-- it can create a lot of stress for folks. i think a lot of the fears are legitimate that we were hearing today. when i hear that there are some people who came in the speaking in favor of the project, but i am not convinced that we're hearing from people who live in dense developments themselves. i think it is easy to say not to be afraid if you do not live in that type of development. you may live in a less dense development and advocate for someone else to live in a dense development. it is easy if you do not. there is still a lot that we will work out. there is still a lot we have to look at. i am glad we have extended the hearings beyond the original calendar for them. i think there is still a lot more to figure out here. i am glad that so many members

of the public had the courage to come out and state their concerns for the working people's neighborhood. these are people that work. they have been here. they put their heart and soul into this community and this city. i do not think we can ignore the fears that they have. i think it is important to look at each individual and see and take into consideration each individual that lives there. i look forward to further conversations on this. >> i will reiterate what my fellow commissioners said. thank you all for your time and for being here this evening. i want to pick up on the theme that commissioner sugaya brought about in local and organize.

it is very important. we have our meetings. they are televised. you can send e-mail set any time. you can also come and participate in the process. i know there will be several more hearings on parkmerced. it will be very important that we hear from you and your supervisor hear from you. if a tree falls and no one hears it, does it make a sound? it is the classic phrase. people always ask. we know that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. i am not saying that is the right way that things are. if people are not vocal or out there, people do not know really what is going on. it is important your supervisor knows how you feel about this. it is important that you come to a place -- it is really important to figure out what is acceptable. is there anything that is

acceptable? i think it is really important to think about. we always look for how we can craft the best opportunity for the city and community. we all know that you live here. you are passionate about it. i cannot imagine a by lived somewhere for 50 years and had faced not being in the same place i had been in my whole life. i cannot imagine how that would feel. i think it is really important that we bring all this together to figure out how we create the parkmerced of the future that allows the working class people, the people who have boys lived here and enjoy the community for what it is, to also be able to embrace some degree of newness as well to create a community that is best for everyone. that is what it is all about. we have to figure out how we can together kraft the best opportunity that supports your lives and also supports the city overall. none of us have figured out where we are on the project.

we're learning about it as it is evolving and unfolding. we are answering and asking the same questions that you are about all the different elements of the plan. that is related to housing, rent control, everything. nothing is on or off the table at this point. everybody is listening to everything as it unfolds and try to figure out how we do the best work we can for you to make this city the best place it can be. i want to say that it is really important to be active and vocal. being constructive is another important element of things. sometimes that gets lost in the debate of things. we all know that at some level and at some degree, there will always be change and progress. the thing is to be part of that in a way that is positive for all of us. that is the thing i would add. i hope he will check out our planning web site.

you can see our calendars. it has the items there. you can also download any sort of agenda items. you can also send something to the secretary. all the information is there. i encourage you to be active participants in making your community better. >> before we adjourn, if i may, there was a side remark earlier when the material was submitted about whether we read it. yes, we do. we really do. any emails that you send to the commission go to our secretary. she instantly forwards them to all of us. they get an hour in box immediately. all of that material is taken into consideration. we do not just set it aside. it is our obligation as commissioners for san francisco and for u.s. citizens to do

that. -- and for you, as citizens, to do that. those who send emails and did not show up at public testimony, we hear from everybody. it is not just the developers whose presentation we hear. it is not only the staff and gives us there learned opinion. -- their learned opinions based on the codes and what they do. it all comes into consideration. i do not want anyone to think that we ignore it because we do not. >> mr. president, could i have one last word? following up on that comment, i may be accused of not listening to testimony. but i did go through one document handed to us by pauley marshall. she was the person who identified herself as a commissioner from the rent board but was not speaking on behalf

of the rent board. she did present a fairly lengthy opinion with respect to the development agreement and her viewpoint coming from the rent board. it is quite compelling. i think we need to have city attorneys take a look at this. i would like to especially have the attorneys who staff the report at a hearing where we can ask some questions raised in this document. [applause] i frankly do not have the city attorney's offices staffed the various departments of boards. i do not think our land use staff are the same attorneys that staff the rent board. i just found a compelling. i am sorry i did not listen to everybody. we did read the material. i did read the material.

