build and moment of some of our under enrolled schools. some of the schools that are under enrolled, it says to be determined in terms of transportation. we want to make sure we are working with those schools to see where we are going to help them recruit students to build their enrollment. that is going to be a different conversation with these schools. here is another snapshot as to the schools and where they will be drawing from. this is primarily from the low test score areas. we want to make sure that those schools have opportunities to access language programs and different unique kinds of opportunities that would be

provided. we have to reduce the transportation project and this requires reducing the bus fleet from 44 buses to 25 buses. we need to redesign services to realign with the current courteous. we are unable to maintain services given the budget constraints. in february, we are sharing information and a gathering feedback. there is going to be more information coming out of the summit that will be held saturday.

we are trying to work with the sites that will be affected by this by sending letters to parents, meeting with them, helping them identify alternative ways to access transportation. we have a web survey and actually we have a website that they can -- we have an e-mail account where they can get information for families and give feedback from them. in march and april, the board will be about waiting the feedback and determine what the final process will be in terms of transportation. there is a snapshot of our staff at the educational center. as much as we can, we want to

serve families. we are going out to the community, to the neighborhoods to get the word out. thank you. >> thank-you. >> ok, we will open up for questions. >> just a couple of questions. one on the topic of transportation. taking a look your slide which shows they are losing transportation. there are those that have high numbers of writer ship. -- ridership. i am under -- i am trying to understand what is the reason these were chosen. are they coming from areas that they did not necessarily need the transportation poops -- the transportation?

>> there were at several that we looked at. one there are many families affected by that. we mapped out where they lived and where they were going so at the school in particular, they were accessing those that are in close proximity to the school. so, we thought there is an opportunity there to be able to develop alternative ways for those students to access programs. they have to cross a couple of streets. a couple of the spots are only about three or four blocks away from the school. >> would they be partnering with

those after-school providers to make sure there is a safe transition? >> yes, we plan to work with some of these areas. somewhere in close proximity to the school. we did look at the writer should and some of the schools that we chose, some had three what the going to an after-school program. we know that it is difficult but we want to work with those families and those principles.

>> three of them were actually going to profit after school? >> correct. >> i gave you have a high level. some of them -- i'm looking at the wrong slide. some of the stops, there was some were only three students were getting on but they were not going to an after-school program. >> kids were coming from the area. they were close enough to approximate. >> ok. >> with regard to transportation, one of the

concerns we have heard from the use commission is just that it is and difficult to get this done by the transportation school district. and some time, we might want to bring that up and how it is that the school district is planning to distribute those passes because that seems to be an issue with transportation. on another topic which is on the middle school pattern, i wanted to clarify that i heard correctly that you had talked about three different options that the school board would be considering. one is really to have a feeder pattern and option a, b, c. it sounds like you said that the school districts choice was option c. you are saying that that is a

phased approach but i'm not sure that is really a phase in because the conversation about middle school was talked about, i think this was two years ago, it has been delayed one more year ending saturday been delayed. you would have younger siblings and test core areas. >> it can be changed. we want to have opportunities for our attendance areas and the school committees to kick in with this new process. if we were to use this process

for several years, we would probably see a change over time of some of the students attending schools. we're hoping if their corn to be accessing their favorite schools, that that would become a natural cedar. at some point with this phase in, we want to give time for this process to come into play and then there would be an opportunity to use the middle school feeders as stronger links. at this time, it will be a tie breaker. >> what is the timeline -- what is the time line for this? this is important information to relate to parents. option b was what we should be

talking about when it was being considered. i don't think that it follows through. it would be important for parents to be notified. >> i think that it can be negotiated. i know that there are conversations about which should take priority over others. it would also give an opportunity for the district to work on the planning of our middle school to make sure that the quality programs are in place. there is a whole other level of work happening in our middle schools and we want to make sure that all the programs are in place, and the language programs, to make sure that all of our students needs are met. it discourages the process and involuntary parent participation in this virtual proposal that we have.

this gives the district a little bit more time to do that planning. >> was there a time when the school district would be making the decision? >> i'm hoping that by may the district will have a determination about which approach they want to take and after that, we will be able to get more information out to the public. >> what could be useful for us is to let us know in advance when those public comment opportunities would be before the decision is made. that would be helpful for us to get the word out to the community organizations. >> there are some meetings that are being coined now and there is also an e-mail that we would like families to use that is good opportunity for families to

give us feedback as well. >> i know that the draft middle school theater pattern is currently in draft form. i'm not sure if it is prop it to talk about but -- i not sure if it is appropriate to talk about. there is a specialty language components and i don't see them assigned to any particular school. >> yes. >> ok. the graph shows a color pattern that indicates where different schools should be. i am sure there was probably some conversations that went into the proposals. perhaps in an intervening time, you could set up a time with our office and we are interested in looking at the different patterns. >> absolutely, we can call your

office and talk about this. >> thank you. i would like to add to what was said. you have been working on this for a long time. we have been working on this much longer than you have and we have put a lot of hours and work in this. we are in appreciation of what you have been doing. we have had many plants. all of these are televised. we encourage the public to watch these on television if they cannot attend the meetings. they are available on our website. so, for the public that might be listening, we have many meetings planned and we do encourage you

to come out and speak and give us your input. we also have them and different of languages. not only in english. part of addressing our transportation, some of the conversation that has happened is that we are trying to align our after-school learning opportunities at school sites. we were giving free transportation to profit providers bonds to private and providers of after-school programs. we can no longer do that. our strategy is also to have after-school programs on site. that is our goal. also, about our middle school, we did option 3 which staff recommended.

we are trying to make this decision aligned with the strengthening of our curriculum and programming and when we look at the middle school programs, we must take into consideration that we are creating language also and different programming in other schools. i think this approach, while we look at the decision, we felt we did not want to rush into this because many things were interconnected to the decision. i look forward to to have been a representative come back to this meeting once it is decided and hopefully. then we will have information about 2012-2013.

