wheel, you use examples that currently exist for the school district. and as far as our student population, our parent population, half the parents want feeders and like the idea and have one choice. i am comfortable saying that as the pta president of the school as well. i really think that when you are presenting feeders to schools, particularly schools that are going to be increasing the population by one-third like denman, it is at 600 and it will increase to 900. we want to hear you address how is that going to happen. we are fighting to get a bundle for a third grade -- a bungalow for a third grade classroom at the next thing you know, we need another bungalow.

i am hearing issues on an elementary school level and i wonder what is going to happen -- at a middle school level in regards to the reality of making these changes. i have another recommendation. there are some intriguing aspects to parents in regard to an expansion like that of 300 students. if you could bring the parent community in and find out what kind of in electives they are interested in seeing their children participate in, that might be something that would be helpful as well. thank you. >> hi there, i am david brown, a parent of a kindergartner. i am excited and enthusiastic about public schools and place to be part of it and coming in at quite an exciting time.

first, i wanted to say to chairman wynns and the rest of the board, i admire you for the work you're doing. i understand the challenges you are taking on. you have a lot of problems you are talking about addressing and one of the things i have given some thought to provoked by this issue is give some focus to those that are the achievement gap that is being tested and you are being held accountable to of the problem of inclusion which is a challenge in special ed. ambitions to do things like languages and ambitions in the sciences and computing and i.t.

before we go on to mention high aptitude kids and the desire to be fair which is a great challenge. i was pleased that jill and carlos made mention of having high start -- high standards are good things but we have to calibrate that with respect to reality. the resources are woefully inadequate. it is tragic what is happening at the moment. what i am going to suggest is perhaps idealistic. one -- when resources are insufficient, we have to look to the community to help us out. i think one of the things that has happened to me is a small group of us have gotten excited

about the opportunity to get involved in improving the computing infrastructure. it is an powering and i think you have an opportunity to empower the community. i hope it will not consider that to be 298. what i would say is i'm a huge advocate of the choice we have had. one of the things is there is a lot of apprehension going into the process. the result was we have to become very informed about what was going on in the school system. we made a choice and as a result of having made that choice, we were committed and became committed to the school that we selected. i would say i even underestimated how great that was. it is my only wrote datapoint but it is the best example of diversity. there is incredible -- incredibly impassioned and

teachers and the investment in the community empowers them to participate, to help. i hope that you could find a way to formulate that. the final thing i was going to say, this is strategic. i think we want to figure out how to systemically we could address the difficulties of being in an open environment and having such a great spectacle of talents and resources. i do not know of any of you have been following along in david kerp's research, he is a professor in policy at cal. he did great things with a challenge to enter city school and he has written a book recently, "kids first" and there is a great strategic stuff that may not apply but may help

us systemically. i would invite you to look at that. if you have a chance. thank you. > we are not sure if you were going to backup -- call us back up. >> [inaudible] why don't you make your comments now but will offer that to the board members, if they want to have dialogues with the representatives you brought to light, we can do that. >> it is partly because for the last several weeks, i have been obsessing over reading the transcripts of the forms, the ones i was at and the ones i was not at. and obsessing over the wording of the reports and our preparation for the report tonight. i am incredibly honored and

joyful to have the folks on they pac and pps that worked on the project. most of them had to get their kids and leave to do homework. i was -- i am obsessing with on the first slide of the presentation on community forums. there is a sentence that says, common theme, vietor patterns is a good concept. that is a simplistic way of saying something that was discussed that was complex. a lot of people did not think the feeder patterns were a good concept but the this, but that and there is this big question and problem. it is kind of disappointing to see that if you did not know the complications, and you just read that, that is a different statement then what our conclusion to that was.

i feel like i have had to call that out. during the public comment, you heard a huge range of statements which we heard during the conversations we had. it is complicated. we recognize that. i cannot say that i look forward to the next months of conversation but i bet it will be interesting. it will -- i will be there for that. thank you. >> thank you. a want to thank everyone for their comments, thoughtful and will provoke debate. i am going to do something which otherwise would not do and i will wait until the end which is our practice. i want to say this one thing because it is kind of -- i have changed my mind, to tell you the truth. i want to say that i believe --

i agree with one of the comments that was made. we threw in this ideal, what have middle school feeder patterns after months of discussion and debate about the policy related to elementary school and for me, the reason i supported that was because we said it would be a way to have more diversity without using race. i had the idea we would be sending people are encouraging them to go someplace different. that is not what i see on this map. i do understand that a lot of that has to do with capacity which i do not think we took into account last year. one of the things we found is we have all kinds of seats and kids from the east side. i'd want to say because this maybe something that no one well imagine before we have the discussion. i am disinclined to support a

feeder pattern. i would not vote for the recommendation that we have before us tonight if it were before us tonight. we will talk about some of the other reasons that have made me change my mind. sorry for the change of the usual practice. now if members would like to say something. [applause] commissioner maufas. commissioner mendoza has the clarification. commissioner mendoza: there was a question that was asked about keeping the current process for middle schools the way that is. was that ever ask? >> e -- ever asked? >> yes.

