i would have to check. this is why we tried to get this decision compressed in this way tonight. >> if i am unable to do that, i will. i certainly will. >> since we are talking about a special meeting on thursday for the board, why can't we just vote after this discussion at the special meeting on thursday? >> we are talking about a special meeting of not the full board, but the budget committee [unintelligible]

>> again, this is just a suggestion. >> so does everybody understand what the option is in order to give the board members of little bit more time to have a discussion around the budget peace? he would have a regular budget meeting on the twenty eighth, we would have a special meeting right after to discuss this one item. it would be brought on may 3 half of the committee as a whole meeting for final vote? is there a question about what the proposed timeline is? this is provided that the state would be willing to put this on their agenda and willing to address in it if need be. >> just a point of clarification. what is supposed to take place and before that? -- take place before that? they can come and answer the

questions that have been stated here? that is the purpose that comes to the budget meeting for the presentation. is it to clarify those things? >> did you have any opportunity to have dialogue with edison? as you were making recommendations, it did not sound like that happened. >> not with edison, certainly. this is the second immediate tim e we've reviewed their budget. he has certainly been the case that if there was a deficiency identified, where one thing was corrected, it went back and

forth. because the petitions are supposed to be complete perfected a, when they come to us, we have not had the back and forth to do that. if we had unlimited time and staff to do that. >> so the only chance was when a clarification can on the actual verses' rounding it out. >> if i am looking at something like this and looking at an average, it takes away those kind of things. it is not the maximum amount for every individual person. they take into account how many people use their wives health

insurance and independent, so what and so forth. this is based on how many people are to the health insurance and how many people are not. these are the kinds of thing is where if the assumption is not put forward in a clear way, we're going to have some issues about that. that is what we tried to move on. >> i just wanted to expand on nancy's comment. the groups that have clarified during that time, it is essentially the same process tonight. we made a budget report, we provided the opportunity to ask questions to the petitioner group tonight. even though it is taking place in one night, it is similar to past processes.

>> that is a little concerning. >> i just wanted to add for consistency purposes, the education code is very clear on the timeline. we need either process new charters or old charters. it is very strict. the goal of the outline, part of the reason why we had all this confusion with the state board of education was precisely because we were getting things piecemeal. the charter petitions in illegally compliant manner, the entry of the charter of the same if we allow some charters to submit a complete petition and others to submit an incomplete information, as a matter of practice, they require them to be complete in order to trigger

the statute. >> if we go through the process that we are about to agree upon, are we going to allow them to respond and complete their questions prior to our meeting on the third? order early not allowed to do that because we don't allow that to other charters? >> other charters have the ability to offer clarifying information, but they can submit a supplemental information. -- they can't submit supplemental information. if they submit a different budget, you would be treating this charter different than you have others. >> but they can provide an explanation to the board? commissioner yee: i was just going to say again, earlier, i

am uncomfortable. it is not for me to say that the staff is wrong, they did the analysis. there were some issues with it. but in the budget committee, when we heard these issues, petitioners will try to explain what is meant and so forth. we had a lot more time to digest that information. there would be times when that doesn't make any sense. it makes sense. as we move forward with the petition, there is the sort of explanation. we ask them to tweak a few things to make sure that, under their petition, everything is going to be fine with us. that a sort of the previous

practice. -- is sort of the previous practice. if they can explain the logic behind the differences, that would be really helpful. commissioner maufas: i'm sorry. i want to support them coming to the budget committee. it is different. we are televised. we are on the radio. just the environment is different. i think that provides a little more opportunity to have somewhat more of a dialogue with the board members. for us to be more free in our questions as well, i feel very constricted by this environment and trying to discuss with them what the concerns are that i have. i have truncated all of my questions based on our environment today. i think a committee meeting is a

much more appropriate environment to have those discussions with them. it doesn't reflect on you, miss richards. it would be a minimal -- amenable to putting that on the agenda considering we are going to great lengths to do what they have asked us to do. commissioner fewer: one last comment. since we are televised, i just wanted to say that it is disturbing that these numbers don't coincide with the numbers that you had. i think they add up to quite a difference over 3 1/4 years -- 3 or 4 years. i don't think that i think that the idea that we are projecting for the future means we are basing it on the past.

the idea that some teachers don't take benefits, some do, that is not, to me, a very sound financial planning. sound financial planning is that you have this many, you assume that you have to pay this much in health benefits. it isn't a big amount every year, but the amount adds up. over five years, that amount will be in excess of $250,000. that is enough to make the school not successful. i just wanted to say that before i get clarification and a confirmation of exactly what is going on. people at home listening can understand what our new process is going to be. correct me if i am wrong, we will have a special meeting of

the budget committee augmented meaning that all board members may attend. we will take a vote at that time. they will vote to approve or not approve the charter renewal. and we will have hah -- that after the budget meeting on the twenty eighth. that will start at about 7:30 or 8:00. we will have the full vote of the board on may 3. is that correct? after the committee as a whole. the vote on the twenty eighth is the budget committee's recommendation only. in may 3 will be the full board. everybody clear? gray. -- great. if you have to. [laughter]