>> commissioner moore? >> we do not just listen to people in the neighborhood. you are perfectly able to bring in friends and experts and people whose opinions you trust. the sierra club was speaking tonight. several other people who represent other aspects of community planning, even other neighborhoods came. this is what to of like to encourage you to do. ultimately, it is a larger voice than just the people who live here to rally around issues of common concern. >> director? >> thank you, commissioners. to cover some logistics, there is a hearing scheduled next week on this item. it was scheduled for your calendar at the end of the day. the initial -- the purpose of

next week's hearing had been scheduled for initiation of the project. obviously, you have asked for us to cover the topics today that were not presented today that were the specifics of the housing and transportation. i need to redo the staff needs to know to prepare and we need to get an agenda out tomorrow. i need to know if your preference is to cover those items next week along with initiation or if you want to cover just one of the items. i just need some direction on how you want to proceed on that. >> it is hard for me to speak for the entire commission. some may disagree with me. i would think we should attempt to cover those two items next week. we may have to put off initiation. we can put it on the calendar, but it may be continued. >> i believe that is a wise direction. i would strongly support you.

initiation at this moment with a number of unresolved issues -- i think there will be more questions coming from the commission on particular aspects that i feel have not been touched on. i think that is the perfect lead in into working on the project in more depth. >> as long as it has been scheduled, leave it there with the thought that it may be continued. >> we will be prepared to present the two topics that were on tonight and leave the possibility for initiation on there. >> i am agreeable with that. we have had correspondence in regards to and have had presentations on both of the issues in previous hearings. we need to do it in more depth. they will answer many of the questions raised tonight. we sort of got the comments before we have the presentation. i think that would be very good. those of you who have concerns should come next week to hear the presentations with regards to these two issues.

>> thank you, everybody. [gavel pounds] ♪

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is now called to order. roll call, please. secretary: [reading roll] president bukim: if you would like to join us in the pledge of allegiance, i pledge -- [no audio] thank you. we have a relatively short your agenda tonight, and our first item is the approval of the board minutes from the last board meeting on october 25. do we have a motion and a second? are there any corrections by board members? all right, roll call, please. secretary: [reading roll]

president kinmm: the next is a report, and superintendent garcia is not here tonight, so we have our deputy superintendent, richard carranza. >> good evening. i would like to start up this evening by sending out our condolences to our superintendent for the passing of his mother. we will talk abut that a little later, which is why he could not be here, but i do want to send a cordial invitation for people to come to our enrollment fare from 9:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. -- enrollment fair.

this is on eighth street. last year, we had an estimated 15,000 people in attendance, so this is a great resource for our family and for our community members to get more information about our schools. this is also a great opportunity to meet the leaders, staff, parents from all of our schools, and learn about the programs and approaches that are available within our district. in roman applications for the 2011-2012 school year will be available at the fair -- enrollment applications " will be available. if you cannot make it, do not fret. there will be a number of discovery workshops. please visit our website for more information on either the enrollment fair or the discovery workshops. we would like to take a moment

this evening to think our community advisory committee, who is present this evening in the audience -- to thank our community advisory committee. we want to thank them for their service to san francisco. thank you. president kim: thank you, richard. deputy superintendent carranza won a prize, in recognition of its leadership and work in public education, so, congratulations. [applause] we are proud that we have you on our team. and also for the audience, vice president mendoza is out of the country and will not be in attendance for this ninth meeting.

-- for tonight's meeting. we move on. >> what we are working on is that we're going to work with the associate new superintendent to craft a policy that we have worked on, and we will be working with the associate superintendent, and we had a leadership workshop. president kim: the next is our parent advisory council report.

>> hi, my name is -- and i have a child. ok. i have a child in school, and my other kids, she is disabled, she goes to another. my other kid -- my other kids, she is disabled. last week, we went for a meeting to guadeloupe and another, and we talked about what is happening. for the superintendent, and we wanted to know what is not working and what is the plan.

we came away from that meeting with a few questions, like how to engage families and understand what is happening in to support them, and there are changes in the school. we look forward to this. how to take things that were for the schools and make them available ensure the with other schools, and, for example, to

understand the student needs. teachers should have access to training, as well. and then to give them the support that they need. president kim: 50. >> good evening, my name is the trees. i have a son -- my name is beatrice. the board is creating a position for the parent engagement, but we understand that will be sometime in january, and we feel that there is a lot to get started before then. we're reaching out to the different communities.

