>> it is also very important for us as parents, because it will help us to save more money for the future. >> [speaking foreign language] >> this is the first time i knew about this project, and i am very pleased that the city is working, and i am pleased to be a part of it. thank you very much. >> and can we show the video now?

president mendoza: while we are doing that, i think a couple of our commissioners have questions. >> of course. president mendoza: commissioner norton. commissioner norton: it is good when you come to bring gifts like this. >> i would love to bring gifts every time i come. commissioner norton: are these being charged fees? >> that is an excellent question. one of the things we wanted to do when we went to look for accounts is that they be easy to use, easy to a minister, and be at a low or no cost -- easy to administer. the bank we are working with says there will be no account

fees for the city or the people. there are very basic, simple accounts. i do not want to get too complicated, but it is a custodial account being held under the official ownership of the city and county of san francisco with numerous sub accounts attached to that custodial account. for all intents and purposes, each sub account will be accessible by students and their families. they can go online, check their balances, verify their deposits, and see how their money is growing. they will have earnings as well as incentives. i think that the earnings will be comparable to passbook savings accounts or money-market accounts. we will look and maybe future years, seeing if we can expand the types and variety of accounts is being offered in our program, but right now, our emphasis was on ease of administration and ease of use.

each parent and child will receive an account identification card with an account number on it. with that, they will be able to walk into a bank branch and make a deposit. they will be able to mail in a deposit through the mail. they will be able to go online in a transfer of money. they will be able to use the account in a variety of ways, and most importantly, they will be able to give their account number to family members and friends and say, for an anniversary, for a birthday, for a gift, here is a way to help our child be successful. thank you. commissioner: what is the bank anyway? >> we have not closed the deal, but we're very close to working with citibank. vice president yee: we are very

fortunate to have jose cisneros to be our treasurer. one of the things he has done is put us on the map in terms of helping our residents develop assets. it is not just something we are doing, it is something we are taking a lead in, so i am happy to save we have the correct person in the league. i am happy you were here today to present this program, the kindergarten to college program. and i love the way you are trying to leverage this in the thinking that it is not just necessary, even though it is a main goal, to start an account and get the savings going but to provide motivation and incentives to have our students participate fully in our schools

and classes from day one, because one of the things that we realized last year when we all voted on a resolution to look at chronic absenteeism, people did not realize how high it was in san francisco, and most of those absences were at the very young age, so whatever you can do to help us with this issue, we would very much appreciate it, because one of the things -- we all want is to have help with this issue with chronic absenteeism, because if we do not address it, we will always have this gap in terms of education, so thank you very much. there are two questions, and they are fairly straightforward questions. once the account is opened under

a child's name, who can take the money out? in other words, most parents will support it and leave it alone, but i do not want our parents to take the money either. that is one question. end the other question is -- and the other question is, we are fortunate enough to have some of our students as they come into kindergarten, their families starting an account for them, so how do we handle that situation "treasurer -- that situation? treasurer cisneros: those are excellent questions. we are happy to partner with everyone to make this the best program it can be. you asked about deposits into the accounts as well as withdrawals. our language is very, very clear.

these are 1-way directional accounts. money goes in and does not come out. as i said before, all of the accounts are officially held in ownership by the city and county of san francisco, so only the city and county of san francisco can make or offer was withdrawals, and we will only do that for the purpose of college or post secondary education, so all of our materials to families are clear that all of the money is deposited in the accounts cannot be removed until the child is going to college or engaging in some kind of post secondary education. we are very concerned that the accounts see -- be set up so the money stays safe. and your second question was? vice president yee: children whose parents are actually opening up accounts for them already. >> -- treasurer cisneros: we

want to make this account as universal as possible, but one thing that is clear is that we have made this account easy to access, simple to use, and as i mentioned before, very basic in the style of account. there are other types of savings accounts available to parents, the most widely popular and widely used one is a federal account classification called a 529 account. these are very nice accounts, usually putting money into investment-style opportunities. however, the state of california's 529, these are typically run by states, the one in california requires the complicate -- completion of the 30-page application and requires parents to select one of 17 investment choices to receive those funds. now, some families will be able to handle that, but many will not, and our account is set up

to make opening the account easy. in fact, completely easy because we open it for the family, and, of course, if, however, the family wants to access any of these other accounts, they are able to do so. in fact, we have put a maximum contribution level on our account of $2,500, because we believe if a family has more than $2,500 or more to put into the child's savings accounts, we feel that is a wonderful, and we would like to refer them to these other accounts. we would like to be dbase line kind of opportunity, and, hopefully, people will graduate to other programs -- we would like to be the baseline kind of opportunity. president mendoza: commissioner fewer, student delegates, and then commissioner maufas. commissioner murase --

