to get started for the regular meeting of the brd of education of the san francisco unified school district, may 10, 2011, is now called to order. president mendoza will be with us in a second. she's getting some things but we want to get started. roll call please? clerk: ms. fewer? ms. maufas, dr. murase, ms. norton? ms. wynns, thank you, mr. yee? ms. mendoza, ms. fan, ms. creer? >> if you'd like to please join

us for a pledge of allegiance. [pledge of allegiance] vice president yee: there's no approval of minutes, o.k. so we're going to start with item a, approval of board minutes, there are none tonight. b, presentations to the board of education superintendent's report. superintendent garcia. superintendent garcia: thank you, good evening. it seems ironic with all the activity and we want to salute and give a shout out to all of our employees who went to sacramento to stand up for children and i think we really want to recognize their endeavors to go there because that's a lot to do and they're

fighting a good fight and it seems ironic that while we're making these cuts and talking about these horrible things throughout the state that tomorrow, may 11, we celebrate both california day of the teacher and national school nurse day. i've always said that in education, the most important thing in education are the people actually out there doing the work so we wanted to take a moment to thank everybody and hopefully to have a special day tomorrow in spite of all the things that seem to be coming at us in this crazy state of ours. the budget crisis and the layoffs, as we honor, it's weird that we are honoring the teachers and nurses and yet here we are talking about layoffs. four years ago, stanford university released a study that estimated that to adequately fund education in california would take about $10,000 per student, and yet here in california, we get about $5,000 per student and if you add all the categorrical programs, in some places is gets up to about

$8,000 and when you go back east, new york and everywhere else gets a minimum of $12,000 per student so we've become kind of the laughing stock when you look at throughout the country and tonight we bring before the board a resolution to issue final certified layoff notices. this is something that nobody here, the board, nor i, want to do. last year we worked hard to cut with all our partners over two years $113 million out of our budget and the state budget deficit, what it looks like right now, means that an additional $84 million we'd have to cut over the next two years and that, you know, to put in proper context, that doesn't sound like a lot but add $113 million plus $84 million and that's a lot when we only have a $500 million budget and yet when you look at all the cuts we're having to make, we're going to

have to look at more reductions next year and in fact we're going to probably have to try to negotiate everything just to stay afloat. i know there are a lot of people out there who say why aren't you using the rainy day fund, why aren't you using the jobs bill money? folks, we are using all those moneys and the cuts we're going to make, those $84 million, means in addition to using all those money. so the situation is way worse than any of us could ever dream of and that's why i think it is important to our folks are in sacramento trying to get this message through. several weeks ago i attended the largest school district superintendents meeting and last week we attended a north -- southern and northern california superintendents meeting. i have to tell you, in spite of how bad is sounds right now, there were districts there with 15 furlough days. there were districts that had cut already everything that we're going to begin to cut,

they've been doing that for several years. we're lucky that we're in a city that at least cares enough about our children that they've given us the rainy day fund and i really want to thank the mayor and the supervisors for moving in that direction and also a community that has passed initiatives so that we can have arts, music, libraries, sports, all those things that unfortunately in most places have been cut. it's a tough situation but we're going to look at more partnerships with foundations, with other businesses in trying to get people to come together. just this afternoon, most of us attended a san francisco school alliance lunch and it's a benefit to help bring money to the school district and i really want to thank them for stepping up and believing in our children. we have a lot of work to do and as i said over there in my speech, i said, you know, san franciscans, it's great to

be a san franciscan because we stand up for stuff. our city has been in ashes before and it resurrected itself. we can't wait for the state and everybody to help ourselves. i think we're going to have to do it ourselves because no one else seems to be listening. so we have a long battle ahead of us. i just want everybody to know that none of us like what we're going to have to do this evening but if we don't do that, we really risk on whether or not we could remain solvent. thank you. president mendoza: thank you, superintendent garcia. item c is recognition and resolutions, accommodations. the academy art program we'll bring back later in the year. item 2 is an action item. item 115-10sp2, honoring the day of the teacher. i need a motion and a second please? thank you. >> thank you, president mendoza. superintendents' proposal honoring the day of the teacher, whereas, an educated citizenry

