absolutely unacceptable. you know, if you want to come in the front door and knock and say, i would like to do that, that's understandable and acceptable but not through the sneaky, back door avenues, that's not ok. that part is not ok. again i want to commend commissioner fewer for bringing this to our table today. thank you for your advocacy around this. i would respectfully, respectfully ask that if my name be added to their resolution in support of your work and in support of previous boards that have unanimously endorsed supporting the privacy of our students. commissioner fewer: i would be honored to have your name on this resolution, commissioner maufas. i would also like to invite our student delegates to add their names to this resolution if they so choose. it is in the arena of protection

of our students that we are bringing this forward. at this time, i would like to invite the student delegate, if they so choose, to add their names on this resolution. >> ok. yes, of course. president kim: commissioner yee. commissioner yee: thanks for the youth that came out today to speak on this issue. i have a couple of questions, and maybe these questions probably were answered at the curriculum committee. in previous years, when we were -- when we realized that the completion of the forms to opt out was not getting a very good return rate, and we, the board,

then asked staff to do a better job and they reported back and in previous years it indicated it's actually getting better and report on the return rate for quite a while now, so one of my questions is, just would the president attempt, how well are we doing? and then i have a second question, which is the form we're using now, will we have to provide a second form or can we use the same form to opt out of everything? so whoever can answer that, i'd like to know that information. >> commissioner yee, at the curriculum committee meeting, we asked how the form would look. it would be a different form,

since this form is sent off to the jammers database. it would have an explanation of what jammers is, many parents are unaware of what it stands for and what it means. it would be collected and also to mail off to the jammers headquarters. and the return rate, we are getting a response now, janet schultz, head of high school operations is gathering that information for us. commissioner yee: does anybody know what the last time we gathered this information, what the rate was? commissioner fewer: since this has been brought up, she has some numbers but we're -- we are a little cautious to give the numbers because we don't think it's as accurate as could be. we have requested she go back and actually look, do more of a thorough count of the numbers because some numbers weren't showing, for example, balboa

high school had a very high return rate, she was getting from them -- from other records it was a low rate. the principal said, no, it's a high rate of return. before we gave the formal number of where we are at, she's doing a double check on that to go back and physically go there and check and have people physically check. commissioner yee: this other question, i'd like to maybe ask staff to look at this more carefully, in terms of having to do two different forms, whether or not, and to be honest, i don't know what the first form looks like, whether it's one page or two pages, whatever. if it's at all possible, it would be nice if -- even if we needed two different wordings, if we could put it all, front back, one piece of paper, what i'm afraid of is this -- if we have two separate forms, somehow, we're going to get less

of a return, some kids might think they did it once and it's good enough, and they won't sign the other form. so my objective here is for us, as a district to figure out what's the easiest way for students to complete these forms without getting confused? so can staff answer that? >> i want to say quickly there is a sort of infomercial and i believe the s.a.c. saw it, it was a video developed by students and for students, actually, how to remind them to there are two forms that you sign injure jammers form. in the video it shows students signing out not to be contacted by military recruiters and then students getting contacted and saying, you know, you didn't sign your jammers form. i think we could also incorporate that video in when

doing orientation for the students. janet schultz, if you wouldn't mind answering some of those questions. >> i would like to say i just had the jammers opt in-opt out form, and it is one piece of paper, it was very simple and very easy to follow and they just asked if we do want it, or if we do not want it and a simple cigna ature and date. it was very quick and easy to follow. >> good evening. we do need -- we do need two forms but it ends up being better overall. one is we've already done the opt-in/opt-out for most of the students, most do it as part of their orientation pact and once they do that, it stays with their record. for the jammers, we have to send in their name, their birth date

