school district. the san francisco unified classified workers. i have negotiated many contracts at the service of several unions but no negotiations have been, i would say, so clearly defined as the one we've entered with the san francisco unified school district. it's really a shame what has happened here. let me outline what that means on our end in. the first place, the san francisco unified refused to bargain furloughs. literally refused and then it hit impasse and at the time you hit impasse, in order to avoid not being certified for impasse, you are returned to the table to bargain again. at the time you have to certify that both parties negotiated in good faith. and then you have to certify it again a second time. as soon as you got out of impasse and went into a fact finding you filed charges for

failure to bargain in good faith. go figure. if it wasn't for the fact to thour ever you're attempting to that he we go do not have rights on a strike. so a document was filed and targeted both myself, targeted the negotiations team. and other than that, we also had, as the previous speaker explained to you, we also have an agreement which avoided a trial about your reele -- refusal to bargain for furloughs. the agreement was that you'd bargain the furloughs. gets to february 4 and guess what happens? the school district locked out all of us then decided to, in bad faith again, have an agreement where the signatures are on the paper and we still have the piece of paper in

hand. so this is the school district at work. let's put that aside. during negotiations you managed to repeatedly do regressive bargaining. so you bring a proposal to the table, hand it to us we'd say, ok. you'd return next day and say that's not exactly what i intended to say. so this happened repeatedly. now, i'm also aware -- i'm very aware, that the members of the board have been told, specifically by certain individuals in your negotiations team that the field staff for sciu has had behavioral problems during negotiations. the only people who screened the negotiations, banged doors, ran out of the building while we were sitting there were the members of your negotiations team. and to actually think that this is happening under closed doors in conversations with all of you is rather disturbing. now, these tactics are basically union busting as far

as i'm concerned. you can look at what's happening -- that's you, mr. summit, sitting right here refusing to meet with staff repeatedly. thank god we're meeting on the 28, and that's the date we set on the first time in how many years? count it for us. i really want to tell you this point-blank. i'm also aware that members of one of the team approached some of my coworkers to state that the problem with negotiations was the cavin, the field satisfy for sciu happens to have poor control to have english language. let me answer that for you tonight. i understand that some of us who are foreign born nationalized u.s. citizens may have an accent and that kind of conversation as far as i'm concerned is nothing short of bigotry and racism and that's sanctioned right out of your office.

stop the union busting and stop the crazy tactics. [applause] president mendoza: ho, ho, ho. -- >> ho, ho, ho. to follow him. good evening, board of education and summits. my name is maria and i work for the child development program and i've been will -- there for almost 38 years. i don't want to talk about me. i've been on the bargaining team for three contracts and we tried to put a measure on there for the student health workers and they worked only three and a half hours, maybe more, but they still don't get any health, dental. no benefits. now, some are parents that work at other jobs in order to help meet themselves or their families. you know what they serve our children? their breakfast, and they serve lunch. not the children but the

students, ok? and they need more hours. by the way, please don't take me away from the civil service. i need it. thank you. [applause] >> my name is arena flores and i have been employed for 15 years as a clerk. like my children, i too attended the district schools. i know first hand of the very important work of the support staff at schools and central offices. it is they who provide county and stability to the statue and children during the ever-changing superintendents, staff . we are being threatened with the possibility of separation from civil service, which would mean no place under the city hold over list and no possibility of reemployment. thanks but no thanks. not one clerk or secretary among the many that i have spoken with wants a separation.

please don't patronize us by traying to trying to pass this off as something we want. the mostly sunny are clear and we do need a contract. thank you. >> everybody, sorry, english is not my first language but i'll try to let you know. i'm a custodian in -- high school. also, i am the first time for the team. tonight i would like to say about the school district after custodian cleaning the windows. as a custodian they are all happy to work hard, to make sure our school has a clean and healthy atmosphere for all our students and -- environment for all our students and faculty members. but as we all know, window cleaning belongs to a larger classification. window cleaner.