serves as the foundation of our democracy, and, whereas, today's teachers mold the minds and train the workforce of the future, and whereas the san francisco unified school district has nearly 3,500 classroom teachers and thousands of other school professionals who play crucial roles in realizing our vision for student success and ensuring equity and access for all and whereas the future of our state depends on the success of our students, and where an important factor in a student's education is having high-quality teachers in the classroom, and whereas, with 200 national board certified teachers on staff, sfusd has one of the highest numbers of these teachers, teacher numbers in the state, and whereas good teaching grows in value and pays dividends far beyond the classroom, therefore be it

resolved that the superintendent of schools and the board of education of the san francisco unified school district recognize may 11, 2011, as day of the teacher and encourage our community to thank our educators who give the gift of knowledge through teaching. president mendoza: thank you. do we have any public speakers that wanted to speak on this resolution? o.k. no speakers comments, but from the board? commissioner murase? commissioner murase: i really do want to thank our teachers. i've had tremendous teachers when i was going through the unified school district and sometimes they spend more time with the kids than we do as parents so i want to acknowledge our teachers. president mendoza: thank you. others? roll call, please.

madam clerk: ms. norton? ms. wynns, mr. yee, ms. mendoza? six aye's. president mendoza: thank you. i want to take the opportunity to congratulate the mayor's teacher of the month award recipients for this year, superintendent garcia, mayor lee and the california teachers association david sanchez will be out at the giants' home plate ceremony tomorrow on the day of the teacher to honor these 10 teachers. steven bonacorso from john o'connell high school, sarah brandt from balboa high school, nina mayor from george washington high school, jean mackelly from mckinley elementary school, juan novella from fairmont elementary school. maurice feara, julie wong from noriega child development center and dale richardson from new

traditions elementary school. congratulations to all the award recipients and thank you for all of the hard work. item d is the student delegates' report. so elvina and athina? >> mr. truett, associate superintendent of student support services, came by to give our justice presentation and he gave us an overview of the goals and procedures of restorative justice and how it was and what happened. and he also helped discuss whether we thought suspension was a successful consequence for discipline. and s.e.c. and mr. trudolph will discuss the best ways to implement this policy and s.e.c.

decided i will be the interim student delegate for the time being until elections are coming this fall. >> during yesterday's meeting, we finally drafted a counseling action survey to give us the data for the draft of our resolution for counseling access for high school students and we are continuing our recruiting for new members for s.e.c. for next year. president mendoza: thank you. do you have anything? that's it. o.k., great. item a is parent advisory council, our p.a.c. report. our p.a.c. representative? >> hi. good evening commissioners, superintendent, all folks. we were just here a few hours

ago it seems like. president mendoza: it was a few hours ago. >> i staff and coordinate the parent advisory council. and this is nancy guest and she is the chair of the p.a.c. so i just want to summarize quickly for folks in the room who weren't here last night, members of the parent advisory council and parents for public schools presented our joint report of findings and recommendations from community forums that we conducted over the past few months related to building quality middle schools and the proposed elementary school to middle school feeder patterns. over 850 people participated in 19 different community conversations about these issues and our report about the conversations is on our web sites in english, chinese and spanish. the p.a.c.'s web site is www.pacsf.org and ppssf.org.

