we are doing an auction on april 28. we'll be showing our artwork and you guys are all welcome to come. i also obtained a job at trader joe's with help from the bridges to work program. i am currently working four days a week, learning through internship program has helped me to think about my goals and have helped me to focus on my transition to adulthood. i've written resume, cover letters and learned job readiness skills. i am glad big picture is helping me to pursue my interests in photography and allowing me to gain valuable life skills which i will take with me after i graduate high school. thank you. up next is kevin brooks. >> thank you and good evening. as hugo said, my name is kevin brooks and i'm the l.c.i. coordinator which stands for learning through internship coordinatorment and i'm also

behavioral counselor with big picture san francisco p.c.c. one of my responsibilities is to be the liaison between our students and the internship sites and to facilitate successful transitions like the ones you've been listening to. our students come from very diverse backgrounds, cultures and beliefs. but all have one common thread. and that being an interest in something. our jobs as advisors, counselors, therapists andan administraters are to engage that interest for whatever drives each student's passion and turn it into a successful internship and real world learning experiences. our motto at school is, one student at a time. and by realizing each student's individual learning style and supporting their interests, we have been and will continue to be successful in achieving our ultimate goals which are improved self-esteem, improved attendance, reduced recidivism and graduation from high school, real world learning skills that

will be used for the rest of their lives. finally, we're going to have helen parker, which is one of our advisors, read for one with of our students who couldn't be here tonight. the poem is entitled "me" and it's a.m. an example of the positive -- and it's an example of the positive transmation big picture brings about -- transfer mation big picture brings about. >> me. i feel like i'm not me, like i lost myself at sea, something's changing, i don't understand, i feel like a whole new woman. i'm becoming mature, it's time to be me. to change my ways for me, my family. and to -- i feel refreshed and i feel whole. maybe i finally found my soul. through all the darkness i see the light. i'm a new person and this one i like. by rochelle swanson.

thank you. . . claque that concludes the students -- >> that concludes the students' presentation. commissioner maufas: thank you so much for coming, students. i really appreciate you being here. can you tell me -- you are called the principal center. can you come here so you do not have to keep getting up? that way i can just ask you and you can decide to answer as you see fit. you just push the button, as you did before.

i am curious from you were called before and how you are called big picture. how did you describe that to somebody who asks you about your school? how do you describe what it means to you? how you translate that information to somebody who does not know anything about your school? >> can you please repeat it? [laughter] [applause] commissioner maufas: i can. i am curious. when somebody says, "what school did you go to," and you say, "the big picture" -- i would ask, if i did not know. tell me how you describe your school to somebody who does not know about your school, and how you feel about your school. >> usually, they have a confused

look on their face, like what is that. i tell them we usually learn how we want. usually, you learn career interests. if you want to do research on somebody -- i am doing a project on the jfk assassination. i am starting to read facts about it, acting more into detail. beacon that history credits like that. -- we can get history credits like that, and english credits for writing essays. also, we can read books like textbooks if we want. but we do math on the computer, on a website, so we can do things like that. basically, i have seen a change in people at our school. people enjoy it. and people like to do things how

they want to learn, like internships, passions, and interests, things like that. commissioner maufas: does it feel the same for the rest of you? >> yes. commissioner maufas: and can you tell me more? is your family from honduras? how did you pick honduras? >> i family is from honduras. last summer, i went to honduras. i met a couple of people who had been a fever. during that time, i got interested. when i started coming to cdd, i realized we had a choice of what to study and research. i guess i decided to research- and a fever -- research dengue fever. commissioner murase: of you -- commissioner maufas: have you been able to tell your family

about the disease? >> they thought it was a cure for it. commissioner maufas: is there? >> this moment, not really. commissioner maufas: thank you. can i ask one more question? you mentioned when i came over to welcome you all that you were able to bit nervous. how do you feel now? >> i feel good now that everybody knows about my school. i feel good. commissioner maufas: this is a welcoming place. and what you all to know that. thank you for coming. superintendent garcia: i guess the question a lot of people would want to know -- all of you attended a high school. what is the difference between the schools you attended and where you are attending today? >> regular school, it is like

the teachers -- we come in class and we learn about -- they just throw us textbooks and tell us to read. we don't want to learn about that. we want to learn what we want to learn about, like what are we interested in. i want to go to college and play football. it is like regular school teachers are just giving us textbooks and what we have to learn about. superintendent garcia: any others? >> when i personally started, i did not like the school. when it became big pictures, i understood how the school worked and became more mature. i enjoy going to school now. superintendent garcia: you

probably have seen the building we are looking at. how do you feel about where you are now? >> i feel great about moving to a new school. i do not think anybody wants to come to this school. when they see a new building, i feel they will want to start coming. president mendoza: deputy superintendent? >> i want to congratulate you for the wonderful presentation this evening. public speaking is the greatest share of adults, and you did a great job this evening. -- the greatest fear of adults, and you did a great job this evening. [applause] this question goes to anybody that wants to answer. it is pretty simple. are you proud of your school? >> yes, i am proud. >> i like going to school now.

