it seems like we are doing that anyway. what capacity are you looking at? if you did do that, i think that is a mistake. is it ok to have half of the yard filled with bungalows? it meets the capacity of the yard and meeting the capacity of the school.

i do not know if you have an answer for that. commissioner: in terms of the capacity, we ask them to let them know how many classrooms they have, this is multiplied by the number of classrooms and taking into account at the elementary level, the fire code, and all of that was taken into consideration. the numbers that we have do include bungalows in the event that that is considered.

commissioner: we're going to have to refer that to other committees. i know this is very hard, but if we are going to try to do this, that is what we are going to have to try to do. actually, identify yourself for the record. >> i live at 24th, where i believe it is the only tracked -- track. i am concerned because the elementary schools are not sustainably drawn. in other words, they will use

this preference will be to go to higher performing is -- performing schools elsewhere. this is not the kind of performance that cesar chavez elementary has. sustainable diversity, but not to a school that is failing, and i am not sure you can do that. >> ok, hi. my name is -- i live in dogpatch at 22nd and hennessey. there was a proposed area for daniel webster, which is drawing all of dogpatch into daniel webster, and then there is a

dead and at minnesota, like half a block off of 22nd street, and then it did in south of 22nd street, so it is a really small part that is left out. -- and then if it did and -- it dead ends south of 22nd street. there would probably be no other kids in a region that are willing to go there, and also, a 30-minute walk four as compared to about a 10-minute walk to daniel webster -- a 30-minute what -- walk for us. commissioner yee: thank you. >> yes, this is also a boundary issue. many of the worst schools in the

city are in those zones, and there is a way of opting out of them. however, as the first speaker mentioned, there are small pockets within those zones that are simply stuck in the school area, because they are not in that zone. so i figured out that we are in the worst four blocks in san francisco in terms of public schools. we live in an api 2, cesar chavez, and we are the only four blocks that cannot leave the area. that is not fair. i know that parents know that they are being screwed in that area. over and over again. >> good evening. my name is byron. i also want to commend that

person for doing a great job for putting together a lot of information and a lot of requests into a policy, but i wanted to tell the board that i think they made a big mistake when they put this above local preference and gave local preference no set aside. some of the drugs before march, local preference had some percentage of schools, but once you put back above that, the only map that matters is the map on the right, because a high the desired schools, parents are going to find a way to get an address in there, even if it is only for a couple of months, and meanwhile, the map on the left, where people think they will get into their neighborhood school if it is a highly desired school, a pretty much do not have a chance, so i want you to think about what this means and how you're going to enforce it and how long someone has to live in there before they qualify, and then after they qualify, do

they have to keep living there? do they only have to live there for a couple of months to get their kid in? thank you. commissioner: i just want to remind everybody that we are not proposing that we change the policy. we would be happy to discuss these things. >> my name is -- and i live in the dogpatch area. that area was created in 2002 by the board of supervisors, and it is a very isolated area, surrounded by freeways and industrial areas, and by cutting us off and putting us into this area, you are really affecting one girl and all of the other kids to one or two a year might come along, and who they play with at the park, who they eat with, they are not going to be

with them. our area has one sort of commercial strip, and our building, actually, where people are out on the sidewalks, unlike a lot of areas with the district in the middle, and it makes more sense. thank you. >> hi, my name is -- i have to tell you, i saw on the list, i guess there is some controversy, on sanchez street, there is mckinley, and they understand you are not going to change this now, no matter where you draw the line, somebody will be mad. i am not throwing her under that bus. i feel terrible about that, but

that is not going to help. i do not want to do that. since this is not going to change, and i just wanted to let you know that. >> hi, my name is josephine, and i live in the sense that neighborhood, and i am very happy and very glad that you have these proposals -- i live in the sun setsu regionnse note -- i live in the sunset area. >> i am justin van zandt, and i have kids. i have seen them make friends at the playground, and they cannot go to school that is a few blocks from their house. you cannot build the community

and make friends. we have five communities on our block that go to five different schools, in you are really damaging the fiber of our committee and driving people out. also, i have been married for 15 years. it is incredibly easy. i have kids who are going to get into school because they have siblings, but i have been fighting with my wife. we separated and got back to get there. you can go on craigslist and read somebody's basement. they can rent out the basement because they cannot afford otherwise. i could move in with a few weeks with cash. have an address. anybody is going to do that. thousands of people are going to be moving into those basements. i think they should have to live there for a long period of time, and i do not know how you are going to find out who has lived there for how long and wide, so that is something to think about.

