student support services. the referral process has really been from sfpd, from the d.a.'s office, all the active partners 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.

>> good evening, and welcome. i am president of the league of women voters in san francisco. it is a nonpartisan political organization dedicated to the active and informed participation of all citizens in government. we never support or oppose candidates. but we do take stands on issues. for further issues about candidates and election issues, visit the web site www.sfvotes.org. that's sfvotes.org. we want to thank our co-sponsors for tonight's forum. sfgtv and the san francisco

public library. you will hear from the unopposed candidate for public defender. he will have a chance to present his views on issues affecting the city and the public defender's office, answering your questions about those issues. to submit questions for the candidate, look for a volunteer who will be handing out index cards. i also wish to remind you of our ground rules. the literature, campaign signs, or buttons can be distributed or posted inside the meeting room. no video taping or flash photography is allowed due to the fact that sfgtv is taping this forum. please turn off or mute yourself loans and other electronic devices. it is my great pleasure to introduce our moderator this evening. barbara is a board member of the

leak, serving as co-chair of voters services. her career includes teaching speech and communication at san francisco state university. the city college of san francisco. and new york university. she is a corporate trainer and public speaking, presentation, and media skills. >> this year, we have one candidate for public defender. the candidate will answer questions you in the audience segment as well as questions that have been submitted to the web site. the answers will not be timed. you have many important decisions to make on november 2. this form will give you an opportunity to be heard. let's begin. >> i am very honored to be here. >> what are your thoughts on

death by lethal injection and california's future related to the death penalty? >> it may not come as a surprise to you that i am very much opposed to the death penalty. if there is a lesson that we have learned, the death penalty in california, and for that matter, the indicted states, it has been a failure. we don't have a fair and objective way in order to determine who gets the death penalty. that is one of the fundamental problems with it. if you look statistically across the united states or even here in california, you will see the people of color overwhelmingly suffer that fate. it has always been historically so. on top of that, it has been a fiscal failure. we're spending millions of