site. interesting thing about the oak is there isn't anymore in the entire world. the floors in china was cleard and never replanted. if you look up at the seceiling you would believe that's hand kof carved out of wood and it is a cast plaster sealing and the only spanish design in an arts building. there are no records about how many people worked on this building. the workman who worked on this building did not all speak the same language. and what happened was the person working next to the other person respected a skill a skill that was so wonderful that we have

this masterpiece to show the world today. [roll called] >> mr. yee? >> present. >> ms. kim? >> here. >> thank you. president kim: if you'd like, please join news the pledge of allegiance. [pledge of allegiance recited] president kim: frank you. first on the agendas is approval of minutes for the meeting of august 24, 2010. may i have a motion? >> so move. >> second. president kim: are there any corrections? roll call, please.

>> thank you. [roll call] president kim: next is a presentation by superintendent garcia. >> yes. thank you. first of all, if you didn't catch it on the news yesterday, i think we have a lot to celebrate this year. not only did we start out the school year getting our great test results and seeing student achievement increase tremendously. but in the a.p. rankings, we learned that our district went up 16 points, the largest gain in the past five years, with schools serving some of the most vulnerable students in our district and actually had the highest gains in the entire school district. it's really exciting to see

that in spite of all the challenges, schools have really focused, the parents, the community, on really taking to heart what we talked about on our strategic plan of really doing something about the achievement gap or the opportunity gap and it's a good indication now for two years in a row that we've demonstrated a lot of success. sometimes there's a bubble and something that occurs and you're not certain why, well now we have good data that shows that we're constantly improving. i want to thank all the teachers, counselors, administrators, everybody in our organization that worked so diligently last year to make sure our students would be successful. for those of you who weren't here last night and it was more crowded than it was this evening. the district should take an additional year to further develop the middle school placement changes and postpone the decision on the middle

school feeder patterns. we went ahead with creating the areas for the elementary schools and we're moving that forward for the board meeting -- what is that, september 28? and that will come forward. for those of you that sometimes are critical that the district isn't listening to your input, a lot of it had to do with listening to all of community partners, everybody out there, parents, schools, and we decided that it would be premature to move the middle school when we have a lot of issues that we still need to resolve. we're waiting to hear about magnet school programs, all these different funding mechanisms that might kick in later on and they'll have an impact on the development of programs in our school district. so we're going to take a little bit more time with that. last, i want to mention that this evening i think it's exciting. you're going to have an opportunity to hear from our assistant superintendents and our deputy superintendent about the superintendent zones.

this is a vision and a plan that this school board, all of administration, all of us have been working on foor a long time and it's exciting to be able to present that this evening so you get an understanding of what's going to be different, where we're going, what are the thoughts behind doing something like this. and we believe that in looking at our data, by focusing in a little bit more and having the support that schools have to have in order to be successful, by developing these two zones in our areas that need the most assistance, because that's where our persistently low-performing schools are at. we need to intervene, we need to do something, and we can't wait any longer. even though they've shown phenomenal growth, i want to give a little shout-out to malcolm x. because malcolm x elementary school, believe it or not, has an a.p.i. score of 800 this year. applause plause so they've grown by over 200 in two years.

[applause] so it can be done. for those who don't believe it can't be done, get out of the way. because we at san francisco unified, we're getting it by the help of everybody. so i'm excited to do this presentation later on. i hope that the community and that the board has lots of questions, because that's what we're here for this evening. thank you very much. president kim: thank you, superintendent. actually, speaking about malcolm x, we want to take a moment, because we recognize often teachers and educators in our district, and we want to take a moment to bring up one of our malcolm x teachers, rebecca evans. [applause] and we do want to recognize you today. in 2009-2010 -- oh, no, you don't have to come all the way here. i'm sorry. 83% of the students in our

classroom scored proficient or above in math, and 72% scored proficient or above in english language arts, and i believe the year before you had very similar scores as well. and we just want to recognize you and also give you a moment to talk a little bit about the work that you and the malcolm x community was able to do to bring up the a.p.i. 108 points, so that we as a board can kind of learn from the best practices that are already going on in this district. >> thank you. definitely. first, i'd like to say good evening to superintendent garcia, president kim, all the other board members, faculty, staff, students, teachers, everyone who's in the crowd right now. it is truly an honor to be up here action accepting this award on behalf of my students. and i say that, because they're the ones that deserve the recognition for all the hard work they put in to achieve those scores. but not surprisingly, i offer

