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. ever invested millions of dollars to the help america vote act, and helped elect many people back in the day. now hopefully as your commissioner, i would work for every child regardless of neighborhood, language, income level or background, to make

sure they have the access to vote, families as well, but also the access to the information they need to make the decision and participate in the process. i think the saturday voting that is on the ballot has a huge opportunity to involve families and young people. i believe in requiring voter registration to be a requirement just as it is to get your driver's license when you graduate, i think addressing the poll worker shortage with young people is a great opportunity. and the importance of my experience and value is going to be particularly important when the redistricting appointments resurface. i can work to ensure that people who have nod had their voice listened to are actually at the table. thank you so much. >> thank you. comments from the board or the superintendent? commissioner maufas, and then commissioner norton, and then

commissioner fewer. >> thank you, commissioner mendoza. i wanted to comment briefly on the pool of candidates i saw at the rules committee on friday. i was grateful i was able to make it back into town to attend the meeting. i am sorry i missed some of the first candidate's commentary, but i was so impressed and so grateful for all that have so much to want to commit themselves to public service on behalf of the board of education. my support, even though i am not a member of that committee, i was able to voice it for catalina. by far and away, your qualifications i think were really -- would really suit this appointment well. i am grateful you applied, and i clearly agree with the rules committee members. >> commissioner norton? >> i would like to echo

commissioner maufas' comments as well. now we have had an open seat twice since i have been on the board, and this time the pool of candidates was so amazing compared to the first time where we had one very nice candidate, but only one. and i would like to say, too, that catalina, you were definitely head and shoulders, in a very impressive pool, the most impressive. i am going to be very pleased to support this nomination tonight. >> thank you. >> thank you. commissioner fewer and then commissioner wynns. >> yes. i concur, actually. i think you are an excellent candidate and thank you for your colorado terry service on this commission. however, i voice a very deep concern i had at the meeting about the lack of an approved process for this appointment, and i just want to reiterate that.

forward, i will say it again, that whenever we appointment somebody to a commission, i think woe should have as a board an approved process. that means that candidates know the process. there is no confusion. board members agree to the process, and that the process is fair, and that it is followed through according to what has been approved by the board. i want to say again for the listeners at home that the lack of a comboord-approved process is bother some to me, and i hope we can rectify this soon. >> thank you. commissioner wynns? >> i appreciate that, and i believe we need a clearly articulated process, although i essentially have used the same process for a number of times that we have done this. actually, i wanted to say that since the elections commission was established through initiative, we have had to filth position more often than we thought we would have to.

our appointees have found, and the public should know from all the interviews that we did, that people who are accepted in this position have to stop all their political activities. we have many people involved in political activities of various kinds in san francisco. we have had people move away, and their professions have made it impossible for them to do it. we have had to filth position with some regular larte every year or so, i think. >> don't discourage her. >> no other member of the elections commissions is appointed through an open public process, and i think it is important that we say that. i do support that we should formalize the process that we have used, which seems to be working well, and particularly the caliber of the candidates that we got this time, and the number of them, makes me

believe that this process has worked well. i am pleased with it. but i think it would be nice if other people, who are mostly individual elected officials, but not all, if there were public processes that did outreach to get people to apply for other members of the commission, too. i appreciate, as i have said before, the board of education has a real interest in open, fair and good election ns san francisco, and i appreciate that we have been given this appointment, and i am happy with this process, and i thank you very much for applying and anticipate this passing and congratulate you. >> thank you. >> commissioners, vice president, lee. >> for those that were actually at the meeting last week, my post office -- perspective on it was that it was probably one

of the better demonstrations of democracy at work. we actually had a good discussion. it was not as organized as i would like it to be, but what it showed me was that it was -- that there was disagreement. we managed it through. the process was not agreed upon. but from my point of view, i was able to receive enough information to make my decision on it. i thought it was just a healthy discussion overall, and i agree the people that actually came forward and applied for this position were excellent. from everybody i heard, i like that person, i like that person. but catalina, i think you will bring this unique -- to me, a very unique perspective to the election commission, and

hopefully you will be there for longer than a year. it seems like people leave. >> or else. >> i don't know. >> but i will be supporting your nomination here. >> thank you. >> thank you. so, this probably was the most frustrating for me, and i think i have expressed that to you and everybody else on friday. we did have an excellent pool of candidates. we had a professor from u.c. davis who wrote election law. we had a brand new lawyer who has been very active in the community. we had educators who applied, and we had a business woman alongside with catalina, who i agree is extremely qualified to hold this seat, and i am glad you are going to be represent the school district on that for us. but i do want to speak to a couple of things. i agree with everything that

sandy said. i think it is unfortunate that we don't have a very clear process in place. this has worked out fine for the last several times because we have had a handful of candidates. but our outreach is not at as high a standard as i think we should have in terms of bringing in candidates that could represent the school district. i do feel like we don't have a vetting process. this is done during an open meeting, which is fine, but there is probably a point where we get 10, 15 or 20 candidates, and instead of hearing all of them, there is a process where by we vet and so who the most qualified are. we did not have a discussion about any of the other high caliber candidates, which i thought was surprising, because we did have so many people that were very qualified for this position but didn't really talk about you who they would represent us, and who would be the best to represent us. i think catalina will

absolutely be a great representative for us. in terms of the other appointments made on to this commission, they belong to the mayor, the supervisors, the district attorney. so they are all individual appointments. i know as an employee of the mayor that there actually is a clear vetting process that happens. there is a commission secretary that goes through each and every candidate and has some time with them to talk about expectations and to talk about what their qualifications are. so there is a clear process that happens. we just happen to be a board that brings it all together, and fortunately we have been able to agree on the candidates. but i will say that i will not be supporting the commission recommendation tonight, and catalina knows this. i have a tremendous amount of respect for you, and i am glad you are going to be representing us. this is more for me about principle and the idea that we

do not have a process in place for such an important seat. this is the third year we have let this go by, and i think i feel very strongly about that. you will have the votes, and i know you will, and i am glad you will be serving as our opponentee to the commission. roll call, please. >> roll call. >> five ayes, thank you. >> thank you, catalina, and welcome aboard. >> the next item, we are going back to the adoption of the title 3, local educational agency improvement. i need a motion and second. >> so moved. >> second. >> thanking. a reading by the superintendent ?

>> good evening. we this item applies to our district l.e.a. plan, and we are here to ask for your approval for an amendment to the plan. this amendment pertains to our services to english learner students. due to the fact that we did not meet our targets for the last two years for our english learners in english language arts, commissioner maufas reminded us we need a glossary. we are talking about lea for e.l.. i am sorry. i didn't bring the glossary. we actually have good news about serving our english learners in many areas. we have met all of our scores and targets there. we have met c.s.t. scores for our english learners in math. and we have redesignated a higher number of students than

we have before from english learner to fluent english proficient. the one area we have not met the target was english language arts. this gives us an opportunity to look at it again, and bring it together in revised format. that is what the addendum is. we would like for your approval and will answer any questions. >> 124r any public comment on this? seeing none. commissioners? any questions or comments? ok. back to you. >> read this? >> yes. >> that the board of education of the san francisco unified school district adopt the improvement plan addendum, i.p.a. that will ensure that the local educational agency will meet title 3 annual measurable achievement

objectsives and will in the future for english learners and english language arts. the implementation will be monitored through june of 2012. >> thank you. roll call, please. >> six ayes. >> thank you. i'd m is discussion of other educational issues. superintendent garcia? >> i just wanted to give you a brief update, and i would like deputy superintendent richard caranza to make the presentation. >> good evening,