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. >> i have heard that comment around the deal is being cut, and really that phrase in regards to just the rumor mill happening and really getting traction, and from my perspective, as a board member, that conversation is not anything that i have got through, and then hearing you say those words, "deals being

cut," i would request that people hearing these kinds of intimations in the community would discourage them and noted that the board has not taken up this matter, -- and note that the board has not taken up this matter. i think this is a mischaracterization to the highest in regards to how we operate. chair wynns: all right, thank you. ms. moran. >> the deputy superintendent, mr. carranza, is going to be sending something out. we hope to talk to you as a committee as a whole, but that is not happening. parents are already approaching

board members and different parent groups, and people are anxious to get involved in the process. we thought it would be good to give the information at least in writing, and then we have something schedules. unfortunate, i think the next meeting is not until the 18th or a little further into january, but we did want to get that information out to you, and we would like to bring you progress reports. we would like to bring you are thinking as we go through the project, so we just want to think about how we do that, so you will receive something tomorrow. chair wynns: ok, any member of the public wishing to speak? commissioner mendoza? all right, thank you for coming. we appreciate's everybody

attendants and work. the meeting is adjourned. -- everybody -- we appreciate every's buddy -- everybody's attendance and work. the meeting is adjourned. >> good evening, everyone p and thank you for your patience. welcome to the regular meeting offer the board of education on tuesday, december the 14th. my apologies for starting late. president kim will be joining

us. roll call please casco. ms. fewer? >> here. mr. yee? >> here. ms. maufas. >> here. >> if you would like to join us for the pledge of allegiance, please do so. >> thank you. approval of board minutes. i need a motion and a second. >> second. any corrections? >> no. >> roll call, please. >> ms. fewer? >> yes. >> ms. maufas? >> yes. >> ms. mendoza? >> yep, ms. norton, mr. yee and

ms. wynns? >> yes. >> the thoughts for the evening? >> thank you. since the agenda is a little bit long, i'll keep my remarks a little bit short. you might be aware that or governor-elect terry brown hosted a meeting in los angeles to talk about just how bad the deficit is in the state of california. and as you recall, just a reminder of people that before te elections people said that the deficit was somewhere between 15 to 18 billion dollars and after that election went to $25 million. now they're starting to talk about that it's more in the neighborhood of $3 1 billion. i know last year we made humongous cuts and furloughs and we've reduced the school year by four days. we still have a long ways ahead of us. i want to remind the public of

that, as january rolls around it's just around the corner. we're going to need the input of our entire community to speak with our legislators because the cuts will just be tremendous in the future years. just a brief reminder. i also wanted to congratulate and i believe later on she'll be here president kim. as you recall she's no longer going to be with the school board. she's moving on to be a superviser. and we wanted to congratulate her on her election. also want to congratulate some of our own folks here. i want to congratulate vice president mendoza and commissioner maufas for being re-elected. congratulations or my condolences. we know it's a lot of work. and we want to congratulate

emily. another big highlight, i think is that we have a grandmother, commissioner maufas this weekend had a granddaughter. congratulations. that's really exciting. i would like to highlight a good piece of news because we hear all the horrible things. the newspaper highlighted it. when you look at our school year, our drop rate has been declining and the california education has released the drop out rate. our rate declined from 17.9% to 9.4% which is one of the lowest in the state of california. i really want to thank all the great teacher,ed a minutes stray tors, schools and partners. and everybody all the employee who is work so hard to make sure that our kids stay on track and that they

successfully graduate. i want to wish our students and our family, staff and administrators a warm and a really warm and joyful season. good luck to all the student who are in the midst who are taking end of the semester finals. we wish you good luck. do well. we want to congratulate everyone. black friday right before winter break, we're going to finish first semester. big work for everybody and thank you for the great work. and happy holidays. >> thank you, carlos. we don't have any resolutions but we do want to welcome marly to the family. unfortunately our student is ill this evening or taking exams one of the two. our current advisory council so if we could have our pac representative. if there's no objection from the board, we'd also like to

move up out of order the special order of business which is the opponent of four pac members on to on to the pack. we'd like to do this all at the same time. so no objections. michelle, we're going to allow do you do that. michelle? so you can do your pac -- is it nominations or are they the four that are coming on to your pack? >> yes. they've already been chosen? >> yes, they have. >> we have no objection from the board members. so you can do that. >> thank you very much.

good evening, superintendent and members of the public families. my name is michelle, and this is my younger daughter gabriela who attends cotton elementary school. and i'm joined by fellow pack member marco. and we have another pack member who's going to present this evening. she's not here yet. it may be because of the park situation. we'll go ahead and proceed. once we give that then, we'll move into into the nomination of our new members if that's all right. so marco, do you want to go ahead with the transportation stuff? >> yes. >> ok. >> [speaking in spanish]

