culture. in september, it's hashingening back to that and proving that this is something that is scon significantly happening all the time. what danny and i hope visitors take away from this exhibition is to observe the diversity within the designation of queer in terms of race, in terms of gender presentation and intergenerational perspective of what it means to be queer as well as what it means to exist and be active and work in solidarity with people whose identities may or may not look like yours. to welcome you to rea

board meeting of the san francisco unified school district, march 22, 2011 and now called to order. "roll call," please. commissioner fewer: >> here. dr. murase. here, norton, here, wynns, hire. mendoza, here. please join us for the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god in divisible with liberty and justice for all.

"roll call," please ["roll call" [ president mendoza: item b is approved. superintendent's report. superintendent garcia is not here this evening, but we are joined by our deputy superintendent. >> thank you, president mendoza. i appreciate the rolling of the r's. this evening, our superintendent is not here this evening. he is in washington, d.c., representing the district at the council of great city schools executive committee meeting, meeting with legislators and the college board of trustees' meeting. he does send his best wishes to everyone here this evening. a couple of items i would like

to bring to the public's attention and just a reminder on friday, march 25, both schools and district offices will be closed for district-wide furlough day, and that is this friday. a reminder to everyone. and again, a reminder to everyone furloughs are necessary unfortunately because although we don't take these furlough days lightly, we would not be able to balance our budget and operate our district and our schools in the way we think is best for our students without them. so we appreciate the public's understanding of this fact and reminder again that this friday, friday, 25, offices and schools will be closed. regarding the state budget, speaking of budgets, as you may or may not be aware, the fight continues in sacramento about the fight extension measures. our request is very simply this, let californiaians have a voice in this decision and the type of public schools that we want for

our state. let us have a voice and let us vote. if we are faced with a decrease of $350 per stupid as well as cuts of funding to early childhood education, which may be the case if measures are not in place next year, we will see major changes in this district, including the possible closing of one two two early early childhood education centers. one of the great engines of future innovation, the children of this great state. let the voters speak at the ballot box. we also want to say a few words about the 2011-2012 noelment. we are proud to announce, we have seen a 5% growth in kindergarten applicants and 22% growth in the last two years. and the number of latino and african american families have

increased. families who participated in the march assignment run should have received a letter in the mail with placement offer and here are the next stops. by april 15 and i would like to repeat that, april 15, families must register their child to the school they have he been assigned to. if you have not registered by april 15, your child's assignment to that school will be canceled. so it's very important. tax day. there will be a may placement period for families that did not participate in the march assignment cycle or families who want to try to receive if they can receive an assignment to a hire choice schools. registering your child at the school they have been assigned to does not advantage or disadvantage you in the may assignment run. and that's very, very important for our public, register your child. it doesn't advantage you or advantage you in the -- disadvantage you in the assignment run.

there will be applications for those families who want to learn more about the enrollment process. it will be held on thursday, march 24 at visitation valley middle school from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. of course, more information is available on our new web site www -- and finally in the superintendent's thoughts for the evening, i would like to end the report by saying that we were all deeply saddened by the events that happened last week in japan. and our hearts go out to the millions of people in japan affected by this disaster. however, a bit of good news in all of this is that schools throughout our district are collecting donations for the japanese earthquake and tsunami relief efforts. one elementary school

coordinated a potluck, a concert and an auction and ralph and were able to raise $22,000 for the japan relief fund. they deserve a round of applause. on behalf of the superintendent and the board of education, we are extremely proud of our schools and students for showing us how to be good global citizens in offering a hand of comfort to our brothers and sisters across the pacific. thank you very much. president mendoza: thank you very much deputy superintendent. our next item is item c, recognition of the resolution of accommodations and throw it back to you. >> at this point in time, i would like to call susan righter, who will present the rave distinct issued service award to a member of our

community. >> i'm pleased to be here this evening on behalf of principal kevin kerr and he would has written a note. good evening everyone. on behalf of the entire balboa high school community i send my heartfelt thanks for knowledge, innovation and passion in supporting some of our most remarkable and gifted students. through your efforts, we are better prepared to fulfill the promise of a fully integrated classroom and school. as principal, i cannot say enough about this wonderful group of educators and i'm grateful to have caring and thoughtful teach others my staff. congratulations on a job well

done, kevin kerr, principal. he is at school at a parent meeting and if we could have the four stand up. great group in our special education department. [applause] >> do you want to say anything? >> just a quick word. i didn't prepare anything. however, it is very nice to be recognized and i'm thankful to work with an incredible team. and that's it. thank you.

[applause] >> thank you. at this time, we would like to call to the podium, executive director in human resources for a rave special service award to one of our members of our community. >> good evening, commissioners, deputy superintendent. i'm proud and honored to be here this evening to present an award to a lady that i met over 15 years ago. madeline, i met 15 years when she was a teacher at davis. then i had the pleasure of meeting her again when she was assigned to our court schools. this lady is a day-to-day substitute that gives everything she has when she substitutes. everyone knows madeline because

she will take an assignment where she is needed. she drives to log cabin to be with some of our students. she goes to woodside at the drop of a hat and meets our students at the bus. we are very proud to have her in our ranks. and all of this she's done while getting a master's degree that she is still working on and she is still plugging along. she raised a daughter who has graduated and lives near harvard and gone to a very prestigeous college, this lady goes above and beyond what we expect of our substitutes and teachers and it's about the kids. she is liked by everybody. and again, it's an honor to be here and present this award to her. madeline. she's also shy. [applause]

