have did referral services inside tark. >> have local businesses and parents been referring students, as well? >> oh, yes. parents have. we haven't received too many local business referrals. part of our efforts were just to out-reach and have the community involved with preventing some of the truancy. but besides that, we've mostly received referrals from parents in that area and there are parents that have come specifically with their children on an ongoing basis that just say, please help me with some of the issues dealing with young people but we can arrange a specific presentation so you can hear more. commissioner kim: i'm curious as to what has been most successful so far. >> the success has been, according to what we hear on a weekly basis, is really having the case managers engage and identify the agencies that are already involved and coupling

some of the mental health services, like, for example, with d.p.h., and offering multiple opportunities for some of the young people. the case management is one piece of the puzzle. so walking these young people back to the school environment, having the school community engaged, all of those have been the successes or the anchors that have really resulted in improvement in attendance. commissioner kim: have we thought about, for the students that aren't going to civic center, for example, or principal center, have we thought about calling those families and door knocking to see what we can do to get them back in school? >> at this point, i know that the d.a. has tried to communicate with them on that heavy hand lens. there has been notices. we've done some calls but definitely that's an area where we need a lot more staffing and support. but we have done a couple of phone calls and i know that

there are some efforts through the city that we were all going to purposely commit to per agency. so there's different calls in different ways. there hasn't been something that's been done large or systematically. commissioner kim: i would be very interested in that because i think that sending letters is not the best way to outreach. i brought this up at the last school board meeting but i have been meeting our truant students on the streets, door knocking, and i think it's the best way to reach out to them to find out why they're not in school. i personally feel uncomfortable asking you to pick them up with the police. i don't feel comfortable doing that. it's not because the police are not friendly, but i feel bad after i build that relationship with a student to have the police officer come and pick them up. i wish there was another way to

have someone come to their door and bring them another way. >> we have found a good solution is having the c.r.n. involved. commissioner kim: that's right. yeah. >> so what we've done is that some of the young people that have been truant know that -- especially with the northwest c.r.n. chris commissioner kim: that's a great use of c.r.n. >> so we've been providing the safe transportation they provide to get young people back to the center and reengage with their education. >> what's the break on elementary, middle, and high school students of the 46? do you have round numbers? >> they're all high school students. the 46 are all high school students. there are no middle school students enrolled at the moment. and the elementary students, they're not tark-focused.

>> commissioner mendoza. commissioner mendoza: the other thing i want to add is that we have parents that bring their kids to tark which was really surprising. but there were a series of things that they were not successful in doing so they brought their own children down to ask for support. >> i want to piggyback on this a little bit. i know the board of ed members know this, but the supervisors may not know that in addition to the wonderful work that tark is doing, the school district also employs at this point six -- i wish it could be double that number -- but six child welfare and attendance liaisons that work out of student support services, and nine attendance liaisons that work directly out of the assistant superintendent teams, and they are, in fact -- and i couldn't agree more that what really needs to happen oftentimes is to go and knock on

a door and say, gee, we're here because we care about you. we know you're not attending school, can you talk to us about what's going on. so that is happening, not on the scale we wish it would happen. i do know that at civic center, they have a full-time attendance liaison there who i believe is doing some of those home visits now to try to find some of those students that were assigned there and for varieties of reasons didn't go to school there. so we also have retired teachers that we have making phone calls and in some cases home visits, as well. >> colleagues, i think we've handled the questions that we've had. i want to thank the presenters. i think this is an excellent continuation of our hearing and we're glad to know that tark has got clients and to talk about the big issues ahead. and most importantly, about the

collaboration. i want to acknowledge assemblyman reano with proposition h. that created a whole different dynamic where we were investors and supporters of the success of the school district and it opens doors in both direction and it's much, much more than just the money. beyond that, i think there's a whole area of collaboration. i did not open this up to public comment. if there are any members of the public that wish to be heard on any aspect of this hearing, we'll open it up to public comment. seeing none, we'll close public comment and with that, we will continue this item to the chair and thank everyone for their participation. we are adjourned.

>> welcome to culture wire. the arabs don't possible has bringing you the best of the arab film to the bay area. this year's festival is no exception.

consider the most important arab film festival outside of the arab world, the festival offers a rare window to the arab world and its diverse community. featuring 24 films from over 18 countries, it is also one of the only four runs that showcases new works by established and emerging arab filmmakers. the possible films in four cities. in addition, the festival organizers a film series for high-school students free of charge. this year's lineup offers something for everyone, including shorts, documentary's, comedies, and dramas. >> [speaking arabic]

the mission of the arab film festival, since it its inception in 1996, and it came about -- members of our community realized there was stereotyping of arabs in the media, and they wanted to change that proactively. they wanted to use the power of film to bring in the stories, to bring in authentic images and narratives of the arab world, here to american audiences, in order to fight the negative stereotyping, and to introduce the positive, authentic images to america, which iraq california, -- throughout california, a teasing familiarity, establishing

harmony between our communities. the selection this year it is really a good selection. it is perverse, comes from more than 18 countries. it has a bit of everything for everyone. -- it is diverse, comes from more than 18 countries. there are shorts, and from us, comedies, you name it. this year, the film festival takes place in the castro. there is a comedy film from nigeria that is pretty hilarious. you can get to know arabs threw their laughing as well.

[speaking in foreign language] >> when you come to see all the diversity, nationality, ethnic, skin color, dialect, anything that you can think of, that world is very rich in diversity. we are trying to represent that diversity so people can see the different parts of the arab world. [speaking in arabic] >> people should participate in the festival because of the benefits they can get. first, the educational benefit of learning about the stories of the arab world. diverse stories. people in the united states sometimes think of the arab world as a lump sum. what is good about the arab film

festival is the also have a festival for the school's program, which we have films where we invite free of charge, i schoolers to come and attend. every year, high schoolers to go out really with a good experience, attending and watching these films. the arab film festival is not only about the festival in october. we also have year-round programs. check out the film festival to run the year, not just in the fall. -- throughout the year, not just in the fall. the best thing that somebody can take away from the arab on festival is the arab cinema is talent. it is beautiful. the stories have that they represent are good stories,

beautiful stories. also, the art form is beautiful and well made. >> for a complete film schedule and to learn more about the arab film festival, visit