a capacity of about 1000. it has about 800 kids are now. we are projecting it to have 430 kids in a few years. is that intentional? why are we doing this? why are we trying to make a school with a large capacity have such a small enrollment? the minimum is 420. francisco is in the same category but it is not as drastic as what i saw with marina. >> thank you for the question. i would urge that you not take these estimates very seriously. there are a huge number of caveats that i did not put down here. what we were truly trying to develop was the question of whether there would be enough space at each middle school for incoming fifth graders who would

be assigned to it according to the elementary that they attend. the answer is yes. the thing is that these are rough estimates are based on the rate at which children have moved from fifth to sixth grade in the district over the last four years. this is called a great progression rates. we measured grade progressions for each of the elementary attendance areas over the last four years. we compared the number of fifth graders with the number of -- we identified all of the fifth graders who did and did not enroll in six grade in the district. we found a great progression rates do very geographically across the district. what these numbers in the rough

estimate column really mean is what enrollments would be at the middle schools given everything that we can take into account but limiting it to just the fifth graders moving from elementary to middle school. there would undoubtedly be more than the numbers shown in the column. there would undoubtedly be more than 430 at marina. some children come to your middle school not having attended ak-5. there is plenty of room for them here. i think i need to put these in so that no one takes the numbers too seriously. it shows there is enough room at the middle school for fifth graders who would be assigned to

that school. >> you are talking about if every fifth grader goes to their feeder. >> is, which they will not of course. we do not know what the new pattern will be. that is one caveat associated with the estimate. >> i want to clarify something. we have a question tonight about high school. i want to remind everybody that if you look in the placement guide, you will see there is a page that describes the process for high school. the policy we adopted is there will not be any attendance stuff for high schools. that is missing, just to clarify. there was a question raised as though we were not telling you how it would work for high school. what we are discussing tonight is attendance areas and feeder

patterns and transportation policy. we are presuming there will be no general transportation for high school. that is in our new policy. that is for clarification purposes. >> thank you for all of this work. it is very exciting to finally see all of it in color or in maps. a couple of comments and questions. some have been brought up already. we definitely have the concern about commander in -- mandarin pathways. how many years will it be before the fifth grade graduates? we have two years. ok. that is not a lot of time. jose ortega is a year behind.

it is hard because the schools are so far apart from each other. we did that because we wanted the east and west side to both have an option for the immersion. we are seeing how low will be difficult to have a pathway that will accommodate all of the different communities. i think willie brown is a great location. i do not know when we will be able to open the school. it will be great to have mandarin emersion there. for the high school fair, it would be great to get our student advisory council involved. i think they would be perfect and would give really good feedback in terms of what they would have liked to of seen in eighth grade in helping to select a school since we're keeping the current city-wide process. for the members of the public that were not part of the process, the majority of high

school students asked the week keep the city wide policy because they wanted the choice to go citywide. i am very worried about isa. that was the one pathway that concerned me the most. a lot of the others seemed to make sense, were contiguous. i liked that there were some schools like everett better really going to diversify going from 81% to 50%. i was concerned there was a significant drop for the same sub group for francisco middle school. given that we have malcolm x and carver going so far out, my one feedback would be whether we can consider having aptos being one of those school. it is one of the middle schools that has successfully closed the

gap in ela and math for latino students. looking at where we feed, it makes sense to look at what schools are successful a closing the gap. years from now, hopefully all of our schools will be closing the gap and it will not be an issue. i would like to look to the data in terms of which schools are currently doing that. as far as we -- as long as we're having them go so far out of their community as a feeder school. the middle school diversity, language pathway. those are most of my comments for right now. there is a lot of information. i really appreciate all the parents the came out tonight to give us their feedback. we have several other meetings as well. i am really excited about the pathways. i love the idea of communities of fifth graders going to the same middle schools, changing in

