>> thank you. >> comments from the border of the superintendent? >> there are a little bit of background not necessarily the background to this specific resolution or what is written here but it might be helpful to people. we have had comments, for instance, and i don't think we have made clear that what we are talking about is putting in policies exactly the way we have been operating in the past and what has been written as in the administrative regulation in the past. i think some of the discussions we have been getting make it appear as though we are planning to do something entirely different than what we have

done. >> would you mind sharing a little bit about the process that occurred this past year and the amnesty letters and what it is we're trying to achieve by doing this? >> in march of 2010, the board adopted a new student assignment policy. the resolution included a directive to strengthen after verification in order to accomplish the goals and objectives of the student policy which includes investigating the accuracy of resident's home addresses and where appropriate, pursue action. the students in san francisco have a priority of those who don't live in the state. there is a process for those that resound -- that reside outside of the city which allows students to be assigned into

school in san francisco. however, they don't participate in the same process. the new policy offers tiebreakers that are based on where a child lives. the residency has the potential to undermine the fairness of the student assignment process. bill we have supported the residency policy. we have never had the capacity to do that up until this new policy was established. additionally, san francisco voters have allocated additional funds to help our students in san francisco. they have approved bond initiatives that want to ensure that we provide excellent programs for all of our students

in san francisco. this is an issue of fairness and providing maximum opportunities for our students to go to a school of choice so that residency fraud takes an opportunity away from them. the policy directs the superintendent to establish a process for this. we have strengthened the process that we have had existing which is to investigate and uncover fraudulent addresses. when we do, we have been removing students from schools where we can prove this case. the residency information has been included in our 2011 and 2012 enrollment guide which was released in november of this year. this has been posted on our website at has been communicated to all families in november when we have the amnesty.

>> is it correct that when families signed the application, there's a penalty of perjury that all information is true or correct and are there consequences should that not be true? >> yes, when parents find the enrollment application, they are testing that everything provided is true. there are consequences if we were to find that the information is not true. they are given notice at that time. one of the consequences can be the revocation of school assignment. >> i would like to thank the staff for developing the wording and so forth because again, a number of things that are in there, we have been using all along. like any policy, this is good

for the board to review ever so often to see what we can do to fit the needs of the time. with this new enrollment process, we need to really review this process. in reviewing the process, one of the things that was surprising is how many of the students we found out did not live in the city. if you believe the media from the past, all they could do was talk about how people are leaving san francisco schools. several hundred people are wanted to come to our schools and this is like a testament that maybe the media got it wrong this time. indeed, the san francisco schools have grown. many of them are excellent where you find people wanting to come here.

it is true that we are is san francisco unified school district. we are here to serve. our primary services to san francisco residence. we are getting additional funding from city taxpayers that we really need to protect that to serve our students who were living here first. i will be the first one to put out the door mat. there are schools that have some room if people want to go to school in san francisco, they have opportunities. maybe not the choice they want because sometimes those of the same schools that many others would also desire. i'm glad that you have brought this up. i will be supporting this. >> thank you. >> thank you for your comments.

we just completed our first round of assignments this past week and the e-mail and phone calls that i have been getting from families who lived in san francisco and did not hit a school of choice, a situation that has put many families towards a real problem. we have to serve our own students first. when there are 20 requests for every c, san francisco residents have to come first. we are attempting to lay out clearly so everyone knows and the rules are clear and we don't have to argue about it anymore and you need to follow these rules. if you are a resident, you have a right to have a seat at the schools. as you have said, i am the first one to walk of people if there is room but people in san

francisco have to come first. >> can i make a request that it is not really stated here but in developing the guidelines to implement this policy, can we include a more clear process? if we can do that rather than changing the things in this policy. i would request that under administrative procedures. >> we will outline a process that will make sure that we have an opportunity to present all of the evidence. we currently have that in place. we would like to state some of the speakers indicated that this

was a process that is similar to expulsion and this is not an expulsion. the code is very clear what actions would be subject to expulsion and lays out the process must follow. this is the revocation of a school assignment which is very different. >> we to provide the process before their enrollment is revoked. in letters sent to the family, if there is a preliminary determination, that letter tells the family that if you think that we have made a mistake, you have a right to come in and provide any evidence you would like to provide. you can write as a letter and let us know the hot. if there is more information that has to come out and this is the reason why we think you are not a resident and let them respond and provide more information later, they absolutely have notice and an opportunity to be heard on this

