the san francisco board of the education regular meeting.

to date is june 28. this meeting is called to order. commissioner fewer: here. commissioner maufas: here. commissioner murase: here. commissioner wynns: here. elvina fan: here. >> please join me for the pledge of allegiance. president mendoza: thank you. item a is the approval of board meetings -- board minutes. any corrections tax roll call, please.

-- any corrections? roll call, please. [roll is called] >> 5 ayes. president mendoza: the next item is a presentation by the superintendent. superintendent garcia is out of town and we are blessed with the presence of the deputy superintendent. >> you did that well. you have practiced. thank you, president mendoza. superintendent garcia is out of town and unable to make the meeting tonight. he has asked me to share the following thoughts with all of you. regarding the 20112012 budget, the board will be taking action tonight on the budget for the 2011-2012 school year recommended budget. we may be close to having a state budget. all school districts must submit

a three-year budget to the state by july 1. the one we are recommending is based on the governor's proposed budget. our recommendation is that we schedule a meeting of the full board after the meeting to discuss any differences between the proposed budget and the final state budget and consider any changes on board prior to is. this is our last meeting of the school year. as this is our last meeting of the school year, i would like to think the board, students, parents, and community members, and faculty, staff, and administrators for a productive school year. working together and keeping our focus on students, we have made progress this year. just to name a few of the accomplishments this year, if i could list them -- after receiving a critical review of special education services, we we delivered a special services. in kindergarten through ninth

grade, we expect exclusive options for all students. we are developing a core curriculum and not maps, but common learning assessments that provide teachers and students with timely feedback on student learning. nearly 15,000 students were assessed in english language arts, and nearly 27,000 students were assessed in math. that help teachers develop curriculum according to a student needs. measures will effectively use our resources to support education of preschool students. we also were able to implement a new student assignment system and finalized the middle of school student assignment design. as a continue with -- continue

to update our schools, we cannot help but think our constituencies, our families, and our communities for all the support they have given our schools and school district this year. i would like to wish everyone a restful summer and would like to see everyone rested and ready to go next year. commissioner maufas: thank you. the next item is the recognitions of resolutions and commendations. it is our wonderful pleasure to welcome the masons of the california masonic foundation. they have been a tremendous partner to our school district. on a personal note, it was jim durkee who brought them over. we have flourished into a

wonderful relationship. they have in many -- have been in many of our schools and are honoring many of our students this evening. i would like to welcome alan to the podium. >> good evening, commissioners. it is a pleasure to be here tonight on what i know is an important night for the school district. as the grand secretary of the nations of california, i have the opportunity to work with school districts all over the state. i am proud to be from san francisco. there are lots of challenges facing schools, particularly in san francisco. but the leadership is exceptional. starting with your president and superintendent, they have provided not only good leadership to the school district, but to the community. your leadership has helped us find a way to help. thanks to the leadership of

hydrogen and carlos garcia, we have a plan we are implementing all over the state to work with schools in advancing literacy in elementary schools, middle school, math and college pathways. these are now having an effect all over the state. we are doing this with our members in various communities. we have a council here in san francisco. i would like to recommend it -- lee members of our -- our members that are here tonight on a graduate from the school district. ron erickson graduated from balboa high school in 1960. ed lim credit from galileo academy of science and technology in 1966. he was smart enough to marry a wonderful woman named and that

who served for many years as a principal of our school district. one of the important jobs i had this year was launching a new scholarship program. thank you so much. the nations of california grant about $1.30 million in scholarships every year. we were caused to stop and think about what we are doing and to make a more profound district. we were able to carve off this year $157,000 for a new program called investment success. no longer was it just about gpa and financial need. it was about understanding students and their circumstances and who could use a hand up. the students we recognize tonight were referred by guidance counselors and principles. we interviewed each of them to

understand them. they have shown character and a willingness to support our community that is exemplary. i am reminded of a "buy my angelou -- of a quote by maya angelou. "if you do not like your path, cut your own swath." jasmine lives in the tenderloin in san francisco. her first two years of high school were not very good. it would be fair to say she was a failing student. on her own, she realized the only way she was going to get out of her environment is if she did it hurt -- did it herself. by her junior year, she was an a student. she continued that in her senior year. she is going to go to city college in san francisco and

wants to go to san francisco state university and serving our community as a nurse. jazzman, welcome. -- jasmine, welcome. adrianna ferrerra ruiz has a situation most high-school students do not. in addition to going to school, she has to work 30 hours a week and is the primary caregiver in her family. she gradually did from abraham lincoln high school and plans to go to skyline community college before transferring to san francisco state to obtain a degree in criminal justice and be a probation officer. you can tell she has been raising our brothers and sisters. she is going to make a career out of it. let us have a hand for her. [applause]

