to do better out reach. there is at least some work that is being done there as well. >> absolutely. supervisor alioto-pier: think you, supervisor dufty. going on what commissioner kim just mentioned, in district 2, a lot of the independent schools have these programs already in place and they're pretty aggressive. they will walk three blocks down to go pick the kids up from school. i'm just curious to know if we have also considered partnering with some of the parochial and independent schools and neighborhoods? >> we receive this question quite a bit. we're open to working with a number of the private schools in the city. what a challenge is for us, we

don't know what the enrollment data is for the private schools, and how far the families live. we're happy to facilitate walking school buses where families dropped them off 3-5 blocks away to decrease the traffic congestion. it is hard pressed to deliver the full set of services when we don't know where the parents are. we're going to be setting up a website where we're going to be putting up our lesson plans for teachers to download themselves and implement if they want to. that should be up and running in a couple of months. >> there are a lot of catholic schools that have -- there might be a lot of overlap in some of these community centers. if there is anything i can do to help, i will be happy to do that. >> we would appreciate that.

supervisor dufty: commissioner mendoza. commissioner mendoza: i am curious about the involvement of sfpd in the safe routes. i have heard that it has been a little challenging. these are the kinds of opportunities where we can be sure that the engagement level is where we wanted to be. can you share that with us? >> i will bring up the officer who is wearing multiple hats today. yes, the police department is going through multiple works. we originally got this grant in 2006, and the unit we were working with was the youth services unit that has now been restructured. we are trying to make do with the existing structure of the

police department. we're trying to reach out to the district captain to work with of the schools that have been selected. some districts work with us and some have other priorities. we are trying very hard to be ready at the start of the school year to alert all the districts that there will be one or two districts that can participate. do have anything to add to that? >> this basically came about when the resources officers were decentralizing because we entered into an agreement where we had a unit functioning where we could deliver it. we don't have that anymore. there is some movement to reinvigorate the effort, but the

involvement from an enforcement standpoint solely rests with each district captain. that is the piece that we need to be able to put together in a more fluid away, especially because we're going to have 15 schools in this coming year. commissioner mendoza: what is being communicated to the district captains for them to support the program? >> each of them received a transition binder that had deliverable within that period it is there. i think we probably just need to revisit it because there have been some revisions and some movement as well at the district level. i'm sorry, at the police district station level. commissioner mendoza: without calling anybody out, is there anything we can do to support --

you ha >> i think it would be great if we could bring the department of dph, the ta, the officer with us, you get five district stations and they establish is something they ask about for the next few meetings. i think that would be a good -- commissioner mendoza: the only thing i am apprehensive about is that we don't know what schools are going, and we can certainly say that this is something that we have got to deliver on, but we won't be able to say, yes, you're going to have three schools in your police district.

>> and maybe there is a communication that we can have a select committee involve the captains as well. and you have another officer or -- excuse me. i didn't mean to call you off. >> it's ok. this is a good coincidence that happens today, because i met with diana from the superintendent's office. what we did for about an hour and a half, all of the schools are laid out on this map, and we discussed exactly what you're talking about. basically, there are certain programs that are only in certain schools. so children from all different areas have to attend those schools specifically. i brought with me, today when we

met, a task force expert, and we sat down with them and looked at where the schools are, how they are laid out, and we discussed whether we're going to support direct busing or whether muni could handle the issue. we brought the problem lines, the problem intersections. we looked at the map, and she said, can we move these kids to this school? without using specifics, i said no, that will have to be a direct route because it is a gang area. and those kids, that would put them in harm's way. we ended the meeting at -- and we basically took copies of the maps, looked at the different schools, and for the most part,

it will be the middle schools that will be an issue. we have our own work, we're going to look at the schools where there are specific programs. we will determine what kids will be going to those schools, and they're going ask us, which way do we do this? do we do direct buses using the school district, or will muni work? it is a coincidence that it was already in the works this morning. i know we are scheduled again to meet on august 10. the inspector or the sergeant brought copies back to the task force where, as you know, it is kind of split into the different gangs specialties. the respective team leaders will look at the information, look at

the schools, where they're going to be moved, and what type of police presence do we need to ensure the safety of the kids. >> as you're saying, the timing is perfect. what you're talking about is the conversation that started around the student process. as it gets more of the policy work, we want to make sure that we incorporate the police department and the various agencies to make sure that we are making progress on safety for our kids. i appreciate that piece because it is a really important component because the transportation cuts we're going to be experiencing as well as the way in which the students process will unfold. you have actually helped us to recognize where we should draw

the boundaries which is a really important piece. i am hoping you will translate what you have done their with this particular program, because it is a little different than what you're doing on the student assignment peace. it seems to me that the role of the san francisco police department is more around the enforcement and making sure that they are supporting the efforts of the safe routes. looking at what is happening here, utilizing speed radar and those types of things, it is a little bit different from the student assignment peace. i am hoping that your conversation this morning translates into more support on the safe routes program. >> i am pretty confident it will. i also where another hat.

i am a san francisco police officer assigned with working with the mta. we identified them as the specific team or what they do is they go to the problem line, where the kids congregate before and after school, and they ride the buses. it is the -- mtap is the muni transportation assistance program. >> these are all the multiple layers that are different programs but i think fold into one another. we would love to hear from them. >> i want to bring you up after because i have some use commissioners here, and i always get worried. ok. commissioner mendoza: in hearing

your conversation, i get your working with individuals, but as you must know, we have a student assignment redesign that has been going on for quite some time. howell line are you in that conversation? >> personally, our program has not been aligned with that conversation at all. we just know that the policy went into effect in march. and this might be an opportunity for promoting that. commissioner mendoza: there are opportunities to figure out how we can align that program. we definitely have some differences in how we have done this work and come to a decision of what we're going to do with student reassignment. and definitely, if he could

possibly share some information with you, he is our representative. the conversation can begin because there would be some kind of talk. >> that afternoon, board of supervisors and commissioners. as deputy chief murphy said, i am the manager of ammuni tra -- the muni transit assistance program. we work with many places. we also work at a number of junior high schools that covers everything to marina to

francisco and other schools that have been developed. luther-burbank has a charter school there. we have been working around mission high school on to sixteenth street. it is a transfer point for a lot of kids going to some of the other schools. we have a mixture of public as well as private school kids that we deal with everyday. it was a pretty quiet summer. we are very grateful for that. we're thankful that deputy chief murphy came along. they are scattered at the various district offices, so we're working with the various captains and the community relations unit that was established by the chief to make sure that they get outn