hearing your feedback. chairman maufas: thank you. public comment. yes, is there any member of the public that would like to comment on this? please come up to the podium. >> hi, i'm the executive director of parents for public schools. i wanted to say thank you for that presentation. i just wanted to add to it because i think it's important to let you know what we're doing as an organization to really do the outreach around enrollment and the new process. as always, for those parents that don't have a choice to go to public scoolts. we want them to consider and ultimately enroll in the public schools. for the parents who are choosing public schools, we want them to understand all of their options. so to quickly go down the list of what we're doing, we have 300 parent ambassadors in all of our schools. they can talk to perspective parents about their experience

in the schools as a way of connecting to a prospective parent and promoting what is going on in those schools. of them, self of them become enrollment coaches. they increase their knowledge about the enrollment process itself and go out to counsel parents but how the process works. we also know that many of the preschool directors out there are sort of the next step to their own networks and if they're more informed about the process, they're able to counsel their own parents. so we do about 115, we call them key influencers. so people out there in the community who are talking to the parents, whether they're health care providers, social workers, librarians, preschool directors and more. we have a great partnership with our public libraries. we're doing events in 12 different libraries across the city in three different languages to reach parents in their neighborhoods to talk about and feature the neighborhood schools through those parent to parent connections. we work with our partners, the

jump-start, the family resource centers, the toys and backpack giveaways and our website gets about 50,000 hits a month this time of year. so it's a great resource for parents to get that information. and i also am really excited on what is going on in the schools and help them market their schools through the parents and for example, there is a spanish emergence school which we're excited about. we are also really excited about the scores at malcolm x and we're interested in helping the willie brown parents understand what is next for them. so just wanted to share that with you. chairman maufas: thank you. we want to express our thanks to p.p.s. and all of the community partners who really are dedicated to helping with this. mr. david. >> my name is todd david, i'm a parent at alvarado elementary. i have a couple comments on the presentation that was given. i love the idea of the center,

i think that's great and i love the tax thing. those are both great ideas. i think the main discovery workshops is confusing. what are you laughing at? yeah. the main discovery workshop is confusing. i think that people are not going to really know what that is. i know that you're trying to do discovery, apply, enroll. but enrollment workshops will be a little bit clearer, especially to new families trying to figure out what is going on. the collection sites, i wonder if it's possible to open them for more than a day each. i think those are great. i think it's great to have satellite collection sites if you gave people a week because any one day they could forget. the road trip focus, i'm wondering why in addition to that, why we're not having principals of elementary schools and the principals of the potential feeder middle schools getting parent groups

together now to talk to each other as opposed to having parents go visit the new school. i think that having parent groups talking to each other would be a really good idea. those are my comments. i would like to make one other comment that is kind of more to the general of what this committee deals with in general. i recently discovered or was told or heard that some decisions were made about not using the stanford and m.i.t. consultants who helped create the programs and not use them for oversight of the new enrollment process and that that decision was made in a private session of, i believe, this committee, if not of the general board or the whole board. i really, i really have some concerns about a big decision like that being made in a closed session that i think that it would be much more helpful for parents to fully

understand what that decision was and why because i can remember very well sitting here listening to the stanford and m.i.t. people saying that they will be here to help make adjustments to the process if the results are different than what we had hoped. so there is definitely some concerns. it feels like from a parent's point of view that the district doesn't, it doesn't want oversight. and that fields like whether it's fair or not, the perception of the district and specifically of the enrollment process has been such that there hasn't always been a lot of transparency and that a lot of things have seemed unclear so i would ask you to err on the side of transparency. chairman maufas: i want to make clear the committee hasn't done that and does not meet in

