provides a way for the public to get involved. the director of public affairs recently met with the founder and liquor -- local gallery owner to check out the first art care project. ♪ >> many san franciscans are not aware that there is a civic art collection of numbers almost 4000 works of art. preserving the collection and maintaining it is something being addressed by a new program called art care. it is a way for citizens to participate in the preservation of the civic art collection. with me is the creator of the art care program.

welcome. the reason we wanted to interview you is that the artist in question is peter volkas. why is he so important to the history of san francisco art? >> he is a very famous ceramic ist. knowing the limitations of clay, he got involved in bronze in around 1962. he was teaching at the university of california, berkeley. >> your gallery celebrated the 50th anniversary of continuous operation. you are a pioneer in introducing the work and representing him. >> i have represented him since 1966. i was not in business until 1961. he made a big deal out of

working in clay. the things he was doing was something never seen before. >> it is a large scale bronze. it has been sitting here of the hall of justice since 1971. talk about what happens to the work of art out of the elements. >> the arts commission commissioned the piece. they did not set aside money for repair. it has slowly changed color. it was black. it has been restored. >> it has been restored to the original patina. >> there was no damage done to its. i do not think there were any holes made in it.

they have been working on it for six or eight weeks. it is practically ready to go. i am very excited to see it done. >> over the course of the arts in richmond program, we have added almost 800 works of art into the public space. maintaining that is not something that the bond funds allow us to do. this is why you came up with the idea of art care. >> i hope we get the community going and get people who really like to be involved. we will give them a chance to be involved. if you are interested in art, this is a marvelous way to get involved. there is work all over the city where every year ago. -- there is artwork all over the city wherever you go. my idea was to get people in the neighborhood to take care of the pieces and let the art

commission have the money for the bigger pieces. >> i was talking to the former president of the arts commission yesterday. the 2% ordnance is something he helped to champion. >> it is all over california and other states now. we really were the forerunners. it is a wonderful thing to bring the community into this now. people have seen art being put into the community. this has not been touched by any graffiti. it just faded over time. it is so open here. there is nobody watching this. i think that is a plus to the community. i hope the graffiti people do

not go out there now that i am opening of my mouth. >> i want to thank you for the 50 years you have already given to the city as an arts leader. >> i started in to briberon, i's only been 45. >> you have championed his work over these years. >> it has been exciting working with him. it is one of the highlights of my life. >> thank you for being part of "culture wire" today. >> to learn more about the program and the list of public arts in need of maintenance, visit the website. thank you for

>> i have been a cable car grip for 21 years. i am a third generation. my grand farther and my dad worked over in green division for 27. i guess you could say it's blood. >> come on in. have a seat. hold on. i like it because i am standing up. i am outside without a roof over my head and i see all

kinds of people. >> you catch up to people you know from the past. you know. went to school with. people that you work with at other jobs. military or something. kind of weird. it's a small word, you be. like i said, what do people do when they come to san francisco? they ride a cable car. >> california line starts in the financial district. people are coming down knobbhill. the cable car picks people up. takes them to work. >> there still is no other device to conquer these hills better than a cable car. nobody wanted to live up here because you had to climb up here. with the invention of the cable

car, these hills became accessible. he watched horses be dragged to death. cable cars were invent in san francisco to solve the problem with it's unique, vertically challenged terrain. we are still using cars a century old >> the old cable car is the most unique thing, it's still going. it was a good design by then and is still now. if we don't do something now. it's going to be worse later. >> the cable cars are built the same as they were in the late 1800's. we use a modern machinery.

we haven't changed a thing. it's just how we get there. >> it's a time consuming job. we go for the quality rather than the production. we take pride in our work and it shows in the end product. >> the california line is mostly locals. the commuters in the morning, i see a lot of the same people. we don't have as tourists. we are coming up to street to

chinatown. since 1957, we are the only city in the world that runs cable cars. these cars right here are part of national parks system. in the early 1960's, they became the first roles monument. the way city spread changed with the invention of the cable car. >> people know in san francisco, first thing they think about is, let's go engage

once we saw their outline and questions, we thought it would be more logical to begin with the staff recommendations and the staff presentations, then go to the p.p.s. p.a.c. presentation so that then we can take public comment and engage in discussion. ms. o'keefe, if you want to begin. thank you.