commissioner maufas: how are those schools chosen? treasurer cisneros: the list is available. they were chosen in complete partnership with the school district. this fine fellow right here help us choose them. they are geographically distributed across the city with some other considerations in mind. kevin? >> and i am going to get to the list in year one, your two, your three. year two, -- in year one, year two, and year three. we took the percentage of students, school district's students, with in that school district. we also ran into them with the school lunch -- we also went to

them -- we also ranked them, so we went to the highest percentage of schools in that district, and then we'll ranked -- then we ranked the schools in those districts based on the free and reduced the school lunches. -- reduce school lunches. commissioner: are there any rules for after the bank account is established for that student, are there any rules for the parent to give a certain amount of money every month or for a certain time period? treasurer cisneros: excellent questions. the first question was about

paperwork for opening up the account on behalf of the parent or guardian of the students, and the answer to that is absolutely no. the accounts are being opened automatically, and as i think you put it in your question, what we will be doing is we will be sending a letter to each student, essentially to their families, which says, "welcome to your account. here is your i.d. card." they have the ability to opt out, and we certainly hope they do not we will send them a card, and they will have it opened for them. there is a request we will make of all families that in addition to having the account opened, which will happen automatically, and receiving the additional $50 deposits, there is a request that parents will sign a consent form. we are hoping 100% of the parents sign a consent form, because that authorizes the school district to inform the

treasurer's office as to the information we talked about providing incentives around. for example, we said if the child is enrolled in free and reduced price lunch, we would like to put another $50 into the program. we cannot learn that information without the consent forms signed by the families. similarly, if we wanted to do an incentive around attendants, which need to have a form signed by the parents so the school district can share the attendants information without program. we are clear that this information is just being shared with the office and just for purposes of administering the kindergarten to college program. it is not going anywhere else, so i believe that answers your questions. thank you. president mendoza: thank you. commissioner maufas? commissioner maufas: thank you. that was one of my questions.

my next question was, really, i love the fact that we do the depositing. what happens over time, and this is a what if, or one of those students where a student may be leaves a san francisco unified school district? if they still go on to college, what happens to that fund? can they access it? treasurer cisneros: excellent question. every family is different. we are going to open accounts for these students, 1200 this year, twice that many next year, everyone entering kindergarten in the third year of the program. once the student has an account opened, it never closes until the account is fully used when they go to college, and every

year that child is in the program and a member, an enrol lee, every year they attend any school district, they will also be eligible for the incentives we described. in the first year, i said was dollar for dollar for the first $100 saved. perhaps, we will get to the point where we offer a attendance incentives. we would like to continue to fund raising to do, say, maybe not a dollar for dollar match but the 50 cents on the dollar or 20 cents on the dollar. we would like to do this for every year a child is in the san francisco public school district. for any of the child is not enrolled in the san francisco public school system, all of the money is still there. it is all still growing. a letter, they would not be eligible for any of the incentives eligible for the

enrolled students at that year at that time. they would not be eligible for those. if they were ever to come back into the school district, they would join the class that they were with and receive whatever incentives were made available then. commissioner maufas: and if they left, can they make deposits? treasurer cisneros: yes, we will always have the money there for them. the only thing that would change is the incentives, which are only available for those enrolled in the san francisco's system. president mendoza: thank you, treasurer cisneros. www.k2sf -- if you indulge me, i want to read the list that appear on the website.

carmichael, dr. george carter, george chaves, drew, guadalupe, francis scott key, malcolm x, john muir, tenderloin, and others. i think it is important that the community know which schools are eligible, and i am so pleased that 311, if you dial 311, you should be able to get information about this service. 311 is the city-wide number for any kind of cities service, and then on the website, says that school secretaries are also the contact, so i just want to make sure that has happened -- citywide number for any kind of cities service -- city cervic -- service. >> we have netratings for

teachers. we have that training is also for the clerical staff -- we have had trainings for teachers. we have met with the principles. also, we have maur outreach to do. the trash were met with the assistant superintendents to enlist their support. about 54% of the consent forms have come back. i do want to commend sanchez elementary for being 100% enrolled. it might say 96% on the website, but the doctor informed me that that is 100%. the one person that did not enroll does not go there anymore, so they are actually at 100%. president mendoza: student delegate creer. student delegate creer: it is

crazy how expensive this is. i was wondering, what about for immigrant families that did not go to kindergarten here in the united states, in this district? how are you planning to deal with that, and what are your plans for this to the years that have been passed already. treasurer cisneros: so your question is how we can broaden the pool for those for whom we are opening accounts, and that is an excellent question, too. we want to allow them to have this over their entire 12 to 13- year academic career. however, we can see where it would be very, very nice to be able to walk for accounts to students to transfer into the district, maybe at some level --

very nice to be able to offer accounts to students who transfer into the district. one of the things we will be looking at is to do some extra fundraising, to offer another part of the program that will allow other family members orchids to catch up and receive an account also, or like you say, to be able to join their classmates as an account holder in grades one, two, or three, or something like the -- other family members also to catch up. an excellent question. president mendoza: thank you. commissioner wynns? commissioner wynns: but the ticker leewood to note -- i particularly want to note being eligible for refunds.