>> thank you. part of the reason i stay in school is because i have this love of learning and part of that is travel and i'm always traveling. thank you so much. [applause] president mendoza: thank you. congratulations and thank you for all the work you do in our schools. if my colleagues would indulge me, i would like to move up item m and be able to present the

fran high school of the arts mural project. i would like to be able to share this video and ask commissioner norton to set it up for us. commissioner norton: thank you, colleagues, for letting this item come first. i think it will start our meeting off on a good note. earlier this month, i attended the unveiling of a mural which was created by two students in our community which is our special education classroom for students who are ages 18-22. and their teacher is here and heidi, maybe you could come up and take a seat. i'm introducing. heidi noticed two of her students had exceptional art ties particular abilities and set them to work with an artist to work with professional artists in the community.

and for a year, the two students worked on drawing with a professional artist and larry noticed that steven was very, very gifted at landscapes and joel was very talented at portraits and went out into the community and noticed that the two students got excited about drawing scenes of san francisco, their hometown, very loyal residents of san francisco. so the result of this year of drawing around the city was this wonderful mural honoring san francisco which is in the main hall and was unveiled at a ceremony i had the pleasure of attending. i would like to show you a student-made documentary about the mural project and then heidi will be on hand for the board if anyone has any comments or questions afterwards.

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>> adult art program for artists who have some type of disability, but they have to have an interest in art and have some talent in art to be part of the project. it was presented to me as a mural by heidi. [video presentation being shown]

[applause] >> i want to thank harry, who is here, with the special ed department to make sure we got the dvd here and chief technology officer who provided the technical assistance to get this shown. so i don't know if the board has any questions or comments for heidi and/or artistic director, who is on hand. >> i would like to point out that that video was created by

students in the media department . our school has so much talent. thank you for having me here and showing the video. as rachel norton said, we are a community-based class that focuses on life skills and getting students prepared for after public education and getting ready for adult programs. and we look for our students' passions and learn to foster those passions. this was an incredible example of finding a talent and fostering that talent. being a community-based program, we are lucky we get to find the san francisco master arts program. we are volunteering, working, learning life skills and visiting places, which was a fun place to visit all those mural. when we were learning about ruth asawa, i learned about her art

and met her. and i got to share my students' letters with her and pictures of our process and art work and things we had been doing and it was a touching experience to have that. steven and joel are fabulous and i will be missing them this year. they are graduating and going to an adult program for adults with developmental disabilities where they will continue to make art. i'm thankful to my principal and susan for helping this become a reality. i have an amazing administration. the visual and performance arts department made it possible and i love projects because it promotes our students as artists and not just an individual with a disability which is so important inputting people first. it will be on the cover of

"school time" in may, 2011, so we are excited. >> just so great to see the mural. when heidi unveiled it said it is wonderful and it is wonderful and reminds us of true diversity. thank you. >> i encourage everybody to go into the main hallway. the video is great but it doesn't do it justice. >> thanks for joining us this evening. president mendoza: item b is the student delegate report. >> last friday, we had our eighth annual youth summit called striving for success, even though i couldn't attend it was great. thank to one of the speakers,

president mendoza, great work shops and great entertainment and thank president mendoza and commissioner fewer for having the work shops and speaking and participating. the youth commission came by at our last meeting to talk about possibly having a collaboration between the student advisory council and the youth commission to work on immigrant rights and issues going on in schools. also, there has been discussions over what we should be doing such as starting district-wide mentoring program and college career classes being a ninth grade requirement class and supplying high school students with high school and beyond counseling. so we are still working on possibly having those as true like ideas. and indecision, we have been doing outreach for applying for

the free use lifeline bus pass. i'm not sure if middle schoolers get the opportunity to obtain this application, but for high school students, they can get this application at their high schools. and the deadline would be this saturday, march 26. president mendoza: thank you very much. and i thank you for an incredible summit and their advisor. it was pouring rain, but the kids showed up and great opportunities to go into the work shops and it's such a wonderful experience for our students. and we had some 200 students from all of the high schools represented. and it was a great experience and wonderful to see. i meant to wear my sweatshirt, but it didn't go with my dress. but i will wear it next time when i put jeans on first.

item e, parent advisory council report. do we have p.a.c. members here this evening? >> community meeting at one of the middle schools. president mendoza: does anybody -- have anybody provide anything? so they have given the board members their report. item f is public comment on consent items and i have one speaker card. >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen and members of the board. i'm the executive vice president of the united educators of san francisco. and this evening, one of the consent items concerns me now.

i asked you to look at page 83 and 84 of your agenda. this has to do with a transfer of money for the new teacher project. and i know it's not going to be any new money but just moving money around from one funding source to another, but it really concerns me that san francisco unified school district is spending $258,000 on a head hunter essentially, when we are laying off teachers and paraprofessionals and cutting hours and spending $258,000. maybe it's not our money, but it's money. and we are spending it to get teachers. at the same time that we are laying off teachers. so there's nothing new about this, but it's on the agenda. you will have to approve a transfer of funds. it makes me quite angry to see this. i hope you have the same feeling

when you look at it. i hope in the future, we will not be spending scares resources in this -- scarce resources in this manner. item g on the consent calendar. need a motion, a second. any items to be drawn or corrected by the superintendent? any items removed by first reading? any discussion or vote tonight. "roll call" on the vote will take place. item h, superintendent's proposals. and we have a few this evening. so i'll turn it right over to you deputy superintendent. >> i would like to call on the executive director mary richards to come up. >> as she's coming up, the first

item is 112-22 sp 1r, authorization to grant or in the alternative deny the renewal petition for city arts and technology high school. already moved and seconded on february 22. commissioner norton -- >> i think she stepped out. president mendoza: somebody from the curriculum committee that can give us a report on -- ok. there is the curriculum committee. they just had the curriculum committee. i needed a quick report. >> the curriculum committee heard this at the monday, march 7 meeting. we had a good discussion about the petition ultimately forwarding it back to the board on a vote of two in favor, one forwarding it back to the board on a vote of two in favor, one