>> i am speaking on behalf of the city. i wanted the supervisors and the commissioners to know that in regards to the lifeline, we have been having multiple conversations in regards to having the city support and distribution to see if there is some way that they can help us distribute those accordingly. the school district has had some challenges around having the ability to collect others on the site. there is distribution and then thinking about how we identify all the students at each of the sites. one way that we can engage in the organization to ensure that these are getting directly to the students.

i want to make you aware of that. secondly, 311 has been a great partner for the school district. the staff has been working to train the staff to make sure that when families, about enrollment questions that 311 can answer the general questions. they have been working closely to make sure that information gets out to to the city and services. >> thank you. i just would like to think the announcement and some of the hard work that she does with the city and school district. i am looking forward to getting more information on how that is

working out. with regards to the school assignment issue and is just a feeder issue, i appreciate the work that the school board members make. in particular, i appreciate the fact that this is very much in the purview of the school board. i appreciate that you work on this far more in depth than we do. by virtue of us have in this community here, this stresses the necessity to work together and make sure the communication is present because i cannot tell you how many hundreds of parents call our office every day because they think that we are you. we need to be in communication about what is that the school district is representing because when we had this conversation two years ago about what this would look a dike, everyone thought there would be things to work out. -- when we had this conversation two years ago about what this

would look like. this would be a stronger connection and allow for more success at the middle school level. this is what we have been sharing with parents when they're concerned about a delay in implementation. we said, don't worry, the school district is working on it. i just want to relate that if it is going to be a diversion from what is that the school district talked about, it is important but we know also that the committee knows that they can respond to it as well. thank you. >> i just want to piggyback on what was said and i appreciate your comments, supervisor chu. i think the reason why this has taken on her and taken a different shape than maybe we are originally talked about is that a really productive conversation about what is middle school quality. -- then maybe we originally talked about is that it sparked

a rally productive conversation. what are the values in our program? part of when we began to implement the feeder patterns, we realized that we were going to jeopardize program quality in some ways and that we really needed to engage our community more about what they wanted for their children. so, i actually think that this is frustrating for community members to have the delay and this will lead to a much more productive transformation of our middle school program. i think that the effort that will be going on over the next few months, all of the city, these conversations which we will be asking people these questions about which option do they like, which programs to they want, what does the quality

mean to you? this will give us a lot more information about how this serves the community. statement. -- stay tuned. this will lead to a better outcome. >> thank you very very much. i just a -- had -- i wanted to o a quick check in with supervisor chu. there was a time when the community as a whole came back to the school district really based on community conversation to put forward almost two sides. yes, continue the very predictable pattern.

it is almost a very localized -- my child is going to this elementary school and they will go to this middle school nearby. this is reasonably nearby. also there was a large amount of feedback really not wanting that. really wanted a lot more choice. particularly noting the quality of all of our middle schools as commissioner norton has explained and expressed. we had deviated from what was said regularly, and there was a shift. since i don't sit on that committee or that meeting, but almost half of our members were parents, talking about predictability, talking about these things for two years.

but a strong voice came forward in that audience, saying, please hold off on this. we need more research. but think what ended up with the board of education is, how do we serve both arguments, which are absolute be valid, but figure out how to give a complement to improving the quality of our middle schools and also creating more choice. but prior to that scission -- that decision by the board of education, there was the conversation about predictability, and that was first and foremost in the priority level. your comments are well taken. many of those parents have one that what we have talked about for years, and they come from. wherley where you are serving

from a supervisor's -- they come from primarily where you are serving from as supervisors. i wanted to mention that as well. it is definitely the incumbent upon us, communicating with the constituents in such a major way. it would be our due diligence to speak with you about that and explain that and have the conversation with you. >> i wanted to ask a quick question about the saturday dates you have proposed for families to get assessments. i did not know the locations. the location to get assessments and counseling, will those be at 505 franklin, or will those travel round the city? >> we're doing language

assessment primarily at the epc, but we're doing some out and the community. then the next couple of weeks we going out. there is a schedule and flyer, and when families submit their application, we will look at that to see if lined with the assessment is necessary. we contact families. >> thank you. again, i also wanted to support the commentary that our meetings are televised. that is an important issue, that these meetings are televised. we specifically ask them to support us in this conversation, and we have multiple cbo's who are in partnership with us. they know how to access

communities that we as a district organization do not have access to, at and we have been able to nuance some of the conversation. some of the conversations are a little bit ahead, but others need to be explained in a different manner and come back again and again so they clearly understand. i want to let the public know these conversations are televised, they are on the radio, they are available later on the computer, all types of ways to access this information, and hopefully we will. we have a website, there is an e-mail. all of those things are taken into consideration, and have been taken into serious consideration at the board of education during this process and by the staff. i have to say a majority of the

conversation has been nuanced by the community and the needs of the committee and what they have expressed -- and the needs of the community and what have expressed. i recognize that not everybody will be totally satisfied, but we are happy if 80% are completely satisfied and 20% are willing to go with us through the process. thank you. >> i have a quick question for you. you mentioned that you are doing psa's. i am curious, which outlets are you utilizing? >> various radio stations, in chinese and spanish as well. we have used the television stations, the community

announcements. our public engagement office is helping project office of cuban occasions, i am sorry, they get the psa's out to the television and radio. >> commissioner norton, did you get your questions answered? ok, thank you. are there any public comments? public comment? ok. well, public comment is closed. ok. thank you everyone who came to participate in the discussion. madam clerk, are there any other agenda items? ok, thanks.

this meeting is adjourned. thank you.