issue before it is finalized. >> i just wanted to put out one other thing just as a point of information which is when we did this policy not only this year but a few years ago we had a lengthy process about the issue of teacher priorities and had various proposals which we discussed with the community before we came up with the policy that we now have. i agree with all of my colleagues. i have actually been asking for us to focus on this for years. i also want to say that we have spent a lot of time on these things and i am glad about that. i think it is important that we have looked at this in depth and

really tried our best to try the best balance that we can pay attention to the fact that our responsibilities are to our own students. thank you. >> commissioners. >> i want to clarify some comments that we heard from the public. the definition of residency comes from the residency definition we could find at cal state and community colleges. this is a journal except the definition. teachers can enroll their kids even if they don't live in san francisco but they have to go through the permit process. there was an amnesty for those 250 students who did not live in san francisco and attending schools. we asked them to come forward and let us know so that most options could be made available to those families.

i want to emphasize that in this discussion my colleagues have emphasized that we want to let every family know about this policy because the worst possible outcome is pulling out kids in the upper grades. we want to do a big push on this policy. this is a tough call. all of us are getting lots of e- mail from taxpaying, law-abiding residents that did not get their choice and we feel this is the best way to allocate to san francisco. >> thank you. >> i just have two questions and are hoping someone could clarify. why would we suddenly surge and investigate certain students to actually kick them out? i'm not really clear about the whole amnesty, why did we have this. most of the students to get

kicked out. >> >> in answer to the first question, well, we knew that there was a need to do this for years. we have heard from the public and we have heard from other parents and we have never had the capacity to do that, so we put the capacity and no one built this end. we are investigating based on the tip line. we have a line by telephone and e-mail where families can call- in if they are suspicious of other families who might be committing fraud. we are conducting random audits as well. schools that are very highly requested, we're not target any particular school but we are conducting random audits of some of our highly subscribe schools just to make sure everything is on the up and up.

i think your second question was about amnesty. >> this was really to make sure -- that was a way to notify all families that attend san francisco unified that this is something that we are strengthening and we really want provide an opportunity for families to have an understanding of what our goals are and we are aggressively pursuing this. we want them to know that and provide then an opportunity to come forward. many families, almost 300 students were affected by this. they came forward and told us that they don't live in the city. some of them had to leave their schools, unfortunately. we have helped them with interdistrict permits and fine placements and other schools. >> i'm wondering why we would

now we have been investigating students from specifically upperclassman for people who are already in the schools because i am just a bit concerned about how they even got into the schools. if we are kicking the students out when they are already in, it makes them feel -- i would feel like i ready got into the school, why am i getting kicked out. i feel like there should be something done before the student actually gets into the school so that they don't get hurt. >> that is an excellent question and we are proud you are on this panel. i think that is indicative of the problem that we have been trying to address in that for years students have been in

rolling with false addresses. as we have ramped up the investigations, students continue to go to the next grade, next grade, next grade. it might seem as though the students are being targeted but that is not the case. what is happened is that the executive director has talked about. as this has been directed, they are surfacing. we fully expect with the out reach that we're doing and the publicity we are putting forward, we would see less and less of the address fraud. we are looking. not that we are targeting, but we're trying to catch up with what has happened.

>> the school district is serious about this policy. the school issue will continue to investigate. we have made many efforts to broadcast this far and wide. i think quite frankly that people over the years to not think we were very serious even though we were doing this on a very low level but we are very serious about this and this has certainly had an impact on many other families in the reverse direction. if there is no other comments or questions, roll-call. >> thank you. i would like to think staff for the work that they put into this. it is time that we really did this.

we know families here that urged struggling. housing is much more difficult. things are much more expensive. i have read this policy over and over and i lost a lot of sleep on it. i've spoken to many people about it, students, teachers, administrators and friends who have had their children in the schools. this is a problem and it has happened for a very long time. i am reluctant to approve any policy that i would be reluctant to enforce.

reluctant to approve any policy that i would be reluctant to enforce and again, it's with the graduating seniors. i feel that my goal of aggravating students for college in a college culture sort of trumps oureranciy -- our residency policy for seniors. every other grade, i completely agree, but with seniors, it is completely different. i thank staff for all the work and thought they put into this and meeting with me to amend language and the work at b.p.c. to work with our attorneys to draft this. >> roll call please? >> since this affects a lot of students, i was wondering if a representative from your staff could come by the student advisory committee to present this issue.