closed session. only in the restricted areas that we can. >> if i could request of the staff and to the chair that perhaps at the november meeting of this committee that we can have an update first of all in our progress towards creating a new algorithm and possibly some discussion of why we're going the route that we're going, i think that would be helpful to people to kind of understand our thinking on this and i also would like to and i don't know if november is soon enough, but if november is too soon, i would like to explore the idea of eventually making the algorithm open source so that once it's written and once we have done a run that the public can see it, that they can bang on it and see how it works. i think, you know, software companies do this. it's not impossible to do and we should consider doing that. chairman maufas: thank you. if you d don't mind, do you wan to respond to this and then we'll -- >> yes, thank you,

commissioners. yes, at the november meeting, we will have a more elaborate discussion, but just to make sure there is no misunderstanding out there and the reason that we are not having the stanford folks write the algorithm is not at all a concern about the jordan site. it's not at all connected to oversight. we are working to put together a group that will serve as an oversight committee for the board and the superintendent on this issue in a nutshell, we will go into deeper discussion in november. the big concern had to do with the request and return for their assistance in writing the algorithm. they were going to have a graduate student write the software and in return they would have liked access to 17 years worth of data, 10 years of historical data, and seven years into the future. it wasn't data just about student assignments. it was about achievements, teachers, principals, student discipline. it was a desire to have access

to every piece of data the district collects about students and teachers and staff. we just thought that that, first of all, there was some legal concerns and then there was also just wanting to make sure we're being responsible about student and staff data. and that's why we have gone in a different direction in terms of the software development but the oversight piece of student assignment is and continues to be a priority for the superintendent and we are working to establish a committee of experts that will be a resource to the district moving forward on that. chairman maufas: thank you. go ahead. >> hi, my name is valerie higgins and i'm here with parents for public schools. i just want to say they also think that the text messaging will be helpful and am glad that you guys are having the mobile buses and just want to thank you for helping us with

enrollment. we know that enrollment is such a huge thing in the district and in terms of reaching out to the -- not hard to reach communities, but communities that are often left out of the outreach. i just want to thank you for helping with that and also in regards to taking over on the willie brown outreach for the informing the parents that they have slots available in three middle schools and that they also can go to all schools in san francisco. so i just want to thank you guys for all of your help and support. chairman maufas: thank you. >> my name is galina and my question is not regarding today's discussion. i am a grandmother of two kids.

one of them is disabled and my question is the school district , we were told that board of education can include the discussion of your case in our meeting and make a decision. >> mr. wynns, i'm sorry to interrupt the speaker. i need to race the point that i have had the pleasure of meeting her before. i believe the issue that is of concern to her is not -- >> let me finish, please. >> within the jurisdiction of the committee. chairman maufas: i understand. neither the board of education for the committee is -- we do not have the authority to discuss a specific student assignment case. that is a discussion you have to have with the staff and the legal staff, not the board. >> because think case is regarding the revocation of

school assignments. chairman maufas: it's a specific case related to a specific student, not something that the board of education -- >> it's not your function. chairman maufas: no, not at all. >> so the school district in sacramento was wrong when they told us this information. chairman maufas: if they told you that the board of education specifically and this committee could make such a decision, they were wrong. >> they were wrong. thank you for the explanation and i will make my own decision. chairman maufas: thank you. board members, commissioner mendoza. excuse me? staff is following up on that, correct? thank you. commissioner mendoza. commissioner mendoza: thank you. i always love the whole outreach piece of it because it has grope significantly from knocking on doors or something. it's great to see all of the

ways that we are reaching out to our families. just a couple of clarifying pieces. on page 32 when we talk about the discovery workshops, i just want to be really mindful on the english language learner programs that we have clarity in our own programs what we're offering to our e.l. families. we continue to talk about immersion for our e.l.'s and is that the appropriate conversation that we want to be having and is that the push that we have been doing or is it a discussion about bilingual immersion and general ed? i just want to make sure that we're providing very clear options for our e.l. families. if not, i'm getting a lot of feedback on how our e.l.'s are doing and make sure. on the discovery workshops themselves at the schools, what