they are numbered 739 2. as a custodian, we cannot step over our classifications and we take other employees' jobs, taking away their live hood and their employment opportunities. tough. president mendoza: could you state your name, please? i'm sorry. sir? could you state your name for the record, please? >> my name is -- president mendoza: thank you. >> good evening board members, superintendent. brothers and sisters to have bay area and wisconsin. [applause] and the general public. my name is david generalsen and i'm a senior clerk typist if the central office of the child development program. i've been working for the

district for almost 35 years. i am on the current negotiation team and have been on various negotiation teams for over 25 years. i am here to talk about the various differentials and premiums and adjustments in supervisor pay in our contract. from the outside these adjustments look complicated and unnecessary, but only because the classifications have not been updated to reflect the actually work assignments. they are suggested as takeaways by the district without an update on pay schedule, this represents a pay cut to our members. without a cost of living raise in years, every takeaway and increase in dedid you gos represents a pay cut. on paper, our salaries look respectable and we thank our union and the past teams for those gains but our take-home pay barely covers the essentials of living in the bay area. obviously the furlough days are a serious pay cut that we cannot afford. the district budget cannot and

will not be balanced on the backs of the classified staff. how many new administrators and consultants have been hired in the last five years? we need to look at all the six-figure salaries in the district for serious cutting. and i, too, want to stay in the civil service. thank you. [applause] >> hello. i'm michael. i work at buildings and grounds in the fire equipment shop. going on 33 years now. i was hired into the district through the civil service system and i do not wish to lose any of its protections by being taken away from it. let's me start by saying that in the eight yeergs between the middle of 2003 and the middle of this year, i think members have received a total 4% cost of living increase, which works out to about one-half of 1% per

year. a couple of more years, we'll work tote even less. how does that compare to management and other folks? these are why the premiums and adjustments in our contract are so important. now i understand the district is proposing some of the following -- suspending the longevity premium. this is 30 cents an hour. $12 a week for folks that have given more than 10 years of service, to balance the subject. and a word processing premium. this is paid to folks that much worked here since at least 1994 and represent a lot of the institutional knowledge of district operations. i guess we would be robbing them twice, as they would also qualify for the longevity pay. lunch room helper and charge pay. this seems really mean spirited to me.

these are the folks that feed our children and are already among the lowest district employees. some of these workers are not even paid enough hours to qualify for health insurance, though many of them work enough hours. changes tonight, duty pay. all of our custodians that clean our buildings are affected by this as well as other workers. i'm a product of this district as my father and daughter were and my grandson will be in september. and i wish for all of us to succeed in this room, don't balance your budget on our backs. thank you. [applause] >> hello. my name is lorraine bowser and i'm a 2615. i work with the student nutrition department. i'm the employee in charge. i've been there 20-plus years. i would just like toe say that i'm a parent. i'm an auntie. i have nephews and nieces that

are part of the school district and i'm here now and i would like to say i'm an seu union member. i'm on the bargaining team and we need a contract. and we need a contract soon, like now. so i wish you guys would really consider this. it's not easy. it's really not easy working in student nutrition, working as a part-time worker for over 20-something years but i love my job and i love what i do. and i love the children. that's why i'm continuing to be there, ok? but i would like to say, please don't take us out of the civil service because that is the only protection that i have. thank you. [applause] president mendoza: thank you. so you have -- there's about eight minutes left in your time. you have about eight minutes left. and there are about 10 of you. >> my name is jeant coleman and i'm an employee of student

nutrition services. i would like to sit here and discuss with you our professional development day. we need professional adopt day two to three times a year. we need it at the beginning of the year, the middle of the year and before school is out. why? we need it for opportunities, education, training, sexual harassment, health issues. we also need to come together, collect ideas and pass these ideas along. so i'm asking each and every last one of you, consider us for professional development day and i also would like to stay with the civil service system. thank you. [applause] >> good evening. my -- to president mendoza, board members, supervisor garcia. my name is arlene sharp. i have worked for the school district as a 2615 school

lunchroom helper for 19 years. i am also a grand parent. i have one grandchild who attends james mack middle school. i'm a 1021 member and i want a contract now. not tomorrow but now. ok, we've been without a contract too long. last year -- last year in may. and i want to stay in san francisco's civil service because i enjoy my job. and i enjoy receive -- serving the kids, and they enjoy me. thank you. president mendoza: thank you. [applause] >> good evening. my name is carol wood. i am a secretary at chavez elementary school. a 1446.

