reasons i am opposed to this, because i think it is indicative of the sort of constant push back from whoever has been running edison to always try to not meet their agreements with us, frankly. of course, their agreements with the state board of education are not within our purview. i do not know about the monitoring and review. although they do not actually have staff to do that, so i do not know we can have much confidence in the process. but i also was unable, at the curriculum committee, to bring up the question of their ongoing financial relationship with edison, or entanglements with edison learning inc.. have we look into that at all? i am not going to say anything

that may be related to a lawsuit, but do we have information about that? can i get that from our legal department? >> we do not have that information. we can certainly ask the petitioner. commissioner wynns: if the charter is denied, it will not be an issue. the real comment i wanted to make is that it is extremely difficult for me, sadly, to trust that it is a good idea for us to enter a charter relationship with this school. i think a lot of the comments that have been made about the changes in management and programs that have been made at edison really are -- tell us that in fact this was probably not a renewal. we do not hold the charter, so it is not really up to us. one of the restrictions is that renewals in california are for

five years. but this is probably more appropriately a new charter proposal, which would have allowed us to charter for a shorter period of time, the initial chartering term. that might -- i mean, it is interesting that there is so many deficiencies in the charter proposal, yet it is presented to us as a previous renewal, pro forma, so they had all the included requirements. i think that also indicates to us a reason that we should deny the renewal, because it is not a renewal proposal being presented to us. so, i am, believe me, very sorry to say this. i have been involved in this issue for two decades. none of this experience has been positive, from the school district point of view.

so i am not interested in this charter offer to our community. i do not believe it will help our educational landscape. it never has in the past. commissioner fewer: i just want to elaborate about the budget committee. i think we heard some of it tonight. i just wanted to tell the public and fellow board members that when we received the information for the charter, the budget cherry -- the budgetary portion of it was insufficient on every level. we were advised by our attorney that we could not consider any information, even though they had it in hand with us, because it past the date. while i recognize this is a community effort and i really appreciate that, because the community charter is different than a publicly-traded tartars cool company -- charter school

company, i wanted to emphasize that because of the time line -- i know they said, "are we able to bring the information to the board meeting?" the attorney said we could not consider that new information because they had missed the time line. i just wanted to clarify that for viewers also at home. vice president yee: i will try not to repeat other commissioners, but as we all know it started as a chain of events. i know the effort they have gone through. i have visited the school two or three years ago, when they were starting the process. probably, there are good reasons why the curriculum committee passed it without recommendation. they do not have a very good

academic program over there. i know they have done a lot of things to make themselves not only feel like they are independent, but to be independent. i commend the school community for doing that. but also i am stuck with the issue of what we saw at the budget committee, which the -- the proposal was inadequate in terms of addressing the fiscal piece of. -- piece of it. knowing the will have an opportunity to appeal to the state, we have to know by tonight. they are going to move forward to the state if we were to deny it. all i will say is that if we do deny it, good luck that the state level. again, i think in terms of the curriculum and what the kids get

out of it, it is a very positive situation. hopefully, the issues that were not addressed in the finances will be ready for the state. commissioner norton: thank you for bringing up the curriculum committee vote. i would like to talk a little bit about what my feeling was for why we gave it a positive recommendation. there clearly is some strong academic achievements for all the different subgroups going on there. and i think that the school deserves credit for that. i think that as far as their report on their achievement and the curriculum program, there certainly were positive things. that was the reason commissioner maufas and i gave it a positive recommendation out of committee. that said, i am not going to be supportive of the over all petition tonight -- overall

petitioned tonight. deficiencies have been identified by the budget committee. from the stack recommendation -- the staff recommendation, i cannot support renewing the charter at this time. i wish you luck with the state board of education. i think that you are clearly doing some things right, and i do feel some regret that i am not able to support the petition. i wanted to express my appreciation for what you have done at your school. president mendoza: thank you. if there are no other comments, roll call, please. >> that was a no? >> before you do that come we clarify -- can we clarify?

elvina fan: yes. athena creer: ayes. commissioner maufas: yes. commissioner norton: yes. commissioner wynns: aye. vice president yee: aye. president mendoza: yes. >> that is unanimous. president mendoza: item i is board member proposals. there are nine tonight. the next item is public comment. i have a few speakers this evening. if i call your name, please go up to the podium. sorry. thank you. the superintendent is stealing my papers.

