some starts and stops. i think one of the most important things is that we have to put more attention on elementary school absences. most people in the community think it is about not showing up for school, which is an area of concern, but the habits of life that are formed when kids miss a lot of school and do not learn it is their job to show up for school are really having a tremendously negative impact on their lives. i think it is important that we recognize chronic absence among elementary school students is an adult issue.

we have a responsibility to make sure we change the pattern. i hope this will work, and i like the idea of starting with the schools. hopefully, it would give us some resources. also, it gives us an opportunity to integrate into the other strategies of school improvement we are developing, so i am very supportive of this and hopefully will be following through. >> i want to make decisions i think will help as well. we're having a tendency part of

the questions that are asked when it comes to any of the reporting that is happening, so they are asking questions about attendance and when parents are engaged, they are also being asked about attendance. often one student will cut five departments, and we have been working collaborative lay -- collaborative flav -- collaboratively around shared data. you have a more collaborative association. if there is the case across the board that reaches all of the departments with one person

reporting, we are hoping this is going to help with that. the last point is we want to set a goal for ourselves, and we are not only looking at how we reduce truancy but how we move students who have been chronically absent and moving them to 20 days. that really makes a difference. we really do need to start looking at the number of days our kids are missing. i want to thank the commissioner for bringing this as well. we are seeing a lot more citywide support to bring this in the school. >> i just want to thank the

commissioner, because it does start at the elementary level. if you get used to not going to school, you will get into have it in high school as well. i noticed it said using schools as more of a tool, and i want to see in the future if a high- school level parents will be able 0 give more involved in how many absences they have been reduced that number. -- and reduce that number. >> any other comments? >> i'd just want to thank commissioner yee for bringing this before us, and i am glad we are going to do some work around it. roll call please.

[calling votes] >> six ayes. >> now we are coming to our general public comments. we have quite a number of speakers for this item. i will read it in the number we got it. [list of names] you will have two minutes each. [list of names]

you have two minutes each. that is not very much time, but if you can please wrap up when you hear the timer go off, which we will year. -- hear. >> i picked seven schools. i got none of them. my wife is an assistant. we innovated everything, so we

own all home in san francisco. we had to move out of san francisco looking for better schools. there are latinos and pacific islanders, and -- [unintelligible] they were tested, and they kept higher standards. multiple times they tell us.

i was told different stories different times i'd come. we pay for an apartment, and eventually, i have proven i live in san francisco. i am disappointed. thank you very much. >> good evening. i am a professional staff. after eight or nine meetings last friday, proposals were

still across the table from both parties, and they stated they would actually bring different proposals for each meeting. they decided to propose an impasse. they were mainly punctuated with failure to bargain, refusal to bargain, and aggressive bargaining. they moved on to file a complaint against the school district and found out there were a bases behind that complaint. today i received the notification that says, we will bargain, but we will be withholding our position.

in our view, it is nothing short of failure to bargain, and i am here to tell you we will literally challenge the impasse. you are having a serious problem. i intend to organize the workers we have. i intend to mobilize them and i with the behavior of the school district. come here, and i am here to bargain. i am here to tell you there are a variety of issues. they are fully aware of some of the issues i am about to bring up. those are failure to pay your

workers in regards to overtime. gethey are encouraged not to enter that they work overtime. absolutely illegal. then you have situations of additional problems. you also have issues of contract thing, which is coming out of your office again. there is quite a bit of illegal activity, and we will address it. >> thank you. miss miller. >> good evening, commissioner, president kim, supervisor garcia. i am here on behalf of karen fisher of, -- karins bishop and

all of our members. i am here to tell you about the negotiations and the failure on the part of the school district to bargain in good faith. i am also here to tell you it was our members keeping the schools clean, feeding your children, taking care of everything going on in schools. i know the teachers are doing their jobs, but members are doing a good job, too. you have constantly told our members how good they are, how special they are, but our members deserve to sit at the table and bargain in good faith. they depend on the barkentine to negotiate a contract in good faith, -- depend on bargaining to negotiate a contract on good faith. they expect at an impasse.

thank you. >> good evening. i am the parent of a child at the san francisco unified school district. a comment was made about the fact that we are desperate for money. school districts across the united states are desperate for money. what brings me here this evening is a $1.5 million grant from the department of education between your tax dollars and my tax dollars for the purpose of supporting russian heritage language learners. this is an interesting grant. if this was 10 years ago, it would not be a problem, but it is not 10 years ago. we have four furlough days. this is at a time when they are suggesting extending the school year. we are letting go of teachers.

