when we looking at the middle school capacity compared to the involvement projections. commissioner yee: so the numbers are in here? >> yes, they do reflect the 1300's k-8. commissioner yee: if a family did not want to go to the feeder school, do they have a choice, an option to go to another school? there is still a possibility? >> yes, it is still a choice system, and there is a tie- breaker for the middle school feeder, and then starting in 2017, it would become an offer. kind of light -- like the k-8 now.

commissioner yee: for example, some of those in monroe, that is pretty much like 50 slots that is when to open up, is that correct but that is correct. commissioner yee -- is that correct? >> that is correct. commissioner yee: thank you. commissioner: commissioner norton? commissioner norton: to changing this a significant amount of time, and i ask that about having particular things in place, some of the special education planning, and then the

other question i want to ask you, and then i understand you'll probably have to answer for yourselves, but do you feel let the district presentation this evening and answered some of the questions that you have had at the beginning of this process, since you completed the community engagement? >> so i think to answer your first question, we read the proposals that were read at the may 24 meeting, which is the same proposal here. the date change was on that one, right? the first reading is the one i am talking about, thank you. said that date, before we wrote these questions, to be submitted tonight, we did know about the date change affecting in coming

kindergartners and the families, but i think we still stand by these questions. i think delaying it that one year still did not change sort of our questions around some of the bigger strategic questions around budget, around planning, and around language and around curriculum, and so i hope that answers your question. we did know about it. >> i do not feel that it does. there has been several changes. then the board agreed to delay it one year, and now we have a proposal before us that would place the system on tiebreakers for the next five years, i

think. and that is the newest change, so you still wrote those questions knowing that information. >> let me clarify. at our very last meeting, we did not know that. we're still very unhappy with the details that are not presented in this year pattern. and not enough information is there for us to recommend it. we know, and i was going to say this in conclusion, if, in fact, you did decide to pass this feeder system, there are some things that we voted on that we would recommend to you, and i can talk about those right now. first, to change the order of the tie breakers to make equity and higher priority in the feeder school. we recommended the tie breakers to be sibling priority over any other party mechanism, and many

of us are from the southeast side of town, and we do not like the idea of our children being locked into a new -- underperformance or, and most of the parents that are happy with the feeder system are being sent to the highest achieving middle schools. it does not give any of the rest of us parents, who are already into lower achieving schools, a way into those schools. we are behind everybody else, so we do not recommend it that you pass the feeder system as it is, the proposal, because we want more information on the transportation, how equity is ç i know we will probably have to go through this conversation again if it is not passed, but as we all know, the devil is in the details, and we all would

like to see more details. >> i am sorry. i was one to answer your second question. i am sorry, commissioner norton. i misunderstood. we did know about that, and we did develop that after the first reading, so we did know about that. that is the short answer. to answer your second question, i thought tonight's presentation was very well presented, and i really like the fact that the district addressed the priorities and addressed a lot of the recommendations that we made. what i feel sad about is the community did not get to hear any of that, and i feel that it is happening after we have gone out to the community. i think the district made a strong case tonight for a lot of things, but i feel like the committee heard sort of a different thing, so i would urge

continued dialogue in a lot of ways on a lot of these points with people, and i also think that some of what is also sitting there for me are some of the strategic questions sort of about implementation, and the planning process is different from our user experience and have kids and parents sort of have to deal with the day-to- day, and so, for example, predictability is nice when it comes to assignment and knowing where you are going, but it is very hard to use it if it means more predictable school is very far away and inconvenient to get to, so it is those kinds of things. commissioner: commissioner

mendoza? commissioner mendoza: i think this makes more sense than anything i have heard in a while. if this is what we had out there, i think the conversation would have been a little bit different than what it is. this will always be very personal. as your child goes through this experience, it is very personal, and if you read a fourth grader, you are feeling really anxious, and if you're the fifth great parent who was banking on the feeder pattern to start to kick in this year, and it did not, you are pissed, and this speaks to so much of what we have been talking about for a long time. if you like your neighborhood

and where your kid is at, you are going to support neighborhood schools. this is why we left high school the way that we did. and i always feel a little jaded around this because my kids went to schools that no one wanted to go to, and i was part of public schools for half of my life, it feels like, and that will conversation was about going in and taking charge of your school and not having your school take charge of you, and really changing what our schools look like, and i think we have been able to successfully do that because of support in our elementary schools, but we still have so many of our schools where families date that they are the only in town, and this line that shows the diversity fees from kids from all over the