them a pizza and smoothie party, and they took that. so i'll be the one that shares these words with you guys. when dr. kim first asked me to speak, i was a little bit nervous, because i figured i'd be in a room with people who have been educators for far longer than i have. so i won't go and give you guys a laundry list of things i did in my classroom, because i'm sure you've heard of everything. formal assessments, yes. tracking student data, yes. planning lessons with clear objectives -- you know, if we're not doing that, then we have bigger issues. so i'll just go and give a few of my experiences as a classroom teacher. i was fortunate enough to have a really great support team from my team at teacher america, to district mentors to the two principals i worked under who had strong and clear visions for malcolm x academy. we worked really hard -- and i mean really, really hard on our balance scorecard, making sure that our access an equity and

student achievement goals were clear. we internalized our goals and really took them to heart. you know, we heard superintendent garcia and many others speak on many occasions about eliminating the predictive power of demographics, and we knew that what people were saying about our kids, that they were failures, they couldn't learn, they weren't smart, they weren't going to go to college, they weren't going to get good jobs, and we took that to heart. i actually spoke frankly with my second graders about that. one day we were doing a social studies lesson studying map skills, a second-grade standard, and i had a printout of our city and we were locating the bay view hunters neighborhood on the map. we got into this discussion about why people would assume such terrible things about our children, and they, the students themselves, they vowed to be different, and they vowed that they weren't going to be that demographic. and they really took it to

heart to be better. and 7-year-olds, they understood what equity meant. they understood that equity didn't mean giving each child the same thing. they knew that equity meant giving each child what they needed to have in order to succeed in the classroom. so, for example, if china needed a timer on her desk that she flipped every minute and she got to mark a star next to her name if she didn't yell at someone in order to succeed in the classroom, then that's what she got. if i had to listen to justin bieber for five hours as her reward, then that's what i got, and i did that. and it was no problem, because we were investing in our students and investing in our parents and making sure that they got what they needed to succeed. in terms of accountability, we set goals. we set really big goals that were very ambitious, yet attainable and measurable. and we tracked those goals. so in my classroom i had a printout of two shoes brains, and every time my class

achieved mastery, we colored in that section of the bane. that way they got to see what they knew and also what they didn't know. i always reminded them that it's ok not to know something, because if they knew everything, then i wouldn't have a job. so we really worked hard on making sure that we set those goals and we tracked them. we also made sure that we planned lessons. all the teachers at malcolm x worked hard collaboratively to plan lessons that were engaging for our students. we made sure they were culturally and socially relevant. so, for example, my kids weren't getting what summarizing meant. so i set up a glalry walk with teams from the "high school musical" movie, where they went around with clipboards, writing, and going around from scene to scene summarizing. that's how they are learned summarizing. so it was taking the curriculum that we were given and adapting it to what was relevant to our students. so we read books that was about

their cultures and nationalities. we encouraged them to speak in their homes in their native language. i had students that were vietnamese, african, latino, so they embraceed that in the classroom and that made them feel important. and once they feel important, that keeps them engaged. and when they're engaged, they learn and that leads to student achievement. student achievement is ultimately our goal. and just speaking on student achievement a little bit more, we had to set high expectations in order to get our students to achieve. kids really internalize what we say. they remember everything. someone will come up to you and say, miss evans, i remember three weeks ago you said if we brought in this form you'd give us popsicles. so they remember everything, and they internalize it and so if you tell them that they're smart, they're going to believe it. and we know as he had kators

that they're smart, we know they can achieve, but we also need them to realize that they can achieve, and when that happens, it can produce magical things. i'm going to end in an analogy. and oftentimes the kids would say we're only 7, we don't understand what you're saying. and i say, don't worry, one day you will. but -- everybody likes food, so i like to talk about food. the analogy -- let me go into it. so if you're at an all-you-can-eat buffet and you have a small plate and large plate, if the hostess gives you a small plate, there's only so much food you can put on that plate. if thee gives you a large plate, you can pile up all the food you could possibly want. that's what we need to do with our students. we need to continually give them big plates so they can continually be learning. thanks for your time.

