commissioner maufas. commissioner maufas: so, again, i want to echo what president kim has said in thanking the young people were coming forward and actually your teachers. you indicated that the board is really advocating but i want to highlight that this is commissioner fewer's resolution and it really is here lead advocacy that brings us to this point in time and i want to thank her. i don't know -- and she will explain to us, i think, what her background is that brings her to this topic. i know what brings my mind to this topic, my daughter experienced military recruitment unbeknownst to her and it did lead me to work early on with some folks, some other moms and -- in a program called leave my child alone. regardless of my daughter being

in the jrtc program which she enjoyed, and i, you know, i want to support her being in that program, it didn't also include, to our understanding, heavy recruitment by the military. that was not supposed to be part of the experience. her experience was at a school with her student friends and having that camaraderie and that's what the experience was supposed to be, not the other add of on that was really stressful for both of us. from that work, that's how the opt-in caveat comes on the emergency cards across the state of california. that's where that is on the emergency cards that students can actually opt out they don't need a parent to do that. students can opt in or opt out and we here in san francisco have been really diligent about making sure we get a return rate very high, in the 90's, consistently that we are understanding that students actually want to opt in or actually want to opt out and we

know that. i want to, again, thank commissioner fewer's advocacy around this in bringing the detail and information to our table tonight and her diligently monitoring it and checking in with our legal staff to further understand what their perspective is. if i'm understanding correctly, i want to consult our legal counsel because our legal counsel at the curriculum committee mentioned that the aclu had also participated in new york city. i think just having to bring a lawsuit forward to further expand what public knowledge was around jammers because it's not just through these avenues that you mentioned here, the marketing. it's when people sign up for the s.a.t. test and young people sign up on websites just to get college information, that information is sold through marketing to those military recruitment agencies and that's

not expected when you're signing up for the s.a.t. you're signing up so you can consider going to college and be accepted, that's not the extra added caveat that you don't know about and it's those kinds of thicks that this resolution brought forward by commissioner fewer really helps highlight in our curriculum committee meetings. i wanted you all to know that as well. there are other folks, other cities, thank goodness the bay eyrea is on top of it but there are other places in the country that are really troubled by all of the lengths and sort of trickery that are -- that is done to families trying to apply for college, trying to apply for funding, trying to apply for financial aid to go to school. and further their children's education or students trying to further their education and this sort of sneakily comes around the back door. it's totally unexpected and 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 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 thesm