we anticipated this so in addition to the public forums in our middle schools we also conducted meetings at several elementary schools to make sure we were hearing from parents from different and diverse experience and backgrounds. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> first two forums were very large. 120 people respectively. after that they were smaller. in fact, several of the meetings at elementary schools had more participants than some of the middle school forums. and a few forums, the dynamic was hostile and a few parents heckled district staff and p.a.c. members. other forums were much calmer for reasons, including simply having fewer people in one room. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> we're not going to say anything tonight about what parents were saying at the forums because we're still working to carefully go over the transcripts. we're developing the report of findings of these forums. our recommendations for board and district actions related to these proposals. this will be a joint report of the parent advisory council and parents for public schools. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> finally, we present this report to both ad hoc committee on student assignment. which we hope you all attend on monday, may 9. the reports will be available in english, spanish and chinese to the p.a.c. and the district's website. thank you. president mendoza: thank you. any questions? members? commissioner murase: i just want to really thank the p.a.c. for this outreach effort. several of us attended the -- one of the last community conversations at the sal valley and it wasn't well attend but the people who were there really valued the interaction, learned a lot and it's so essential. i really do take to heart your conclusion about the format because i participated in these when they were school-based and we had really rich

conversations, there was very good attendance. it's something that we should think about in terms of our outreach, that's the best format for getting diverse feedback. thank you again. vice president yee: i also want to echo my appreciation of p.a.c. in doing these 17 workshops. it's true. it was tough. i went to a few of them and some were calm and some weren't so calm. and some of the parents in uncalm types of situations were heckling and weren't very nice people, considering that p.a.c. is not really part of the school district, they're independent of us and they were just providing opportunities for parents to voice their -- voice their opinions. in one of those where i saw that happen, i was glad to see that the p.a.c. members were able to stand up and say to those folks

that, listen, you know, we're just trying to get input, we're not -- we're not controlling this. so, again, i appreciate your effort. president mendoza: thank you. commissioner wynns:. i also wanted to thank you and remind everybody that the assignment committee will meet on may 9 here. that will be our first meeting of the year but one of the main topics of discussion will be the middle school proposed pattern. so i hope that your findings will be forthcoming at that meeting or before and that also you'll be there representing to be part of the discussion because we need everybody to come and be in on this. commissioner fewer: yes. i attended two of the sessions and the ones that i attended didn't have a lot of people there. and so i'm glad that you held them at elementary school sites

in targeted areas. i think that was a good thing. thank you for assisting us with this and i look forward to hearing about the report. president mendoza: thank you. i want to thank you as well. some of the cause we've been getting are from those who say they are grateful there was a place for them to come and be able so to share their thoughts and ideas. so you've helped me with my emailbox. i appreciate that. any other comments, commissioners? thank you. thank you so much. >> i just want to clarify that we will be giving a presentation of the report on may 9. and then it will be available in writing and on the websites for people who can't be at that meeting. president mendoza: thank you. at this time if my colleagues would indulge me, i'd like to move the other educational issues up to be heard at this time. item m. is there any objection to that? great. thank you. so item m is other educational issues and principal center

collaborative update. >> good evening. in october the alternative school principals were able to give an update on their schools to the curriculum committee of the board and we really highlighted the work that the principal center collaborative is doing to change into a big picture model school. so we want to really thank you for this opportunity to now have the students come and talk about their experiences as we completed almost a full year under this new model. do i want to thank and acknowledge some of the teachers that are here from this school, the school's principal, the clinical director of wipac, some of the wipac staff and some of the board members who have come out to support the students and their presentations tonight. so the students are going to give their presentation and then we have myself and staff available to answer any follow-up questions. i'm going to turn it over to junior.

>> thank you, good evening, everyone. tonight i have with me a few staff members and students who are here to talk about our school's big picture san francisco. at this time i'd like to introduce the staff. jen, our principal, kevin brooks , kevin brooks, our coordinator. dr. earnest brown, our clinical director, and helen parker and jessica cohen. the students who are here with me are austin, peter, and hugo. as a first-year student at our school, we are required to find and pursue a learned interest. you are -- we have --

[inaudible]. cognitive reasoning and social reasoning which is social studies and history, communication which is learning how to express our ideas and lastly personal qualities which is what you came and did over the year. at this time i'd like to hand it over to elena vasquez to talk about her interests. >> good evening, everyone. my name is elena and i'm 17 years old. i've been attending p.b.c. for two months and this is my first exhibition on comparing honduras with san francisco after only three weeks. after completing my essay comparing san francisco and honduras, i became more interested in the culture and history of honduras. i want to learn about pre-colonial times in honduras and how things have changed from then until this present day.

one of the things that affects people in honduras is a fever. i want to learn about what is it and how to prevent it. i want to know why it is a common in central america and not in california. to find out more about my interests, i focus my learning plan around the fever in hon doerrian pre-colonial times. during my research i'm trying to find where the feever is located, how is it transmitted, how to prevent it and if there's a cure. in my research i want to find out when it became the capital of honduras and also what the stars in the hondurian flag represent. i will work on improving my maggetskills by using the math program.

for my communication i will write exays for my -- essays for my next exhibition. i want to improve my public speaking and my writing skills. for my next exhibition i plan to present a pre-colonial times of honduras and also the disease of the fever. thank you for coming. >> hello. i will be talking about my interest in internships. my interest is graffiti murels and architecture. my last exhibition was my graffiti and street art. for my exhibition i researched and -- i researched history about graffiti and artists. that led to an internship at an art gallery called 1:00 a.m. i did an interview with my mentor and a shadow day. for my shadow day i painted a wall that they always do murels

on. i also wrote a proposal to my principal about doing a murel for the school. i am now starting another internship where i will be doing a missourial for a community -- mural for a community organization. with the work i do at school and my internship, i hope it will -- i hope it will help me to get my high school credit so i can graduate and to pursue my interests. for my next project i plan to start learning more about architecture and the history of some buildings. i'm hoping to start a program called build s.f. in the fall where i will learn about architecture and how to design buildings. i plan to stay here at big picture for a couple more years because i get a lot of support here. thank you. next will be austin. >> hello, my name is austin and

i've been attending big picture since january. what i'm going to talk about is about exhibitions. exhibitions are when students present what they have learned during the previous nine weeks. this happens in front of students and the staff and they are usually 45 minutes long. my exhibition was on car emissions. i researched this on the internet about my favorite college, stanford university. i also introduced -- interviewed people about college requirements and football scholarships. for my next exhibition i'm going to go deeper into college requirements because i am looking forward to going to a university to get a degree and play football and possibly going to the nfl. i'm planning on getting my paloma and in the future getting a good job. between now and the end of school, i am planning a trip to stanford as part of big picture. i want to thank you guys for giving us the opportunity to come here and let us talk about our school and what we do. next is up kevin, our l.t.i. coordinator and hugo. they will talk about internships.

>> good evening, everyone. my name is hugo, i'm 18 years old. i've been aten tending p.c.c. a little -- for a little over a year. i will be talking about my internship. my intern shmshp is at s.f. camerawork. the program is called first exposure which is a black and white film and digital format class. each student is paired with a mentor for one-on-one learning experience. we meet on a saturday for camera walks, dark room printing, workshops and field trips. we also do fundraising in fact, 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