nice to have you here. congratulations. we were also pleased to recognize elise, who graduated from the high school of arts. on her own, she challenged herself and those around her, saying she was never afraid to express her own opinions. she will attend city college and transfer to the university of santa monica to study theater. demonte calvin was motivated by his mother. he graduated from civic center secondary school and will go to city college this fall. romi youngquist emigrated with her mother from the ivory coast, where her family still lives, threatened by civil war. she realized that in san

francisco she had opportunities that her family back home did not that inspired her to do well in school. she graduated also from the school of arts and plans to go to ucla to study dentistry. she lives in richmond. is that correct? she was going to have to take two buses and probably a cab to get here. it was her plan to be here. when she got to her one-year-old child, she said it would not worked out. she is a single mother who takes care of herself. her parents had their own situation going on, being incarcerated. at the age of 14, she filed to be independent. this year, she graduate from help of high-school and plans on studying creative writing at city college while taking care of her 1-year-old son.

i think she deserves our applause even though she could not be for tonight. [applause] this is just the beginning of what is going to be an incredible program and journey for us. we look forward to helping students every year who are in the same situation. they are not the students everyone is going to point to. they are not the ones that will get every award. they are students that have incredible promise and just need somebody to say we believe in you. but we believe in these kids and we think the school district for giving us the idea and encouragement. we are going to make you proud of the work that you do. thank you very much. commissioner maufas: before you go, can you share with us what you are giving to the students? >> each of the students is getting a $7,000 award to help them through two years of

community college and two years of a four-year college. [applause] commissioner maufas: comments from commissioners? >> thank you very, very much. commissioner wynns: i wanted to add my thanks, and particularly reiterate what you said. this is not the story we usually hear. these are not the students that others focus on. the are the ones who really need it. i think you deeply for doing this. and congratulations to the students. commissioner murase: i want to congratulate the students very much. they have overcome real challenges in their lives. it is wonderful to see the foundation recognize that. thank you all. >> thank you and congratulations. we are here to support you. we do not leave you after you graduate. i want to acknowledge doug, who is here.

we have been working closely together for a few years. we have these very funny conversations over lunch about where the need is and how to support the students. over the years, you have stepped up in ways that -- we are eternally grateful because you had the resources to really tapped into -- tap into not only funds from the foundation, but human bodies to support a and mentor. you have refurbished classrooms and family rooms and have volunteered and brought people out. you've contributed in so many different ways i'm glad we had the opportunity to run into each other and grow this relationship. for you to do such wonderful things for our kids is really powerful. on behalf of the board, please accept our deep gratitude for all the work you do as masons. jim, thank you for bringing this

together in the first place. it was meaningful and powerful. congratulations for not giving up. you have had tough times and did not give up. you have already made as proud. make this product. thanks for coming up and sharing all the -- make us proud there. thanks for coming out and sharing all your stories with us. >> item d is our student delegates report, and we have a student here, which we did not expect to have. elvina fan: i do not have much to report on since the student advisory council had our last meeting in may and the school year is over. it is summer. commissioner maufas: do you want to share with us what you are doing for the summer? elvina fan: i have a bank of

america leadership internship. basically, the partner with the boys and girls club of san francisco. they are giving me a trip to washington, d.c. i am excited. president mendoza: how long will you be in washington, d.c.? >> one week. president mendoza: item e is the current advisory council pac report. we have michelle. >> good evening, commissioners and deputy superintendent. i am the proud parent of two public school students, the coordinator of an after-school program, and a member of the parent of kaiser accounts will. -- parents advisory council.

we appreciate the california masonic council supporting our students. this is the last pack report -- pac report for this school year, and i conclude my term at the end of this month. it has been an honor to serve, although i did not know what i was getting myself into when i signed up. i have had the opportunity to hear from and represent parent concerns and perspectives from across the district. observing where and why they were different or the same, i have learned a great deal of the past four years. i am a different and better person because of it. i have a greater understanding of education policies, procedures, budgets, and the agenda. i still do not completely understand all of it. i have the privilege of reading

and learning from a wide cross- section of people, parents, board members, community advocates, legislators. i am grateful for this opportunity and encourage others to undertake what has been for me an amazing journey. it is with this perspective that i present the report for 2010- 2011. the role of the parent advisory council is to present parent voices and perspectives to inform policy decisions. this it summarizes our work for this school year and issues we will take up again in the fall. the last page includes a table showing our specific goals and achievements over the year. i know this was emailed earlier. there are paper copies as well.