commissioner mendoza: staff presented and do we think that will meet the goals? and the desire to meet the language pathways. people give feedback about feeder patterns and we said the next question we asked people, we came -- are there other options for students in middle school that would do a better job of reaching those goals? that is how we framed it. what would you rather have? are there other options? we heard many different kinds of options which we tried to synthesize in our report. we recognize the challenge of the incoming student population

and the desire to plan more coherently and the desire to expand capacity for language needs. we heard from people a lot of different ideas about how to do that. i am trying to be careful about what we have agreed are our talking points. it was more about -- it sounds like it was more about this is what we think could change but not necessarily, let's not change anything and keep it the way it is because we like to apply to any school. the parental choice sounds like that came out strongly but how does that happen if you are feeding? i was curious if that was picked out. >> we tried hard in facilitating conversations not to say, this is what we think? we said how do you report -- this is what they are responding and how do you respond? >>we did not ask for choice.

a couple of things in the first couple of forums, it was not presented to the community. later on it was. that slide said there were options presented to the community as we have now. what a full figure would look like. that slide was in some of the forums but not all the forms. not that that was prompted or anything. there was a little bit of a different how people heard the options were slightly different later on. i do not know if that gets to your question.

president sanchez: commissioner maufas. commissioner maufas: in my time sitting here looking at this word, comparing it -- the figure pattern in word against the map, putting those together. when you see the map and imagine life, how that would be like, and i did not go to the transportation and how long it would take for students to get across estimate and i and practicality, what i think that looks like. i did have changes. 111 changes. that was what i thought would be practical, but it does not take

into consideration all the things that we know statistically and all the data that we have been presented with four my time, three or four years in listening and hearing that data first before we got to these patterns. i think part of the push back from the community is that they did not have all that information. they did not listen to years of data given to them that we have that got us started on this process and led us to the way this looks. i think that is a factor, and it is difficult to look at it now and see that while all that information, years of data and what we know of human behavior of -- all them chiming in and talking to us.

even board members who are no longer with us. having that discussion and getting to this. my personal assessment and changes speaks to the incredible complexity -- this is one of the most complex things i have participated in in my life and hearing years of information and trying to figure out something that will go forward for years when i am no longer in this seat and watching those families -- i will be one of those families that have a granddaughter, participating in the prospect and say how it works. i want to be conscientious about working in this process and i have to express disappointment

in hearing the community saying no feeder patterns. after all those years of saying we need predictability, i want to have a sense of where they will go through the years, what france would make and we will move on to middle school and high school will be older. they may have different friends and they want to expand their horizons and do something different. after hearing that for years to hear this pushed back and i know -- this push back and the groups of people you talk to are not reflective of the years of the requests. i'm not refuting what you are saying. i hear you, and i hear the

community input, but it flies in the face of what i have heard for so many years, i years, and then to stop those years of research based on months from folks who are incredibly articulate. primarily articulate and participatory in the process, but for years and years and years of feedback from folks who have lived that and got all the way through, and said this is what is wrong with my child education. if i could have it to do over again, i would say, by the way, in kindergarten, can you make it predictable? i would like to have known instead of having to guess every single step of the way. which was the thing we heard the loudest overtime, and if you have a child in i think close to

middle school age, you have to have heard that in your time so far, not just in this new iteration of the assignment process. those are two thought patterns, one based on what i see here. this is based on years and years of information, not just a new board of education deciding that we need a new feature pattern -- feeder pattern. it is based on more than that overarching thought pattern. i have attended some of the committee conversations, and was concerned, but i really listened. i know cindy had a separate conversation with chinese- speaking families. that was a constant from our

conversation also. i heard a lot of anger. i also heard a lot of folks to participate regularly in the process. but did not know if i noticed somebody new to the process that everyone of those conversations. in other conversations i did attend, it was almost the same folks that just tend to be very engaged in education. you said you did some targeting for folks who did not participate. i would like to hear more about that. the u.n. to those people who have not been able to do that. i would like to hear what that has been like. their particular feedback is important to me. i can talk about that with you all. i really struggled with the idea that this generation of