[applause] [applause] president kim: yes, vice president mendoza. commissioner mendoza: thank you so much for really bringing us into your classroom, and i can see why your kids did so beautifully and fort love and care that you gave to our kids. i'm really sad that you're no longer in the classroom, and i think that's really important to note, because we need you. and so many of our teachers are like you, and we don't have enough ways to celebrate you. so i'm a little sad for our

kids, because you clearly have made an impact on their life, and i hope that you will continue to visit them and that you've made relationships and connections with them, because they do see you as somebody really positive in their life. so thank you for the gift that you've given to our children, and i hope you do come back to the classroom. >> i think it's important that as we talk about the achievements that we've made, that we often hear what happened in the classroom that helped a lot of these successes happen. we talked a little bit about this at our press conference when we announced that we were nine points away from being a 100 a.p.i. district. one thing i'm really proud of under carlos' leadership and the current leadership here at the sfusd, we're finally focusing on schools that have always been achieving, that we've ignored because they were doing well and not focusing on the good work that's happening

and trying to replicate that work and just remembering the practices that are happening here in san francisco that is working. 80% proficient is amazing. and it's important for us to recognize that work and also hear the stories that help make it happen. so thanks again to miss evans for coming and sharing, and i hope that we can continue sharing more of these stories here at our board meeting. any other comments? seeing none, moving on to item d, which is our student delegate report. alvienna fan. >> so at the s.e.c. meeting regarding student protection of privacy for military recruitment and how there would be an opt-out plan from like military recruiters to get personal information from the students. and we all voted unanimously to support it. and there has been a change of

date in the board of education form. monday, september 27, 5-to 7:00 p.m. is when it will be. >> any questions or comments? i had a quick question, alvienna. i was wondering if you had any updates to the bathrooms resolution that was brought up by student delegate rose last week. >> i haven't heard any other information about it. president kim: next is item e, the parent advisory support. miss grabowski. >> good afternoon, everyone. i'm one of the newest members of the pack, and i basically wanted to give you an update about what we spoke about maybe a week ago. i wanted to thank richard

carnaza. due to the fact that he really updated us about the information that you guys are trying to put into play and your scheduling and what you're trying to implement basically into our district. so i understand -- we all understand how he's trying to blend equality for rigor. we really, really like the core instruction framework about trying to have an assessment globally, where everyone adheres to the guidelines and assess it in the same way and manner. we also like the fact that he's trying to figure out a way to promote one standard to when you first come into the classroom that week, as a parent you understand what they hold your child accountable for. we also like the philosophy about approaching the special ed and trying to make inclusion a part of the district as opposed to just a program and really trying to put the keys in special ed that are in inclusion programs into the classroom, as opposed to just making like a pilot program.

our biggest concern from the pack members are the timeline frames and dead lipse. so we really want to know who or how can we hold the district accountable for adhering to the things that i stated above and how can families -- how account families help be accountable for the implementation of the plan and how can members of the pack help with implementation of the plan as well? >> good evening, superintendent and board members and staff and families and students. i staff the parent advisory council. i've been on sabbatical for three months and today is my first day back. that's why you haven't seen me. i'm really working to catch up, be on top of the burning issues in the district. i lost my bifolk cast, so now i have to take -- buy folkals, so now i have -- bifocals, so now i have to take my glasses off. the student assessment process

and proposals for that, over the past few weeks the pack has been hearing many concerns, which i know you've also heard. i was here last night and saw the huge turnout of concerned families that expressed their ideas about this. we really appreciate the superintendent's recommendation and the vote on the ad hoc committee to extend the timeline for developing and implementing the new middle school feeder assignment system. as you discussed it last night, it's based not only on hearing from community concerns, but also a commitment to ensuring program quality at all the middle schools and the need to have a clear plan for how you're going to get there. that is exactly the kind of thinking that needs to happen, and we appreciate it. we also appreciate the proposal tokes tend the timeline for reviewing and finalizing the new transportation policy which has kind of gotten lost in the discussion and i think we'll be contacting you in the future to know what role, if any, the

pack can play in helping to form that process because it's something we talked about a couple of years ago. over the past four years of community engagement that the pack has done, a few themes have consistently emerged basically in every conversation. one of them is that parents want the schools in their communities to be high quality and they want equitable access to the schools that don't immediate their children's needs. that's always the tension and it was expressed last night in the comments people were making. another scene that was really clear over the past few years is that parents are asking for better communication from the district, stronger school communities and really authentic parent engagement in all the processes at their kids' schools, as well as at the district level. and so these themes emerged also in the discussions about the middle school feeder process and there's a couple of specific questions that i think we want to highlight.

