responsibility czar, we have brought all of our permit officers together. will we also did, i think, moving in this new direction is the others attended this meeting, and i wanted them to hear exactly " what we were doing. also, the earlier comments we made is just a perception. we recognize that we are working towards more communication, and there is room for improvement, and i think your point is well taken. the tenderloin had a relatively large community meeting, and i do not even know if they had issues for you tonight, but i think it is a good point. we are aware of it, and we are just trying to get it to be as quick as we can.

bucommissioner meko: it is a learning situation for us, too. >> what is working and what is not and where we are heading. everything you're asking for, we are doing. it just may not beginning to you as quickly as he won. : commissioner if -- commissioner: you refer to a task force, and we would like to think that everyone is a member of the task force. we have been trying to come up, and it is very similar to what officer mathias brought up, and

we're trying to move this along accurately and efficiently. we are trying to come up with the best practices. things like the card reader ideas. officer mathias made a good point. we were a big believer that if we had card readers and video cameras, people would be a differently. now, i have to say, we talked about this today. there are even some criticisms with this. there are some who do not want to be identified. my boss is the lead on this. hot -- there are some industry

stakeholders, and we hope to bring it to you in the near future. president roja: i never ate, it commissioner's comments and questions. seeing none, we will move to item no. 9, new business request for future agenda items. commissioner: just to get the card reader in at a date. are we ever going to read a celebration for the departure of commissioner alan -- have a celebration? >> i guess i can answer. given the level of work that he

continues to generate, it is hard. it may be september though, unfortunately. we are required to do that. president roja: anybody else? seeing none, that concludes the tuesday, august 10, meeting of the entertainment commission. of the board of education for august 10 is now called to order. roll-call, please.

>> thank you. commissioner fewer: here. vice-president mendoza: here. >> thank you. >> please join me if you like in the pledge of allegiance. >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god individual with liberty and justice for all. >> the first item is approval of board minutes. i i have a motion and a second? any corrections? roll call, please. commissioner fewer: yes. commissioner maufas: yes.

president kim: yes. >> superintendent garcia. >> i would like to welcome everybody. this is like the premier of a new season. we are starting off a new season in the adventures of the san francisco unified school district. it is kind of exciting. we want to remind all of the parents and teachers that i feel like ringing the bell at school. this coming monday, august 16 is the first day of school.

we have never quite started this early. we are going to end a lot earlier. we will be attending the school year on memorial day weekend. we are sorry that everybody had such a short summer. we are ready to start all over again. there are a lot of good things to be celebrating, in spite of how the economy is going. today, the house passed the jobs bill. we could do a lot in the school district. you probably have heard the school improvement grants. we were going to get $47.5

million. there were rumors that other districts were not in the next. we work with superintendents across the state. we are standing together on taking a scare off of everybody else. most school districts will sign on. that will be good for us. all 10 of our schools are persistently low achieving students. schools will be funded.

there was a group of a schools funding california. i am told that we had a very good interview. that could bring a lot of resources to our school district. we are hoping that move forward. we will need to do a lot of work with our partners and different unions to try to come up with a good plan. that is on the horizon as well. all of those things are great. the most exciting thing is that monday the state will be lifting the embargo on our test results. i am not of liberty to discuss them.

they are pretty good news. people are going to be really surprised on what we are doing in closing the achievement gap. last year, we did well. we talked about setting up goals that nobody thought that we could achieve with double digit growth. for those naysayers, gephardt of the way. there are great teachers and administer -- get out of the way. there are great teachers and administrators that believe in this. i want to thank everybody for the fabulous work that they did, despite the worst economic crisis we have had. ensuring that the students are going to be successful. without your efforts, everybody is going to have a lot to be

proud of in san francisco. thank you and have a great school year. >> i just wanted to thank you for that, superintendent. i have had the opportunity to look at a number of buildings on school sites were a number of buildings are working out this summer. i wanted to thank all of the people who have worked on this and the people of san francisco that have the bonds that we are issuing. >> tonight, we do not have any recognitions or resolutions. this is normally a time for reports. i did want to introduce our new stew -- student delegates, cheryl fattah -- cheryl chan and elise a fan.

-- elvina fan. >> i want to start off by city -- saying i'm excited to be here. i am looking forward to a really good year. >> i am the elected student delicate. i second what she is saying. i am looking forward to helping students, teachers, and talking about what is going on with the schools. >> what grade are you both in? >> i am may sr. and i am a junior. >> we are excited to have you on board. the board of stewards have student input on all of our policies. we look forward to what you bring forward as well.

the next is our parent advisory council report. we will move on. item f is public comment on consent items. i do not have any speaker cards tonight. item g, do i have a motion and a second? any items withdrawn or corrected by the superintendent? >> could you repeat that? >> any items removed for first readings by the board? this is for discussion and vote tonight. this is the first meeting. i am having trouble enunciating.

seeing none, roll call will take place. item h, superintendent proposals. there are none tonight. item j, request to speak regarding general matters. this is a record. at 6:30. public comment. i have no cards. item k, advisory committee reports by the board members. you have the appointments tonight. item l, special order of business. i call this a tentative agreement between the district and international federation of professional technical engineers. may i have a motion and a second?