i've been there 19 years. i have over 900 hours of sick leave. i'm either a fool or i'm very healthy. i think both. but i work very hard. i love my job. i'm dedicated. i go in almost every single day whether i feel well or not and i don't think i'm unique. i think all of the workers in sciu 10-21 are hard workers. we deserve a decent contract and i do not want to be out of civil service. thank you. [applause] >> good evening president mendoza, board members, superintendent garcia, ladies and gentlemen. my name is rudy f. johnston. i work here for over 25 years in unified school all over in this city, including in every school. i worked so hard. i teach to the unified school district. i'm handicapped now because they never teach the people how

to manage things and i'm still working because i can't afford the working compensation because i lost my house six years ago. my car. i didn't lose my wife because she's still with me. but for me, it's ridiculous. we're working so hard with a lot of kids and we have to do everything. and the school i work in right now is the bolton. i'm the manager, the janitor. i collect everything and i working everywhere. we don't have no people. the most people there is as needed, and they call in any time they want because they say she can't work them because they only have a few hours. my brothers belong to the union the we want a contract now. not tomorrow. i am too old now, they are

behind me, and they need work. thank you very much. >> you have two more minutes to wrap it up between the four of you. >> hi. i am vernell guthrie, and i work for the middle school, worked for the district for 26 years. i started out at a 2615, worked my way up the ladder,, and i need a contract now. >> thank you. >> my name is brenda barros, and my spouse works for the school district. my stepson is on the parent advisory and i have three kids in the system. the main thing i want to say first is it is outrageous that my husband, who a a custodyian for the school district, already makes a whole lot less than the custodians where i

work, which is in public health. they already take less money because they care about the kids, and because they care about the work. he should be trying to reward them for them by giving them a contract i stead of trying to punish them by taking them out of civil service. >> good evening board members. my name is nadine yee. i worked in the school district for 26 years. >> we have too many conversations going on. can you take that conversation outs, ken? i am going to call you out, kenneth? can you take it outside? thank you. go ahead. >> i have four grandchildren working and going to the school district, and i have five family members working as

school teachers in the school district. i am a 1021 member, and i think we need a contract now. for us to be going over the little things about our longevity pay, work product pay and premium pay, which does not amount to that much, to maybe a person with a big figure salary, but for us it means a lot. since everything is going higher, we have not got a raise for the last seven years. we are not asking for a raise, but to maintain and maybe add a few more items to the contract. we all are working harder than before since the cut-back has left the secretaries and left people -- custodians and cafeteria workers. we are just asking you to give us a contract, and also we would like to stay in civil service because that protects

us for our job opportunities. it protects our pension and our health plan. thank you. >> our final speaker. >> good evening, superintendent garcia, president mendoza, board members and everyone else here. my name is patricia hurtrdo. i have been working for the school district 14 years as a 1446 secretary. i enjoy working with the students. i enjoy working with the families. i'm not going to repeat everything my fellow seiu members have stated. i completely back them up. we need a contract now, and i would like to remain in civil service to protect our jobs. thank you. >> thank you. >> superintendent garcia? >> first of all, i really do want to thank all of you. you are wonderful with our children really. i can't thank you enough for

the dedication to all our kids. i run into many of you when i go out and visit schools, and so i do know the hard work and everything you are trying to accomplish. and i am in agreement with you. we need a contract now. first of all, i would like to clarify a few things. for the field rep who said that anybody, anybody -- i will tell you now. if somebody has a name of anybody who is making derogatory remarks, i want to know about it because that person shouldn't be working for us. that is unacceptable. and trust me, my first language was spanish. i grew up with parents who had accents their whole life. that is something that we just would not tolerate. i want to clarify that for the record. second is this. if there is anybody here -- somebody made an allegation of union-busting. that would be the farthest thing we would ever dream of.

