informational items will be really focused on these special and -- the special ed piece and the kind of resources that we actually have for it. and hopefully we will have a discussion that is related to the audit that we just did so we can start lining up resources better. that's it. president kim: okay. >> i don't know if it is important, but i will not be able to be at the meeting on the 29. the other members need to be there. commissioner fewer: we had a

curriculum program committee meeting on november 3, and we had a couple of items that were informational. what was expectations of eighth grade counselors and assisting students to meet graduation requirements. very exciting, they are moving in the direction of adopting the american school counseling association national model. that means that it is very much similar to a chaired service system. all of our students would receive counseling. rather than some. the challenging thing about it is that the recommends ratios of 360 -- 250 students to 1 counselor, and now it is close to 500.

that is a challenge that we hope to overcome soon. it is an exciting direction that we are moving toward. we also heard an update on the schools, mainly we heard about the big picture. this is the big picture project. i think a book was given to all of the board members. this is a really fascinating presentation. there are over 700 big picture schools in the united states. our principal center is now a big picture school. they have great results nationwide, and we have the conversation at this meeting that we really need to switch to the culture of our schools as being < or not as good as regular comprehensive.

this is a compromise -- conversation that we really need to switch to. that it will be an alternative to the regular comprehensive schools. i think it gives our students a real alternative to the regular, traditional classroom setting. there is an individualized plan for each of the students. attendance has been phenomenal. it is a school that traditionally does not have good attendance. they hope to expand from the 50 students currently to 150 students. we heard from other schools like the civic center, woodside, we heard from folks from ida b. wells and downtown high. it is nice to know that this is a very cohesive group that meets regularly and shares ideas with

conversation. about how to make it better and how to meet the needs of students that have not been successful in the regular school settings by offering them an engaging cirriculum. president kim: our next report is from the augmented ad hoc committee. commissioner wynns: the committee met last night here, and we had three items on the agenda. the first one was a report on the plan for the monitoring of the student assignment, and i want to make sure, by the way, commissioner fewer said everybody got a copy of that but which i did not get. i am asking to make sure that all of the commissioners get a

copy of the materials from the meeting last night. there were power point presentation is that will explain all of these issues about the monitoring system, and particularly about that presentation that will explain the experts that will be an adviser to the system -- advisers to the system. and how it will help us to an evaluate the effectiveness of reaching the goals of the new student assignment system. it lists a lot of questions. i like the format of lot. -- a lot. we want all members of the board to read that and consult with staff. the second item was the

transportation policy, the committee actually recommended to the board a substitute motion which is the changes to the transportation policy from what was first introduced and when it will come to us in september. i want to say that last night, we discussed because of the holidays, we can't have the december meeting on the day that we usually have it, but we asked the staff when we should have it. today, i received a message saying that they would like to have one particularly for the purpose of further reporting on the specifics of the development of the transportation proposal for next year. and the three year phase-in we are proposing. we have not settled on the date

yet, it will be either december 6, 7, or the 13. it looks like a 13 because we have other meetings. that would be the day before the regular board meeting in december. watch for that on the web. are we posting be presentations on all the information that we got last night? we have to oppose that because throughout the process, as you all know, we have been supportive and we discussed the importance of these proposals being publicized to everybody. changes in transportation and changes of the student assignment system will affect everybody in the system and we need to know that. the last item, we have gotten the beginnings of a proposal about the special education

assignment process. i would urge the commissioners to read the presentation and the report that we have and give feedback. there will be other opportunities to discuss this. the staff is proposing to ask that we set aside places in the student assignment process for transitional grades for inclusion, students that have inclusion of iep's at every school. this is sort of a conclusion, but it became clear that the board is going to have to be supportive of holding places at schools when we have pressure from people when their students cannot have -- do not have

