the city. most of them are not carrying 20 passengers, their capacity. and a stop might exist in september and be gone in october. then the students will no longer be able to catch that bus, because they cannot keep that bus there and still do the special and -- ed. there was a situation where the bus was reaching capacity because there were four or five siblings with one kid going to a specific school, and we are picking up other students along the way, and we are coming up with capacity problems. taking the special needs child but not the siblings. they are not entitled to special ed buses.

the commissioner wrote -- commissioner: it is not a commitment for the year, and, second, because of transients eat oat -- because notof transiency, we do not have the obligation to provide it for the entire year. people are going to yell about it and be unhappy. we want to do as much as the possibly can within the severe financial constraints that we have. >> the other factor to remember is that the special needs -- commissioner: from a practical

perspective, when my daughter was 3, the bus picked her up. they would have to notify every general ed students to say, "if you would like a ride to the school, you can have it, but it might go away." the staff time alone in doing that would make it prohibitive. commissioner note: -- commissioner: if we cannot do it, but cannot do it. that we had somebody with four siblings that overcrowded that bus, that does not mean that we should say that we are not going to do it for anyone else, but to say that this bus is overcrowded, we cannot accommodate those children, that is different.

commissioner: i want to be very open about this. i think really considering the circumstances, there are some schools where this can be accommodated, and we can take this into consideration. it is not like we have to let the school know that you can cut chappaqua -- you can catch a bus going to rachel's house. we know the kids who are riding the buses. let's just think of how we can be a little more accommodating. that is all i am saying. chair wynns: ok, is there anyone in the public who would like to talk about this? we will talk about the community

engagement plans, but let's take public testimony on this item, if anybody wants to talk about transportation, the transportation policy. they are welcome to come to the microphone. is there anybody who wants to do that? no, ok, then we do not need to give the instruction. the next is an update from the parent advisory committee on the community engagement plans for the quality middle school pathways. go ahead.

she was suggesting no board comment on this item. go ahead. [laughter] >> good evening, commissioners. i am representing the parent advisory committee, and we will talk to the transportation issues tomorrow night at the board meeting. >> my name is vicky, and i will start by describing what we will cover in the report concerning community engagement in the k through 8, implementing the pathways, and then we will talk about our plans for community engagement in the process, and then, finally, address concerns and questions you might have. first, context.

what we have been working on so far, what is our timeline, and why? we have been meeting regularly with the district's staff, meeting with the middle school team, and our collective understanding is that the board will approve a system for student assignment to middle schools this coming may, and the implementation will be in place for the 2012-2013 enrollment, and the idea for the pathways is that they go beyond assignment, that they are just not about how elementary school students will go into middle school, but these pathways will also address program coherence, school climate, and overall school quality issues, which is something we have heard that parents have been asking for in a number of our other community engagement efforts. secondly, how are we proceeding? pac and others are working with

staff to conduct community engagement. in addition to staff, we are bringing in a community partners to help shape the discussion and facilitates conversations to bring in parents, students, educators, and community members into that process. for example, in early january, we are meeting with the dual immersion parents, for parents of children with disabilities, and others. overall, we have five goals for community engagement. the first is to inform the community about plans for creating k-8 pathways. the second is to shake the system through community discussions. the third is to increase middle school quality for all students. the fourth is for implementation of the new student assignment

system, and finally is to build trust for the district and board of education through improved communication. commissioner: can i ask a question? i am interested particularly in what you are meeting with eastern and advisory council. >> it has been the pac's of four years to strengthen these guys, so i met with them i think last week, to lead the know about the ideas for changing middle school assignment in the k-8 pathways, and we want to let

them know what we are working on. we really feel that middle school and high school students will have a lot to say about the school climate and curriculum parts of this, maybe more than the parents even, honestly, and so, looking at high schoolers having gone through it -- commissioner: whenever you do anything in san francisco, you have to talk to everyone in san francisco, which is, again, not serious, but it seems to me that there are different questions that i would want to ask the student advisory council other than parents who are going to make these decisions and who are invested in particularly the curricular programs that we hope

will turn out to be pathways. i always want to talk to students. i think it is great, but i am a little concerned if we expect the same kind of input from high school students about what we might do with the student assignment system that would affect the way the parents, families of incoming kindergartners look at these requests about where their kids go to school. >> let me step back to the bigger picture, too. part of it is meeting with these folks, the tool immersion families, and the goal is to help -- the dual immersion families, and the goal is to shape the questions that will happen at the forum. we know very few students will actually participate in this forums, but to help us to shape what questions we should be asking and what we should be

thinking about, especially around school climate and some of the curricular pieces. i know very little about what is happening on a day-to-day basis at the school. maybe members of the parent advisory council are working more closely with the student advisory council. commissioner: i think that is great. all i am asking is that you look more closely and probably report to us on a different level -- if you do report to us about and this process, that, you know, unless we are totally wrong, and everything seems exactly the same that we be careful. >> sure, sure. so in terms of the timeline for the community forums, you would adopt a new system for assignment in may.

