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-breakers, and i will elaborate that in a second, to assign students to their highest available choice. if they do not get one of their choices, they would be offered placement at the closest middle school that has openings once the choice process has completed. that is what we are recommending. this is an illustration to show what policy tie-breakers are. there would be an initial assignment, then a young girl siblings, then test areas, then attendance areas, at dense population areas, and others. if we do not have the theater patterns and do not have the attendance area -- we do not have the feeder patterns or attendance area, we would not have those as tiebreakers yet.

once those are done, we would implement the policy as outlined -- use an allocation method as outlined in the policy that was approved by the board in march. this would be a temporary process. commissioner wynns: i am guessing that a lot of you are here to comment on the feeder pattern proposal. first, the substitute motion incorporates this new proposal. it is substantially different because it incorporates a phase in of middle school teacher patterns. second, i want -- middle school feeder patterns. we are not proposing that we will begin at comment on the feeder patterns. that is not what we would begin

to do. our idea is that the proposed patterns will be entirely gone, and the principles we have outlined here are what we want to talk about, both how we achieve the goals -- the board's commitment has to do with the desire to support the school community and those continuing into the middle school year. would you like to comment on that? >> absolutely. what we want to do is step back and focus now on the school improvement initiatives for middle schools. once that work has been done and we understand what we are doing and what is happening with grants and special education redesign, the magnet grants,

what we want to do for the emerging commissioner fewer: -- for the emerging feeder pattern s, then we will move forward. tonight, we want to focus on what we have heard from the community -- quality opportunities at middle school. once we have developed those, then we can talk about feeder patterns and bring recommendations to the board. [applause] commissioner wynns: before we begin to take testimony on this subject, i want to ask four questions first. commissioner norton: if i am hearing you correctly, it is likely are erasing all of the feeder patterns from august 18. we may use them as a basis for redrawing feeder patterns, but we are starting with a blank

slate? >> definitely, there were some things we discovered from the draft we put out and the conversation from the community. a lot of the evaluation and analysis we did, we will bring back into the conversation once it restarts. it is a positive step back and focus on the quality of schools initiative and then revisit the feeders. the draft feeder patterns were just a draft. commissioner wynns: there are still conversations up here, so could you please organize yourselves quietly? thank you. >> thank you, commissioner. we are taking that draft. it was always a draft. the only thing we knew for sure was there was something wrong with it and that we would have to come back with recommended changes. we can say with confidence we think that any new proposal would not be the same as the draft presented to the board.

commissioner norton: what are we proposing to do to make sure that does not happen again? [applause] i do not want to have us put out a whole new proposal and have its start over again. we did not understand that, or did not see that -- what are we going to do differently this time? >> what we are going to do differently is what we heard loud and clear -- that people want to see outstanding programs. the main emphasis of middle schools will be to really work on developing -- making sure that every one of our schools ends up having that type of program at each of their schools. also, when we look at the language programs, we are going to build everything around instruction, not necessarily algorithms. let us figure out what are the

types of programs that best suit our community, our curriculum, and the school district, and bill everything around that instead of the other way around. that is going to be the big difference. commissioner norton: i am wondering if you have a proposed timeline for when you are going to be able to release a new draft plan to the community. commissioner wynns: i would like to postpone discussion. we are not up to that yet. vice president mendoza: i have a couple of clarifying questions. part of the delay is really focusing on building the program in wanted to make sure the programs are in place prior to families going to the school. to the program placement process, when will you be able to share that with families? >>