>> there has been an acknowledgement of the special places around san francisco bay. well, there is something sort of innate in human beings, i think, that tend to recognize a good spot when you see it, a spot that takes your breath away. this is one of them. >> an icon of the new deal. >> we stood here a week ago and we heard all of these dignitaries talk about the symbol that coit tower is for san francisco. it's interesting for those of us in the pioneer park project is trying to make the point that not only the tower, not only this man-built edifice here is a symbol of the city but also the green space on which it sits and the hill to

which is rests. to understand them, you have to understand the topography of san francisco. early days of the city, the city grows up in what is the financial district on the edge of chinatown. everything they rely on for existence is the golden gate. it's of massive importance to the people what comes in and out of san francisco bay. they can't see it where they are. they get the idea to build a giant wooden structure. the years that it was up here, it gave the name telegraph hill. it survived although the structure is long gone. come to the 1870's and the city has growed up remarkably. it's fueled with money from the nevada silver mines and the gold rush. it's trying to be the paris of the west. now the beach is the suburbs, the we will their people lived on the bottom and the poorest people lived on the top because it was very hard getting to the

top of telegraph hill. it was mostly lean-to sharks and bits of pieces of houses up here in the beginning. and a group of 20 businessmen decided that it would be better if the top of the hill remained for the public. so they put their money down and they bought four lots at the top of the hill and they gave them to the city. lily hitchcock coit died without leaving a specific use for her bequest. she left a third of her estate for the beautify indication of the city. arthur brown, noted architect in the city, wanted for a while to build a tower. he had become very interested in persian towers. it was the 1930's. it was all about machinery and sort of this amazing architecture, very powerful architecture. he convinced the rec park commission that building a tower in her memory would be the thing to do with her money. >> it was going to be a

wonderful observation place because it was one of the highest hills in the city anywhere and that that was the whole reason why it was built that high and had the elevator access immediately from the beginning as part of its features. >> my fear's studio was just down the street steps. we were in a very small apartment and that was our backyard. when they were preparing the site for the coit tower, there was always a lot of harping and griping about how awful progress was and why they would choose this beautiful pristine area to do them in was a big question. as soon as the coit tower was getting finished and someone put in the idea that it should be used for art, then, all of a sudden, he was excited about

the coit tower. it became almost like a daily destination for him to enjoy the atmosphere no matter what the politics, that wasn't the point. as long as they fit in and did their work and did their own creative expression, that was all that was required. they turned in their drawings. the drawings were accepted. if they snuck something in, well, there weren't going to be any stoolies around. they made such careful little diagrams of every possible little thing about it as though that was just so important and that they were just the big frog. and, actually, no one ever felt that way about them and they weren't considered something like that. in later life when people would

approach me and say, well, what did you know about it? we were with him almost every day and his children, we grew up together and we didn't think of him as a commie and also the same with the other. he was just a family man doing normal things. no one thought anything of what he was doing. some of them were much more highly trained. it shows, in my estimation, in the murals. this was one of the masterpieces. families at home was a lot more close to the life that i can remember that we lived. murals on the upper floors like the children playing on the swings and i think the little deer in the forest where you

could come and see them in the woods and the sports that were always available, i think it did express the best part of our lives. things that weren't costing money to do, you would go to a picnic on the beach or you would do something in the woods. my favorite of all is in the staircase. it's almost a miracle masterpiece how he could manage to not only fit everyone, of course, a lot of them i recognized from my childhood -- it's how he juxtaposed and managed to kind of climb up that stairway on either side very much like you are walking down a street. it was incredible to do that and to me, that is what depicted the life of the times in san francisco. i even like the ones that show the industrial areas, the once with the workers showing them

in the cannery and i can remember going in there and seeing these women with the caps, with the nets shuffling these cans through. my parents had a ranch in santa rosa and we went there all summer. i could see these people leaning over and checking. it looked exactly like the beautiful things about the ranch. i think he was pretty much in the never look back philosophy about the coit. i don't think he ever went to visit again after we moved from telegraph hill, which was only five or six years later. i don't think he ever had to see it when the initials are scratched into everything and people had literally destroyed the lower half of everything. >> well, in my view, the tower had been pretty much neglected