>> first and foremost, i really want to take this opportunity to thank parents for public choice diligently with us to do all this work. and i want to qualify a few things that i'm going to say, but before that, i want to thank them because, you know, they did do a lot of input session. they went out there and did a lot of great work for us in cooperation with us. that's really a hard item to do. and we want to thank -- that was a great partnership. i also think that from what i've seen out there, sometimes here in our beautiful city when we get input from different

groupings, it doesn't always mean that input means that it goes one way or goes to the other way. it just simply means we take it into consideration in making the best recommendation we can. and sometimes that means that we don't follow everything that every group wants us to do. that's the reality of things. we try to tweak things as we work with groups because they give us a lot of insights and great ideas. but that doesn't mean it will always change radically. the board has experienced throughout the years, having advisory groups, and sometimes we go with the recommendation, sometimes we don't. that's just how it works. but i'm saying that because i want to keep my remarks to really talk about why we're bringing forward the recommendation that some people might disagree with. and i guess -- you know, i remember the saying that says if you continue to do what you've

always done, you'll always get what you always got. and that's something i take very seriously, because unfortunately, we can't expect a different outcome if we continue to do the same old things. and to make decisions that are different than what we're accustomed to. sometimes it's a little bit misunderstood, and sometimes, quite frankly, people don't like it. but this evening as we look at the complexity of the issues that we've been working on, i know -- you know, i'm a parent. i know what it's like to have my kids go to a school. i understand completely how parents feel out there because they want their kids to attend a quality school. i want the same thing for all the children in san francisco. but my job is to strategically develop systems that will correct current problems, and also prepare us for a better future. in addition to the immediate concerns that our current system is failing to address in terms of student success, we are also

looking at things out in the horizon that we need to be prepared to address and not wait until they become really huge problems for us. this is proacting rather than always reacting to issues. and those are the concerns for us. and so our proposal, what we're bringing forward, what i've asked staff to work on and bring forward are kind of long-range visions of where we are now, taking into consideration where we are. but also talking about where is it that we want to get to someday, and to be thinking about what's good for all our students and not just for some students. our whole strategic plan was based upon that, about addressing the needs of all students in san francisco. we are committed to making sure all our schools are quality schools. in fact, our recommendation is not a hasty quick fix. it's the long-range fix. it's going to take us years to get there and we're going to build the capacity to get there

so we're not coming with you saying you adopt this and by next year everything will be fixed. no. this is a very strategic way of looking at it and looking at how we're going to fix it in the long run. tonight my staff and i will share with you our recommendations and why we think that it is a good idea to have a k-8 feeder pattern. we'll suggest many of the suggestions raised throughout the entire community. we hope to raise as many. in some cases, we're just going to agree to disagree, and that's ok. i think that's what makes our city a great place, that we're all able -- and when we started this process, we said whatever system we've come up with wasn't going to be perfect. it was going to be a system that for the moment would be our best thinking look at the issues that are coming our way, dealing with growth, dealing with a lot of different issues.

but we also felt that we need to start moving forward. and what we're recommending is to start moving forward, and as we move along in this process, we are going to work on improving the middle schools. we are going to work on improving our entire systems. this plan gives us the capacity and the time to be able to build on that. but at least it's a vision that someday we ought to have a different type of feeder system that we currently have, a little bit more predictability. and quite frankly, an opportunity to give all children a chance to be successful, which in the past, they have not been put in that situation. so i've asked staff to do some heavy lifting. what, two years now we've been on this issue? and so we bring our recommendation forward, and i'd like to begin the presentation. >> thank you. >> thank you very much,

superintendent garcia. before i begin, i want to acknowledge some of the team members. it's actually been a very large multi-department district team that's been working on this initiative. and tonight some co-presenters are christina wong, who is the special assistant to the superintendent. kevin chavez, who's language supervisor with english learner support services. darlene limb, the educational director of the placement center. julie pong. and richard koranz will also be sharing some information tonight. i also want to thank yong lee. this is the tale presenting tonight. it's actually multiple departments that have been work ing on this. i also want to thank the parent advisory council and the parents

for public schools for all the work that they've done in partnering with us to gather feedback from the community. so we can, as the superintendent said, have an understanding of what the feedback is and make modifications to our proposals based on that. and they are modifications. and as we go through our presentation tonight, we will highlight the areas where we've modified based on the feedback and we'll also highlight areas that there might be a divergence in perspective, but there's some shared belief. a lot of shared belief around the work that we're doing here. and so tonight's agenda, we will go through our staff presentation and then the parent advisory council and parents republic schools will present and have a discussion with the board and there will be public comment. our objectives tonight in addition to the board having more discussion with p.a.c. and