impacting the makeup of the school. i am really excited about that. the last thing is another public comment was made about our houseboat communities. the assumption is if you are contiguous, that is the area you are going into. just to clarify. i think the comment was brought up by one of the members of the public. ok, great. those are my comments. >> anything else? >> commissioner norton. >> this is a question for the committee. my understanding is we will be discussing the special education assignment plan at the september 13 meeting. is that everyone's understanding? i would like to make sure that parents are notified and have a chance to show up. >> might understanding was that

we would be talking and getting feedback from the board about the attendance area, peter patterns, and transportation policy. the discussion about special ed would take place through another form. i was not aware that special and would be discussed. i thought student assignment would be discussed through special ed. >> we were going to have the committee as a whole. >> i want to take issue with that. i think it is the last meeting -- at the last meeting, i threw temper tantrum and said i wanted to have a conversation with parents. my understanding is we were going to do this in september or october and people need to know. when are we going to have this conversation i was promised? >> i am talking about planning for the board. that is why i am asking. >> before we get to that discussion, we need to hear the presentation of the recommendations being made on special ed.

what day is that scheduled for? do you have that? september 14. we will schedule it after that. >> i would do it at this committee if you want, but we would have to add a meeting at the end of september or wait until the middle of october. >> whatever the pleasure of the board, i just want to have the conversation. >> we will figure it out with a staff. we will let everybody know as quickly as possible so that parents can know. >> i am getting a lot of people asking. >> this is one question i left out. i was curious why hoover has three different pathways for language. >> it has them now. it is the only school in the district that has three.

this proposal would suggest a phasing out of one of them. instead of having spanish, cantonese, and japanese, it would have japanese and cantonese. the spanish would be phased out. >> we would keep spanish at everett, link, and mann. >> i think we're finished. i want to remind the public that it is on your agenda and will be on the website on the timeline for the next steps, particularly the community conversations. the next one will be on august 25. the rest you can read on the end website. the next meeting of this committee will be september 13. if there is nothing else, the meeting is adjourned. thank you.

>> please direct your eyes to the water out over the bay. just a quick note -- the 5:30 to net the lawn is not canceled -- to nebulon is not changed. for those wishing to change rocket ships, you can talk to spot. we have another rocket ship on the way, but this one is where they take off, any minute now. we have a couple of speakers

here today. the first one is an lazarus from the port. public art like this is not done without partnerships, and the partnership that we have with the port of san francisco turned this space into an art space and has been spectacular. thank you, ford of san francisco. if you are representing the whole commission and some staff, though, ann if you want to say few words, that would be great. our boarding up is right here. >> thank you all for being here today. i would like to thank mike for wearing his seersucker suit so we were sure to get some sunshine today. i'm assuming there is a cause and effect there. it takes a village to accomplish something like this, just as with everything else in life. as mike said, this has the complete, wholehearted endorsement of the port

commission, all of us, of our staff, our planning staff, even all the way across to our maintenance staff, led by tom carter. i just want to say in closing and thanking everyone, who says we do not have ships down at this waterfront? [laughter] thank you. [applause] >> i also want to thank the opportunity thank thebcdc who helped us -- bank -- thank bcdc, who helped us get a permit for this. i told people that the cost of putting something up like this cost the city about the cost of a billboard for one month, and they had a greater ability to create community and space, and it has been a fabulous addition to the port of san francisco. people will talk about this rocket ship forever. the next person we have is our

district supervisor, david chiu. when david first came to the board of supervisors, he had a conversation with the cultural affairs director for the city and county of san francisco, and he made art in san francisco a priority. he wanted to make sure the money we were spending was spent on artists from the bay area. it was very important to him that this happened. as many of you may or may not know, san franciscans -- san francisco is one of the city with the most artists per capita. our government agencies spend more money on arts than any other government agency per- capita, and the foundations that work in san francisco spend more of a percentage of their money on art in san francisco, so with that -- for them, we're all grateful, and we will talk more about them. without further ado, supervisor david chiu. >> hello, fellow travelers. i go to a lot of events every day, and i have to say, this was the event i was looking forward

