the families succumb to the school building and the promises which have been made. i ask this board to allow the school to remain what it has been all along, an ami accredited institution. >> good evening korea my name is -- and i am a teacher at the san francisco public montessori school. there has been a disruption at the san francisco public montessori, and i am here to ask why is it being systematically and unilaterally abandoned. the district promised an ami school and now seems to be not fulfilling their promise. families from all of the city have looked to provide their children with an authentic-a reeducation. world-class teachers are passionate about bringing montessori to public

schoolchildren. the program is modeled after the milwaukee public schools program, where research has proven for over three decades that this works. this is the only proven brandon to raise test scores in reduce the achievement gap. school standards attached to balanced scorecards, education and insight, in arrears standardization exists because of the academic experience for all children. this accreditation is facilitated to assure the offending martis are principals are upheld. we know her they were willing to work with us. the teachers were prepared, and there was a point in the school year where they are allocated funds. however, they have declined and least three times to get a consultation, and there has been

no communication with teachers about this. thank you very much. president mendosa: there is a lot of speakers and line. if you could please honor the one minute, i would appreciate it. >> i apologize if i sound redundant for anything you have heard before. there seem to be a lot of themes here, not only in our school but particularly around transparency, first of all, i would like to set and all of the comments and add that i in here because of the broken promise. the broken promise to a special need child and to all the children to public montessori. the promise of an ami education, as stated on the website, and i am happy to provide you a copy, what was then on the website for

quite a long time, and actually, i do not know much about the world education, but in the business world, this would be a breach of contract. we came to the school with a promise of this education, and it has just been yanked out from underneath us. what really bothers me the most is the deception and the lack of transparency, a lack of dialogue, disrespect. the assistant superintendent claims that this event is in the best interests of the children, and i simply do not see how unilateral decisions are in the best interests of our children. the program for teachers and parents and children is what is in the best interests of our children. prior to making such a decision to have candid dialogue with our school community. this decision goes counter to

what our community requested to provide feedback for a balanced scorecard, and i do not understand. president mendosa: 80. >> my name is al, and i am co- president of the park neighbors. three years ago, a focus my retirement on helping to reach our community develop our community, and part of the process, we developed a vision for our neighborhood, and we were able to elevate our membership to over 500 households, only a few of which you see here. as part of that, we engaged the school district. we attempted to talk to the board, it talked to the principles of the schools, laguna honda, to talk about engaging us in plans for that school, engaging us in making that more of a community

resource. over the past few months, every attempt we have made to contact and get feedback, we have got none. basically, we are running into what i call institutional arrogance on the part of the school district, and they have ignored a request for a dialogue. at this point, there is feedback among angry neighbors because we never got that dialogue. i am asking you to insist that that dialogue occur prior to formalizing the school in our neighborhood. a queue. president mendosa: 80. >> my name is -- and i am a parent. the sentences the unified school district goal is to provide all children with an equal opportunity to reach their potential. this is created and superintended zone and designated some elementary schools as low performing with

the goal to improve those scores of those children would have equal opportunity. three of those eight schools, 42%, of the fifth grade children in this zone will all go to james lake. no other middle school received more than one at score, and over have received none. the district has not shed any plans of any additional resources to support these. nor does that seem possible in these times of educational cuts. james lake has an impressive record of improvement over the past year, but that will be challenged when 52 percent of the incoming students will be from elementary schools which are under served as defined by the district. it is naive to think the current academic rigor possibly be maintained while providing equal opportunity for all. it does not seem that this district had thought about what they would be doing.