in our report tonight we want to respond to questions that came up last night from board commissioners during the ad hoc committee on student assignment which we didn't have the opportunity last night to address so i'm going to tackle the first one. there were three main questions or observations that came up related to the community feedback and report that the p.a.c. had given in the past and this time and we wanted to spell some of what we feel are misperceptions or inaccuracies and try to answer some of the questions. the first question that came up was that a couple of commissioners said that for years the board had been hearing parents say they want predictability in student assignment and now parents are saying they want choice and why is that or why did that message change? i want to say this is the third year in the row that the p.a.c. has brought to the board and district staff our findings and

recommendations based on community recommendations that i personally was in almost every single one of them where we heard from over 1700 parents, community members and educators and participants in the conversations in 2009 and 2010 closely reflected our mixed demographics so we know and it's been said by a board of commissioners that you're hearing from parents that come to the board or send emails or letters that they're voicing their concerns saying predictability is one of their priorities and as i've been here observing that, it's often the same parent who say they prioritize having a neighborhood school assignment system. i know people say that but when we go out to communities to really hear from people who don't come to the board, who don't contact you directly, and who really reflect the composition of our student population, we have never found and never reported that predictability is a priority for a majority of those parents. in fact, for the past three

years, we've consistently heard and consistently reported to you a few common themes -- parents want a school that works for their family and they don't want to be forced into a school they feel won't meet their child's needs. most people would prefer a school that's close to home or easy to get to but they're willing to go farther for a school they think will work better to serve their child's needs. and specifically, parents in the mission, excelsior and bayview communities have felt and expressed constantly that the schools in their communities don't have the same kinds of programs, the same resources or the stability of effective teachers as schools on the west side. so that's what we hear from parents that we go out to talk to, that's what we want to remind you that the families you have charged us with going out to hear from on your behalf, that's what they say. they are not saying predictability is their number one priority. president mendoza: thank you.

>> hello, superintendents, commissioners. one of the questions that arose yesterday was people who attended the forums were those who already were involved and informed. what did we hear that was different in the conversations we held with parents and targeted communities, the folks that don't come to these big events. ruth did address that we do hear -- it's our point as the parent advisory council to make sure we solicit feedback from all the differing communities, so we did do several elementary schools in targeted communities, specifically the chinese-speaking, spanish-speaking and african-american families to get feedback on the middle school pathways and student assignments. these conversations were informative and successful, and

to answer what we heard different, we noticed that the people who felt informed and empowered wanted to get more information on how the nuances of the student assignment itself worked. those, on the other hand, that did not feel as informed about this enrollment process, were less able to strategically navigate the assignment system, were focused more about their concerns at their own school, although -- and their desire for quality schools, but what we found in common with e.l. families, the differing socio-economic classes of families, the empowered families, we all want the same thing. we want the ability to choose a school that meets their children's needs, whether it's close to them or away from them and we all want quality schools. that's not different in any race or class or anywhere.

and we heard the same range of questions about these feeder patterns, how do we meet these needs, there's a disconnect with the schools they're being fed to and a feeling that the district isn't telling the community the whole truth about what's going on. also, from the survey that was handed, i don't know if you were able to see that survey, if you went to any of those forums, but the majority of all parents, regardless of class or race or any of those things, the priority was a reputation for having quality teachers and a principal for their schools and that was the most important thing that came out for the majority of parents as far as the different classes. that's also listed in our research findings. >> it's very conveniently in that appendix as the last page of the report so if you have the full report and you flip it

over, there are the findings that show the differences from the more representative, demographically representative groups and conversations and the surveys from the forums overall. >> the last observation was, is, that parents against feeder patterns haven't heard all the research the board has seen about middle schools so they aren't informed about how feeder patterns work to build quality schools. yesterday, it was finally shared that a lot of the staff referred to two bodies of research, the gaining ground and the taking centerstage. some of us p.a.c. members gathered today to take a look at that research because we are also very interested. what was nice is that some of our recommendations that we suggested for quality schools were also the same kind of things that they were also

recommending as is in your strategic plans for improving middle schools. some of those things are rigor, strong instructional teaching practices, strong principal leadership, using data, having curriculum focus on standards and having standards focus based on benchmark assessments throughout the whole district. we, as we are looking at the research, we are having a hard time still finding the correlation between quality schools and feeder patterns. we notice that feeder patterns were referred to not very often until the rigor, the high teaching quality standards and all those other things were more emphasized than that. in fact, it was -- we were