>> what are you going to do to make sure your school remains a school to be proud of? >> be a role model for the ones that start attending. >> you are going to make sure your school is a school to be proud of, the school year should be attending. how are you going to be part of the neighborhood? what are you going to do to show people you are proud of your school? >> let them know how our school works. >> try to get involved with more community activity. >> we have to get the female voice in. what do you think? no pressure. >> basically, try your best to do your exhibition. exhibition is the best way to show your work to students

coming to the school so they can get a better experience when they do their exhibition. >> we are very proud of all of you for not giving up. we haven't given up and you haven't given up, so we are very proud of you. congratulations, and i will see you on the football field. commissioner fewer: i just wanted to know. for the commissioners here, what would be the best time for us to visit your school to may be observed the exhibition? >> that would be the tour of the school? >> the best time is may 16 through may 20. commissioner fewer: at what time? >> all day. >> it is all day. commissioner murase: thank you

all. this has been very helpful. you have probably heard that at the past few meetings we have heard from a lot of the neighborhood about their concerns about your school moving into the neighborhood. i think tonight is an important opportunity to talk about what your school will bring to the community. if you could think of one or two ideas on how to contribute to your new surrounding community, what you can do to invite the neighbors into your school, some community service project you might think about, in terms of working together with the community around the school? >> was that a question? [laughter] commissioner murase: my question is can you think of one or two events or community service projects or ways to relieve

bridge to the neighbors? >> while we were in school, we had eight kids come over into our school, like an open house. commissioner murase: you can think about that. vice president yee: i was able to get out there. i saw these diagrams or pictures of several students, i guess, hanging on the wall, that shows what you are interested in. then it's sort of had eras going all over the place. i am just wondering. is that how you start your interests? i mean when you start discovering what you are interested in to learn, is that

sort of the activity you start with? do you know what i am talking about? >> are you trying to say our learning plan? vice president yee: the learning plan. >> when we first started, everyone was confused. we did lessons to see what we were interested in. over time, people changed their interests. they started with art and expanded to maybe culinary photography, and veterinary -- things like that. i guess that happens. vice president yee: i was impressed when i was out there when i walked into -- i think it was your classroom, a math class. i walked ian -- -- walked in. somebody brought me in.

the first thing the girls were doing is they looked at me like get out of here, i am trying to learn some math, rather than being happy to see someone to disturb the class. it was like get out, we need to learn. that was pretty impressive. i do have a question. if you had an opportunity to talk to some of your friends from the other schools, would you try to convince them to go to the big picture school? >> yes, i would. i would tell my friends to come to that school because it is based on what you want to do and how you do it. >> i would tell my friends to come to the school because we can learn job skills, what job skills or we want to learn before we get a job, or internships.

i am trying to go to be a chef. i am trying to cook after school. i would bring my friends to our school. big picture is a good school. >> i would tell people to come, anybody. we also visited a school in oakland that is just like ours. when i went, people enjoyed it. when the had assemblies, everybody was into it, not that some people did not want to do it. everybody was getting up and doing activities. our school is like that too. everybody is involved. >> i was just wondering how big our classes. >> are you talking about

students? a class is like 20, 10 students per class. it is like eight or 10. but we are still trying to grow. that is why we are moving our school, so our school can build up and be big, like regular schools. commissioner murase: i just wanted to inform my colleagues and acknowledge the board of directors who are here. students, you are very fortunate that you have people who really want to ensure your success. you have your administrators, bankers, attorneys, who are all thinking very carefully about the future of the school. i think that is unique among students to have that kind of backing behind you. i want to acknowledge those board members that are here in

the audience today. [applause] >> i just want to say thanks to everybody who supports our school. thank you. president mendoza: thank you. i think it was important for everybody to hear more about your school. thank you for being here this evening. have a good rest of the year. thank you. [applause] next item is public comment on consent items. we have two speakers on this.