parents says no to feeder patterns, no to -- it sounded like a want a feeder pattern when it serves my purposes. i want a feeder pattern that works for my family so i can put my kid in kindergarten with the kids i like to be with or want to associate with, and we will all move on together. i want to take my neighborhood and then go to the next school altogether, and then in high school -- by that time, all of us may feel differently about each other. that is what i saw. active participation. there were nuances to it, but overall that is what i observed. i am not saying that is wrong. but that is what i observed. it does not surprise me. i am disappointed that the

report -- it is reflective of what i saw as well. those cannot serve what i want for my kids. don't do it. i am expressing disappointment. it is just troubling. it sends a statement to continue what we have, which we know is not working for so many families. the combination of the patterns -- of feeder pattern with quality and middle schools -- we wish we could do quality middle schools first, and then choose the feeder pattern. we are doing this simultaneously because time does not allow us to wait. it does not allow us to wait. i am for us moving on several different tracks on all of these different issues at the same

time. we must. to think we would have money later on to do one after the other just -- we do not have time. children are growing and learning. i do nothing anyone wants to wait until we get this together and then do it. i think we have to move in parallel. some things may move a little bit faster, but hopefully the quality middle schools does come through as commissioner fewer:s -- as feeder patterns get implemented. i appreciate the report. i appreciate the time. i know if i went and i was tired and you all were so engaged and so encouraging to get that information from those families -- i am blown away by the tenacity and a continuous,

ongoing effort out there in our world, and encouraged. that is also what i saw. i want to congratulate you because that effort was monumental, and you managed to do it and bring something to us. i struggled with the report. i am not going to live. but to get to all that information -- congratulations, and thank you so very much. those are my comments. chairperson wynns: thank you. i just want to say we are not engaging in a dialogue. anyone is welcome to talk to anybody here. commissioner murase: i really do want to thank the pac and pps. the good news is people care. the good news is people came out. they stated their preferences. we are very thankful for that

level of engagement. i think there is a difference of opinion in whether the feeder pattern is a strategy for quality middle schools. i think the people who are opposed are not necessarily seeing the result in quality middle schools, but for those supporting it is a strategy. i personally believe it is instructed to form -- for quality middle schools because it articulates our language instruction. we spend millions of dollars offering korean, japanese, cantonese, spanish in elementary grades. what happens in middle school? it is very hodgepodge. in the case of japanese, we have basic japanese at one middle school, and one semester at another middle school. after two schools have been training k-five kids in japanese. and very problematic in middle

schools. i received many e-mail petition letters opposing the feeder patterns. we do need to consider questions -- cases like the alvarado parent who spoke earlier. her foetor plan would -- feeder pattern would assign her daughter to school without honor classes or bandar orchestra. what about a kid assigned to a school that clearly does not have the things they would like? my second question is to explore the constructive suggestion we heard earlier from stacey bartlett about those kinds of ideas. i think we need as many ideas as we can. clearly, there is a need for equality middle school in the southeast sector. we should spend more time to

think about how to make that happen instead of picking out isolated neighborhoods to assign across town. i do like this iteration of the plan because it is a gradual process. i recognize that the very big difference is these families who are in kindergarten now suddenly are realizing that possibly the middle school choices are not what they were when they first signed up. i think we need to our knowledge that. -- acknowledge that. the implications are different depending on when you enroll. i do have a couple of questions about the pattern itself. rosa parks and clarendon are not contiguous to presidio, but there is existing staff who teach japanese. clearly, there is curriculum reasoning for assigning those families to presidio. my question is about lakeshore. is there a curricular reason?

some of these neighborhoods, it is not clear why there would be assigned to a particular middle school. i think the really curious fact is monroe is assigned to hoover but is in the neighborhood of deadman. that seems crazy. deadman is done good enough for monroe's students? is it the language issue? that helps me understand the reason one non-contiguous areas are assigned to a particular middle school. in the end, i think this proposal is a solution for our language students. in the previous presentation, i received some angry e-mails about privileging language students over others.

it amounts to 30% of the students at a middle school. it is not 50% or 60% at most of the middle schools. the other alternative, if we continue with the rental choice -- i think there still needs to be a remedy for those families who have pursued language for six years. do they get a preference for the middle school offering language? is that fair? i think we need to consider all these different options. i do support the direction in which the proposal is going. commissioner norton:q want to thank you all for the work on this. you do this work so well. i am really very appreciative of all the volunteer efforts. i am really struggling with this.