and address, with a statement specific to opting out of jammers. and so what we want to do is use the video and i actually just spoke with mr. steele about having the student representatives about coming up with an idea of how to present it so it's part of a mini lessons the schools can do through their advisories or home runs. assuming the resolution passes, then we would go into an implementation over the next few months to collect it with the high schools. then these have to be mailed to jammers in order for students to be taken off the list. that's why there's a need for two forms. >> just for clarification, obviously -- maybe not obviously, but i'm supporting this resolution, but i want the information for myself so when parents ask me, i can give them an answer. once they opt out once, that's

all they need to do? or is it a yearly opt out process? >> for jammers to get off that base, they do it but if they move, they have to resend it with their different address. >> thank you very much, and thank you commissioner fewer for bringing this resolution to the board. president kim: commissioner wynns. commissioner wynns: i wanted to make sure that the jammers opt out can be done by students, it doesn't need to be done by parents. the opt out form that we have, we allow to be done by parents or students. so we do that to cover, so that people don't fall through the cracks but is that true of the other form too? >> correct. they both can be done by students and then our first one can be done by a parent or a student. for the jammers, it's the same thing, parents or students. no, students, i'm sorry, if they're over 15 1/2.

that's why we want to do it as part of the advisory or home run, so that they learn how to do this for themselves and why. >> i want to say thanks to commissioner fewer, our district has always had a strong, strong tradition of opposing military recruitment in schools, we had a policy for almost 20 years before the requirements of no child left behind required us to allow military recruiters back into our schools. i do want to take this opportunity also to ask about that. we hear all the time and we heard cases of it in san francisco too that when that military recruiting is so aggressive that -- and the law doesn't actually require just let them in and let them do anything they want, and our policy is quite clear we follow the specific letter of the law and that is we allow the same access and only the same access that we allow to other

post-secondary options for students. so i'm interested in how we're hon toring that. i would like to know -- if you have any -- if you want to -- if you want to tell me anything about it now, fine, but i would like to have some kind of report in the future that we make sure that whatever process is followed at schools, which normally is that someone, some administrator at the school, as you know, is in charge or some clerical person and college recruiters, occasionally people from a job opportunity, employers, and sometimes people from apprenticeship programs at the unions, etc., will call and make an appointment and be allowed on one day into usually a restricted place a classroom or meeting room, where the students can then go and only to that place. and all of those people i just mentioned to my knowledge are very happy to follow those

rules. that's the way we do it for everybody. military recruiters believe they can track people down, follow them around the schoolyard, go after them over and over again, and come back to school whenever they want to. in fact, even in your district, we've had people who military recruiters said, the law requires you to let me in here whenever i want to be here, which is absolutely untrue. can you comment on that, what you know, if we have a way -- if we can make sure we monitor that kind of compliant with our policy. >> you are absolutely correct that is the policy and it's a good reminder to do a refresher with all the principals because that is who enforces it system of far this year, we have not had any reports of them having difficulties enforcing that but it is a good reminder to remine them and make sure our new administrators and new assistant principals know as well. >> i'd appreciate that. >> if i may, i'd like to have my name adding to the resolution.

president kim: vice president mendoza. vice president mendoza: thank you. this was so not on my radar so thank you. when we talked about the opt-in/opt-out piece before and you brought this up to us, kind of casually about, in a very angry tone, which it should be, it's something that was not on my radar. you, angry? so i'm wondering if we're going to be able to use our parent groups, the p.a.c. and p.p.s. and p.t.a. to help us push this information out so families are very aware of this, so if there's a way through the parent engagement plan or through whatever mechanisms we have if we can prepare something for either the p.a.c. or p.p.s. or whomever to send out to parents, it would be really helpful. i also want to just publicly say

to the recruiters, that you're not welcome in our schools. we have had in the past, and i don't know if you remember this, but a couple of years ago, somebody came in, a new recruiters, wanted to come and introduce himself, we looked at himself like he was on the wrong planet because he's not clear on how we here in san francisco feel about recruiters coming into our schools. many of our schools that are predominantly kids of color. which brings me to the piece that commissioner wynns was talking about, with regard to what our principals know and don't know. i've been to career day, sitting in as somebody speaking to kids, and there was a military recruiters that was part of the panel for career day at one of our high schools. and i shared my feeling with the principals and i don't know -- with the principal and i don't know if they've been back. i would like to know whether or not they are permitted on the