i question the rationale behind this decision. >> good evening, members of the board. my name is mario. i am also here to speak on the relocation of the center. as a neighbor of the school, a live directly next door to the school, i have a concern. my concern is mainly due to the lack of information that has been provided to the neighborhood, the lack of community involvement. as a longtime resident of the city, i know for a fact that nothing in this city is done without community input, and this incident here, where we were just notified two weeks ago that the school was on to be relocated, we had no input, no involvement, and i am asking the board tonight to relocate at

school until they have the opportunity to have input. thank you. >> hi, my name is hilary jenson. i live across the street from the proposed new location, and president mendosa, 84 attending the only community meeting we had on this. we are still waiting to have our meeting. we have no commitment for a date. mr. garcia, and respectfully request that you join us at that meeting, as well. since we got so few answers at the last meeting, i got a few of the questions and did for myself. i did my homework. i will start with the basics. we were told that the people

drive to school. do you know that the avenue does not allow passenger vehicles over eight people or more? did you know that they are currently driven in vans that exceed eight passengers or more? this is basic. i look forward to the dialogue. thank you. president mendosa: we have a date set? is that correct? thank you. >> dtv. my name is anita cabrera. i know you guys to of a lot of problems to solve. i got that. i am glad to be here for tonight's honoring. it was a real pleasure. we have a problem with too many incoming middle school students and not enough slots.

we have more immersion programs in the k through five scoreless, and we need spaces for their students, but this is absolutely misguided. the board presented its rationale for these programs, quote, they will introduce a continuity of graham's from elementary to middle school, and also, they will, quote, create a community with students and families people that is a self canceling reason. equally successful middle schools with equitable quality curriculum's, students from an elementary school in the city should be able to go to any middle school in this city and get the same quality education. a truly equitable districtwide situation would preclude the need to funnel a group of students from one school into another, and one board member

imagines that fifth and sixth grade teachers will be able to collaborate on top of what they already do to assure this continuity. tell me what fifth and sixth grade teachers have the extra time, money, and resources to take on this new task? the board claim that this proposal will create community is misguided. families with light valleys migrate to middle schools they believe are in sync with those values. for example, many families choose not to send their gay- centric students to certain areas appear -- president mendosa: thank you. >> hello, my name is sally hayes, and i think a lot of you already know me, and not have commented on the feeder proposal

before, but i wanted to come here tonight to say a few things more. first of all, i'd really appreciate the effort to revise the previous proposal to reflect programmatic goals in to look at education for all, but i would have to agree that in many ways, this is an unworkable proposal, and the main concern that i have is that the cost to do this right, and if you do not do it right, you should not do it, it is really prohibitive. in order to be able to do this, to make sure that those language pathways work the way that they are supposed to, you're going to have to spend a huge amount of money. in order to make sure that the burden of transporting kids across town do not fault of those who can least afford it, in my kids, it is the spanish immersion students who will be traveling by bus for 45 minutes each way to get their kids by 7:50 each morning so they can

still be in immersion. this is not going to work. we have a lot of needs. do not lay off teachers. do not go any further with this if it is going to waste any more money if we cannot do it right. thank you. [applause] >> good evening, a side counselor. thank you for letting me speak. supporting the previous speakers and try not to be duplicative and winging it, the proposal to feed three underperforming elementary schools into james lake, can that turnaround and a school if ever there was one really cope with exports pick demographic range to include so many children whose schools have failed to prepare them for middle school? and our objection is about the underperforming schools. where is there hope for a quality school for their children?

if any parents deserve the chance to speak on the subject, it is the parents. this is our mission statement. about 35% english learners. it is quite close to a reflection of the unified school district community. they would have a healthy kids program to keep them safe on the playground, three tiers of literacy support, and they wouldn't laud that school as a model. president mendosa: i need you to wrap up. >> we have worked very hard. some of us will go on and try to work hard, but this is going to be very tough. thank you. president mendosa: 80.

>> good evening, president, commissioners, superintended garcia, the deputy superintendent, dr.. members of the san francisco unified -- also evelyn -- >> your time is going. >> i am a social butterfly. i am begins chair of the san francisco pta, the second district of the california pta. that is what i am a going to speak on behalf of. my purpose of coming before you is to make mention of the fabulous art work on the east wall as well as directly behind the board members seated. first bill i want to mention that even though we have only about two hours left is an auspicious day for the san francisco pta. it rests on april 12, 1912, that