iep's. we want to -- this is the beginning of our tryin gg to meet the commitment of having the special education assignment process be like the regular student assignment process. and our commitment to changing the nature of our special education program, particularly an inclusion as was noted in the audit from a program based to a service based process. i will finish by saying that we definitely want all the members of the board to pay attention to the materials. as we have all along, there were members of the board and i thank them for their time and attention and attendants who were at the meeting. i know everybody is really

interested in this. it is essential for us getting the kind of implementation that we are committed to. i would just make another pitch that as much as possible, it will be good if members of the board are at the attendance on saturday because there will be a lot of questions about the new process. thank you. president kim: item t is a report of the closed session actions. commissioner fewer: -- commissioner maufas: bill meets starting at 5:00. is it wednesday? pardon me. i would not have been here. wednesday, starting at 5:00, it

is just three topics. i know that we will try to get to that meeting relatively quickly because the other commissioners have time constraints. we will start promptly at 5:00 tomorrow in a board meeting room. commissioner fewer: i would like to report back on a visit today that commissioner norton and the deputy superintendent and miss dodge, we went to visit the school and this is a school we have a collaboration with. to serve students who are ill and must be hospitalized. and they can continue the education while there -- while they are in school. there are also students all over the country that come here.

some come with their whole families with their siblings. i have to say personally, this school makes me especially proud of our school system in an effort to serve all students. i just wanted to report on that. president kim: thank you. item t is the report of the closed session actions. the board of education approved one assistant principal and one supervisor. item u is posted in the agenda under informational notice of classified personnel transactions. tonight, we had turned in the memory of three individuals. -- adjourn in the memory of three individuals. one student was an innocent

victim of gun violence and one of our gateway to college students. another student passed awway due to an unfortunate chronic medical situation. it to the mother of our superintendent -- and to the mother of our superintendent. our deepest sympathy goes out to the families and the superintendent and his family for the loss of his mother. she was born in mexico in 1927 and she was a wise mother and grandmother. she was a loving homemaker and raised her family and loss angeles. she returned to spend her sunset years back in mexico where she passed away on sunday, november 7, 2010. the superintendent said she was a kind and a beautiful person that touched many lives. she raised an amazing family.

meeting adjourned.

>> in the store manager, and i would like to introduce the mayor of san francisco and the

newly elected lieutenant governor of california, gavin newsom. [applause] mayor newsom: is that me? supervisor, i'm not ready for this. welcome, everybody, and thank you all very much for coming out today on this special ribbon cutting. supervisor maxwell and i were colleagues on the board of supervisors when this project was first brought up. i remember the controversy like it was yesterday. originally, as you know, this was supposed to be home depot. exactly. i knew it would be like saying the dodgers of san francisco or something. people immediately started to

align themselves up in tents, those that just could not imagine a home depot, could not imagine a big box retailer in the city and county of san francisco. i remember all the community meetings of on the hill. all over. we were all over the city having community meetings about the basic future of san francisco and what kind of city we wanted. were we a city of neighborhoods, or were we just going to find a suburbanized san francisco as our future? that was the debate, and home depot had to come to the table, spend a great deal of time with supervisor maxwell. the other supervisors wanted nothing to do with it at the time. but supervisor maxwell was open and wanted to make sure if there was ever going to be a retailer like that or a big box like this, that there had to be some

strong commitments to the community, and they needed to take shape in a private meeting. they needed to be on paper. they needed to be in writing, and we needed to make sure the attorneys were there so that all those commitments were enforceable. then, home depot, out of nowhere, decided to take off, just like sirens on that engine, and all that work, the macroeconomics of the world started to change, and they decided they had gone through the entire process, those arrows, those slings, and they went through all of that, and we had this incredible untitled project. every single thing approved. all those commitments. and the supervisor -- i remember the day after that announcement. we were on the phone talking with michael cohen, saying what

do we do? and we got this call from lowe's saying they might be interested. i remember that conversation. we said, "can you believe this?" we were pinching ourselves saying, "this is too good to be true if." there were a lot of disappointments because of the commitments that were made and the negotiated agreements, and we had gone through all the politics of this, and we finally -- the community was very supportive out here. not unanimously, but overwhelmingly supportive. we thought it was time to follow through on our commitment to the people of bayview hunters point, particularly 94124 area code. days became weeks and weeks became months, and folks in the mayor's office, my office, and supervisor maxwell's office, and lowe's said they were willing to accept all the commitments that