you want to talk about fairness . we exempted seiu a couple of years ago from layoffs. nobody was doing that. we did that because we do value what you do. we when talk about fairness, go across the street. you mentioned the city. they negotiated 12 furlough days for seiu members. we are trying to be fair with all our employees. we have negotiated with every union in this district before, and the administrators and others get more days. we are trying to be fair with everybody because we are in a lousy mess that this state has put us all in. we are not trying to take it out on anybody in this room. we think it stinks, but we are trying to be -- what is good for our entire family. we are trying to be square across the board with four furlough days, and others who

ought to have more, we did that. but for anybody who thinks we are not here to support you, we are ready to sign something. you have got to get the personalities out of the way, we we need to deal with the fact that we are all going through a tough time. but when we stand together, we make it through tough times. we are here to support you. right now i know -- you know, the sad thing about this is -- let's be real. the truth lies in the middle on this issue. we are all saying this and that. let's get down to some serious talks, and let's settle this, because it is all about we are one family here in this district. what is good enough for one has to be good enough for all of us. we are at the table. we are willing to negotiate, and let's settle this. thank you. >> thank you. on behalf of the board, we want to thank all of you for coming out. we know you work hard for our children. item kmp is the equipment advisory committee report. are there any appointments?

commissioner norton? >> i would like to appoint yolanda, he are rrera to the bilingual council. >> all right. >> item l is a special order of business, and we have two action items. i would like to ask if it would be ok if we moved up the appointment of the elections commission before we hear about the adoption of the title, if that is ok with everyone since we have them here. great. so we are going to hear the second item of our special order of business, which is the pipty of the board of education to the elections commissions of the city and county of france. >> motioned. >> second. >> we don't have our chair here, but commissioner wynns, would you please?

>> thank you. i am going to read a report which was written by the chair of the rules committee after our meeting on friday. just so everybody knows -- do you want to wait a second? >> would you kindly leave the board room quietly. we are continuing with our board meeting. thank you. >> thank you. just for information, the meeting was augmented, and all the members of the board were there. we are very glad that all the candidates were able to be heard by the whole board. after receiving feedback from commissioners about the need for an improved and formalized process for this appointment, the rules committee proceeded with the interviews. the item two, improve and formalize the process will appear on the agenda for the march meeting. the committee interviewed six

candidates for appointment to the elections commission. the candidates were as follows in alphabetical order. >> reads names. >> following an advisory poll of all commissioners. the rules committee voted to recommend catalina healy for the position. the doctor asked to publicly thank all the candidates who expressed interest in the position. the board felt we were fortunate to have a very qualified pool of candidates. due to the fact that this intervule all the candidates and -- interviewing all the candidates and discussing it took all the time the committee had, we recessed the meeting, and it is schedule for monday

the 28th here at 6:00 p.m. in this room. >> thank you,. we need a reading by the support doctor superintendent or the designee. susan can do it. >> here we go. if you don't mind, i will read the subject and then skip to the therefore be it resolved clause. the subject is pointy of the board of education to the elections commission. therefore be it resolved that the board of education adopts the appointment of catalia,

russ healy to the elections commission for the remainder of the five-year term ending january 1st, 2013. >> thank you. before woe hear comments from the board and superintendent, i would like to invite any public comment on this. besides our pointy. is there any public comment on this? i would like to invite catalina to speak. >> hi, good evening, everyone. i am thrilled to be before you as your potential pointy for the commission of elections. while -- i will walk through a little bit of what i talked about friday, which are my qualifications. >> as i mentioned, i am not a lawyer but an academic and professional practitioner of democracy. i remember moving -- a year after i moved from mexico city

in high school, it was 1988, and we were in the back of a warehouse, and in my political science class our task was to check off the number of precincts coming in from the bins, and i was hooked. i have had different types of experience, including working in haiti for international affairs on the ground working on their first election ns 30 years. i have worked on two presidentials on issues. i worked on senator franken's campaign, and again in 2008 for the cnn hotline as overseeing and reporting voter irregularities. my professional life has centered on the importance of young people and making sure that young people and underrepresented communities can come to the table and have a voice.