p.p.s. are to build an understanding of how the feeders support the board's policy goals that are outlined in p-5101. so there are two handouts that should be available for the public and the board. one is a copy of the power point conversation that we're going to go through. the second is a copy of the board policy p-5101. that's actually the original policy that was unanimously approved by the board in march 2009 and it's a redline version because we've submitted some changes to the policy. and indeed there's even been some changes between first and second readings. so the top right corner says it's a substitute motion. i think technically that's incredibility. it's an amendment. and we will as a staff make sure we incorporate any other meaments that need -- amendments that need to be included beforee

board has an opportunity to give us specific feedback on the recommendations that we are presenting tonight. we have heard from multiple stakeholders, the board and staff reviewed the reports. staff were present at all community forums this year. we also heard from parents and community members through other avenues, not least of which are parents that visit the educational placement center every day. we also had extensive conversations with the middle school principals. we hear that it is important for parents to have choice. and to have quality schools. we hear concerns about the fact that not every middle school is currency -- currently one that they would send their job and to. they want feeders for better

articulation and a small production will set of schools. we heard from l.a. -- many elementary families. we have also heard a lot of questions, and in our presentation tonight, we will highlight some of the key questions we have heard. we have been asked how the proposed feeder patterns achieve the goals for student assignment. we will spend a lot of time discussing that. we hear the parents don't understand the relationship between quality schools and feeders. and of the bill leaders are committed to equity. and that is difficult to understand how the middle school choice will promote equity. we have also heard questions about how the district can

afford to expand language programs. we'll address that. we're hoping the presentation will adequately address all of these presentations. we're happy to come back to the board with additional information if it is not covered in tonight's presentation. we want to acknowledge that parents play a key role in staff considerations. it is not the only important consideration, but it is key. district staff have been elemental and implementing engagement efforts around student assignment effort. we're really grateful for the partnership and what it allows us to do. in addition to attending all meetings, parent comments were viewed in numerous ways by staff. survey responses and revealing how the final report.

we listened to parents representatives and we believe that they are well briefed on what they are reporting. what to focus on why staff is recommending feeder patterns. we believe this is the most educationally sound direction to go. first, we want to review the main goals of the policy that the board approved last march. we agree with the key findings6. parents want all schools to be quality schools. this was reflected in the policy for student assignment. the text on this is directly lifted from the policy. the theory of action that is directly lifted from the policy reflects exactly what they have been telling us and what parents have been telling the district for years.

that is if there is a student assignment system that supports other initiatives, they are designed to create in support diverse enrollments, if a human capital allocation system insures instructional leadership, a strong and effective program that meets the needs of students with any school. and focusing on responsible instruction and strategies for integrated learning environments. an equitable distribution of resources and quality neighborhood schools. and then we can reverse the trend of racial isolation. and we can provide equitable access to the range of

opportunities. we can provide transparency at every stage of the process. these efforts will dramatically accelerate the achievements of those less academically successful. on may 24, they outlined a series of suggestions about what the board could do. and those suggestions are reflected in the action that i have just reviewed. we agree wholeheartedly with the suggestions. at the same time, we respectfully disagree with the suggestion that we should do these have instead of building the feeders. we recommend doing them in tandem. we believe building an infrastructure increases the opportunity to strategically and cost effectively build strong

and effective middle schools that will accelerate achievement for all students. tonight, we recommend distant assignment system for middle school. our less -- our last presentation focused on that. we agreed that student assignment alone will accomplish very little. the action item before the board tonight that as part of this policy is about changes to the infrastructure of student assignment that will help the quality schools everywhere. we will focus on the student assignment peace because that is what we're asking the board to take action on. one key question raised is how they meet a priority goals for student assignment. a cut would be helpful for us all to review what the goals listed in the policy for student assignment are. in the presentation will go into

greater debt and illustrate how the infrastructure shift will help us achieve these goals. one of the goals is to facilitate student diversity in the parameters of current law. another isoçd work with district initiatives to avoid isolation of underserved students. the third is to support the strategic limited resources and quality schools in every neighborhood. the fourth is to provide equitable access to the range of the opportunities. creating robust enrollment at all schools. to be simple and easy to understand and provide transparency at every stage of the assignment process. offer families a degree of predictability. minimize the degree that families must invest.

prevent the cost effective use -- implement and sustained over time. these are the policy goals of the the board unanimously approved for student assignment in march 2009 after years of debate, discussion, review of data. the next part of the presentation will illustrate the proposal to create the feeder infrastructure. i am now going to cost to christina who will present the next portion of the presentation. >> in regards to facilitating student diversity, we have heard that they are very concerned that the patterns themselves don't seem to achieve the al