the student teacher ratio is out of whack, and we have a $1.5 million grant to enhance the learning experiences of two ethnic groups. it does not make sense. if we need the money, let's allocate it so it is keeping schools open and programs intact. i wrote letters to a number of commissioners. i have not received a response. i would call on san francisco unified to rescinds this grant and reallocate the funds so it is keeping schools open and keeping things active in the district. we have a quick response. >> for the record, we have no say. that grant is for that purpose. we do not have the freedom to take that grants and move it in any other direction. we did not write the rules. that grant was put out, and we

applied for it, because we have a need, but we do not have a choice of what we do with the funds. >> somebody wrote a grant proposal. >> the money is available. you go for the grant, or somebody else gets the grant. >> maybe it is the u.s. government. i did write to arnie duncan perry dead -- to arnie duncan. >> thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. i will say one positive thing. joanne lead a great project, and i am looking forward to this in the fall of 2012. i want to tell you what went on. this summer of the transcripts

were not sent on time to the colleges. it must have been an i.t. problem. how do i know? so many e-mails over the summer. i am worried. we work with these students, and they are nervous, and it did not happen, and that was the beginning of fall whole experience. it was awful what happened, and i want to say i felt like you might as well have given us a chisel and a hammer and we would have done the same job may be better because when it freezes we cannot even use it. at least a hammer and chisel you can use. this is coming seven days before the rest of the faculty, and we work hard, and we wind up with schedules with 12 classes on them because the system did not work.

it was crazy at our school. you're number one job is to make sure the schools are open smoothly. that is the no. 1 job. that was not the only thing that happened. we could not go to the bottom of school because on august 11, we had backed up, and no one came out, and there were work orders and calling the supervisors. until monday the back of in the kitchen was so terrible they had to close the kitchen, and they finally had to get someone out there.

one morticing please. -- one more thing, please. this is what you use in the elevators. you will not believe what they did. >> i need you to wrap up. >> they were all program for 8:30 in the morning. you have kids in wheelchairs who come at 7:10, and they cannot get up to reagan what is going on? your job is to make sure these schools were. >> your time is up. >> the same thing is going to happen next year. >> you get additional time for

translation. >> i have been immigrated to the united states for two years. i know all your time is very valuable. i do not want to waste your time. i want to summarize your experience. please give me time to finish.

i remember when i first came here. because of the education system is quite different where i am from. it is very hard for me to get to know this. there was a chance i got to know about the event coordinated by

the interpretation unit. it may be a workshop for the cantonese-speaking parents, so i decided to attend. the workshop was very helpful, and the speakers were very good at explaining the information. in short, the workshop was very helpful to us. it impacts mae into for

dissipating in my child's school. ç-- into participating in my child's school. i was very excited that the interpretation once again put together this workshop. they are registering to attend. the number of people that attended was more than before.

in the past year, the speaker was very good in explaining and giving out information. >> once again, we got a lot of information right before, and it was a very precious gift for us. a goo>> we have four minutes wih translation. thank you for participating.

>> i just want to add to a comment they have made. i find it is very helpful. the message i want to share is during our recruitment process. many ask if they can attend the workshop. i urge the district to continue this.

they arranged meetings and wrap up. thank you. >> thank you. how are you? i am so principle, and i am very happy, and i am here to tell you why i am happy. i have wonderful parents and wonderful students, and i am here to talk about one of the wonderful things we became part of last year. this is an initiative the district had, and they came to our school to talk about if we wanted to get involved in this. they said, why wouldn't we want to get involved?

we were able to get a lot of professional development that was important to all of us in so many ways, so they are outstanding educators and respectful of teachers and principals. there is a lot of cooperation with other schools. that is really fun for me to be able to collaborate with middle and high school principals. i have seen a lot of alignment as far as practices very good -- as practices. they help us understand to the learning, and we are using a lot of strategies, and it makes learning fun and the kids enjoy

it, and some of the strategies help them remember, so they are remembering what they learn. in particular, are fourth graders -- 84% work proficient in english arts, so we made big gains. when i contacted the fourth grade teacher, she said one reason was because of the initiative theory of we have let the community know about this -- was because of the initiative. we have let the community know about this. i hope we will have a mentor come and help me so i can continue to do the work. >> sorry.

>> thank you, board members and audience. i just wanted to talk about the national urban alliance. the impact of training has been significant both in the classroom and out. they have been infectious and inspiring. get although i feel the reading curriculum is very strong at the first and second grade level. those are the ones i worry about reaching the ones that need a boost. they really understand those

approaches and another strategy. they are good for all of our students. i had several students that would not even attempt to write any words. using some of the strategy is, all of them at least tried, and with some success she would not even try. as teachers, we really want our children to have that can-do attitude. one of the quotes we have is learning is not a spectator sport. this program really touches our spirit.