we want to achieve student achievement, equitable access, and accountability. we support these parties and have focused to engage parents in several of these initiatives. we are concerned that we are still hearing from a lot of parents that are not seeing social justice at high standards or effective instruction to close the achievement gap in practice. our work is aligned with the goals of the balanced scorecard , and we have reached out to hear from families across the city. at the beginning of the last school year, we reviewed strategic initiatives for the year before setting our own priorities, which included public engagement in middle school placements, parent inclusion in the superintendent zone schools, informing changes to the transportation policy, addressing a teacher and

administrator standards and accountability, supporting the current engagement plan, supporting access to after- school, and aligning after- school programs. we worked closely with district staff and parents for public schools over most of the last school year to plan and conduct neighborhood forums, developing k-eight pathways with a goal of improving middle schools. however goal was to increase middle school quality for all students, strength and implementation of new policies and systems, and build trust between the board of education, parents, and the community. we have mixed feelings about the community engagement initiative. we know we accomplished an enormous project. we engaged over 900 parents, educators, and committee members in discussions over proposals for student assignment, expanding language pathways, and

supporting the school students. we conducted 12 community forums and seven targeted focus groups that directly engaged over 850 participants to discuss student assignment, language pathways, and other issues. we also helped lead community updates and workshops where over 60 parents, teachers, principals, and other community leaders shared questions. following the meetings, we led a process to develop a report of findings, and develop recommendations for the board that included the suggestions of parent partners, and present these findings and recommendations to the board and other district leaders. we also met with district staff yesterday to evaluate our partnership and discuss steps for moving forward on future work. however, as we look at other goals for this initiative, we feel proposals put forward did

not necessarily reflect our recommendations or address questions raised by community members who participated in the forms. we believe this initiative did not achieve the objective of building trust for the district among families in the community. for many parents, the chasing presentation of the district's proposal, lack of consistency, and missed deadlines for providing information has resulted in less trust and confidence in the district than before. to many in the community, it appears the staff and board of education ignored our questions regarding equitable access to my good programs, resource issues, and lack of transparent implementation plans to improve school quality. this is discouraging, especially because of the amount of time, effort, and resources that were put into this initiative, postponing other important

issues we hoped to focus on this year. just to highlight some of that are put in more personal face on it, i'll insert a few personal comments at this point. they are my comments, but i believe the reflect what i have heard other parents and pac members say. so many people gave an extraordinary amount of their time and energy to make these forums happen, including district staff and volunteers. while personally i did not give as much this year as i have, it was nice to receive the acknowledgement from the board and the district, but i can say that none of us did this for the acclaim. we did it because we believed it was important. we would like to know what we did was serve a purpose.

i can tell people that i meet in the world that it is worthwhile to speak your mind, because i have seen in make a difference personally. so when people at these forums would ask me if it is going to make a difference, are they going to listen to us, i said yes. i believe this would really have an impact. and i have to honestly say that i am in some ways relieved to be stepping down at this time because i do not know if i could go out another year and say the same thing with the same kind of conviction. that makes me feel like what right do i have to be asking people, if i do not feel that what they are going to tommy is a point to be taken into

account. but now i want to move onto other things we did accomplish this year. strengthening the systems for communication and current engagement. one project was working with the district pta and parents for public schools to develop a tool kit with information and resources to help parents understand how to address concerns about their child's school. the objectives are to map out a process for raising concerns so it is consistently understood by all parties involved, including school staff and district administrators, to provide tools to help parents navigate the system and achieve an acceptable outcome, create accountability and transparency through the process. volunteers from three organizations worked to develop draft materials for the toolkit designed to help families navigate their concern through the most appropriate channels. parents met with district staff

and leadership to make sure the materials were accurate and in line with the strict policy and labor agreements. the conducted several focus groups, including meeting with the parent liaison. in april, parents presented the materials and turned over the response ability for implementing them to district staff. the deputy superintendent committed to making it available on the district website in chinese, english, and spanish by the beginning of this school year. in addition, the district staff commited to including the revised tool kit in the section on effective parent engagement. we are excited and proud of this work and look forward to seeing the implementations take place. representing current voices to district leaders -- to convey what we learned from speaking of families across the district, we present regular reports, meet with individual commissioners,

and work closely with district staff. we have presented a report at all but two regular meetings. that was in march when we were facilitating community forums. we participated in meetings at the curriculum committee and the ad hoc committee on student assignment, met with superintendents and other district staff to discuss specific policy initiatives, including changes to transportation policy and implementation of the district plan for parent engagement. participating in parent and public education networks -- we have played a leadership role in the parent involvement coalition. while that is not currently meeting, we have been participating in the new coalition convened by mission graduates. we continue to meet with our parents in the community as that moves forward. our members and our staff

regularly participate in meetings of community based organizations, working to support efforts in the bayview. well we support the goals and objectives of the superintendent zone, we arkin -- we remain concerned about the confusion that has played to these initiatives in the past year. clear channels of communication need to be established with community, teachers, and district staff. there need to be measures for how well these initiatives are working. we have yet to see this information in a parent- friendly format. we look forward to that, moving forward. we have built an active membership and strengthen systems for planning and implementing program goals and reaching out to communicate with families. our organizational development achievements include renewing annual support from our major funders. thank you very much. that has allowed us to maintain staff