actually with somebody who is used to reading educational research so i'm trusting that was going on, but we mostly saw that consistency and quality was most important in terms of creating these quality schools. so hopefully you, as a board, will also get an opportunity to look at these two bodies of research to inform your decision making, as well. and parents who are asking for the research would actually really love all this research. it's all good stuff. it shows how we can have all our kids -- all our kids, across the board -- achieve, and what we want as parents is to be informed on how you are specifically doing these things. this process of community conversation with parents, to be

frankly honest, i lot of parents have lost trust in what's going on. we -- a lot of parent leaders that i've talked to feel like they're fighting for these things and we don't want that to happen. we want to work together. these are all our children, and what we need as parents is to be informed specifically about what's going on. yesterday, you referred to the quality assessment report. there was nothing very specific in there about what was going on in the schools. if we parents are going to be sending our children to these schools, we want to know what's going on. that's the kind of information we need. we don't need a general report saying that all gate kids are being served. we want something very specific to the specific schools that our child might be entering into. that's how you build trust with us. so, i just really want to say that we want -- we parents want to work with you. we are trusting, entrusting our

children to you every day of the school day and we hope this partnership can grow, but we would like more information. we'd like transparency. we would like regular communication about what's going on in the feeder patterns in the school system and all these strategies that look wonderful to implement, but we want to see how they're really working. we'd like to see benchmarks and find out how they will be -- they will be working in the schools. so this is just it for now from us. we were actually planning to share more of our thoughts and suggestions on your upcoming meetings and on may 24, may 31, june 13 and june 14, and so just transparency. when you're thinking about

parents, we would love that. one last thing, i was just told that today is latin american mother's day so i want to congratulate all mothers. [applause] and as the parent advisory council, yeah, moms, because without us, we wouldn't have our kids. [applause] president mendoza: thank you, both, very much. are there any questions for the p.a.c.? o.k. thank you both. item f is public comment on consent items. so these are -- there are none that we have on the cards. item g is the consent calendar. i need a motion and a second on the consent calendar, please? >> i'll move. >> second. president mendoza: thank you. any items withdrawn or removed by the superintendent? any items withdrawn by the board? none.

any items severed for discussion? seeing none, thank you. roll call -- i do that every single time. item h, superintendent's proposals, there are none tonight. board member's proposals, there are none tonight. item j is request to speak regarding general matters. so i have quite a few speakers here this evening. i'm going to call your name. if you would take consideration to students that are here to speak tonight and allow them to speak first, i'd appreciate that. i'll try to keep you in groups. victoria tam, stefanie rowda, adrian quan, timothy lee, nancy lanvin, harmony show, winy lin.

olivia hendricks. i have a couple of more names. melissa connelly, velvet connelly. tunesy quinnteris san antonio. linda fu, johnson hun, jalinda mendoza, patricia christianson, suzanna morgan. richard frasier, kevin sand, martin mariola, enrique savantes, and darrellin tom.

this is the first batch. so these are on music program on washington high school and the youth policy piece. so we have a lot of folks coming through tonight. so we'll give everybody a minute and a half. o.k.? come on up and introduce yourself and you have a minute and a half and i'll do a second round of names after this large group goes up. >> good evening, board members. my name is melissa connelly, the parent of a beautiful freshman at george washington high. i'd like to thank our counselor

and also the parent that handed me a flier this morning and now i'm standing before you. i've never done this before and only been educated by the counselor this afternoon on what's going on. i'd like to represent our family and thank you for your hard work but please help us and george washington high with our budget cuts. right now, our daughter's goal at george washington high is to accumulate credits to attend college. currently, that budget cut will affect her chances. it is cutting into her -- there's going to be three only limited three years of math and science and world language. these are credits she needs to attend college so she will be speaking next. thank you. president mendoza: thank you. >> do i just press this button?