as she is standing up, i want to acknowledge our former city attorney, who is personally involved in our principal center schools. thank you for being here this evening. item f is public comment on consent items. the speakers i have art linda flack and dennis kelly. >> good evening, members of the board, superintendent garcia, ladies and gentlemen. i rise to speak about the item on page 72, a resolution that proposes to discuss the expenditure of over $15 million to provide services to special

education students when no appropriate public education services are available to serve the individual needs of students with disabilities. but i rise to question whether we have made the best choices for the money we spend. $15 million. please look at the list on page 72. many of the schools that you see on the list are in san francisco or the bay area. but there are several that are very far away. is that necessary? for example, number three is in chester county, pennsylvania. no. 10 is in wichita kansas -- wichita, kansas. no. 17 is in provo, utah.

no. 23 is in ohio. and number 29, which is i think the same school as 30, is in devereaux, florida. my question to you is they are very far away. are these the only places in the united states where these services can be provided? certainly, when we take into account that they are boarding schools, that there are transportation costs, one must question this. the union has urged san francisco unified school district to provide access to these services through the school district for many years. we hope that we can begin to reduce this huge outlay of money and provide these services to our students internally,

within the san francisco unified school district. thank you. president mendoza: thank you. >> commissioners of the board of education, superintendent carlos garcia in the pink shirt -- [laughter] i rise to speak to you about two items. they are on page 32, item 3k. the item there is remarkable and commendable because the school district, through the decision not to modernize one campus and to have the contractor hurry the work at another campus to save -- has saved $50,000. that goes back into the bond

fund and can be used for other projects. when you see that, it makes you worry about what is being done with some of the other bond expenditures, such as the one across the street. the incredible work that is planned for the john your campus -- john muir campus in order to create some administrative offices, when presumably, if you looked at, for instance, horace mann, you could move in bungalows and administrators could live in bungalows the same with the kids are. i also ask you to look at page 66, item k6, the employee assistance program. if you look not at the expenditure, not at the good intention of it, but how it was

chosen, and not a single one of the people who are intended to participate in the program were involved in getting the programs available -- vetting the programs available or making the selection of this program. that is not the best way to operate something like this. you want the people involved in it to participate in this election. thank you very much. president mendoza: thank you. item g is the consent calendar. commissioner wynns: i motion to pass the consent calendar. >> we have one correction to an item on page 95, item 114.26k20. the list was not attached, so i am going to read the list. the schools are longfellow and mission. the number of students at each

site that will be served are 70. president mendoza: ok. >> 70 per site. president mendoza: any item severed by the board or the superintendent before the discussion or the vote tonight? commissioner norton: k8 on page 70. commissioner fewer: same one. president mendoza: any others? thank you. roll-call vote will take place under section o. item eight is the superintendent proposal. this is an authorization to grant or deny the renewal petition for thomas edison charter academy. the reading of the resolution,

please. >> thank you. good evening, commissioners. i am the director of the division overseeing charter schools for the district. before i read the resolution into the record, i would request that board members hear a report of the budget and financial sections of the petition. as i explained before and sent communication to the board, because of the expedited nature, we will render a report.

president mendoza: are other items in our pocket for this? >> just to note also in the stuff written factual findings -- staff-written factual findings in the back of your pink package, starting on page 4, it contains all findings inclusive of the budget and financial section. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is nancy wamack. i am the director of financial policy for the district. i am going to walk through comments based on the matrix for tractor renewal that we go through when we look at renewal for a charter petition. ms. richards has summarized the comments i made in these findings. we will be saying the same thing, but in a different

format. the first section of was asked to review was the financial audit section. while there was information about the audit that was completed in 2010, most of this information was based upon completion of the prior year audit, rather than an indication of how the audit would be completed in the years of the petition for which we were something this renewal. the procedure for selecting and retaining an independent auditor was not included, nor were the qualifications of the independent auditor or the timeline for achieving exceptions. an appendix was added from the first submission of this document with a letter showing the scope of an audit for the 2010 audit, but the structure should include what the scope of the audit will be going forward. that is a concern i have with

leaving that out of the document. again, the timing of the audit for 2010 is described on page 38 of the charter petition, but it does not say what the policy of the school will be regarding the timing of audits and audit procedures, and addressing exceptions over the term of the charter, which is what is called for. moving forward to the actual documentation of the budget, it is not relevant to have a startup budget because this is an ongoing torture. there were planning assumptions included in the documentation was provided, including the numbers of students and staff, at least in some versions. let me move on down.