to all week. yes, and one feel that way? happy friday, by the way. i'm going to say a couple of things that elected officials probably should not. when i was a kid, one of my favorite pastimes was to launch off bottle rockets. and if i had gotten some better grades in physics, i might be helping to build these things as opposed to major in political science and becoming a politician, but at the end of the day, this is part of what is so special about san francisco, and one other thing that i'm going to say that i probably should not say -- i have never gone to burning man, but i think it might be about time. i want to thank all of you who are part of this amazing community that has helped to move forward not just the arts community, but to really improve upon community collaboration, improve upon how we think about living together as san franciscans, as californians, as

citizens of the universe. i think the last thing i want to say is, as someone who represents much of the waterfront here, this is obviously what i hope is just one of a number of amazing installations that i know that the local artist community is so incredibly capable of developing, and i look forward to future installations like this so that we can make sure that our art remains not just burned in our minds, but burned in the minds of everyone throughout the world and throughout the universe. congratulations. thank you. [applause] >> this fabulous relationship that the city and county have started in about 2005, and we had some very creative project that had happened since then, and it all started with the executive director than coming into the mayor's office and saying that we want to do more

public art. put more public are on the streets and the community of san francisco, and start trying to build community. then, it changed to melissa. she carried over, and we had more projects, and we kept coming back, and then, it started to go national. started happening in detroit and reno. if you want this to continue, you have to go and give. it does not happen without your support and supporting your community. i know we all do it in different ways, but you have to try to find a way to do more so that stuff like this can continue happen. with that, tomas is going to talk a little bit about the project and the people responsible for it. [applause] >> he just said everything i was going to say, except when we saw this ship last year -- i do not

know how many of you were there -- and friday night, when the incredible thing happened that nobody thought could happen -- this rock actually launched, and as it was out there, i had a feeling that it would probably land right here. thank you all for coming out. i do need to thank a number of people that made this possible. chad, andrea lesser l --ester -- lester, thank you all so much, and also, to alex rosenthal who pulled together this event, thank you. have a good time. [applause]

>> one of the great things about this art and the other art from the desert that has come to san francisco is to see how much the art changes in a different environment and how our perception of where we are at in our space and how this has changed -- it will change before. it is interesting looking at the perspective here. it is a really great day. i do want to bring up sean orlando, who is representing the artist. it is so great to have him here. he represents a team of many people, and i'm sure he is going to talk about those people. it is a great to see -- many times, artists have communities that follow them out there, but oftentimes, you do not have artists where community is the process. do you want to talk a little bit about your piece? . -- [applause] >> thank you all for coming out. this is really incredible. thank you to the port of san

francisco for clearing the air space to allow us to crash land on pier 14. it is really quite an honor. this has been an incredible experience for us, working with brad and lesley trichet and the port and city to allow us to place this amazing work of art that was designed and built as a group project in a collaborative manner by artists and engineers and programmers from all round the bay area, and i'm really proud to work with them. it is incredible that -- even more so, that this is the first ever rocket stop in the united states. virgin galactic, you have nothing on us. one of the new elements that we have added to the rocket, which you will notice in the background is the rockets thought, is our intergalactic bay area rocket transport or

ibart. [laughter] thank you all for coming out. we have the phenomenon coming on in a little bit. we have the space cowboys, gastronaut and all their amazing food. thank you to all the volunteers. [applause] i want to go over couple of things. first off, braf has a table over there, so if you can, and get more information about what they're doing across san francisco, across the country, and get them to try to dedicate a little bit of time, money, and cash to try to help them succeed in putting art like this together. here is the reason why -- if any of you have a chance, leslie wrote a piece about why flocked matters, which was a piece we put out in city hall a little

while ago -- i guess three or four years ago. basically, it said that public art is art that you own. no one can tell you what to think about it. there's no one telling you how the field or believe is possible with this art. it is art that any opinion matters. one of the highlights for me was went 35 grammar school kids came up and tried to tell different people what they thought that that was, and it was so fascinating. with each piece, there is a different story and a different tale that the community is telling. with david best's piece that went in his brain, some guys said thank you for that piece, and some guy said definitively without a doubt, but " this is a bird house", right? and everybody in the community saw an argument start between people in the community about a debate about what it was. another thing, the art that was created there has created another space, which is dedicated to art.