grounds under those circumstances or what the circumstances are that they are permitted and to just be -- just reiterate with our principals about policy that currently exists. it's really important. i know they are inundated a lot of times with folks who want to speak to our kids, but let's just be mindful about the policy that we're creating and i, too, am respectfully asking to be added to your resolution and thank you for this, commissioner fewer. commissioner fewer: thank you. and thank you for the idea about the system of communication for parents to get the information out. president kim: ms. creer and commissioner norton. commissioner norton. commissioner norton: i want to thank you for keeping this on your radar. i wouldn't have been aware of it and i would like my name added to the resolution. president kim: i think that's almost unanimous.

if all the board members would like their name added, including the student delegates. commissioner fewer: i know american friends and service committee contacted us back in july about this. thank you for bringing this to our attention. when i got the email, i had no idea there was a private company giving out student information to the military and i'm glad that commissioner fewer was able to follow up and work with our legal office and sfusd team to bring forward a policy for the district as well. we want to protect our student information. it would be great if staff was able to do outreach to their schools, you can share the video and maybe students can virally sharing it, it may be more effective than us doing it in the schools. on top of what're doing in with our principals and staff. if our high school students took leadership, it would get out

outside of sfusd, and i know we have members on the board who are members of other things and we should let other districts know about this. we weren't aware that this was happening and so i'm sure that other districts are also not aware. so thank you again for bringing this forward. i see no further comments. roll call, please. >> ms. fan. >> yes. >> ms. creer. >> yes. >> fsmuer. commissioner fewer: yes. >> ms. maufas. commissioner maufas: yes. >> ms. mendoza. vice president mendoza: yes. >> ms. norton. commissioner norton: yes. >> ms. wynns. commissioner wynns: yes. >> mr. yee. commissioner yee: yes. >> and ms. kim. coip aye. president kim: thank you. thank you again. keep sending this to more school districts. all right. our next item is item j, public

comment regarding speaking general matters. we have a number of speakers for this. first i will call up taylor emerson, then we have a number of speakers from uesf, pamela ruth, ann bornson, ken schrae, linda plank, tiana tillry, tom harryman. diane johnson. key lou. roberto michaels. gil cocork. dottie varejas. kany -- marry lavalas. patty. and anthony singleton. we have two minutes per speaker.

i just want to have taylor emerson go up first, he's speaking on a completely different item. are you? >> yes. president kim: thank you. two minutes. please turn on your mike and identify yourself. >> my name is taylor emerson. i'm here to talk briefly, two minutes, on homework. which is a dreaded word in our family and i've learned it's emotionally charged for most parents that i talk to. the school district, the board of education, has a homework policy that is printed in the student-parent handbook. this is last year's copy but it appears exactly the same this year. if i may, i'll read briefly. the time required to complete should not exceed 20 minutes per day from c-3 and 30 minutes per day 4-5. my child at school has one hour 40 minutes a day.

fourth grader, probably at home crying right now, because this week she has one less day to complete her homework pakistan. the next sentence is parents, guardens and care givers will be given the policy of homework. it says board of education 6136. when i showed this to my principal our teachers, they act like they have never seen it before. i'm here tonight to ask you to please remind your teaching staff of the homework policy. the second thing i encourage you to do tonight is invite to a screen inc. of "race to no where" which is a documentary on the subject of homework. i expect you will be reading it in the paper. there have been screenings across the country.