>> just a point of clarification, do we have to make a recommendation to postpone this bill? president mendoza: with regards to this item, we want to postpone the so which is heard on may 3. there will be the interim budget meeting. how do i need a vote on that? we will have a final vote on the denial of this charter. any questions? thank you all very much for this very lively conversation. item i is a board member's proposals.

item j. a. request to speak on general matters. -- a request to speak on general matters. many of you have been waiting patiently for this item. i will call your name. a police lineup. we have probably lost a few people. i have over 35 speakers speaking tonight. i am going to ask you keep your comments to a minute and a half. there are a lot of you speaking on very common items, so if you can be generous to all of us and say something different or keep your comments brief and not use up your entire time, that would be great. is the family still here?

that's you back there. i only have speaker cards for a couple of you. there are students in the audience that are speaking? are there any students in the audience that are speaking? a couple. are you speaking on the r.l. stevenson matter? the lincoln high school musuic one. i will have you guys come up. i will have you guys come up. the r.l. stevenson family, there are a couple of you on that. [reads names] and then tim collins, craig

hollin, olivia hendrix, diane gomez,. [reads names] come on up. start lining up so i can see who you are. [reads names] and then we're going to have mike powell, mario ballard, hillary jensen and pam

hoffman. [reads names] how many cec? where's maryann? just two of you? ok, thank you. [reads names] come on up. state your name. >> my name is kelly, i'm a representative of the robert louis stevenson school. president mendoza: again, we will need to keep your voice is down. if you will have a conversation, step outside and be respectful to the speakers. >> as i was saying, i am representing all of the parents

for the students that go to the robert louis stevenson school. we have a problem in the school because one of the teachers is absent 70% of the year. imagine what you would do if you have a problem teacher like that attending school. all of the parents are worried right now because she is coming back this year. all of the students, parents, they are scared that the students might be assigned to her class. students and parents deal with different substitutes [unintelligible] they deserve to be taught by teachers that are good role models. we're not sure if she is physically ill or mentally ill because we are not doctors. for a person to be absent 70% of the year, it is not really

inconsistent. the packet that you are holding in your hand right now, these are the samples of the parent's letters written to our principal. we get no response. there are approximately 500 signatures in the package. we have approximately 40 parents over here. it is hard to assemble that many people together around for the day's meeting -- today's meeting. what you guys are looking at right now is a very great problem that we have. [beeping] is my minute up already? i'll wrap it up. what can the school board do for us and the children? and what can parents expect for

the near-term resolution to this ongoing problem? who can we contact to follow up for the resolution? that's it. [applause] president mendoza: you've had an opportunity to have a conversation on that. we will nature that somebody follows up with you. -- make sure somebody follows up with you. >> i am also representing very frustrated and upset parents attending robert louis stevenson. . . we are here to request for the reassignment or removal of this particular season from r.o.s. so she will not have direct contact or interaction with our children. we feel that three objectives should be part of the goal and responsibility of the school

district. number one is equal quality education for all school children. children are deprived from quality education due to the problem teacher prolonged absence and failure to teach. second, promote and cultivate inspiration, motivation will in learning, children have lost inspiration and mote vathevation to learn -- motivation to learn with often many different substitute teachers and finally provide safe haven for all the school children. president mendoza: thank you. superintendent garcia: we're aware of that situation and i want to you know that we are really looking into it. my understanding is for the remainder of this school year we already have a substitute that will be permanent for the remainder of the school year there. and that's situation. but in the meantime, it is a

personnel item so it's really difficult for to us discuss that publicly because we do have to address. that but i will tell you that we're very aware of it and we're working on that. ok? i want to thank you all, all the community, for coming this evening. thank you very much. >> can you follow up? superintendent garcia: yes. maybe we can get the phone number so you can have -- susan here can give you the phone number of the assistant superintendent that's overseeing that issue. president mendoza: great. thank you. thank you for staying. >> hello, everyone. my name is oilivia hendrix and i'm going to be talking about the lincoln music thing. i'm a 12th grade student and have been in music since seventh grade. when i first started playing music in band i just thought it was something fun and cool. i had no idea that it could change me for the rest of my

life and turn me into someone who i thought could only exist on tv and in movies. it wasn't until high school when i really began to understand what music was about and what it can provide for people. music is a community, a place where people can come and not feel left out or mistreated. everyone is important when it comes to music because we all need each other to help create that musical world. for me music was the one place i look forward to the most in middle school and until this day. music gives me a place to escape from the everyday pressure and stress of school. my neighborhood and my own personal doubts and fears. when i pull out my instrument and begin to play, all of my troubles melt away because i know that i live -- at the very moment i am part of something bigger. this is the one thing i can do right. that at the enof the day i can go -- oh, i can go home feeling like there's a subject in school that i can really connect with and understand.