city that go to these particular schools, it is very powerful, because we're not talking about where schools are located as much as we are muley recognizing families traveled from all over the city to get to a school that they really feel strongly about, but i also feel that the work we're doing is simultaneous to a large degree, and middle school quality, working on quality middle schools is not -- we did not start doing this when we started talking about -- this was going on when another was in charge. this has been a conversation we have been having for some time and really thinking about what it is that our middle schools need, and i think a lot more time has been spent focused on

doing assessments across the board about making sure all of the schools have what all of the schools need to have, since you are not looking at particular schools because you do not have special education at one place or something. so we are working on making that he's more solid at all of the schools -- making neckpiece more solid. -- making that piece more solid and it is not clear. it is becoming more clear as we look at the data with the kids are coming from and they are still coming from across the city. we have to remember that a lot of families are not choosing to go to some of the schools that we are expecting them to choose. many of our families in the

bayview want to stay in the bayview. they want to be close to home as well. families have always been felt like they are being pushed out on the east side. one of your statements in your report that you make that it would block most students from gaining admission to higher performing schools on the west side. i don't agree with that. i don't think that is how networks. a lot of it, i think, is making sure that east side families know what their options are. or if east side families want to stay on the east side. it feels very hitting, something that i think is very hot and not helpful. i am still concerned about families changing schools midstream as we are starting to

roll this out. family is going out of their current schools so they can go with the feeder school is where they wanted to be. i am actually supportive of the 17 between hard and fast because it gives us time for families to cycle through and have the option of going any school in the district with really clear tiebreakers. i ever vitiate the recommendation from the staff and i am leaning towards supporting the recommendation from the staff because i think we can continue to talk about this for a long time as we have and as we have shown. or we can start really doing something about addressing the priority that we identified over

the last several years which i think his staff has been a really good job of plugging in what goals we are meeting. meeting the course of action that we are trying to take on this. it is a little bit longer until we vote, i suppose. i feel a lot better about doing this, and it is interesting. since the last presentation, we have gotten more correspondence and e-mail through people that have been satisfied that we have ever. it is being threatened so people need to come out and speak out about it. as you are going out and talking to folks in and people are fine with it, that is not the voice that we are here in. all of the sudden, there is this

a voice that is coming through saying, wait a minute. we like the way that you have chosen to be set up in the first place. but i do want to thank you for your continued work on this. we could not do this without the help you have given. and of the staff has put a tremendous amount of time and effort into making this a lot more lay for us to understand. >> as a coment, -- comment, i don't know if you of the demographics of the people you have heard from in support of the feeder system. we actually went to more under- represented groups. those people that go out on their own initiative. their parents are saying the same thing, that we are representing that voice.

although you are hearing a big onslaught recently, i wanted to make it clear what the recommendations are, representing more of the parents across the board. i am sorry that you feel like we're getting -- pitting ideas against each other. we want to move forward as well. i love your theory of action that is in your presentation. but this is not an action plan. it does not show what you're doing to move ahead in these theories of action. as i said before, we would like a policy in a system that reflects the board's priorities and acknowledging effort from parents that involves plans for implementing these policies. we don't feel like that information is there.

commissioner murase: there are some things that everyone in this room can agree to. one of them is that student assignment is a symptom of a problem. the problem of uneven quality across the district. i want to really acknowledge the work that they did in their report. there are 22 recommendations. what we are focused on tonight is about two of them. this is a road map for how we can come together and really try to set our minds to improving the middle schools. i encourage everyone to take a look at it. i agree with 20 of the 22 recommendations. u;m"the two recommendations ti have a disagreement with is

about how to best achieve more even as across the district, the recommendation not to implement a feeder pattern. but i do have a couple of questions that have come out as people have given me feedback. one of the questions i pointed out in the report is parents not feeling like they know what are the strength and weaknesses of each middle school. parents don't consider the full array of choices. when you are in elementary school, you're too busy fund- raising to think about what is going on at the middle school ahead of you. parents and families really need that information about the strength and weaknesses of each school. one of my concerns is the identified students having an available honors program verses

differentiated instructions. there are not a lot of parents to understand the differences of honors verses differentiated. you think honors has got to be the way to go, but maybe with some outreach and education about differentiated strategies, it could be a viable option for folks. i think there is generally a lack of information that families need to make decisions or evaluations about middle schools. i know at an earlier meeting, they put together asset inventories and they have been working very hard to gather information along dozens of different criteria. what are the test scores? what% of teachers -- what percent of teachers support it? there is a quality and option that lists foreign language

lectives -- electives or gate differentiated instructions. what is the status of gathering all this information? is there a strategy to put it in a family friendly format so that as people are looking to evaluate peter plan, evaluating the middle school, they can have better information other than that they heard that this is the best known school. i would appreciate an update from staff on the status of that exercise. >> dr. murase, thank you for that question. we are looking at putting that on the web site. we have completed the inventory asset matrix.