will those look like? will they be presentations between 10 and 12, or will they be breakout sessions that folks can kind of pick and choose where they want to go in certain classrooms every half hour or what will that look like? >> well, i think that we are working with our marketing firm and they are helping us develop a user friendly kind of powerpoint that is going to walk them through the new policy and our guidelines in terms of enrollment. we haven't really cooked it all up yet, fully cooked it up. these workshops are really designed to address students at all levels. we used to break it out where it was kindergarten and we did a middle school one and a high school one. we wanted to capture all families and more families in these workshops. so we might be doing a presentation with the entire group and then do some breakouts according to the levels. >>

commissioner mendoza: and the training on paming 24, i want folks to know we have been working with the city on 311. you have been training 311 so i want to be able to offer that information to families that if they can't get into a line at sfusd, they can go to 311. they are trained to help the school district on that. one of the organizations that were mentioned was the family centers. i want to make sure we're tapping into them and getting regular information to them. they really do reach a lot of families. everything else just looked really great, you guys. at some point having our application online would be terrific. i know that we try to do that once upon a time and it was a disaster and so it just seems like something that we should be able to do at some point and so i want to make sure that we continue to lean towards that as our goal. it's terrific outreach and i'm

really excited about attending some of the events. so thank you. chairman maufas: just as a follow-up, if you could, in the discussion about applying online, can you just update us, it doesn't have to be now, about what, how anybody thinks that could be done when you have to have verification of your address, which is even more key in our new system than it has been in the past, so i just would like to know. if you want to say something now -- >> that's the challenge and we are having discussions and we wanted to at least think about phasing that in so that's why we have the template that is online where families can fill it out and then print it out, but they won't be able to submit it. so we have to have a certain kind of infrastructure in terms of our technology to be able to receive those applications online. then we have to figure out how we're going to do the address verification and collect those

documents from families subsequently after they turn them in. chairman maufas: are we investigating that? reinvestigating anybody that is verifying what we need to verify online? >> we are exploring that and seeing how other districts are doing that. >> even having a director verification with pg&e or at&t, they confirm or somewhere in the city where there is verification, those are things that can happen. chairman maufas: commissioner norton. commissioner norton: i was curious about the road trips because i was assuming in the presentation that we were talking about students, but did you actually mean parents were going? >> no, we meant students, yeah. commissioner norton: so students, we're having actually field trips that students are taking. >> a field trip, arrange to pick them up at school and bring them over to the high

schools. we are focusing on -- commissioner norton: that's not where we got the idea, though, right? [laughter] commissioner norton: and what schools are going to be participating in that? >> we're going to be focusing more on the schools that are in the superintendent zones as well as some of the schools that are underenrolled. we're working with those principals to see where they feel or where they feel the students might be coming from, where they're more inclined to come from, what school sites and what neighborhoods. commissioner norton: and i know you probably don't have the answer to this question now, but i do have to say i'm getting a lot of questions from people around about the address verification. particularly the big question i seem to be getting asked is how quickly can you change your address if you apply with one address and then you change your address to another address, which it seems to me there is a lot of people kind of looking for the loopholes

and the ins and outs of the new system. i'm just wondering, first of all, are we deep into developing regulations around that and sort of what is our thinking around that and i think we're going to need to be very clear out of the gate when we're talking about the process to families about what's going to be acceptable and what's not acceptable under the new process. chairman maufas: commissioner yee. commissioner yee: what was she talking about? chairman maufas: filing with one address. in there and give

them training. last time i met with them, there were 30 agencies there. the other group has been mentioned already, but if you do not have access to the non- school district preschools, there are a couple of groups that have networks.

you can go to the san francisco child care providers association or the san francisco child care planning and in visored council. they have large groups of people that meet. even going through those groups, i think it might be even better if you could team up with the san francisco providers association and set up a separate workshop for people that work with families. many of these centers actually have social workers, council members, or someone who is causally answering parent questions. as you know, the non-school district preschools actually have a greater number of preschoolers then our own school district. i will mention dave, there, or is it todd?