i have more but i don't want to get the beep again so i'm going -- [laughter] thank you. president mendoza: thank you. >> hello. my name is drew. i'm a senior at george washington high school. our school is very fortunate to have like such a great music program and we want lincoln to have the same opportunity as we do. the students in our band get the opportunity to play at solo ensemble and all city. we get to learn from college professors and professional musicians. and the japanese embassy heard of our band and asked us to play music to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first ship from japan to come to the united states.

we also play in small groups at the cliff house hotel lobbies and restaurants sometimes and we get donations from people and we were able to raise $20,000 for our marching band uniforms and we are able to put the marching band for the first time in over 30 years from public school. thank you. president mendoza: thank you. >> good evening, board. i'm the instrumental music director at george washington high school. i'm here actually on a different capacity. i'm here representing aim and in the very large shoes of dan ryan whose name i know you all know as a great arts advocate who we lost in february. and he very much wanted to see music reinstated at lincoln and told that that would be the case this upcoming school year and there's been a decision made for that not to happen so we're

asking to you please look at that and reinstate music at lincoln high school so those students and my colleagues have a place to play. thank you. president mendoza: thank you. >> good evening, board. i'm don, the former instrumental director of lincoln high school and as you're well aware, with my consolidation from lincoln last spring, that brought about with the end of instrumental music. so i just wanted to share with you that i do find it very painful that we have a high school of 2,500 students with no music being offered. we have students coming in from very strong band and orchestra programs who don't have a music program for them. there's a large amount of instruments available. there's a large library of sheet music available and i'm here. so i would love nothing more than to return to lincoln and rebuild instrumental music. thank you. >> hi. i'm diana gomez. i'm the band teacher at pricido middle school. i spoke to the board several

times about seven years ago as the president of a.i.m., association of unstrubblingters of music, which was the last time we were active in trying to save music programs. that's when all the music teachers were pink slipped. so i remember speaking with you personally at that time, being with frustrated at the decision making because we no longer have any kind of a mandate that music or the arts are going to be supplied at different schools. and in those seven years i've watched school after school after school cut, cut, cut, cut music. the sad piece of this is that this is a step in the lowering of our great united states of america culture. our children are not being raised to understand this great western music. in the city of san francisco which has a world class symphony orchestra and op remark the symphony supports our music programs by bringing in

teachers, by giving free tickets to students and their families to their orchestra concerts. and the thing that's the most sad about this to me, and i have my gray hair now, i was raised in the state of california and i was brought up a musician. i play the flute professionally here in our great city and i teach kids at the middle school and the parents of my students don't even have music in their background because they are much younger than me and they have been going through school, they went through schools that didn't have good music programs or even any music programs. please, please, please consider what is happening when you take -- huge band, huge orchestra and huge choir and you take hoover's outstanding band, orchestra and choir and you put most of those schools into a high school that has zero music. thank you. >> good evening.

my name is tim hurly. i'm a parent at start king elementary school and there are some other parents here. we've unfortunately lot a -- lost a few due to the length of the meeting tonight. i have two daughters. one of whom is in what we call the pioneering class and we're now seeking a middle school home as i'm sure you quite know. we consider ourselves one of the many typical kinds of san francisco families and when we were looking for an elementary school we looked at all options including private schools. we were excited to find a language program in a public school. my wife and i are both products of a public school system in california except for a minor stint in grad school where we did all of our work in the public school system in california and we were rather dedicated to it forever our children as well -- for our children as well. and we're hoping to continue to have our children participate in public schools into the middle school and high school level. i just wanted to talk a little bit about the success of the

mandarin emersion program in the district. time already? well, my friends and colleagues, the school will be doing that as well. i would just wrap up by saying, without being able to get into the details, that we really desire to work with the board going forward, to ensure that the successes that hopefully will be able to tall talk about tonight can continue into middle school and high school. we think that the mandarin emersion program in particular is a great asset to the school district. this board has shown a lot of leadership and vision in implementing it. now the challenge is to keep it going as this pioneering class moves forward. and we hope that from k through 12 mandarin emersion in particular will be a magnet for the school district. thanks for your time. president mendoza: thank you. >> hi, i was a graduate of the san francisco unified school district system. notce