a lot of parents feel that there is no good communication with the district, and, for example, a lot of parents find out that their child is bailing when they have the first conference, and that is the first month in the school year. so we wanted to have improved communications. we are working with teachers directly to improve their ways of communicating with families, allowing teachers to of a little bit more time to prepare for those conferences. also, parents really do not know what to ask or expect when they go to a conference. there are a lot of schools that prepare families. for example, marshall, we had our first kind of preparation for the parents, what to expect at their conferences, but this

is my first time ever experiencing back, and i think it was helpful, but a lot of times, you do not know what to ask. for example, my daughter had a test during kindergarten note, and i did not know about that test until another grade. copies with things that i probably could have helped her out, and this year, she had another test, the district reading assessment. i really do not know what the "dra" stands for, but it was really explain it to me during the conference, and when i asked for the resources that were available for her, basically, it was not very much. those were some of the issues that we were asking for.

we were talking about having maybe a checklist for parents this is specifically each grade. it would help parents to know what to expect and how to help out to improve their children's -- overall, to improve their -- i do not know what the word is i am looking for, but just to support their kids of a bit more with a bit more knowledge. thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. ruth. last night, i was at the ad hoc committee and was going to give a little update on the pac's intention, and commissioners asked that i come tonight. basically, the pac, we have

told you that we have set priorities for this year, and redesigning the middle school is one of our top priorities. we are very excited about the opportunity to have these conversations, because for us, it is not just looking at one big question, but it is looking at the question of how students get assigned to middle school and what the elementary school to middle school pathway is, and there are bigger questions about what works and what does not work for middle school students in our city. we are seeing how deeply issues connect with a lot of initiatives happening in the district right now, including the superintendent's own school initiative. this is addressing improving dramatically how we provide special education services to the students that need them, changes in transportation, questions about how we serve english lerner students, and how

we strengthen our dual immersion programs and are pathways and those in the bilingual programs or those who have not been any kind of language program at all, how after-school programs -- is this still working? ok. how after school programs serve middle school students, issues about restorative justice and school climate and how all of that word in middle school, and looking at how students in middle school are prepared to meet the new graduation requirements, so all of those things are connected. that is the redesign process, in we are really excited about thinking about how to of conversations about those topics and to share the information across the departments who are working on those, so we're in the process of what kind of community engagement we can conduct around these issues. we have to look at the time line

and what information we want to make sure we bring to families and to give useful information from those conversations to help district staff in shaping what you're doing. we also think it is a really great opportunity to make sure that student voices are a part of this process, that teachers' voices are a part of this process, with parents and also community providers, because there are so many community organizations that work with youths. we are really in the process now about talking what our capacity is, what our roles could be. we are already talking with many community partners that we have been talking with in the past few years about community engagement about what we collectively can bring to this. we have been talking about our ideas and the people managing this whole process. right now, it actually feels very positive, and we know we

are kind of "whoo, whoo," but actually, for members of the pac on the working team, it seems like the first time in years we've been able to plan thoughtfully and be able to bring information back in a timely to staff before things are expected to be implemented, so that is also very positive. and we think of the next report to the board is going to be in december. we will have a lot more specific information as to what we think our goals and objectives are and a more concrete plan forward. president kim: are there any questions? commissioner norton? commissioner norton: 84 your report, and i wanted to know if we could get an update on the

redesign. i am getting a fair number of questions on that, and times seems a little short. i would like an update for that. president buskim: that seems appropriate. any other questions or comments? all right, seeing none, thank you very much. commissioner maufas runs -- commissioner maufas: that is ok. i wanted to comment on something that is much needed, just something for parents to understand what tests are going to be given at what grade levels and what the discrepancies may be, a simple explanation of the acronyms and what they mean, as some of these tests are new and developed over time, and that is in the student

handbook, but, actually, that should be in the parent package. i am very glad that that was brought forward. it is common information that i think parents need to know about what that is going to be and what the acronym is. thank you. president kim: thank you. our next regular board meeting will be on tuesday, december 14, as is tradition, we will not be having a board meeting the week of thanksgiving, but board committees will still continue to meet a schedule of this month. the next item is item f. i have one. dennis kellie. i have one. mr. kelly, or ms. p