so as the pack works to address community forums addressing quality and path ways we want to find out how important it is to ensure that programs' needs are met. students will move to schools outside to have community. whether the district provides buses to bring students home from afterschool programs at those school site where is they attend, it may require some transportation and that is part of the overall part of the picture because of the cuts to transportation as well. expanding access is a priority and something we have continually heard from families about and we look forward with our continued work with the district and staff to ensure the success of these efforts.

and then from time to time, parents and staff from other school districts approach the pack to set up a parent advisory group in their community. last spring, we were invited to meet with folks from the city of berkeley, district staff and city staff and members of community organizations as they began collaborative effort to establish family advisory council berkeley schools. we have been invited later this month to meet with members to support a strong structure to engage their families and we're really excited to be a part of this process in addition to collaborating with other communities. it has been a good opportunity for us to reflect on the pack's strengths. these conversations help us think about what we might do differently to strengthen our work. just a couple of last things.

we are excited to too, that the board is getting close to appointing a new executive director for parents family engagement and appreciate the opportunity to be part of that interview process and look forward to working with that person when they come onboard and finally just want to remind everybody about the school planning summit. all parents and school site staff are welcome to attend the summit. i've been there for many of the last several years in various capacities to support the school site council. it is a great place. if you're not sure what a school security council supposed to do whether you serve on it or not, it is a great opportunity to learn about that. the school advisory committees as well. members will be participateing with their school sites. and will also have an information table. we look forward to connecting with parent leaders across the

school district. thank you very much. any questions? >> with you just reiterate the date and time for the summit? i think it is really important for people to hear this again. >> yes, it is saturday, february 12 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. >> thank you. commissioners any questions or comments for the pac? commissioner? commissioner fewer: do you have any openings on the pac? >> we have filled all the openings. we have filled even our sort of -- the right word isn't coming to me but the supplemental focus. the members that can vote. we feel like we have filled seats we have struggled to fill before. we're very pleased. thanks for asking. >> is it possible to get a roster of all of your members?

>> we will send that out once we have the -- we sent one out in january but we can do that again, yeah. vice president yee: i heard in the past comments from people how wonderful the summit is in terms of what they learn and so forth. i also want to say this. this summit is not only geared towards people that might be on the council but also a wonderful opportunity for people that are thinking about joining the council and was wondering what kind of things would be involved with, what kind of support you would have, what kind of leadership you would need and so forth. if you're thinking about it, just show up because it is a wonderful opportunity to meet basically the leadership from our parents and teaching staff and so forth from every school. >> i believe they are serving

breakfast. is that right? >> coffee and bagels. >> perfect. >> and the meelting has been noticed so all of the -- meeting has been noticed so all of the board members are welcome to attend. >> thank you. >> and there is child care, correct? >> yes. >> there is child care. >> commissioner maufas? commissioner maufas: >> i just want to thank everybody for coming to the meeting and collaborating with us to get more feedback from the community. >> thank you. thank you michelle, we appreciate it. i have one -- >> good evening, superintendent, members of the board, public. i rise to speak to you tonight

to call your attention to an item on the consent calendar that i hope you will look at seriously on page 38 of the agenda and it has to do with a $10,000 pendture for something called playwork and essentially the reason i bring this to your attention is that this is the work that we do. this is what our personnel does. and if you take a look at this, you'll see that playworks, a consultant, is going to provide full time staff to hold weekly p.e. sessions with 20 classrooms so that is about 400 sessions in the next 20 weeks. the employee will teach students playground activities, sportsmanship before school, during recess. parents are going to be instructed.

they are going to have intramurals and professional development of the teachers. all of this for $10,000. either they have overwritten this or something is very, very wrong here. they are providing direct services to students as well as the parents and we're also interested in knowing if we have $10,000, why is this discretionary money being spent this way when our schools need so many basics, papers, pencils and other supplies. so i would like you to certainly look at this before you just automatically approve this and please keep in mind that this is the work of your certificated employees. this is distinctly our work. this is why we have contracts. this is contracting out and united educators of san francisco objects to this. >> thank you.

i need a motion of second on the calendar. any items withdrawn or corrected by the superintendent? any items removed for first read big the board? any items severed for discussion or vote tonight? >> yes. k1 on page 30. >> vice president yee? >> k 5, page 30. >> any others? thank you. this roll call vote will be taken. item we're going to be hearing on 111-11 sp 2, authorization to grant in the attive deny the renewal petition of thomas edson

charter academy. oh, you were talking. so the report for the curriculum committee, we heard this item on january, i believe 27 and we actually gave it a positive recommendation. we felt that the petitioners presented a good sense -- a good program and curriculum to us and recommended a positive recommendation. >> thank you. >> you didn't report the vote. >> it was 2-1. >> thank you. >> so we need a reading of the resolution from the superintendent or does it need -- yeah, actually you can. we were going to but let me have her -- you did a recommendation