two are scheduled in san francisco right now. one at roosevelt middle school and on thursday november 18. i'm going to pass these out. i first attempt to be an activate. and i don't have enough. i read them allowed into the mike. >> you did it perfectly under two minutes. [applause] sure we get the word out to all the school sites. president kim: ms. samoa. >> good evening commissioner. i'm the vice president for paraphernaliaaprofessionals and a special ed parent at paul revere. i have worked in the school

administration for over 20 years. i have been in a lot of different classifications. regular ed, special ed and elementary adviser. i have been laid off from this district seven years and i'm back. one of the issues i'm going to talk about tonight is one of the most important issues i have stood before you and talked about. it is the p and r and pension and terrible injustices that is being done to p and r and professionals who are women of color. this is an issue i talked to you about. did you know they have worked in this district for over 30 years. some of them will retire with a pension of 250 a month. a lot of our paras are 65 and over. we have 165 paras, which is 10%

of the population is over 65. for the par astrg, they have found out what has happened. they are very angry. which you can see here tonight, there are a lot of paras that are here. [applause] >> this has been going on since 1993, 17 years. the district's legal and moral responsibility is to pay the paras back for the money they have shorted them. legally at least for the last four years. now is the time to fix the past injustices, what has been done to parprofessionals. for others here, it's too late. their service in the district will never be recognized, but they are standing up for the younger ones who still have a chance in this district to get a

decent pension. it's time for sfusd to tell the administration that we need a solution to this now. [applause] >> good evening, commissioners, i'm a social studies teacher and i'm on the executive board of the united educators of san francisco. i have been teaching alongside paraprofessionals and i see the work they do day in and day out and providing one-on-one services for our most challenged students to walking the halls keeping us safe inside of our city. paras keep the schools running. they work alongside teachers administrators and are the true

heart and soul of any campus in this district. one thing i learned early is that one of the biggest impacts on the morale of any faculty is the way they are treated by the administration. and how the administration treats its work has a lot to do with how we feel about the work we do. how is it possible in the year 2010, over 70 years after the social security administration was established and the basic idea of social justice, that everyone who works for a living gives to the community, feeds their family, play by the rules is that least afforded a decent pension. and you heard from vice president samoa that we have par as leaving the district. that is a shame.

this is the city of st. francis. san francisco, st. francis. from the most mighty to the most humble, this city takes care of its own, all working together to do the right thing. this cannot stand any longer. it's beyond legal questions. it's beyond mere financial questions. this has to be atorded and give the educators a decent retirement. act now. don't delay any longer. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> good evening, i'm one of yourly aceon assigned to 11 schools. i was helping build capacity in all aspects. i assist families.

i help with prevention and intervention with these families and doing home visits, walking in the communities and doing some investigation work to locate june accounted for students. i am training key personnel at the schools to use technology used for tru and n crmp y. i hard every day. i'm here to speak to you as a young paraphernaliaa affected by this fraud of a pension plan. this district should be ashamed of itself for the treatment of the hard working paraphernaliaaa -- paras. that we need to work together to help our children move towards the 21st century learning. you abuse me with the constant threats of layoffs. you abuse me with neglect and time after time i stay silent

because it's just this time and you really care for me, so it won't happen again. i can't seem to be quiet any longer. i love this school district. i want you to love me back. do the right thing and give me my pension and will allow me to retire with dignity. thank you. [cheers and applause] president kim: that's a hard act to follow. >> my name is mary and i have been working in this district in this capacity for 34 years. i first started when i was going to college at the age of 20. it's very dishearten inc. and very disheart inc.. it is hard for me to get my words out right. you all have parents. think about if your parent were

to retire and get by the time i retire at least maybe six years, the cost of living is going to go up. as a student adviser, we haven't gotten a raise and stuck at $25 for the last 100 years. i don't even know when was the last time we got a raise. so i mean the insults are really there. they are slapping us in the face. i don't mind working like a dog but i refuse to be treated like one. give me the retirement that i

deserve and give the young ones that are coming up the retirement packages that they deserve or else you're going to lose them. you're going to lose them. thank you. >> i'm here as the representative of teachers in our district. i'm a teacher in a middle school and here in solidarityy with the paras of this district. i'm so ashamed of how we treat paras and they deserve a decent pension and we should make that happen. the disparity between teachers' pensions and paras pensions are shock inc. i work with them every day, side