the san francisco pda was formed, and we hope to continue to support the children and families for another 99 years. the reflections program was started in 1969 and has encouraged many students. you can see on the wall behind main that there was this year's theme. the student artwork is meant to reflect their interpretation. please take this opportunity over the next two eastview this gallery of most special art. we will be sending dvd's to all commissioners as well as to the superintendent's office so you can look at what was received from san francisco students. we are so very proud of all of the participants and hope you are, as well. thank you. president mendosa: thank you. >> good evening, ladies and

gentlemen of the board. i am the parent of a first grader and an incoming first grader, and i also have a seven- month-old, but she has a way to go. i am here to ask you to reconsider your middle school proposal. we have put our trust in you, our elected officials, to help do things like performance under note -- improve underenrollment. the proposal was unfair in that it assigns or dictates where people should go. how can you expect families to simply accept their assigned school? do not dictate to us as parents. do not dictate to us that the transportation is best for our children. especially when all children are not being taken into consideration. et this works best for our families, and our jobs may not allow for flexibility. above all, do not take away our basic right as parents to choose what is best for our students.

the proposed middle school feeder is unacceptable. they keep for your time. -- thank you for your time. >> i have a kindergartner and a fourth grader. i am here to talk about choice in the middle school. accessibility is one major issue with this proposal. you have children crisscrossing the city, which does not help achieve the greening of the city or the schools. passing or leaving behind them at least four close middle schools. equity is also an issue. currently, middle schools have a lack of enrichment aunt honors programs. -- and honors programs.

capacity based on your own numbers that you have given to us at the community forum, if all of the community's schools go to their intended cedars, the district is already above the 100% capacity. i went to thank them for running the community forum -- i want to thank them. before changing the assignment process, and then here are some other quick alternatives. some of the southeast middle schools that were closed in the last decade will where apparently 37% of the middle school students should be coming from possibly should be opened. make them arts or sciences or technology or make some complete immersion schools and leave room for some general education. there are concerns expressed about the feeder process. thank you.

>> i am here to speak about beefeater proposal. to deny a child the opportunity to pursue this, this is not fair. also, children should not be herded like cattle. they appear to have a robust enrollment. if the goal is to of equality middle school, money and focus should be improving these underenrolled schools. schools are currently doing well. why not implement new programs into the schools that need help so it does become a more desirable school. also, has anyone considered the impact of the feeder school proposal on elementary schools. if this goes into effect, the

families will start using elementary schools based on the middle school they are assigned to. this will cause another issue that the district will have to fix in five years? the bottom line is that we need to create quality middle school's first before we even consider a pilot program -- a feeder program. i also have here a petition that we created, that another parent and i created, saying for all of those parents who were not able to come today or any other meeting, saying that they are not in favor of the feeder program. we also have an online petition which should be given directly to you, as well, so i have more signatures coming at a future date.

you are taking my kid and her friend across town to neighborhoods going to these

schools and see the node. sending our kids across town to raise apis is not the proper solution. we are not fixing anything here. >> what was your name? >> vivian. >> my name is david. i came here notifying what was going to transpire or be said. i'm here because my daughter is being -- the school she is going to, high school is on the other side of the city. why can't she go to high school in her neighborhood. i'm so frustrated. those other high schools are terrible.

they are so under performing. again. i'm sorry. >> i go to lotin alternative school. i'm an eighth grader and i have been assigned to john owe conal. this is a 1 hour and 20 minute commute from where i live. that would be two hours and 20 minutes back and forth. they do not provide a safe and secure environment or support what i want to do for the future. i feel this is not a fair assignment. all schools should be fair.

i feel unsafe in that neighborhood. i have no idea. i don't know whose from. i do not think that it would be a great place for me to learn. i feel that this happened to my friend too. all schools should be at a higher level so we can all get a fair and equal education. thank you. >> good evening.

i wanted to condprat late the district first of all for placing their district on the first, second or third choice. walking six blocks is now expected to go on an muni ride #-10 miles. it is inconceivable we could get them between the 20 minute start time. i suggest this maybe the priority given to that 14% of

people that get closer by. i am not planning on enrolling my daughter in that school. it would be quite ironic as a teacher if ied to remove my family from the district because i felt the situation was unsafe. thank you. >> my name is gram. five of nine most requested schools.