commissioner kim: is there anyone else who wishes to testify? seeing that there is no one else, we are going to close testimony. i just want to say that as a matter of -- sure, but, you know -- >> i just kept a question, and i have not heard if this was brought up, but if you want a choice to go to a school with a special program or an immersion school, i have not heard about that. commissioner: we will continue to that city-wide enrollment, --

to have city-wide enrollment. that is also on line. there are a tie-breaker is, in what order people will get preference for those schools. ok. commissioner? commissioner: yes, miss, just for the audience and also for myself, 25% of the kindergartens are city-wide, is that correct? >> yes, 31 of the 58 elementary schools have a citywide program in them. commissioner: that means that parents who are not in an area where they do not want to do that, they still have the option of enrolling or putting down another preference, is that correct? >> yes, commissioner. commissioner: thank you. >> with the attendance areas,

the kids will go first, but many of the schools on the west side have additional capacity. the number of students is smaller than the number of seats in those schools. this is still a choice-based system with the attendance areas. i did want to say to the board members, and anybody can say what they like and ask any questions that they like, but the proposal, the proposed amendments to the attendance areas, we're going to presume they are ok with the board unless somebody objects. for purposes of the committee, this is the time to do that. we do not have to go over them in great depth, unless you want to. nobody came up to the microphone to express any concerns or questions about the proposed changes, so i just wanted to -- i do not want anyone out there

to think we are not paying attention. we have lots to talk about, so we will allow that to be consensus by omission if that is the desire of the board members who are here. >> i just wanted to ask staff if you can look and the situation in dogpatch as several commentators suggested and give us some feedback on that. >> yes, we did look at that, and a problem is that webster is already the biggest attendance area in the city, and we had concerns about moving it further out, because we then cannot reduce it on another side, and that is the real concern. we are already concerned that it is too big, so expanding it is the reason we did not bring it back with a proposal, but we will let you know. commissioner note: -- commissioner: thank you.

commissioner maufas, i know you just walked in. we have not gotten to the attendance area. so we will do a middle school feeder pattern. no action by the committee until we finish that item. >> thank you, commissioners. so moving on to the middle school feeder pattern, and before we go on, i want to make sure if that everyone in the audience knows that we will let you have a copy of the substitute motion, and we will obviously between now and when the agenda goes to print modify this. commissioner: highlighted? there may not be enough for

everybody. she has some more. >> thank you. so there has been a lot -- i mean, i would say the majority of dialogue and feedback is focused on the middle school for your patterns, and there is very rich and passionate feedback that we have seen from the community, and in essence, some of the feedback, this is at a very high level. there was an appreciation in many of the conversations in the value of the concept, so i would say that in general, the community seems to like the idea of the feeder pattern. there was concern about the priority, and the impact during the first few years of implementation, and we thought there is obviously going to be a rocky period, and we understand that the board and staff is

committed to honoring the priorities as much as possible. it will become less of an issue because parents will know ahead of time what the feeder patterns are, moving from full choice to feeder patterns, which could create some periods where there is a disconnect from with older sibling is and the feeder patterns, so we would do all that we could to make sure that siblings are together, and there's also concern about choice, and it is not just, but it is still an offer of choice. there are still some questions about probability and how much is there, and we are not able to answer those and would not have a sense of that, but there is a sense that there would be an opportunity to have choice, as well, but the community wants it more concrete, like what is going to happen, and there were

also questions about the timeline and request to begin implementing it with the incoming kindergarten class, which is kind of like a six-year implementation plan, which should be a challenge in itself, but we have heard that from the community. in terms of education, the current configuration does not aligned with the feeder patterns, and we have recognize that all along. we recognize that the current configuration is not ideal, putting it mildly, and we are in a process of fixing bath, so we did not want to build this on something that is broken, and we wanted to be clear that that is why the feeder patterns do not appear to be aligned. the special education services are going to be redesigned, and these were in place before the redesign was rolled out, and

there was some excitement about the notion of feeder patterns, that would have a positive impact on the students and the families do have that predictability, communities living together, which is a very challenging time for teenagers. we have heard a lot about this. for example, is it feasible to have these pathways that multiple schools. the japanese, the flex program, having chinese and spanish at multiple middle school sides. there were questions about critical mass. would it be possible to build strong middle school patterns if they were distributed broadly across the middle schools, and that is something we have to look at and reevaluate in terms of the feeder pattern, and the was a question as to why we were not going to maintain the immersion.