from the 1930's up until the 1980's. it wasn't until then that really enough people began to be alarmed about the condition of the murals, the tower was leaking. some of the murals suffered wear damage. we really began to organize getting funding through the arts commission and various other sources to restore the murals. they don't have that connection or thread or maintain that connection to your history and your past, what do you have? that's one of the major elements of what makes quality of life in san francisco so incredible. when people ask me, and they ask me all the time, how do you get to coit tower, i say you walk. that's the best way to experience the gradual elevation coming up above the hustle and bustle of the city

and finding this sort of oasis, if you will, at the top of the hill. when i walk through this park, i look at these brick walls and this lawn, i look at the railings around the murals. i look at the restoration and i think, yeah, i had something to do with that. learning the lessons, thank you, landmarks meet landmarks. the current situation at pioneer park and coit tower is really based in public and private partnership. it was the citizens who came together to buy the land to keep it from being developed. it was lily hitchcock coit to give money to the city to beautify the city she loved of the park project worked to develop this south side and still that's the basis of our future project to address the north side.

>> thank you. ms.aufas. ms. mendoza. >> here. >> ms. norton? >> here. >> ms. wynns. mr. yee. ms. kim? >> yes. ms. chan >> yes. >> ms. fan >> yes. please join me in the plenl of allegiance. please join me in the pledge of allegiance. if you'd like. [no audio]

>> we usually end our meeting in memory of staff members who have been a part of our family who have passed away. so we do have many members of some of the schools here today presently, so i'm going to actually pull this up to the beginning. and so i want to ask the principal of mission high school to come up first. >> thank you very much. thank you, demigsers -- commissioners. on behalf of the mission high school community, i want to read a bit about kathleen cecil. sadly she passed away on wednesday evening after suffering a brain aneurysm monday on the opening day of school, which has really rocked the community, though we are blessed to have a wonderful, supportive community that rallied around each other, including families, staff, and most importantly students who have been very strong and

wonderful. so i'll read this. kathleen cecil, beloved english teacher was a kind, caring, quite funny, sometimes painfully honest and loving teacher, colleague and of course friend to all of us here at mission high school. kathleen spent much of her life dedicated to teaching and nurturing students with a passion that is rare. ms. cecil develop the lessons that challenged and inspired all other students. she was a lifelong and fierce advocate for social justice for everyone. it was not an unfamiliar sight to see ms. cecil move gracefully from the classroom to a march in the streets advocating for civil rights and equity for everyone. to put it plainly, kathleen was a loving force of nature. once you met her, you never forgot her. having had the blessing of working with ms. cecil the past 12 years at mission we have all gotten to know and love this incredible woman who touched so many students and staff in so many ways. her spirit will echo through these hallways for a very long

time. ms. cecil's family and loved ones are in our hearts in the difficult days to come. in addition i would like to invite anybody that would like to attend monday from 4:00 to 6:00 at mission high school in our beautiful auditorium, we will hold a memorial service for ms. cecil and her family as well. thank you very much. >> thank you, principal. and behalf of the district and the board of education, we send our condolences to kathleen's family and also to the mission high school community. also, we actually lost two members of our family last week and the second was another teacher from everett middle school and i don't think principal carochi is here but we also lost cassandra roberts and i'll read a little bit about her on behalf of principal carochi. cassandra roberts was an outstanding language arts teacher at everett middle school who began teaching in

august of 1997. in her time at everett she touched the lives of all that knew her and was an inspiration to the entire community. her favorite phrase was with "i believe in you." all students listened and admired her. her lessons were engaging. many students tried to tell her what a positive influence she had on their education and life. at everett she was awarded the cesar chavez peace award which is given to outstanding individuals for exemplary services to the community. she's always been a caring, loving, knowledgeable and dedicated educator, the kind of educator you remember for a lifetime. ms. roberts was a master teacher with a huge heart and never gave up on any child, infired them to go to college and become lifelong learners. she'll be greatly missed. and on behalf of the board of education and the district, we want to send our condolences to the family of ms. roberts as well. so we move on to our meeting.

but maybe we could have a short moment of silence. [moment of silence] president kim: thank you. item a, approval of board minutes. do we have a motion and a second? >> second. >> second. president kim: are there any corrections? seeing none, roll call, please. >> thank you. ms. chan? >> yes. >> ms. fan? >> yes. >> ms. fewer? >> why. ms. fauf as? >> yes. >> mr. yee? >> aye. >> ms. kim? >> seven ayes. president kim: the presentation to the board of education, the superintendent's report. >> that's a little tough to