loretta comos, christina galette, brandon powell, lyndon antoine, rodolfo vargas, nancy falouou, kevin batissy. i am going to watch you guys up, but you know who you are. benjamin claus, phil naranjo, anjelica moldinato. you have two minutes to speak. please state your name. >> i am librett- -- i am

loretta camos. president mendoza: can we have the chatter outside? >> i have -- several members of the fairmont community have already expressed opinions about the feeder plant that proposes the impairment -- beating vermont elementary into everett middle school -- feeding fairmond elementary into everett middle school. i have found myself as the representative of the natural feeder line into james lick. originally, this was the feeder school that was selected. there are many reasons why we believe strongly that should be the appropriate peter school for paramount -- feeder school for

fairmont. lick already is our feeder school. many families have chosen to attend because of a spanish- immersion pathway. fairmont, several years ago, when my daughter was in kindergarten, took a step to becoming an immersion school. every year, a new teacher is hired and an english teacher leaves the school. we will be all-immersion within two years. we share this with james lick that there be a real spanish- immersion program. i know from one parent -- we have had a lot of exchange over the past week. his thought is that it has been fairmont kids and families that have made james lick become a

more successful middle school. according to lick's web site, there are 290 emersion spots there, about 100 per grade level. the school we are chartered to feed into, there are a mere 20 spots. i would like to say, and i can see that my time is up. i am a lawyer. what i would like to say is there are many kinds of these -- of links between the schools. we attend each other's events. we all went to see the bilingual spanish immersion. i personally have volunteered at james lick. president mendoza: i have to cut you off. there are other speakers coming from fairmont. >> can i take tina's time? president mendoza: you cannot.

we have a lot of other speakers. >> actually, i am taking tina's spot. i am a fairmont mom. you can imagine my dismay when i found out, after moving my children from marshall to fairmont, a great distress to have this occur. it was not the entire reason we transfer our children in second grade, but it was one of the reasons. it is not because emery is it a bad school. but it is not a community school. to have alvarado students go to lick instead of everett is ludicrous. everett is not our community school. lick is. we have spent years trying to get our kids into fairmont. we expected our kids to go to lick.

this is turning everybody upside down. why do i want to send my kids to 15th and dolores when there is a lovely middle school where my community is? it makes no sense from any perspective. i looked at all the numbers and rationale. it does not make sense. secondly, i understand there is confusion about spanish immersion or a spanish track or kids coming into everett. most will be from spanish bilingual schools, our kids who are native spanish speakers who have been learning english. i am concerned about the dilution of the quality of the spanish immersion program. it is a secondary program. it is not our community school. it is downtown. why it would alvarado feed to lick when they are closer geographically to everett?

it does not make sense. for our community, it is a devastating piece of news. for my family in particular, we just made a huge turning upside down of our children's lives to feed into lick. to find this out is pretty upsetting. thank you for your time. >> i am brendan powell, a parent of a student at paramount -- fairmount. i am concerned about the change in the peter pattern. i have not completely made up my mind about the subject, but i think it does raise questions about fulfilling the district's stated goals of neighborhood schools. i wonder about the continuation of the immersion program that my family and other families have gone to some trouble to get our kids into. i wonder if the board could offer a better rationale for the

change in middle schools, the feeder pattern. that is it. president mendoza: thank you. >> my name is lorraine haynes. i am a parent of four small children in the san francisco unified school district. two attend bret harte elementary. two attend george washington parliamentary. i chose them because of the repetition in our neighborhood. there was a grant. 50% of our teachers had to leave and we had to lose our principal. we would love you to stop the superintendent's office from making independent come up arbitrary decisions on policies and programs that affect our children's lives without our participation. in the bayview, we live to survive. we have enough going on. to have decisions made for us on

behalf of our children is deeply unfair. it is just not right. we want to stop the superintendent zone policy until parents, teachers, and community members can come together. schools have been able to come up with a transformation plan that reflects the value and culture, the proper representation of culture in our communities. i want to celebrate the national board of teachers. i thought that was awesome. that is fantastic. i am so proud. but how many of the teachers have even been encouraged to participate in those programs? we would love to stand in here with a room full and be able to clap. i looked at all those teachers. for every school that was called, there was none for us. i feel it is class in the

classroom, higher taxes and better schools, lower taxes and poorer schools. i am begging you to come to the defense of our children in the bayview. we have intelligent children who will learn. california has the best universities. i want my children to be able to stay here and attend those universities. they should not do -- should not have to go to southern california. there are colleges here that can educate my children. i asked you, the school district, to be responsible. i am a taxpayer like everybody else. [applause] president mendoza: thank you. >> good evening. my name is kevin batiste. i am a representative of the bay view community, grant elementary school. i heard rumors about changes that will be made there. i would like to say on that a

half that what we strive for in that they view community -- bayview community -- we have become a community school to our community. we have done things with our community, with our parents. parents are allowed to come up to the school to look for jobs, volunteer with their children. we are a good community. we have good teachers there. we have good stuff. we have good children. we would just like to hear -- to have a voice, and for the school board to know that changes that are occurring, we would like to be more involved. we would like to know more so we can do more to enhance our community. thank you. [applause] >> my name is benjamin klaus. this is my second year teaching