there was no designed to maintain it, but why have that if none of the school was speeding into that offer the spanish program, and it makes sense, and that is why the program included phasing that out. also, exploring and developing an immersion middle school. for example, they had a middle school in it. there questions about how a policy could be interpreted. for example, this is part of the feeder pattern, and there were a lot of questions, too, about design features about the language pathway, et which goes into one program. more information about the program. there are also lots of questions about reform four middle

schools, and this is so that all of our middle schools, all 14 of them, provide the same opportunities in terms of extracurriculars couric's -- extracurricular activities. and submenu gets an initial assignment to a school that has been historically underperforming, and people want not really general interest but really want to imagine what kind of support and programs which be available at the middle schools. there were also questions about whether or not the feeder patterns, there were lots of comments about the eastside versus the west side and about lower socioeconomic status at middle schools together, and i just wanted to comment that they

absolutely would. the feeder patterns as proposed would reverse the isolation we currently have schools that have less. it would have meant more parents, more teachers, more adults, and more resources. that would have had a huge impact. there was one situation that jumped out that would need re- examining under current peter patterns. at roosevelt, the feeder patterns seem to go at an opposite direction. in the other middle schools, it did reverse the trends. there were a lot of questions about fund-raising and the fact that different pta's have different capacities to raise money, and wanting the district to explore what the implications of that would be.

in other words, even if the peter pattern would create more diversity and more robust enrollment, would it correct inequities in how pta's raise money? what would distribute to offset that? are there any strategies they could look at to make sure the additional funding that comes through parents did not further create any inequities? that was a big question that came up. there were also questions about capacity. i think if you look particularly at schools at -- schools the montessori would feed into, because there will not have a graduating class for a couple of years, it would create a different size for a few years. there were concerns about that, and also how many seats would be open for children and other situations. to comment briefly, we have a number of really large middle schools.

they are all on the left side. they are way larger than the number of children who live near it. then we have the other schools that are in areas that have way more kids than they can accommodate, and they are so much smaller. this issue of choice -- when we think about where our students live and where our schools are, while we cannot give any definitive answer, because we have to see how choice patterns change under a new system, just looking at the size of the buildings and the locations of the students themselves would suggest there would be statements -- would be placements at the high-demand schools. we believe that would shift. that is something we get questions about. there were suggestions that we slow down, that we need more time to get the word out among different communities, spread

information at different paces, and particularly concerned about making sure the reach was deep enough to get to emigrant communities. [applause] it is not just a question of reach. we rely on our partners to help with that. there is no way we can do that reach. there is also the question of digesting the information, that communities need time to be able to interpret the implications and then provide feedback. there was also a call for more information about the opportunities that would be available at each school, and a call to engage parents in the process of developing the feeder pattern. based on that, we have recommendations the deputy superintendent is going to share, recommendations for moving together with the middle school teacher pattern. >> good evening, the

superintendent's recommendation is that we phase in the implementation. this is made strongly based upon the fact that this is an instructional decision. as you know, there are several school improvement initiatives that are in their infancy. not listed here is one of them. first and foremost is the recent formation of a superintendent zones. we have reorganized central office services to support the schools with the most need. also in this mix is a pending revelation of the special education audit that was conducted for our district. there are recommendations in that report. we have not had a chance to view that report and process what the recommendations are, and feed them into our reform strategy. that is a huge issue to

undertake. our plan for english lerner's also requires that we take a systemic approach to how we approach all language issues. the immersion middle school pathways -- we are moving language programs. we have to be cautious about how we do that so we are building capacity and quality programs. the school improvement grants -- a lot of information has been shared about those grants. what has not been shared is that the process of engagement for those communities is just now starting. now that we have been awarded those grants, we think we know what the dollar amounts will be. the process of engaging each of those communities and development of what their improvement plan will be over the next three years is just now beginning. those decisions have a huge impact on how we move forward

with the structural reform of the school district. we are also ready to receive word about our magnet school grants. we feel confident we will be very competitive. however, we still do not know if we have been award these magmas school grants. those will have a significant impact as well on the instructional programs at the schools. the superintendent has also spoken about rebuilding brown middle school and developing a state of the art middle school at the heart of the bay view community. those plans are now beginning. a community engagement process will commence quickly. those are huge questions that remain unanswered. the superintendent's recommendation is that we hold on and phase in the middle

school peter patterns. last, the rollout of the initiatives needs to be solidified so the board has a solid understanding of how they are woven together and how they form the fabric on which we will make recommendations to you on how we move forward with the middle school pattern. in the interim, we recommend that we use a temporary plan. ms. o'keefe will share some details regarding that recommendation. >> the temporary message for middle school placement that we are recommending is that students would not start with an initial assignment, because peter patterns would have to be created for that to -- feeder patterns would have to be created for that. we would use tie-