>> it is with great pride that we honor these individuals for their valor. every day, officers put their lives at risk and do very good police work and we do not do enough to thank them for that. i am brought to be part of a ceremony where we can point to these heroes and thank them publicly, the way that we should do so every day publicly. so thank you again. [applause]

the police commission and the park would would also like to think the diversity of california's san francisco for its generous support in co- sponsored tonight's event. we would like to single out the community relations office and the conference center office for putting tonight's ceremony and their generous support. i also want to thank ms. tom. she is the one that put the packs together and organized the event. she did a lot of work and happy that she could be here tonight. this concludes our ceremony. there will be refreshments out in front. there is a photographer. you want to take pictures. i am going to go outside and shake the hands of some heroes and thank them. i hope that you will do the

same. thank you for coming again. order this meeting of the ad hoc committee for monday december 13, 2010. please note that the committee members -- two of us are

present, myself and commissioner mendoza. also, commissioner norton and commissioner fewer are present. we have four items on the agenda not noted. they are all informational items. last, i think we have already recommended to the board that they adopt the substitute new general education transportation policy. there will be no action items this evening. first, the staff presentation on the transportation policy, then an update from the parent advisory committee and ppf on the middle school pathway program. then board discussion and feedback and public comment. >> i have prepared a brief

report. there are copies for the audience. there is a power point. another document is a copy of the questions. it is an overview same transportation will be the same next year. this is a document which has been in circulation since early november. it has key information and background information i will not go through in the interest of time. it is a good point of reference. tonight, i was going to give a brief overview about who is currently using transportation services, health services will change, and how we will engage and inform families. we, as you know from past discussions -- there is no centralized system that captures the names of students that ride buses. we sent out to schools in november class rosters with checkoff boxes that each teacher could say whether a student writes the bus in the morning or the afternoon. that was designed to give us an

understanding of who was riding the bus for a couple of reasons. one, we could do an analysis to get a better understanding of who we are serving with our current infrastructure. the second is so that we would be able to follow up and have direct communication about any changes that are coming. we heard back from 49 schools. we plan to continue to capture data from the remaining schools. in total, there are 59 schools where there is yellow bus transportation. the transportation department, although they do not capture the names of students, do capture information about the numbers that get on and off at every stop. we know about 3300 students ride the bus. the responses from the school capture information for 2800 of those writers. -- riders. while it is not 100%, it does give a general sense, and we will continue to capture information. we created pin maps that we hope

will tell lot more than quantitative data. they tell a story that it -- they tell a story visually. this first pin map shows the students -- where the students live that ride the bus in the morning only. because there are some students to catch a bus just in the morning. there are some who just use a bus in the afternoon. and there are some who use a bus morning and afternoon. so, the students to ride the bus just in the morning -- it is about 11% of the students. these red dots on the map show you where the students live. you can see from the patterns of dots where the students live. you can see where there are concentrations in some areas and it is less dense in others. >> is it 11% of the 3300 riders? >> thank you, commissioners. it is 11% of those who

responded. this is a snapshot of the folks who responded to the survey. it is 11% of the 2800 students we have information about. in the afternoon, you can see this map here. there are a lot more children who just use afternoon services. so, of all the 2800 children that use transportation, 32% just use transportation in the afternoon. again, you can see here from the concentrations of students. that is illustrated. the next can map, the green dots, show where the students tried in the morning and the afternoon. 56% of all students to use services use services in the morning and in the afternoon. you can see from the patterns here were those students' lives

that are using morning and afternoon students. -- you can see from the patterns here where those students live that are using morning and afternoon students. the color scheme, although it is not easy to see, it is the three lawyers put on top of each other so you can see where the -- the three players put on top of each other so you can see where the -- the three layers put on top of each other so you can see where the 2800 students live. race and ethnicity -- 48% of the 2800 are kindergartners. 16% fourth. at the middle school level, these are from the k-eight schools. some of the k-a schools indicated they have students riding the bus that are in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. that was 5% of the writers we heard back from. in terms of a racial/ethnic

breakdown, 22% are african american. 24% chinese. 24% latino. 11% white. 19% other. that is just to give an initial sense of who is using our services. we will continue to get the data from the rest of the schools. that will allow us to send direct communication to families about any changes that are going to occur. it will also allow us to capture more information in terms of why families use services and stuff like that. the next part of the agenda is designed to give the board a sense of how stuff is actually going to create the transportation service plan under the new board policy. the handout that i gave you, which talks about transportation will not be the same -- it is the word document.

on pages four and five of that, you can see the kinds of questions that we are asking to help us determine the routes. and we know that we are looking at a 57% reduction. this is a slide we have seen before. that is by 2013. we are looking at phasing out stops over a 23 year. so it will not all happen immediately. that would give of families more time to have information and plan. this is to show you how we are using data and questions to guide development for information for schools. one goal in the policy is to provide equitable access to the range of opportunities to students. some of the questions we are looking at our our language programs for english learners. are they available in areas of the city where high-density english lerner's live?