previous books made. we thought they would say they would commit to everything, but then we thought they would start to unravel, and they would pull back. but the reality is they said they would commit and they committed. and here we are, and they did exactly that. the local hires i think are without precedent of any big project in this city. this is real on the destruction inside and the permanent jobs that are being created. that is a pretty extraordinary thing. 211 or so jobs. 88% are just from in and around the area. it is an extraordinary story. i'm really proud of lowe's. we are not jumping up and down

four big boxes. we will be candid. we love the sales tax. this is a big deal. but we are sensitive to what big stores do. because you guys are so good that some of the little guys can be threatened by it, but this location was the right location. this boulevard needed the economic stimulus, the anchor. look at all the fresh paint across the street. it did not always look like that. you are going to see in the next few years this boulevard take shape. if lowe's continues to be the employer they have proven to date, a lot of families will benefit because of the jobs created because of this, so thank you for following through on all your promises. so far, you are one of the good ones, and we want to keep saying that for years to come. i thank supervise the maxwell for getting in the mix and

holding strong because it was not easy. i was watching those votes, and, man. [applause] all the commitments on the work force training money, the day laborer program, all those new trees we were going to get -- thank you for holding steadfast. michael cohen and all the folks in my office that helped make this possible. we are on our way out. we have had the best dam year. this is like 1998 and again or something. there's so much to be proud of or thankful for. with that, your supervisor, supervisor sophie maxwell.

[applause] >> thank you. i remember like yesterday those five to six votes, but what made a difference was the community. what made a difference was young community developers and hard hats and yellow vests lining up the walls. 60, 70 of them, and each of them speaking about the opportunities that they wanted to become working people. they wanted jobs and they wanted a leg up, and that is what this was about, so that is what i remember. i remember 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning, but it was all worth it. i can hardly find a parking place this year. i'm really excited, and this boulevard -- you are right. we are working on becoming a home improvement district with lowe's being the anchor, so i think you are going to find a lot of fascinating things happening in this area, this district, so i want to thank the

mayor and all of my colleagues. the so-called progressive -- they do not relate like economic development that much. they like programs. so aaron said that it was going to be rough, and i told him to represent the people standing here, and he did. i want to thank all the people who are going to come here and the 50% from 94124 and 93134. thank you for that. >> and thank you to look of 22, local 261, to rsr construction. thank you very much. now, we are going to hand it back to lowe's and have the

ribbon cutting. thank you. >> with all of that, we just want to thank everyone. first from the city of san francisco for welcoming us. we opened the doors, and it has been wonderful hearing all the comments from the customers about how excited they were to come into lowe's and how they look forward to come into lows. i want to thank the community and neighborhood for welcoming guests -- welcoming us. i want to thank the honorable mayor of san francisco and sophie maxwell for welcoming us. i would like to thank rhonda simmons and her wonderful and entire staff for her guidance

and support, and i would like to thank everyone for the partnership. i would like to thank derek smith for his guidance with this whole project. without your advice, i think we would be wandering through, wondering where to go. i would also like to thank my district manager for his support and guidance, but most of all, i would like to thank short construction and the storm voice and their families for the hard work and dedication and the hours away from home that they spent building this store. it was a wonderful experience to bond with our group that were from this community. [applause] i would like to cite -- to thank

malcolm x academy for allowing us to do a super heroes project at their school where we repainted and unified their school and planted for them and help them with their nutrition project, but i would like to present the thurgood marshall high school a check for $1,000. from cost to you, -- from us to you, thank you so much. [applause] we would also like to present to san francisco city coalition at $5,000 tool donation.

[applause] now, lowe's would like to have the mayor and district supervisor do our board cutting ceremony.