out of breath heart elementary school. it was originally suggested there be a call for action about the superintendent zone in the bayview. i was with a student yesterday who asked me to eliminate a card for his cousin, who was murdered a few weeks ago at 19 years old. we had a conversation about what happened. i said, "do not let me see you on one of these." this is far too casual at the conversation. how many limits have i made for these children? these children are preoccupied with their survival. they are unsure what will happen day-to-day, who is good to make it home. it is ok for me to be an advocate for them today. what i wanted to bring up was that last year, superintendent garcia gave the go ahead to a

group of folks to meet regularly on thursdays. we were to develop a plan for what was to be the bayview zone. we came up with recommendations, protocols, procedures that involve the teachers and school staff. it involved community-based organizations at the meeting. it was positive. morale was high. we were skipping and jumping when we left school in june. we could not wait to start school in august. august has started, and now we have all of these big changes coming down. with the reconstitution of a few schools in the zone, i do not know what is going to become of these particles. i went to see the deputy secretary of education and asked what database -- what data backs the new measures. he said there was no data, but

they are taking a shot in the dark because changes needed. i understand changes necessary, but we must hold measures of accountability onto the zone. what we did last year is being put in place this year. we need a model of collaboration, not autocratic decision making. i invite everybody on this board and the superintendent to please come out and talk to teachers, community members, and the principles. find out what is going on out there. we need to support and build on the people, and not just programs. [applause] >> good evening, board and superintendent garcia. my name is anthony harmeal. i am also a teacher at brett hart. we have seen a lot of cuts. we have lost teachers that we

used to fill our splits where we did not have splits before. we also lose our site support, another resource. also this year, furloughs. we are asked to do with less. i am also the union building representative. we support the slowing down of this superintendent zone for the bayview, and to consider the plan that mr. klaus just spoke of. we want this to be considered along with all the other considerations that are coming from superintendents and assistant superintendents. this whole situation has created a lot of rumors. people are upset. we are going to involve the

community and try to have some collaboration here with the board, with the district, to try to come up with some kind of plan that is acceptable to the community and acceptable to the board. thank you for your time. [applause] >> my name is mr. naranjo. i am a teacher at brett hart. i think nicklauses mom for speaking to the board. she is dedicated not only to her own child, but other students in his classroom. thank you for coming down. [applause] having the opportunity to teach the past 10 years at a variety of schools, as a substitute teacher, i have been able to compare the difference between teaching at brett hart and other

schools. sadly, i am very disturbed. i have had to call the police on numerous occasions, not only on behalf of my students. on behalf of my own safety. i think we need more security people at our school to help deal with the issues that are surrounding our students. we talk about six schools and about making sure our students have the chance to learn in the classroom. it is not happening if they are not in a safe environment. i am asking that the board please hear me. we need good leaders in our school. we need good leaders in the administration. i support any changes that they see needed. i see a need for it. having come from teaching in other schools, even fairmont

elementary, we need good leaders. students need to be able to look up to their leaders to set the example and to maintain learning in the classroom. it is nice to come out and speak to the board tonight. i appreciate everyone listening to me. president mendoza: thank you. [applause] >> my name is nancy. i have a senior at thurgood marshall high school. hello, board. i spoke over four months ago before you on behalf of the bay view community and thurgood marshall high school. i spoke about obstacles our children in the bayview face. they are faced with crime,

violence, and social issues which cannot imagine. we need more support. i talked about closing the achievement gap and how many years i have heard that term. what are we doing to improve the gap? it has gotten wider. it was first latinos. now the polynesian group has been added. in order to a -- to close the achievement gap, we first need to provide support for teachers, especially those that cannot relate to our students, who are not culturally aware of our surroundings and the community we live in. i believe that our schools in the bayview zone should have a diverse teaching staff. our teachers are frustrated. our kids are frustrated. we cannot communicate. our teachers are requesting in- house suspension rooms to solve

behavior problems. is that the answer? as parents of the targeted population, you see us here. we are asking that you will stop the superintendent zone policy process until parents, teachers, stuff, and the community have a voice in the process in our schools. we have crucial and significant input that must be heard. i have a dream that i shared with dr. gray. that dream is that one day all students in the bayview and from our side of town will have a passion to learn and be successful, that students will respect teachers for who they are and what they do, and not judge them by the color of their skin, that teachers will teach all students with compassion and equality, but never by the color of their skin. thank you. [applause]

>> [speaking spanish] >> good evening, superintendent and members of the board. my name is rodolfo marcas. i represent a california alliance for community empowerment. >> [speaking spanish] >> in a few words, aids is parents, teachers, and students,