-- for the funds. i am presuming that you have in front of you all of the materials, the outreach materials, for the parents. i would like to be able to get that when i return. treasurer cisneros: state you, commissioner, for all of your kind words -- thank you, commissioner. we will share it with the commissioners, as well. most everything is available on the website. i do not know if we can show the website, on the overheads, but it is, as you heard before, k2csf.org. there is a picture of it on the screen for those of you who can see that.

there is also contact information 2311 or a people can ask for emails. -- information to 311. if we can, perhaps we can show the news report. >> san francisco mayor gavin newsom doing a classroom sharron tel -- show and tell with five- year olds. >> to go to college, do you think it costs more than $5? probably. so you need a lot of these to go to college. >> he has come here because starting next year, every corner -- kindergartner here will get a savings accounts, courtesy of taxpayers. >> we have never heard of anything like this. what a nice backdrop. everyone is talking about budget

cuts. >> the program, which will take several years to implement, is fairly modest. they will get $50 to start, $100 for some others. as an added incentive, a private company will contribute for every dollar that is saved by the families, at least for the first few years. >> interest and compounds, it is still not going to be enough money. -- interest and compounding. we really need to help and auckland the saving so they grow year after year after year -- we really need to help and augment the savings. officials like to point to a study from washington university found that children that just adds some money set aside for college where seven times more likely to go. >> this latino father says he

wants to send his two children to college, but like many parents, has not save for it and is intimidated by the cost. -- has not saved for it. >> the hispanic community in san francisco, many do not even have access to a checking it down or is city's accounts, -- or a savings account. there is going to be an independent analysis to see if this works, and other members of the community are going to say, "i would love to contribute to " you watch. this thing is going to take off. -- i would love to contribute." you watch. >> out of the $6 billion budget, the dollar's see miniscule, especially if it works. -- the dollar's -- dollars seem

minuscule, especially if it works. cnn, san francisco. [applause] president mendoza: thank you. i do not see any further questions or comments, but i did want to extend my one gratitude, as well. when you brought this -- my warm gratitude, as well. it actually took a couple of years to get off the ground, and as we all know, during these tough budget times, these are not the kinds of conversations that people are ready to have, but i think what we're doing in san francisco is by showing what we are doing for our kids. in san francisco unified, we are making sure they have the tools to get there, and this is a wonderful program that will enhance what we a already doing and really make sure they get across the finish line, so i am just pleased to be part of this initiative and to really have a great partner in the

treasurer's office and in the city. mr. truitt? >> we cannot underestimate the passion and a contribution and enthusiasm and everything behind treasurer cisneros. i work with many of the city agencies on a number of projects, and this is certainly one of the most positive and enthusiastic projects that i have worked on, and, again, it is what we all -- it is our job to make sure our kids go to college. somebody at the city level who has got 1 million things to do, 1 million things on his plate, going the extra step for our kids, making sure that everyone gets behind this, i am really thankful for that. i think we are of very fortunate for that. we are paving the way to do something that others have not done. we have seen other cities that have attempted to do this, and they have not gotten it up and

running, and i think we are very fortunate, and i do not want to underestimate the passion and enthusiasm of treasurer cisneros. president mendoza: and i just want to acknowledge your staff. you have a terrific staff. i also wanted to thank supervisors -- supervisor bevan dufty as well as supervisor campos, so thanks to gavin newsom, and also jose cisneros. i am sure we will of some great results. commissioner: we really do have to work together to pass the dream act so we can bring all of our dreams to reality. thank you.

treasurer cisneros: thank you. president mendoza: you are welcome to come any time. we have one speaker on this. >> thank you very much. it is a pleasure to follow treasury -- treasurer cisneros. another thing i would like to call your attention to is affecting very, very young children. i like following treasurer cisneros, because as a recent grandfather of triplets, this program is very important, and when you sit in the back of the room, and you do the math, when he says it really gets you going, that is really all that it does. we need special incentives

there. if you look at the very bottom of page 23 on your agenda, you see there is $1,310 being given to the toddler program, and that is essentially to help the folks that are not our members. these are folks who are currently under represented in who works in the family service agency. they are attempting -- and who work in the family service agency. i think it is very important to look at what we are doing with these people who work with the very youngest children that we have, the children literally of our children, and try to provide for them so they can do as good a job as possible. and then if you look at the bottom of page 24, i have a concern there for the transfer of funds. at lincoln high school, that is at lincoln high school, that is going from certificated