on some budgets. would you go ahead and please report on that. >> thank you, president mendoza. >> they heard this item on the same day as the curriculum committee in fact and gave it a negative recommendation. president mendoza: thank you. superintendent? >> yes, i would like to call on mayor richards. >> thank you. -- mary richards. >> thank you. my name is mary richards. with the permission of the board, i would like to read the amended language of the resolution into the record. you want to read the whole thing? i can go through it fairly quickly because almost half the resolution is amended language so i would like to make certain you have in front of you a pink pact that has the

original resolution and also the amended resolution behind that so it actually strikes some of the original resolution and replaces it with our recommendation, the final recommendation. thank you so much. superintendents -- and this is on the third page of your pink packet. superintendents recommendation regarding thomas edison charter academy number 111-11 sp 2 resolution to deny the renewal petition of thomas edison charter academy. it is set to expire on june 15 2011 and whereas purr suents to education code section 47 subdivision k 3, the petitioner submitted on december 15, 2010, a charter renewal petition for

the renewal of the charter school's petition and whereas the district's board of education held a public hearing on january 11, 2011 as required by law and whereas the board of education shall consider the level of public support for the charter school and has reviewed the renewal petition and all information received with respect to the renewal petition including its append sis and whereas it shall be guided by the intents of the california legislature that charter schools shall become a part of the california educational system and that establishment of church schools shall be encouraged and whereas after analysis to have petition, district staff determine that it contains sufficient sis and whereas distribute staff and legal council have reviewed the petition and prepared staff-written founding regarding thomas edison charter academy

petition for renewal attached here exhibit a, the superintendent has recommended denial of the petition. therefore be it resolved that the board of education hereby adopt the findings of fact set forth by staff findings. we hereby find this the petitioners are unlikely to successfully implement the program set forth in the petition and the petition does not contain reasonably comprehensive descriptions of certain aspect s of its program and operations as required by the education code. be it further resolved that they hereby deny the charter school's petition. i did submit a copy to the board on wednesday, february 2, the copy of the staff-written findings, district staff and the superintendent and the petitioner group and member s of the public.

i do need to note though in your packet, your pink packet, there was a revision to those findings and to note for the public record that the language on page 4,7 and 10, which is at the back at -- of your packet, it has been stricken after further staff discussion that determined its element would not be used as one of the grounds for denials. president mendoza: thank you. i have two speakers on this item. so if you would like to come up and have -- come up to the podium, you two minutes to speak. were there any other public comments for the edison charter? state your name and you have two minutes.

>> good evening superintendent, commissioners and audience. my name is bonnie santino from edison charter academy. i first want to thank you for receiving our petition and for your thoughtful comments on it. we did take everything that you said into consideration as we move forward into the next steps. and i just wanted to make a few points about our school. the charter petition that we presented to you was an entirely community-based effort. we did not hire consultants from across the country to write about our school. we actually had teachers, administration, parents and community members write our charter. and we acknowledged the comment that we were not maybe 100% clear on the process but we are learning our community is

attempting to take those deficient sis and correct them and mostly to be able to document them properly. in addition, i wanted to note that a couple of years ago when we moved away from our contracts with our previous management company, we did decide to become a community-based public charter school and so in that 2 1/2 or so years that we have taken on that decision, that is exactly what we have tried to do. we have moved to make it a more inclives and democratic community. so i just wanted to point that out. i also wanted to share one of the points made was that what was the impact of us separating from our management company and

for us, the impact has been very positive. we have taken the resources that we used on outsourcing management -- i know. and put a lot of programs in place that benefit our kids and our community specifically so i would like to invite all of the commissioners, superintendent, audience members to please come to our school and see what we have done. our program, our after school program, -- >> thank you. >> for all things that we did not have in place before. pu. i thank you very much. president mendoza: thank you. >> good evening. adrian morell, executive director. on behalf to have staff at thomas edison chatter academy, i want to thank superintendent garcia for meeting with me and for allowing me to share the excitement over our students' success not only on our test

scores and the participation they have on n all of our programs, art, drama, p.e., music, allowing me to share our success over the years, a 98% teacher retention rate. it shows over the last 11 years that the teachers at thomas edison chatter academy are those who have made these things happen. our a.p.i. scores a 10 out of 10. our staff surveys are consistently positive. over the last 11 years we had the same loyal family and community members. a healthy financial reserve and financial report showses we are healthy financially. we have seen an increase of over 10% in our community interaction and i just want to say thank you for allowing us to present these things and we also invite all of you to come and visit our school

regardless of what happens here this evening, we would still like to see all of you at our school, an open door. you don't have to make an appointment. we're there. we would love tods some of you there. thank you. -- to see some of you there. thank you. president mendoza: board members, comments? discussion? >> i have a question. i wanted to ask that -- this was something we couldn't really discuss in the curriculum or the budget committee meetings but there have been a number of questions raise about the use of the -- i can't remember the name, the alley behind the school. mercy alley? is that the name? can you talk about what the issue is there and how we would propose to solve that issue if we go ahead and grant the charter, what is our arrangement for that alley?

