because i am going to a.p.g. there aren't any schools with great test scores around my neighborhood. there are many issues with me to take the public bus. this is concerning me because there are safety issues on the bus and i will be arriving alone after dark in winter. i must take the bus because my parents have to go to work. why do i have to take a bus for over an hour. other kids in other parts of the city walk to school. i ask that you take the time to make changes so that one day i will have the opportunity to walk to school, to a great school in my neighborhood. i know that the work i do now will lead me to college. my goals is to go to college and become a doctor. i depend on you to make the changes to achieve my goals.

[applause] [applause] president mendoza: thank you, michelle. nice job, honey. >> good afternoon, mr. garcia and members of the board, my name is demere hill. i am a student that attends brar heart elementary since preschool. i have been with the bay view community all my life. i had teachers that believed in me and helped me to achieve my dream and help my community. my only principal was mrs. frankin. she was a courageous person in my opinion. ms. franklin gave african-americans a chance to have a quality education. i had a p.e. teacher named coach duke. he taught me how to be a man. my teacher didn't see behavioral problems with me, they saw a boy whose potential was encouraging. they gave me a chance to excel and have higher expectations for

me. i hope that the changes you make in my community, that you make sure that teaches and principals, they are careful about our students and push them forward to achieve academic excellence. thank you for your time and i am counting on you to make the right choices. [applause] president mendoza: thank you, demere. >> good evening, board. i'm benjamin claus, fifth grade teacher at brett heart elementary school. after numerous invites and as of today, there hasn't been anybody from the board to visit any of our schools and speak with anybody in the grandma to baby zone. i know i'm not alone in the effort to get you to come to the baby zone. my question is, why have you chosen this type of action?

there's no quantifiable data that can support this action. the collective action of nonaction is sending a strong message to the baby community. the first concern lies with an email threat passed out in standards to the state of affairs of lily brown in a conversation of dr. gray and an individual, commissioner norton. my concern lies in that this conversation was not c.c.'d amongst all board members and brings me to the issue of accountability. so as a publicly elected group of commissioners, i feel it's responsible to have everybody be tied in with what's going on in the conversations. also, to only check in with -- the only check in is by the board or dr. gray and that's not surprising that she absolves herself of any responsibility. do you want to ask qaddafi about

affairs in libya, he would say i'm doing everything i can to people complaining are in the way of progress. so check in with the people on the ground and you'll receive overwhelming different perspective. the other thing is i passed around data. the reason why this is important is that all decisions being made in bay view is based on the idea that it worked to bob burrell, it will work in bay view. dr. gray is explicit in principles that they need to recruit asian students. president mendoza: thank you. next speaker, please. [applause] >> my name is tommy harper. i came for tommy harper and lirnd. linda. my son will be in college this year. he's going to college this year. i'm not here to talk about thompson. i'm here to say my son is from

bay view hunes point. i have a principal that told my son to defend himself. i have an issue. i wrote a letter, i know it means nothing because every time you're a parent and say stuff, it goes in the garbage. but what kind of leader is going to tell my son that is brought up with guns and people dieing in front of him to defend himself. we had an incident where my son was bullied and beat up. i come up to the school, when i come up to the school to give up money to give to my child for a track, i find my child had been jumped on. i approach the principal, confide in my soon to make him comfortable first because he's got tears in his eyes. i'm confused. i go to the principal. when i get to the principal's office, the secretary, can you go get the principal? by the time i get in the principal's office he's making a face like i don't want to be

bothered with her, here she comes again. first of all, we get in the principal's office and he tells me as a parent, o.k., we're going to talk to you, tommy, let me see what's going on. i'm going to let you talk to tommy. when he talks to tommy and tells tommy, tommy tells him what happened. after tommy tell him what happened, this is his response, "why didn't you defend yourself?" hello! why didn't you defend yourself! my child, my baby is brought up with this every day. this is not working anymore. i have sent the letter. you seen the letter. it means nothing. it's bye-bye. but you know what, he just labeled my child to fight back. his name is tommy harper, if he ever defends himself, i want everybody to know here that his principal gave him the reference to do it. he was in karate. he was told he has to obey by adult first, he was told listen

to his mother first, take action, go to the teacher. he goes to the principal, the principal is running after me saying, come back, and i say, i don't want to talk to you anymore. i'm going to your boss up there at gloria davis he said, no, no, linda, come back, don't you go talk to this child and i said never would i step up in a child's face and tell a child, look, i am bringing my baby back to safety because if i can't trust in you, where am i going? and i'm hurt because i live in bay view hunter's point where i seen numerous killings and for a principal to tell my child. my child is traumatized because he's confused, who do i listen to? his peers that he lives around, this is what it's about, and the principal to tell him this, this principal -- something needs to be shout to him. something needs to be done,