>> good evening, we know that the district is talking to with c.i.f. and the after school programs about these issues and appreciate what is being done to make sure they are part of the process >> excuse us, elise was going to proceed marcos. so we have been discussing at the pack proposed changing the policy. so the pack has been involved about changing transportation for the past couple of years. when the original proposed options were brought to us by district staff and this is how we became involved again as new proposals were developed. they have been talking about the objectives being proposed

and the community meetings about proposed changes. ms. o'keefe came to the pax meeting and presented information about the goal and the revision that you are considering later this evening. we recognize that cutting both service will be a hardship for families who rely on the service. it's already challenging to get your kids to school on time. this is just another obstacle for that. parents who know transportation is changing whether the school bus will be there for the next year. and on the pack before hearing about the priorities for changing transportation, people were very skeptical and concerned about the reasons for doing so on the impact on families already struggling do get their kids to school. we were much more supportive of the overall plan. i also know that family who are

touring, if that also comes up. in relation to going to school to after school programs and such. so pack members agree that goal number two, support quitable rangement offered to students is especially important because we want all families to have the choices to go to schools outside of their communities or attendance areas. low income families should be able to attend higher performance schools that are not in their part of town. pack members have had questions about cutting transportation. one concern is about equity. the telephone survey show that many students didn't participate in their school's after school program but went to one that's actually closer to their home. there was no transportation to get home from the cool's after school program laettner tevpbling. so they could catch that bus later in the school. they could get there that was

closer that's more convenient for their family or that they could get home. it's especially true for the family. and now i'll let marco finish his comments. i think they'll make a little more sense now. [speaking in spanish] >> we know that the district is talking with d.c.i.f. and the paragraph programs about these issues and appreciate what is being done to make sure they're part of this process. [speaking in spanish]

>> we also bring the n.c.a. into the conversation to make sure that people planning muni services know that wire continuing on puck blick transportation to get our kids to school. [speaking in spanish] -- continuing on public transportation to get our schools. [speaking in spanish] >> it's important for us to receive information about the proposed routes and stops that this service will offer. [speaking in spanish] >> we would like to know when

and where and how would you let parents know about these changes and about meetings regarding the transportation. >> thank you. and i think also just making sure that it's part of that whole enrollment process as parents are in this time of change. it's not in your written report but this was brought to our attention that we should mention now. we actually discussed the proposed changes to the school calendar for the coming school year, the 2011-2012 school year. tommy ruiz explained different proposals to the school year calendar. the main issue we talked about was when the furlough days might be. this goes back to what the superintendent was talking about with the financial situation of our state.

based on the unfortunate cuts, we focused on when they might be. we understand that furlough days are are a hardship for students, children losing time from their education and families who have to figure out a place for them to be after school. we propose to have it in the second half of the semester because the fall semester is shorter and we're trying to have that balanced school year. we didn't take a formal position on it but talked about different concerns and questions related to these primary options. in general, it seems the parent who is put their programs -- children into programs such at park and rec, boys and girls

club, favor clustering the day because it might be more efficient or make more sense to be in operation during those times for them to have staffing and sort of set that up. however family who is don't put their children into formal programs who rely on share care or families, for those families actually spreading the days out and putting them into the strategic spot makes more sense. so there are some pros and cons in that way. the main impact was children missing four days of school and what would be the least impactful. we also expressed some concern about staff, after school staff who are not allowed to operate during those days. those people are paid hourly. do we cluster that at winter break when we can do one big bang? but then they're looking for three weeks for not getting

paid. there are some different concerns. lastly, we would like to respectfully ask the commissioners of the board of ed to appoint four new candidates for appointment to fill vaycansy. their term would begin january 2011. and expire january 30th, 212. we do have biographical information about the members. this action we felt it was a big accomplishment. we will fill all of our seats. it's a total of 18 members. the four seats open at the beginning of the school year we can have qualified candidates representing communities that are under represented. this outreach was done under family school partnerships, organization in the parent-children involvement. sometimes at board meetings and other places where we would

interact with parents. so we've received a total of seven application. interviewed five of the applicants. >> through the process we kept several factors in mind, issues facing the drit. our roll to represent parent perspective. we're committed to have the cultural backgrounds and aimed to reflect the family population in the district. so why we underrepresent chinese-american students we do include members from this community. then we discuss the candidates and our process during our regular meeting during december p 7 and voted unanimously to approve these candidates. and our candidates are -- who has a son in hoover middle

school. he lives in engel side. he works with children in youth and performance arts. jeannie gonzalez lives in the bay view. she is an ultimate member and has an afternoon program. she speaks several languages. i'm sorry. patsi. if you're here. come on up. has a son in high school and lives in the ocean view merced interview. she's a member of the samoan community development center. ewie, has daughter and lives in the port lynn neighborhood. she participates in the valley neighborhood to the parents association. and her primary language is cantonese.