working backwards, we know that we would need to present to you our findings and recommendations to inform that decision in april, and so, we are looking at conducting the community forums in february and march, and maybe if somebody is really wearing to go, -- really anxious to go, we will look at february. drafting the assignment patterns for people to look at in an initial place of discussion also looking at setting up the forums themselves, framing the discussions, in trading the facilitators to conduct them. basically, we are in that planning phase. february and march will be forums, and then in april, we will have reports for you. we plan to hold a forums at 15

middle schools and encourage families of the current students and also elementary school in families who may be feeding into those schools to participate. we also know that in some communities, it is less likely for people to go to an event at a school that they really do not have a connection with, so we are trying to think strategically about where we might want to conduct what might be smaller forums, so we are thinking about that and think, too, about some of the relationships we have built and how to extend that. the format will be different from the community conversations we have had over the past years that were focused on student assignment in were more like the budget forum -- and were more like the budget forums, to give

the principles also the chance to showcase their schools. they could talk about specific things happening at their schools and then break into smaller discussion groups that are focused, so the small groups would focus more on some issues, and some of those issues could include changes in special education services, looking at language pathways, dual immersion pathways, but others, to note -- others, too. talking about after-school programs and in curriculum issues, like enrichment programs, more or change, and preparing students to meet the new graduation requirements, so we are thinking that those would be really important topics for parents given the experience we have had with conversations in the past, and then we know some

communities will really want to focus on how the student assignment process would work, so we are looking at trying to make as many of these small- group conversations happened in all of the forums, but there might be fewer of them, or there might be different issues because of special programs or things happening at a given school. commissioner: so are you suggesting that the way that it would work is that the group would break out according to what job they were interested in discussing? >> yes. commissioner: ok, i like that better. breaking up into smaller groups is kind of hit or miss. that is actually a great idea. >> yes, i think we are really looking at people's health selecting to those, which makes a complicated to organized,

because we have to be prepared for all of them versus a random, average-ish number, so it will be different. it actually worked well in the budget forums. everybody had a chance to talk. it was much more interactive. people could share comments where questioners and get some -- comments or questions. it was great, rather than people going home with a question that never got answered, or factual inaccuracies that never got corrected, so vot-- so, yes, its going to be interesting. we may have to adjust how they go depending on our. -- " depending on how they are.

-- depending on how they are. chair wynns: commissioner? commissioner: a policy around language acquisition proved meeting that if parents, because i think what i have seen -- a policy around language acquisition? meaning that is parents, because i think what i have seen, they leave and middle school, but i think part of the problem is that we have not articulated as a district a language policy, meaning that we are having these pathways because it helps the facilitator as a vehicle for which we get by 12th grade every

student who is in a path away will be at this language level by the time they're in the 12th grade. we were doing these pathways because by 12th grade, your child should then be bi-literal, bi-cultural, and bi-lingual, so they can test into that for college. they can see the purpose of not only developing the pathway but the purpose of continuing the child in the past away, you know what i mean? we have found out for kindergarten that parents say, "i have to be locked in now, forever?" yes, that is the commitment, because our language pathways will not work if they do not stay, you know? so i am wondering, i do not know, i always thought we needed a language policy petco so that

when you go out, you can tell parents that this is why we are doing it, right? and then another thing, also, i think it would be interesting to actually ask students who have continued the pass away, so have gone from one to another and found out sort of what was helpful, what was not helpful in that transition, you know, and we can also chargedchart -- chart. i think is what was their experience, it is true we do not know. we can set policy, but we do not know what it is like to be in the classroom or to go not to a high school of your choice but