>> thank you, commissioner norton and i can respond to this but obviously general council and legal can weigh in as well. my recollection of the meeting and the reference we had in particular the issue around the mercy street access, which is a term that is stated specificfully the facilities' use agreement between the district and edison charter school so that is our own real relationship with we had with them as a state-authorized charter. the recommendation at that meeting, the suggestion was to the board that if it was brought up during this committee, that it be referred to the buildings and ground committee for public hearing because there were many members of the community that want to share their voice on that and that potentially it could be an action item at that regular committee hearing. so i think that's what i understood is the final point of

-- or suggestion. >> so what you're saying is were we to grant a renewal of the charter tonight then -- the use agreement separately. is that correct at a later time and at a public -- so that the public -- can come and talk about it? >> not only can it? it should. the prop 39 facility's offer is completely separate, because that issue would impact the neighbors of the community, the best approach would be to hold a notice to the public hearing so we could discuss the prop 39 and the use of that facility and any modifications if any that the board would direct. >> so were we to approve this charter, we are in no way making any agreements about mercy alley? >> that's correct.

president mendoza: commissioner maufas? commissioner maufas: so i guess that -- i'm looking at this document today. and i'm looking really after scanning it sort on online, it is difficult -- now that i'm looking at really the first commentary by us as a distribute out of the gate, which is -- district out of the gate, which is -- sorry, and the petitioner's temperature illustrated unlikely to successfully implement the program as set forth in the petition. what i understood it said they demonstrate lack of preparation and understanding which the district finds remarkable given the long standing operation under a management company. i am very sensitive to the fact that they have broken away from

that management company on the east coast to operate and try to sustain themselves as a community-based charter school here in san francisco. and really, as we do things differently here in san francisco, not even a charter school in the state of california, under those guidelines yes, but also again, doing things that particularly reach the communities here in san francisco and because of that very contentious relationship that we had with that management company, that's what i'm going to say. not that i don't believe it was edison school, my perception is the management company that is not here and is on the east coast and has no idea how we do things here and treated us as such. i want to be very sensitive and speak publicly that i am sensitive that they are now trying to do it on their own as a community of teachers and staff and this was their attempt

in that endeavor and although, you know, a community that is used to churning out charter schools on a conveyor belt, that is completely different than the way we do things here, i think it stems from the newness to the process. clearly because they offered proposal on a deadline day of december 15 and really could not modify it and we had -- the board had to accept what we were looking at as of december 15 and as they became really ectsed in the process along the way -- educated in the process along the way discovered their proposal to the district is actually just that, a final proposal and we, the board of education and superintendent staff have to judge it based on that. but also that they continue to learn along the way and could

not, unfortunately present further information in their defense in evidence of their learning the process and really what i -- aim grateful they continued to learn the process and i want to commend you, teachers and staff for doing that. but in this moment, i also want to support, and always do this, we have a small school design initiative here in san francisco. coming into the fold of sfusd i think would be a wonderful thing where you could further learn how to become a school and still do the fabulous things a you as a small school, with all of the -- amenities that you desire to have and teach the way that you desire to do, you can do that and have that flexibility.

i am hopeful that based on that, because i have to vote based on this information, i pretty much don't have a choice and it is based on that december 15 submission, which is woefully lacking, not really telling of what you have learned throughout this process, may go breaking from a management company which churns out chatter schools like they are on a conveyor belt and you have taken on that endeavor and it is huge. to fight the past reputation but also let the community know that you are there and want to stay and are available to have students come and you have done that outreach and i have heard about it and i have seen it where you were invisible because actually people were turning a blind eye to you that, company was so distasteful to sfusd, you

have become everything that is not that. you have become a desirable site. families that live in the neighborhood actually now notice you. you have become very visible to the community and to families that want to send their children to your school so that i commend you and that is the ongoing learning andthat is ongoing lea. i also want to implore you to consider becoming a small school by design, where you can continue to learn but also get support from the school district, which i think would be incredibly helpful to you becoming all that you promise and want to be. i just wanted to publicly tell you that. again, i appreciate that you continue to learn and to strive and make public what has not been made public about you, your teachers, and the communities you surf.

i want to thank you for that work. >> thank you, commissioner maufas. >> what happens if the tractor is tonight? can the school operate as a traditional school? one of my concerns is in the fact-finding about the teacher pay scale being well below current salaries of district teachers. >> i believe i can answer the first question. i am not sure i have the jurisdiction for the second. maybe other staff members or the superintendent can refer -- can defer to someone else on whether or not it could be a traditional school in the school district. for the first question, absolutely, depending on what the decision is tonight.

if the decision is to deny the charter, the petition group has the right to resubmit at the local level. they can go through the -- the process is actually supported by a code, a time line, and guidelines for the review process. the can go through the same process again. >> they can appeal this decision directly to the state board. this charter in particular is currently chartered through the state board. alternatively, they can resubmit a petition to the district. commissioner wynns: i have a couple of questions. i appreciate that we definitely need to take uppe the issue in e buildings and grounds committee. sa t