the idea is you go to these sites and have a bunch of workshops. at first i was thinking you would give different days and have different workshops. you may want to clarify its. i think i have it now. you are basically going to these elementary school sites for discovery workshops and within one setting and one day you will have all of these different workshops that include to a single process all the application? >> those are the workshops we are going to be providing that the enrollment, the application process. the discovery workshops are really to help whop turns through what our process is once we get applications, but they

need to submit, and how the process will work. commissioner yee: i guess the last thing i will say is a really like the mobile center. is this a bus that we have already or we have access to, or some vehicle we have access to, or is it just a picture of the vehicle meaning you take the bus and go there? >> it has been a longtime dream of mine to do this although it kicks off this year. it is a school bus that is provided to us free of charge during the day that will house our staff and all the equipment needed to set up a mobile center in areas we have already gone out to and scouted out, have permits, and have talked to community members in that area. we will park that bus in the designated area kind of as a visual and then have our mobile

office set up in that area. commissioner yee: which is great. there were a few things that had different sides. it did not seem like it was related, but it seems like it could be with the satellite collection sites. i do not know how much excess we have to those. >> the goal of the bus is to counsel families, to give them all the documents they need, and also to process their applications and collect their applications on the spot so they do not have to come here. the satellite collection sites are a separate event for families who we do not reached through the bus outreach program. it is kind of hitting all angles that we can. commissioner yee: i love this concept so much that i think we should expand it. we only have a few dates on there. i recommend that we do visit bay

view city college. it is on the edge of something. this is another edge. maybe since we are doing college preparatory or something at malcolm x, they are trying to do a family center there. i would talk and see if we could put something up there. those families are not going out necessarily. the other area i thought was lacking, which may be we could -- if we could get the bus to the area somewhere, that would be helpful. i know you have a satellite

collection site over there, but this would be good to have a mobile bus theire too. hopefully we can expand. i love it. >> i wanted to make a couple of comments. i think these mobile collection sites -- we need staff to be there. having them there for an extended period of time may mean a week or days at a time. it would be a big impact on the staff here. i just want to point that out. i also want to talk a little bit about the road trips. i think that is great. it is something that has been done before and i think it is probably very effective, but i wanted to talk a little bit about the evolution of these outreach things. i am hoping that -- i know that when we first announced or were

talking about implementing beefeater patterns this year, we were talking about only having elementary schools at the attendance fair. we talked about the dynamics of the various high-schools and how many administrators find it to be a not very effective way of doing outreach for high school applications. since we are going to have an open enrollment system for all the high schools, even though we are doing it the same way this year i am interested in, as we go along, continuing to get feedback from staff and participants, and particularly from the middle and high schools about the effect of the various kinds of outreach that are done. we were at the time that before we were talking about phasing in our theater pattern are continuing this policy discussion for another year, we

were having some beginning discussions about a different way to do outreach for high schools and made the middle schools -- maybe middle schools, too. i hope we can keep having that discussion. we talked about whether it would be good to have all of the high schools open on one saturday to facilitate them getting there and try to get as many staff people there so that people could see what it is like as opposed to being at this table and that table, where people come in just to find out -- what are they able to learn about a school that does not have a special application process? whatever issues that may come up, i would like us to continue to talk about them. we love the attendance there. it has been great. but this is exactly the time. not only do we have a new

student assignment process and policy being implemented, but also it has been the number of years that you really need to reexamine and think about the effectiveness of the structures you have. i hope we will continue to talk about that. at the next meeting on the eighth, despite its -- besides the item we just referred to, we are going to talk about what? >> on november 8, transportation and the monitoring and evaluation were the things i am certain are on the agenda. i will speak geek about the plans for the special ed piece. chairperson wynns: i think people need to be reassured, including us, the we are actually going to be able to have an effective process for this coming year in some way. anybody else with anything else? thank you very much.

the meeting is adjourned.