to a high school that has a program. it may not be the one you want to go to, but you go to it. are we reaching our policy goals? i do want to say that conducting these groups, these focus groups, i think it is so important, and i just want to say thanks to you guys for doing it. >> i am almost done. i do want to say in terms of the format, this report on community engagement was when we all thought there was going to be a committee last week, where u.n. staff will talk more about positions for the k-8 pathways, so this is a little before that conversation, but we thought it was important that you know,

particularly about the timeline part. interestingly, part of the reason for the format that we're doing is for the parent advisory council and for parents -- we do not actually do pr for the district exactly. we are trying to build communication and trust between the community and the district, so our job is not really to sell anyone on why this is happening, but we help bring parents to it and lead parents, and the district's staff are those who are going to present the rationale and sort of why we are doing this stuff, so that is part of our partnership. it is on staff to manifest that vision in a way that is appealing to people, so we are planning to conduct a forums,

and then we will bring you our findings -- to conduct forums. we try to refrain from presenting a partial findings, because we want to make sure that we hear from everyone. i do want to really strongly encourage board commissioners to go to any or as many of these education, because i think that while i think we do a great job of consolidating information and presenting the, nothing compares to the experience of being in the room and hearing what people have to say. to hear it directly is a very powerful experience, and i think that builds trust in the community that you are there. chair wynns: i want you to tell me where they are scheduled and where the information can be accessed, at what time, because there is a member of the public here, who is my mentee, so i

want her to know how to find out about it. >> ok, that is a perfect segue. are very first one is on communication. so we know that since the middle school feeder patterns were delayed for earlier this fall, pretty much parents across the district have no idea what is happening with it, so we have been developing a one-page info sheet that is almost done, and it will be translated, inequal posted as widely and as in as many divots kinds of places that possible to let people know about the community forums, and i know it will be on the district website and on other websites vote in three languages, -- and on other websites in three languages.

we will work to get the word out. chair wynns: when do you plan on having the schedule completed? >> it will be constantly updated. we are meeting with a middle school principals the first week after we come back from break, and we are hoping and asking that they come with some ideas about when they would like forum to occur. chair wynns: a week in january? >> by mid january, for sure, we have to have a draft preliminary schedule. chair wynns: again, by that time? >> yes, that is reasonable. chair wynns: mosby february and march, and maybe in january. >> they have to be done the last week in march. we're also trying to meet with

an elementary school principals as soon as possible, because we're going to count on them to get the word out to their communities to know about the forums they should go to. this is a little different than the student enrollment. everybody is going to be more involved, and people will be more inclined to motivate their communities to go. we are also meeting and talking with community partners so people know this process is happening, and to the extent that they want to be involved, they are welcome to help. chair wynns: commissioner norton? commissioner normaton: this woud be a jumping off point. i am already being contacted by parent groups that are saying, "oh, we have a solution.

we had a meeting." how set in stone is that plan? people will automatically say, "oh, my god, it is already on paper." >> this is the project manager, but i would say that you commissioner are the people to set things in stone, so, no, things are not set in stone. it is all the draft right now. chair wynns: we need to recognize that when something was put in writing, everyone was in a panic, so that is what commissioner norton is referring to. however, what i am looking for and what i think this committee has discussed in the past is that we want this process to be important and also that we are

looking for ways to half inch from discussions without any proposal being made. >> ok, i am going to address this with more after i finish my short par, because it is a great segue to the next point we will make. we are looking to improve transparency, and that includes the transparency of our work as a parent advisory council. we have heard the district staff are holding conversations with the buena vista elementary community and with a middle school about the idea of a point of these to becoming a -- the idea of buena vista becoming a k-8, and we were talking about

this as a concern because we think it is great for constituents to come together and think through solutions, but we're also very concerned about a decision making or promises better outside of the overall process of thinking it out. not just which elementary schools feed into which middle schools, but there is also a teacher assignment and all of those questions, so we feel these discussions have to be transparent, and the decision making has to be done in a larger context, so we want to make sure that there are no deals being cut better outside of this wider context, so we urge the district. does that mean district staff? the board of education approved -- board of education? not to make any specific

determinations until the whole discussion happens and it is all decided, and i know you have to think through, you have to think through preliminary things. if we do this, then it means that. it cannot all be figured out in one or two board meetings, but just to make sure that there are no deals being cut, which includes the pac not determining who will be in a discussion group and who is not, so, with the, i want to turn your question over tomorrow in terms of how set in stone things are or how the proposal process works. chair wynns: one, commissioner mendoza is trying to get out of here, and if she leaves, we will lose our quorum. one minute is my deadline.