our new programs available in areas of the city where the students live? does every area have reasonable access to citywide schools and programs? the next few slides show some information, tell a story as we are exploring those questions. the first shows were all the cantonese by literacy pathways -- biliteracy and immersion programs are in the city. it also shows the ctip 1 areas. that are shaded. it also shows where the cantonese student lives. this shows for the cantonese english -- where the cantonese english learners live and where the programs are located. we did the same for mandarin, for spanish. we did the same for the filipino newcomers, spanish newcomers. the next slide shows the ctip1

areas and where the city-wide schools and programs are located. the first few slides included the citywide programs that are newcomer programs and biliteracy programs. the english learner space does not include them even though they are supplied -- even though they are citywide. they are in another part of the analysis. the board policy framework which we are hoping will be approved tomorrow night -- once that is approved, that gives us the certainty that we should go ahead and build routes using that framework. by mid-january, we would have dropped routes available. >> i am sorry. i am looking at the city-wide schools and programs map. why is bright -- breet hart

eighth citywide program? >> they are building a spanish emergen-- immersion program. the key question -- we have been having community conversations over the last month and a half with different city and parent organizations sharing the policy from work and getting feedback. one of the key questions we get is when will people know about the routes for 2011-2012. our goal is to have by mid- january the vision for 2013-2014 school year developed. the approach we are taking is the board policy framework, the questions, the data will help us develop a sense of which schools from which areas of the city should have services. from that, we will be able to map backwards to figure out -- if that is where we are going to be in 2013, what should the

changes for 11-12 look like? we are proposing that most changes would occur in year two, which is 2012-2013, with incremental change happening in the first year. that is designed to maximize the lead time for families to have an understanding of what transportation services will be available. the graph showed earlier -- you can see we are anticipating a greater jump in the changes and services. i will just remind folks of the slide. it is like 11. -- is slide 11. the blue bar -- this is theoretical to illustrate. we are looking at phasing out some current routes, but also adding new routes to support the policy goals and objectives. we are imagining that the biggest change will begin to happen in your 2012-2013 -- the

year 2012-2013. in terms of how families will find out about the changes, we are looking at capturing information about who is riding the bus. we will be able to send direct mail to families currently riding the bus. we will be able to have materials at each school site that will have more detail about the changes. through the school sites, we would have discussions with families. rather than doing what we did with the middle school feeder programs and other community engagement processes over the last few years, where we have had town hall meetings and used the board ad hoc committee meetings as a forum, which will work more directly with the principles -- principals and at the school sites with a focus on any schools that might no longer receive service under the new plan. we do anticipate there will be some schools that currently do not have service that would get it, and other schools that do have service that will not get

it, and other schools that have service where the routes will change in order to be aligned with the policy framework. we will want to work closely via the school sites with that. our next steps are to complete the analysis and develop the transportation service plan. again, having the overall vision for full implementation by 2013-14 and a phase-out and phase-in of services for 2011- 12, we are hoping to have that available for mid january, so we can start gathering feedback from current writers in school communities. -- riders and school communities. that concludes our presentation for this evening and we are happy to answer any questions the board might have. chairperson wynns: i have one question. can you tell me where this is available and how it is being distributed? presumably, there are pieces of other documents and information

are available. i just want to know what kind of outreach we are doing institutionally. >> thank you. all of this information is posted on the web. it has been since the beginning of november, including all prior board presentations and discussion documents. they are all under sfusd \enroll we have disseminated them at all of the conversations we are having. we had them at the enrollment fair. we have kind of been trying to use multiple avenues to get that information out. chairperson wynns: on the -- when you go to the district home page, maybe we need a "do you have questions about transportation changes," or something like that, as well as a link for the new student

assignment process policy. maybe you should not have to go to the general site. you could go directly to transportation. people who are still in the same schools are going to have questions about transportation too. commissioner maufas is in the room. commissioner norton: i see in both the policy and the faq that we are saying our new transportation policy will provide transportation to after- school programs in limited situations. our new policy will support the district vision for after school. i am curious. what are we saying? is there anywhere inviting -- what are we saying to families who will either use their yellow bus transportation at their schools entirely, for morning

and afternoon, or lose their after-school transportation? what are we saying to them that we will offer them, or what their options are? >> we have not actually started those conversations yet, because we do not know what the schools are, who the individuals are. we are doing the analysis to develop the vision for the future and to get a sense of what the impact of the new infrastructure would be and who would be impacted. we are then going to have direct communication with families. through this information we have gathered from school sites, we will be able to let them know very specific information. that is what we understand families need. they want to know how the service they are using now -- will it be available in the long term? if not, when will it be phased out? we will be able to share with them why. the information that is here in terms of why we are changing services, how we are changing them -- commissioner norton: i see we have done a good job of starting