we have not included the honors program for each of middle school. we have done that as a separate entity, understand that commissioner norton will bring that next monday. i think you for asking that question, we are in a process of hosting that inventory on the web site. commissioner norton: we will be looking at the beginnings of the honors approaches on monday. the meeting will start at 5:00 p.m.. the pac and pps have agreed to send people as part of their agreement strategy. they learned a lot about what is going on at all of our middle schools. they are going to share with us their impressions of some of the

ways that schools are meeting the needs of students. some of the great programs that they sought and some of the missing pieces that they identified. i think it will be a really interesting discussion. commissioner maufas: i just wanted to comment really quickly, again. if it hasn't been expressed by me where you understood, i do appreciate the work that hthe pac and pps have done. it's monumental. i think with a combination of timing in staff, what is going on, all the different initiatives that we could have mustered the person power to get it done in the appropriate amount of time. i am grateful to you will for doing that. i also want to comment that i realize not just on that an affirmation but my own

information because i have been doing this work for a while. conversations from me have never stopped. they are always about the inequity. i know some of the folks that o their kids are out of school. if they had the opportunities that some of you parents have had the right now, how they would turn back the time clock so their kids could have these experiences where it is really looking at the inequity. it is looking at making middle schools great places for children to learn and it is looking at language expansion. all of the things that we now seem right and true about public education. the restorative just this is part of the educational process and it involves every single person. students, family, a teacher,

everybody is involved. sorry. they turn back the clock so their kids can participate. i would, too. my daughter is 24. to experience it as it is now, that is fantastic. that is why we have so many people coming to us trying to get into this school district. there are things happening along with the assignment system that i think are really telling about what we are about. parents may have had a choice that is not perfect right now. and it doesn't mean you don't go get involved and make it perfect. there are some examples. i was a member of the pac. with the examples of parents becoming involved with schools as partners. and how to figure out the way to

make these places the best. the schools were not always the one -- #one school. community members got together and decided to work on it. i can't express enough. please continue to work on it. if you have a choice that you don't care for but it seems that you are stuck with it, don't be stuck with that choice. make something of the choice. i can't believe you're going to complain and complain and complain. i am not pointing to anyone specifically. i hear the dialogue that this is the school i got because it does not have all the bells and whistles that the other school could have. do you know how many families have missed the boat? they did not have these opportunities and options. you will do.

i am grateful i have a granddaughter to be able to begin to experience these choices. i am grateful that she will have these opportunities. i am going to participate in that, too. i have been waiting, but not widely. participating to make options and making the wonderful courses available to her because my daughter did not have the bells and whistles of the time she was there. i am really appreciative of our staff. listening and early drilling is down. i like the idea of providing a simpler version that can be taken on the road. you all media. i apologize. it is not that the staff was not capable of doing it. we didn't have everything at the right time. we do now.

it will continue to improve. it will continue to unproven and will continue to work together. this is not my committee. i have something to do. but i am committed to being here and participating. those people that are listening are committed to participating. i'm committed to participating however and whenever i can. we listen to the complaints and the cheers, thinking goodness my kid is old enough to be here right now and experience this. they're going to be so far ahead of other kids and the struggle of life. what ever we can provide to help our students in the struggle for life. thank goodness. i am sorry, commissioner wynns.

it has been foremost on my mind. i wanted to express that in particular. thank you to staff for this complex work. the whole breadth of everyone that we have here, ready to answer questions, ready to discuss. i am supportive. the work is happening simultaneously. every facet of the school is here and which are working on all of the areas that we are still struggling with. it may not be perfect to date, but it is as perfect as we can possibly get it and i appreciate that. the areas that you work and are now here together, that all overlaps. >> i wanted to say that there is

a lot of conversation going on out there. it seems like not much, but it is very hard for us to hear. commissioner fewer, did you want to say something? commissioner fewer: i have to say that at first, when we started discussing this, i thought it was rather complex. now we are seeing what the dilemma is for folks. really, it is i think that the feeder pattern is one thing. the state of our middle schools is another. it is a vote of confidence on whether or not we can deliver quality, and how are we going to do it? i think there are a lot of questions, for example.