schools doing whatever it is they like to do, which don't get me wrong, we appreciate. but one has tapered off quite a bit and are wanting to make sure the work we are doing -- and that has made a huge difference. and c.b.o.'s was built through dcyf and the work we have been doing here at city hall and the school district. with regard to the social workers, one of the things we have been trying to do is to have students who are touched by multiple departments to have one social worker. and i don't know if we have been able to be successful in that mode of operating, but at least we wouldn't have four, five different social workers to talking to the one student and not having the four, five social workers talking to each other, but can we assign one social worker to the student and then

be able to connect with all of the different departments. that was our other way of trying to get services to the student without having them touch multiple departments. we have also been trying to do some work around public housing and we have got legally involved in the public housing conversation as to what can we share, what can we send in the bills, what can we do specifically for our students in public housing, because such a high percentage of our kids in public housing tend to have the services not quite get to them. so we have been working closely with public housing as well. and we have also been working to -- with the funding that we have through dcyf, actually asking the question, having the c.b.o.'s ask the question, what does attendance look like for each of our students. adding that as one of the criteria that they look at when

they are doing their regular reporting. so that wasn't something we were doing in the past and we are actually able to see where the chronic students lie and what additional services we can give to them. one of our partners is sfpd. they have been cooperative and hasn't been an area they have been thrilled about but they understand the challenges that we have been faced with and they have been great partners.

speaking directly to the mo magic collab ritive. bringing together people every month to talk about the challenges of the youth. so we have made sure that the school district has connected directly with the organizations bringing these groupings together and make sure we're at the table to show our support of the work they've doing, and secondly, to make sure we're partnering directly with them and the value of the work they're doing in the community and thirdly, solving some of the issues that they themselves have not been able to penetrate in the school district, so we're giving them a front-line face and staff member or staff members to make sure that they have a direct connect from the outside to inside. and so those are all really just in addition to all of the tremendous work you guys have

been doing and i want to thank you for the collaborations that have been happening and the consistent meetings you've been having. and people show up. i think that we have put this on the front, forefront of the work we want to do. this has become a real priority and we saw some small changes in our -- actually, it was about 16% in our truancy both on chronic and habitual average. and we have some goals, now, that we really want to reach and they're going to be higher than the 16% and i think with all of these mechanisms in place and the other things people are talking about wanting to do including reaching out to the community, you know, saying to the merchants, as we've done, if you see any of our students who are out and they shouldn't be, here's an anonymous phone number you can call or these are ways

you can help so we want to come outside of the school, also, to help our students not get into situations that they don't need to be in and continue to support them the best ways possible. so thank you for the work you've been doing and being that collaborative partner that we've all being the last year and a half. >> commissioner kim? commissioner kim: i was going to add that i'm so happy that, hydra, you just mentioned the partnerships going on because i think to solve the issues we're talking about to deal with violence, to prevent it, to intervene it, to address it, we have to be able to first identify a partner, a neutral party that will be able to create this collaborative effort, this collaborative opportunity with multiple city departments. and then we need the departments that are experts in, let's say,

mental health,s for, dph has taken the lead on addressing the needs overall for mental health of young people. so creating the partnership, identifying who is the lead, and moving on with the issues that deal with violence, that's really helped us, for example, in the truancy reduction initiative. tark is an anchor, a base to be able to look at as a possible solution. however, truancy reduction is something we had to communicate to all city departments and say this is an issue that we're facing, truancy, who is at the table and what resources are available that already exist and how can we better work on a consistent basis to be able to resolve this, come up with better solutions. so i want to echo that. another thing i would say is dcyf, we've recently submitted to the nccd the 13-city plan that reduces community violence and it's an effort to bridge all

different departments. we've had letters of support from all the departments we've mentioned already involved with the truancy reduction initiative and we've identified five major goals that reduce violence and that includes legislative support, that includes education and work force, it includes community safety and community policing. it also includes really looking at re-entry services, bridging that gap for the 18- to 25-year-olds. so developing these plans and making them live and assuring there's a department that consistently tracks and meets all the goals that are met in our plans is also really important so i'd love to share the 13-city plan in the future with some of you and i know we have panz to meet with supervisor dufty and a couple of other board of supervisors to share more about these plans. but again, collaborative efforts, partnering, leadership,

all of those efforts support solving this big problem. >> commissioner kim? commissioner kim: these questions are for tark. i was just curious, now that i know it's still not been that much time, but if we've been collecting data and how things have been going at tark and maybe some of the success stories and some of the challenges thus far. >> i can give you just briefly. we can arrange another time to come. i know we were trying to schedule a time to talk about specifics. i can tell you that in general there are about 46 cases that are enrolled. commissioner kim: how many? i'm sorry. >> 46. and most of them are kristin cavallari and habitual. and there's been an estimated 36% decrease from chronic to habitual. some of the profiles we're dealing with, we're talking about youth that are multisystems involved so jdp and h.s.a. have been at the table to talk about dealing with wrap-around services and addressing some of the needs

young people have through sfusd. we've worked closely with 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. we have to make