quick. >> ma'am, what school? >> he's at carver. and my son is very hurt about it. this is why he's here today, he's saying, mommy, what's going to happen to him and we get to -- i ask him, if he would have fought back, what would you have, did you would have suspended him. and he goes, no, he's defending himself. he said, oh, yeah, i would have suspended him. president mendoza: thank you. we appreciate you coming down. [applause] >> good morning, boarding. good evening, board of education. my name is -- i go to dr. george washington carver. last year, we were told that our

principal was going to be fired but now -- 50% of our teachers. why are we getting rid of 50% of our teachers but you save our principal? thank you. [applause] >> good evening. my name is imman robinson harris. i have plenty of hats but my hat tonight is carver, volunteering there since she's been in kindergarten. this is my niece. early 2010, maybe around this time, i was told that carver would be a transmission -- transformation school and we'd be getting rid of our principal. got news before the school started that we became a

turnaround school. i was very surprised because here at this board meeting me, my niece right here, and my mother were the last ones here and i was told we were going to be a transformational model, not a turnaround model. i'm very confused about that still. our current principal has made a lot of promises. and i have yet to see him live up to any of them. can i trust the sfusd board to come out to carver and examine our struggle, including our teachers need resources and yet i don't see him bringing any more resources to our teachers. i really want the board to come out and do an investigation. thank you. [applause] >> good evening, board. i am monifa turner and i am the

proud parent of damoney and damion good. i am up here today in regards to carver elementary school and the only thing that concerns me is that next year we'll have a whole new staff of teachers. we have, i believe, like 80% of our teachers leaving next year. out of 14, i think maybe two or three are staying. my reason for being up here right now is because i have one teacher in particular that i would like to talk about who is mr. stewart. mr. stewart is not only a father to some, he's an uncle, he's a mentor, a big brother. he looks like a deacon every day, comes dressed for success. i've never been to a school to whereas the children for halloween dress up like mr. stewart instead of their favorite rapper, actor, basketball, football player. mr. stewart has been accepted to u.c. berkeley for a principal's

program and there is going to be some type of conflict with his schedule for that, and being a teacher, but he's willing to make those sacrifices and put his family on the back burner for 18 months and be a teacher to our kids and we're told that that's not good enough. what would you want to see? him be a principal and then we have kids wanting to be like mr. stewart, noonly -- not only a teacher, but a principal growing up. i want to know if y'all could come to carver just to hear the concerns. whatever's good for you, we will make you at home there. we are family over there. but that's one teacher that we do need to keep on board because he's about the children. he goes to therapists to speak to therapists. he goes out of his way. i mean, i couldn't tell he was married for a while because he's so involved with carver. so, you know, that's all i want

to say. i took up over a minute. thank you for hitting the button but it's something i need to get off my heart. president mendoza: thank you. [applause] >> good evening, board, and good evening, everyone. i'm here today to speak on behalf of the bay view community. president mendoza: your name? >> nancy faloal. they ran out of cards, so i don't have one. esther, back me up. o.k. i might go over a little bit but i'll try to be quick. in today's world, we are dedicated by lawsuits, complaints and settlements. it seems that it is the only time that we are forced to bring about change. but has change really happened? in the late 1960's, in an effort to desegregate the children of bay view hunters point, black

children were bussed out of their neighborhoods to attend schools throughout the city. i was one of those students. in 1978, the national association for the advancement of colored people filed a lawsuit against the san francisco unified school district. the agreement entered into on december 30, 1982, by the naacp, sfusd, and the california state department of education has as its goal the development and academic excellence as well as full desegregation in every school classroom and program. in 1984, six schools were included in original phase of this decree. burton, king, carver, charles drew, sir frances drake which is now malcolm x, and horseman. there was a special plan in place for the bay view hunters point called the special plan but here we are again. no offense, but why are we here? there is work to be done. the most important concern that i have as a parent and as a parent in the bay view is to

close the achievement gap within the targeted population. no offense, people, but the white traditional way of teaching is not working because the teacher is the key to closing the achievement gap, i believe teachers must be well equipped and have the competency to teach our most challenging students of today and a lot of them do come from the bay view. we must have qualified teachers to educate our children. stop using the bay view as a dumping zone for ineffective teachers and inexperienced staff. stop hiring who you know but rather who can best meet the needs of our children. hire a more caring and dedicated staff respectful of our population. president mendoza: i need you to wrap up, please. >> allow schools including staff, parents, to be more involved with the hiring process. stop laying off teachers and staff. there are good kids, they need protection under the union and their contracts. but i want to bring your attention to the consent decree