to sketch that out while we are making these decisions. but i am still pushing on this. because as soon as it announced in mid-january which routes are going away, there is going to be a lot of people down here, telling us about how horrible this is a joy to be for them and how impacted that are going to be -- how horrible this is going to be for them and how impacted they are going to be. how do we say you are losing this bus? are we going to offer a place at another school where they can get transportation? we need to have some kind of guarantee or some kind of solution. otherwise, it is going to come back to us. we are going to be sitting here at board meetings saying "sorry." from the perspective of a family, it is not good enough to say these are tough decisions and it is hard. we need to offer them, when we announce the cuts in routes -- we need to be able to offer at

that same time what options we are going to give them. i am still not hearing it. i am not hearing what we are going to guarantee families that are losing transportation they depend on. we know some families are going to lose transportation next year that they have been depending on, whether it is morning or afternoon transportation. i am still not hearing anything clear or in writing of any of this documentation about what we are going to tell them and give them. >> some of the information is in here on page 5 that talks about alternatives to yellow bus transportation. we have been talking with other agencies in the city that provide alternatives to yellow bus transportation. we're going to have that information available for them. there are a lot of parent- initiated resources that we are going to let parents know about. for example, there is the 511 school matching system run by the state that parents can use.

there is also the safe route to school information. there are walking school buses and by trains and various other resources. then there are many services available. -- muni services available. in order for families to be able to choose another school, we will also share information about that. this is an unpleasant situation where because of the budget crisis we need to cut services. it is also realigning services, because some of the resources now are being dedicated to -- there is a limit to the resources available. current transportation infrastructure is not aligned with the board's current commitments. even if we weren't reducing the amount of money we were spending on transportation, we would have to shift away certain services to make sure that families that are a part of the board's priorities in the strategic plan

are receiving access to those resources. so it is very unpleasant. i acknowledge that. if there is anything the board would like us to guarantee, or if there are other resources that are going to be made available from another place, we could share that information. commissioner norton: ideally, what i am requesting is that there be something in writing in the policy that says if you lose your yellow bus transportation we will guarantee a spot at another school where you can either get transportation that you can get to without that, or -- i do not think we are going to do that. i am just saying we need something in writing for families. you are going to make this announcement in a month. i do not know how many schools are going to be affected. i do not know how many parents are families are going to be affected. what i do not want to happen is what always seems to happen.

we make an announcement. principals tell their school communities. people get upset and come down here and give public comment. ideally, we will prepare in advance some kind of resolution, or have some kind of meeting with families at the affected schools so that it is not just gone from the board level them to the schools and that are affected to scurry around in subcommittees and be more effective in organizing. we need to assist families. if we are not going to give them a guarantee -- either space in an off site program or transportation to another program or a space at another school, if you cannot get your child to school because your bus is not there -- if we cannot offer guarantees because of our situation, we need to at least be really proactive about how we are joined to work with families that are affected by this next

year. commissioner fewer: a response to that, i think -- when the board says to cut transportation, the inevitable thing is that people are going to lose transportation. it is a difficult situation. i think parents will come and be mad anyway. i think parents who depend on transportation -- when you are on the board, people yell at you a lot. i think it is just the time we are in. this is a horrible situation. in an ideal situation, we would get transportation to everyone. i do not think anybody wants to get up an hour early and dragged their kids to the bus. i do not think it is feasible to guarantee parents placement in the school near you after we

went through this whole student assignment thing. i just think the ugly fact and truth is that we do not have the money to provide transportation anymore to everybody that we have them. we have to cut it. we are going to try to cut it in the least painful way possible and meet the need of the goals of the board. it is a very difficult situation. i think it is a very hard situation. those of us on the budget committee were briefed a little on next year's budget and what it is going to look like. i would be surprised if we are able -- i am even somewhat surprised we are able to keep any transportation at all, to be honest with you. i do not know how we are going to do it. unless this board is willing to cut something else. i am willing to look at other things we can cut, but some people on the board are unwilling to do some hard cuts on stuff. i think we together could look

at it and start slashing other things in the budget. we could keep some of the transportation that way. but again, this is a really hard situation. we cannot even offer to low income families that we will give you a bus pass. we spent $11,000 on bus passes as it is and cannot even meet the needs of our homeless students. it is what it is. we are underfunded. commissioner mendoza: -- commissioner maufas: i am well prepared for somebody to come to the board of education speaking around this. when we try to shift things that have been in place for so, so long and have done so much for general well-being, there is going to be a wave of push back. and i know that. this is one of those moments as well.

it is and not paid plus situation for families -- it is not a plus situation for families for them to work and get their kids to school -- to interrupt that worked-out regularity that they experience day today and try to devise something that is going to support them. i know what that is like. this is one of those things. we are going to continuously hear the stress it is causing. this is some of the work we have to do. what i would like if possible, ms. o'keefe and mr. gardiner -- i think lots of families are so used to having something that it

is necessary to them. how are we going to develop what is necessary versus something that has been in place so long it is part of your everyday -- your child going to school and getting picked up from school. do you fall into the category were that is unnecessary, versus someone in special education who has mental and physical challenges? the bus is necessary. that is a necessary component to their everyday school activity. how are we discerning for families? when i really look at it, it is something i have always had, and i believe it is necessary, but when i start looking at the criteria, i have come to discern it is not necessary.