the next meeting would be monday, april 11, 2011, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., so the students can get a direct understanding of what the issue is, what's going on, and what they can do, thank you. >> don't you love our students. commissioner maufas? commissioner maufas: -- [applause] commissioner maufas: really bleelve and i wanted to make certain and i reiterated this when i spoke at the rules committee, that it was imperative that this policy is not a surprise to incoming families and our families remaining here. i know when my daughter was enrolled in school, even though there wasn't the policy, i understood there was an issue about where i live and where i wanted my daughter to go to school. it wasn't a mystery to me because i asked and i wanted her to get into a school and i had to find out. it wasn't mysterious and i don't

think it has really truly been mysterious. i believe folks generally know. i'm grateful we have this policy and we can advertise it at every opportunity so it's as general knowledge about the feeder system and everything else that we have, nutrition policies we, have what no sodas, just commonplace and across the board, translated in all the languages we have and i know you took notes on that and will do that and i really believe it will be imperative and i also saw you taking down notes when i was requesting that when we have to send out these messages to families, it's not a punitive message, but a clear and serious message. we're not trying to say, ah-hah already, but please come forward, if you know, and by the way, just don't do it, because the ramifications on your family when you least expect it can just be horrendous so i appreciate that you took notes

on that and we'll follow through with that and for the listening audience, yes, this is our policy, i believe, and it's clear. it's not mysterious, and it's very direct, and it puts into writing what i already knew existed. it wasn't a mystery to me. as a parent, when my daughter was going to school and as a board member of the so thank you very, very much, and i thanker legal staff for all of the diligence and nuancing to make certain we have covered every letter of the law as possible. so i appreciate your work on this. thank you. president mendoza: thank you. so parents, think about the consequences for the student when you're doing application. roll call please. madam clerk: ms. fan? delegate fan: yes. madam clerk: microsoft fewer? commissioner fewer: no [maufas, aye,

commissioner mar: aye. madam clerk: six aye's. president mendoza: item j is requests to speak regarding general matters and i apologize to the public sitting here waiting for this for public speaking to -- public comment to come up. we've had, as you have heard, a very -- a lot of items on our agenda. we have quite a few speakers on a number of different topics, and i will call your name and have you come up. there are several of you that are coming from groupings and so if you hear something already commented on, if you could just say something different or ditto and move on. we'll try to get as many of the folks through here as possible. do you have students? do you have students? yes. absolutely. so we'll have our students speak

first. i'm going to call your name so you're prepared and have you start getting ready to come up and speak. so, did you -- do you have cards for them? did you give me cards? these are all brett hart? so, rakwan murray, acres alicia richardson, michelle escobar, demere hill, benjamin claus, jonathan wong, katy bask and we have families from carver, linda

and tony, eman robinson harris, monifra turner. why don't we start there and we'll go into the next grouping. you have one minute. sweetheart, when you come up, say your name and you can go ahead and start. come on up, babe. >> my name is raquan murray. good afternoon and members of board -- well, really, it's good afternoon, ms. garcia, since she's not here, and members of the board. my name is raquan murray and i attend brar heart elementary. i've been a part of this community for five years. when i first got to this school, it was hard for me.

i didn't know anybody. it was like a new life so my teachers and parents made me feel comfortable. they told me to keep my head up. it was like a home. i had fair share of saying too much and often. when i started to go into second grade, i met a hero who helped me. she helped me with my anger. she was like another mom. as i started to get older, i met my teacher, mr. grant, in third grade. i started to see bah teest my mentor and coach duke. they share a love with me. they help me have high expectation. i learned i can reach my goal. the point is, i am worried about my younger brothers and their experience with school with all these changes. i fear that my brothers won't have teachers who take the time to get to know them and our community. i ask you, mr. garcia, and board

members, to please ensure that people who are higher in the bay view will invest and care about the children as much as my teachers care about me. please make sure the programs will of about all students thank you. president mendoza: thank you, raquan, good job. honey. [applause] >> good evening, i'm alicia richardson and i'm a fifth grader. education is important to me and my family. although there has been a major budget cuts in california that focus primarily on education, i do believe that there is still a teacher for me and my classmates. in the community i live in, there's a lot of fights and i don't always feel safe. the place i feel safest is at home with my family and at school. at school i feel safe because i'm surrounded by teachers that

support and care for me. after a conversation with my mom, i learned about budget cuts and a lot of people would lose their jobs. i learned 140 teachers got pink slips. this worries me a lot because there won't be as many teachers to help me. they will have a lot of things to worry about. my success in school has been because of the teachers who help me have high expectations and they pushed me. i think about my cousins growing up and middle school. i hope you will make changes and will support and help me and all children in my community because i hope to go to college to become a pediatrician. thank you and have a very nice day. [applause] president mendoza: thank you, alicia. nice job. >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen. my name is michelle escobar. i'm a fifth grade student