one is what will be done with the feedback that the community has been giving on the elementary school boundaries, but especially on the middle school feeder concept. and as that gets more concrete, on the specific proposals and how does that feedback get incorporated into the decision-making process. that was discuss add little last night, but in the community that's still the big question. superintendent garcia and deputy superintendent caranza mentioned significant changes that have to happen in a lot of schools to strengthen and create programs that don't exist yet and reflecting a new approach to special education that the conversation isn't really even starting until next week about that. so the questions are, how will this be implemented, and how will the success of that be measured, and how can parents understand what you're doing throughout that process? because for so many families that come to us the questions are, we don't know what's going on, and we just want to

understand better what's happening. so we see our conversations about enrollment really and being about school quality and how we focus on making all of our schools really meet the needs of the students that are in them. so i really -- in closing, i want to echo what elie roster said last night as the director for public schools because we worked together a lot for the last few years. let's not make this one-year delay just a delay that enact the same plan that's already on the table. this is a real opportunity to conduct a transparent process for improving and supporting all of our middle schools and families want to be part of that process and be informed about it. so we really look forward to working together to figure out how to make that happen and how to support what sounds like a really great way to launch that process. >> and my apologies also, to kind of piggyback. i also have my foot in the door

that we're trying to create around parent advocacy. there's a huge effort to try to -- we know that willie brown will be closed. we had a meeting last night at my organization, and we didn't have a big number of parents, but about seven came out to state that we're really concerned about placing them, like bussing them clear across the country, basically, even though it's only san francisco, taking them from bayview to maybe hiver hoover, so we were trying to come up with three schools, like king and two others due to the closeness to the bayview and we were actually trying to figure out, how can the district support maybe putting something in writing so that these parents have their first priority due to the closure of their school, basically. so for the fifth, sixth and seventh graders, where can they be placed? coming up with a plan to place them in schools of their choice or trying to keep 10 together at a time. if there's 30 of each, keep 10

and allow them to go to schools of their choice. maybe try to find three primary schools is what we're working on now. i know the parent advocacy is low and they don't come out. so i've been working door to door, standing around, kind of going off who i know by name and face and going to the house and knocking on doors. literally, this is what you'll have to do. and if you sleep on it, your child will just be placed wherever. so it's kind of a choice. out of the meeting last night, we came up with james deming, james lick and martin luther king because they're close to the bay view in the bussing thing, so maybe keep an eye out for that or think about it. president kim: commissioner? >> so thank you for your report. and, ruth, great to have you back. you took quite a journey this summer, i believe, right? yeah, great. just give us a few sentences. >> on my summer vacation, i rode my bicycle 4,382 miles

from seattle to boston. i flew back. [laughter] and i did actually -- i think i actually sent a league to an article to be young and. i saw in "the wyoming register" published in gillette, wyoming, which ships 20% of the coal that our nation uses to create electricity, but their newspaper had an article about the wyoming state budget crisis and how they were protecting education funding from all the cuts because education was so important to their state that they were coming up with a different way to fund it and shield it from the cuts. and i thought maybe california can learn something from rural wyoming. through the power of parents, what we can do. president kim: i wanted to ask the p.u.c., though, if you've been getting frequent updates and what's been happening with the parent engagement plan. >> well, because i was away,

the p.a.c. does not meet over the summer. to my knowledge we have not gotten a formal update. i know i haven't seen one. but we haven't gotten one. it's one of the top priorities of mine is to get more informed about and bring that information to the p.a.c. >> i'm happy to come. i've been participating in the meetings, and i'm happy to come and speak to the p.a.c. about some of the ideas about the plan or even just about the whole parent engagement department and what it might look like, to get feedback from the p.a.c. also. so, ruth, if you wouldn't mind agendizing the schedule. when is your next meeting? >> our next meeting is next tuesday and i'll call you tomorrow morning, if that works. >> next tuesday at what time? >> at the same time as the committee as a whole, unfortunately. but we can -- well, we'll

figure it out. >> we'll see what we can work out. thank you for the report. any other comments or questions? i did appreciate the feedback about willie brown and the slosh sure and i like the idea that we have input from parents in terms of where they'd like to go and giving priorities. because we have given priorities in the past to students when we've closed a school. this is obviously a temporary closhsmure but it will impact the students for at least two school years. so thank you so much. great to have you back, ruth. so next is item f, public comment on consent items. i do not believe i have any tonight. yes, i do. miss black. consent, not general. yeah. any consent calendar. ok, one, i'm having trouble reading these cards as well.

yes. mr. kelly. >> i'm dennis kelly, president of the united educators of san francisco. there were two things that i wanted to comment on tonight, and they're pretty well separated. one is the -- on page 54 and following, the personnel items that you see there. those personnel items, if you tally up the number of people who were brought on as full-time employees, you have about 135. if you plug in the interns, you have another 35, and then you have another 40 or so, i think, emergency appointments and such like that. those numbers exceed the number of layoffs. and this isn't the only time that you're reporting hi