accurate here. i am grateful so many folks came out for the swearing in. in particular, i want to thank -- you seem so lonely over there. supervisor dufty by himself representing the board of supervisors. the round of applause for him for being here. we are grateful. [applause] i am thankful that a number of department heads live -- are here at their peril. let me not recognize them. [laughter] but recognize their leader, about to be appointed cao of the city, the chief administrative officer of the city. ed lee is here. [applause] thank you, ed. we appreciate it. we are appointing people to

various boards and commissions. you are familiar, i am sure of the good work at the asian arts commission and how proud we are to have this remarkable institution that has not yet gotten the recognition it deserves. it is remarkable around the rest of the world people talk about it but not around our neighborhoods. we need to promote this extraordinary institution which has the most comprehensive collection of asian artifacts of any museum of its type in the u.s. it is right there in your backyard, right there next to the migrant building. please talk about it, not just members of the commission. please encourage our students and families to celebrate the remarkable contribution of the

asian community which really built this city, in many ways. i am proud that we will be appointing some familiar faces that have done a lot to promote the asian art museum but have never formally been on the commission. i am pleased to be reappointing anthony sun and lesley tan shilling. they have done a great job and have been enthusiastically presented to me for reappointment. i am honored youtube? let me thank everyone for the opportunity for being here. it has been an honor to serve as

your mayor for seven years. thank you. please ask for permission next time? [laughter] we are proud and honored that we are continuing in the formal advocacy of the asian art museum. there you are. we are blessed to have you. you have been a steadfast supporter of the museum. we are grateful for you taking upon this opportunity and serving in a formal capacity. you may not know these folks, but they are an impressive group. the housing authority.

everyone could have, should have would have, on the sidelines -- we all know how it works. supervisor brown, reverend, dr., leader reverend brown. he is very enthusiastic that veronica honeycutt will be serving. i have been a huge supporter of hers. i am grateful that you will be serving on this commission. is that why all the purple shirts are here? labor? either you are protesting me, or it is something. all of our friends at a local 87. i am grateful that you are here. a lot of labor leaders are here.

obviously, my great friend, a seamstress -- teamsters are here. they are here in formal capacity. we have the leader of our labor movement, here in san francisco, all here to celebrate asha coming on board. i am happy that you are serving on the housing authority commission. mare's disability council, roland wong, christine and james, we are grateful that you will be serving. we are grateful for the work you do with the american disabilities act. we just celebrated an anniversary of the ada. you all are leading by example. thank you for your willingness to continue on and serve on this council. i appreciate the board of

supervisors tried to right some wrongs at the chamber by making accessible our own chambers, which is remarkable in 2010. i told bart, i do not know why, and i know it is sort of patronizing, but why would anyone want to serve? literally, why would anyone want to serve on the bart board? those of you on the red board know what i mean. god bless you as well. they have held the line. there is not this friction between tenants and landlords like we have experienced in the past. tim, you remember those days. we have avoided all of that. barbara, you were around as well. do not act like you do not remember those years. it is good that we are holding

the line. bob patterson, i have known him for ever. thank you for your willingness to sit on the small business commission. he is someone who worked for many years on behalf of small businesses. he was approaching retirement but wanted to give back, and he is a great advocate. i am pleased that you took my call and said yes. thank you. on the ti, when i appointed larry, i said, trust me, this will be one of the most exciting boards in the city. we finally got conveyance from the navy on this private participation -- private-partner ship. that work will start next year. it will be one of the most

exciting developments in history. it will be one of the greatest developments in the nation -- greenest developments in the nation. this is one of the most dynamic and exciting developments that this country has ever been afforded. the folks that i will mention, those that will be reappointed, claudine, and john paul, you have been doing the drudgery work. now you get to enjoy the actual work, rebuilding and revitalizing the neighborhoods. it is a really exciting time. i thought we would have linder richardson join you. she has always been fighting for our diverse communities. she will put a human face on the development. i am blessed, linda, that you said yes. three great reappointment, a new

appointee that will get us to the next level. i knew that i was losing the audience. talking too much. seven months old. it is always tough to keep any audience. thank you all very much for taking the time to be here. i want to thank my chief of staff as well. [applause] he has got some friends. i want to thank matthew for organizing all of this, getting you all here. thank you. with that, why don't we get to the formal part of the program. you can stand, you can sit, but all you have to do -- you have a choice -- is raise your right hand and repeat after me.

what i will do is i will say i then everyone will state their name. and then during such time as you hold the position of -- and then we would just go down the line. each one of you will let us know what you will be doing in a more public manner. you will all be serving longer than i will be serving here, so all i ask is that you return my phone calls. do not forget who i am. [laughter] ok, i have some alternatives. this is a good group of people. vote your conscience. do what you think is right. and remember, not everyone in the city is represented by the people in front of you.

so do not forget, just because you are in organized special interest -- we have some great special interests -- but just because you are special interest does not mean that you represent everybody. you represent the entire city. do not forget that. veronica. amen. i -- >> [inaudible] >> do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california.

and that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same period that i take this obligation freely without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion, and that i will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which i am about to enter. and during such time, as i hold the position, as a member -- >> [inaudible]