article 39 of the united educators of san francisco contract that states "only teachers who apply for positions may be selected. those selected shall be the most qualified based upon the plan and the educational program." could this be the special plan for the bay view hunters point, to all employees of the district i say, just because you are tenured doesn't mean you're experienced and just because you're a minority doesn't make you qualified or effective. we should be committed to ensuring that every child has the opportunity to attend a school in the bay view with effective teachers, teachers who care about their students and -- president mendoza: thank you. >> thank you. president mendoza: thank you. [applause] >> good evening, i'm jonathan woolen, i teach at weely brown in the bay view. in february, the board engaged in an email exchange with an anonymous source concerning my school and heightened state of

education emergency. from my perspective, this is due to a lack of leadership at every level. the wheelie brown staff was given copies of what we were told was the entire email exchange involving eileen murphy. the only cry for help was to believe the word of the administration, not much has changed since principal russ -- this is not true. while mr. russell is our principal, yeah, we were battling low academic expectations but we had enough trust and respect from our staff and most importantly our students and their families that discipline or lack thereof was never a major issue. i will give the district the benefit of the doubt and assume it had valid reason for reassigning mr. russ midway through the year, but the action to replace him without input from the staff of our school and community was reckless and poorly calculated. i recognize action had to be

taken but there was critical input from the school community which may have eased the transition and was completely overlooked. more over, to replace mr. russ with karen francois, a first-year administrator in a school where credibility and respect carry enormous weight has led to a school climate of extreme chaos. i encourage the board to witness firsthand the degraded state of the school, talk with teachers, students and parents and get a feel for how messed up the brass actions of our leadership have created. thank you. president mendoza: thank you. >> my name is katie basie and i'm in my second year of teaching at willie brown in the bay view zone. i'm going off my colleague, jonathan, and remind you that in december this year our principal russ was removed from willie brown. giving the district the benefit

of the doubt and assuming there's a reason for it, i'm wondering why he was replaced with a woman with no administrative experience, which her last experience was in a school that is opposite of ours. i asked her to respond to the aforementioned email, what is karen francois doing here, what purpose does she have, what is her vision for me and my students. i was pleading for a reason for direction, for it not to be the case that the willie brown community has experienced a drastic and dramatic transition unnecessarily. eileen murphy had nothing to say but, well, have you asked her what her vision is? so i must plead with you for a reason for the current bay view zone administration and direction going forward.

>> the next set of speakers are from bay view high school. alice body. i'll ask the same. i'll give you one minute. >> my name is jay cozak.

good evening. i want to say that we have many parents and staff that had to leave we had at least 50 people here. i want to say what i'm about to say you don't know. when we do our budgets, our b budget is $800,000 in the red which means if we put all our money, nothing for supplies, we are consolidating teachers from our school. that's just personnel. what does that mean for washington? we'll be a desirable school to undesirable school already

people are calling up and finding out we may not be able to give them the classes you are shorting us 200 students. we are a desirable school. then we'll have an operational budget. please do that. thank you. i've been a high school teacher for 16 years. i'm also here to represent a multiethic african-american students. strong sxroe comprehensive high schools should continue to serve kids from the study.

why destroy the district's strengths. students first, right. why aren't cuts being made. teachers working in the class node to be the priority as well. teachers have to do more with less all the time. employ yoes outside the classroom have to do the same.

do not drop washington's enrollments below 2200-200 in enrollment. >> please finish up. >> thank you. >> i'll say this quickly. there are a lot of people in he here. >> my name is desean smith. i think teachers have some

luterbrain. moving them to different schools. we go to teachers and tell them about our teachers. like myself. i plan on being a teacher and going to school, to educate kids about school and life because to me, i think school is a lot more than just books. school has been a skd life to me don't cut our teachers.

keep all of our 200 students there. jo with all that said, i've been told to pull myself up by the boot straps. no matter how willing stou dents will be, they understand tax skemgs doesn't get out. my younger sister's future will be compromised.

as well as a san francisco resident. we can't make changes without starting on the resident. thank you. >> good evening. i'm a senior at george washington high school. i came address the tax exceptions. it would mean noerly 8 students would laernd grow in washington.

i wasn't pursuing an educational career. now i've met inspoiring teachers. they both inspired me personally. if those tax exceptions don't go through, washington will barely be able to build the process. i'd like to p.l.o.ed the board members out here to pass the tax exceptions to go through. thank you for your time. >> thank you. good evening, e. a lot of consequences affecting students. some of the concerns we have is

there will be fewer teachers for sure. a lot of different classes. allowing student it's pursue their interest and passions and barely covering requirements. this will definitely require students that want to go to a very good school. as a senior right now.