>> so moved. >> may we have a reading by the superintendent or staff. >> i am sorry. >> this special order of business requests that the board agreed out of this money to give each member of the local unit and a one-time payment of $1,000. the required documentation from the department -- budget department is also enclosed. >> thank you. are there any public speakers

for this item. roll call, please. commissioner fewer: yes. commissioner maufas: yes. >> aye. vice-president mendoza: -- president kim: yes. we wanted all of the board members to hear some of those priorities. that is why we did not schedule one. consent calendar resolutions. there are none. this has already been moved and seconded. roll call, please. >> yes. >> yes. commissioner maufas: yes.

>> yes. president kim: aye. consent calendar resolutions. there are no speaker actions. the superintendent's proposal for first reading. do we have a motion and a second? this is for 108-10sp1. this is authorizing the levy of a special tax on community facilities districts. this would be held over to action for the next board meeting. item r, there are none tonight. we have a report from commissioner fewer on the city and school district committee. commissioner fewer: i was not present at that meeting.

president kim: we had a discussion on truancy and initiatives. this was by the state and county of san francisco. we got to share a little bit more on the truancy center. the truancy assessment referral center. they had begun their work in may. they had begun working with students and our staff to work with them. commissioner maufas, you were at that meeting. that has begun developing plans. hopefully, we will start to get some data from this group to find out what is stopping the students from coming to school and to help them reintegrate back into our schools. that will be held over. the next item was muni safety.

some discussion about concerns that our students have about concerns from home to school and after-school programs and what kind of work we're doing with the city to ensure greater safety for students. we had muni thre. -- there. i would love to hear more from our student advisory council on that issue. that was our only committee. >> i noticed that those two items are listed as action items. i understand that we distinguish between informational and action items. we may put that it is a calling of a hearing. it is a little bit misleading to list that they are action items when the committee is not going to take any actions.

>> commissioner maufas. commissioner maufas: i just had an announcement. i just wanted to announce this past weekend i was invited to attend our chinese parents -- our chinese university. it is an amazing educational event, the conference that happens for our families. that happened this past saturday. the second part of it will happen at that location on the 14th. the time is, if i could ask the translation unit, the time it starts this coming saturday is? 9:00 and it goes until when? 1:30. the generous -- in generosity of

the community and with the food and the community, this creates the first up for most families in learning most of the things we need to impart to them. they will not readily have that information. i would like to thank the amazing staff for participating. i know our president will be going this coming saturday to attend. the deputy superintendent, i know last saturday that did the opening at last saturday's event, i wanted to extend a special invitation to superintendent garcia. the parents have said that they would love to see you. that would be an amazing thing. our executive staff have gone to let those families know that every parent and every family is

important. we want to make every bit of knowledge that we have here accessible and to understand ways to integrate into our schools and also to find information so that there are choices that are made that are based on knowledge and information. i want to thank the translation unit and the lead staff. they have done so much amazing work to build the community up. and for parents and public schools. president kim: thank you. commissioner fewer: president kim, the deputy superintendent has an important announcement to make. we have long awaited to hear. >> we just received word that the uc system approved ethnic studies as an elective grades 9-

12. >> many thanks to sanchez and her team to bring it as a requirement to all of the students in san francisco. >> a big congratulations. i know that they were huge in pushing this. that is great news on one of our policies. any other announcements? do the student delegates have any announcements? >> school starts on monday. president kim: report of close section actions. this was -- closed session actions. the approved the appointment of one chief, one program administrator, one principle, and one assistant principalnor

-- the votes by the board approved the stipulated expulsion agreement for high- school student ka. the board by a vote of six ayes and one absentee approved a settlement of $8,000. the board by a votes of six ayes approved a settlement. the board approved a settlement in the amount of $51,000. the board approved a settlement in the amount of $11,902. other informational items. there are none tonight. the meeting is adjourned at 6:42

p.m.

i'm the president of friends of mclaren park. it is one of the oldest neighborhood community park groups in san francisco. i give a lot of tours through the park. during those tours, a lot of the folks in the group will think of the park as very scary. it has a lot of hills, there's a lot of dense groves. once you get towards the center of the park you really lose your orientation. you are very much in a remote area. there are a lot of trees that shield your view from the urban setting. you would simply see different groves that gives you a sense

of freedom, of being outdoors, not being burdened by the worries of city life. john mclaren had said that golden gate park was too far away. he proposed that we have a park in the south end of the city. the campaign slogan was, people need this open space. one of the things that had to open is there were a lot of people who did a homestead here, about 25 different families. their property had to be bought up. so it took from 1928 to 1957 to buy up all the parcels of land that ended up in this 317 acres. the park, as a general rule, is heavily used in the mornings and the evenings. one of the favorite places is up by the upper reservoir because dogs get to go swim. it's extremely popular. many fights in the city, as you know, about dogs in parks.

we have 317 acres and god knows there's plenty of room for both of us. man and his best friend. early in the morning people before they go to work will walk their dogs or go on a jog themselves with their dogs. joggers love the park, there's 7 miles of hiking trails and there's off trail paths that hikers can take. all the recreational areas are heavily used on weekends. we have the group picnic area which should accommodate 200 people, tennis courts are full. it also has 3 playground areas. the ampitheater was built in 1972. it was the home of the first blues festival. given the fact that jerry garcia used to play in this park, he was from this neighborhood, everybody kn