out of that came the hayes valley coalition that continued to put up piece after piece and are committed to continue to bring artists into that space to show their work here in san francisco, which is really great. i'm trying to string a little bit of time out here before i introduce the mayor of san francisco, and i'm trying to get an indication of how far out he is. any indication? >> [inaudible] >> laugh i do not know any jokes, but we do have someone here who wants to do some poetry. no poetry and no jokes, but what many of you may not know is that we built this rocket ship in 1944 and launched it in 1944. we got lost, so we -- throughout our travels, we have been traveling through space and time, picking up passengers, dropping them off, upgrading our rocket ship, collecting specimens and aliens, and some of the specimens and aliens are

actually amongst you. we landed in san francisco because we thought you would not notice them as much, but the problem is that the customs agent approached me, and you all forgot your cards, your id cards, so aliens, if you could please come here and collect your cards, because you will get stock. there is one. thank you. thank you. they just blend right in, don't they? thank you. great, here he is. ladies and gentlemen, the mayor of san francisco. gavin newsom thank you all for

coming out. -- mayor newsom: thank you all for coming out. i want to thank all of you for being willing to once again allow the city to try new things. it was not that many years ago that we could not put a peace sign up at the panhandle. we could not put a spider on top of city hall, and we could not even put a giant foot down at the embarcadero. folks, in san francisco, for all our progressive politics and our aggressive policies, there's just something about public art where we are not always as progressive as we should be. i made the distinction "public art." there is something about putting something on the streets and sidewalks that is incredibly personal to san franciscans, and as a consequence, incredibly controversial. when i came into office, one of my firm commitments was to break the rules. and i say that in a loving way, that the idea was that if we could not win by the current

rules of the game, we either had to challenge those roles or change them. so what we did is we tried to reinvent our focus on public art by finding a loophole, and this was it. temporary public art. that has been the big differentiator. we went in, and we said, "don't worry. it will just be here for 30 days." 60 days. 90 -- was it a year ago? i thought it was just 60 days ago. the point was once people got used to it -- in fact, we found the spider right here. she was here. and people started to say, "what is that?" and then, two months, they would ask why we were taking it away.

that has been the narrative and partnership with the black rock arts foundation and all those incredible artists that you guys represent, all those artists that are here that are represented in this extraordinary piece. we have done that 20 significant public arts installations in this city in the last couple of years, and that is pretty good. those are significant. thousands of others significant, but at a smaller level. we did the arts in the store front. people thought we were crazy, and now that has been replicated and modeled all across the country. we had a budget with $500 million deficit, and they thought we were crazy when we said there would not be any cuts to arts programs and arts investment in the city, but we were able to do that as well. so we are moving in a different direction. i will just end by saying i think an exciting direction.

i think we have raised the bar once again. the bar was always high in our city with our 40 years of our neighborhood arts program and all that contribution at all of you make with a set aside on every new public projects, but this is one of my favorites, and that is really what i was coming here to say. i think this is just incredible. this is going to get a lot of attention, appropriately, and deservedly. it is good attention. you have the new span on the eastern side of the bridge that is being done. you have the most environmentally friendly development in the history of this country that will happen next year on treasure island. you have a revitalized waterfront that slowly is evolving. organic produce, organic farming, our values being advanced here every single week. a lot to be proud of. a lot to be