bonnie, janney and leon. any of you three people here? come on up to the podium if i called those names. each of you has two minutes. >> no, i just want to ask why my niece is being sent to a school that is far away from where she lives. she lives on the northwest area and she was sent to the southeast and she has been refusing to go to school. so she miss a whole week of school that weekend when i visit her she cried to me in the restaurant and told me that she feels depressed and she has

been crying and from that i found out the reason why. so i don't know what is going on. you know, when this program started and what the reasons are. and whether these programs are experimental or evident to show that the way are you doing are going to improve my niece's education. and also i would like to ask if you would share with me whether you have any cure of going to elementary school, middle school, high school, where you live, and where your children are going. maybe other city workers are here to -- that's all. vice president yee: thank you. >> hi. my name's janney and i'm

currently a student at lincoln high school. and i was just going to talk about how i've been harrised and discriminated against -- harassed and discriminated against. a teacher at lincoln high school, a name, i've been chastised, discriminated against and antagonized in order to get -- vice president yee: excuse me. when you talk about your situation for our meetings, it's bestst that you do not nam any particular person. >> i'm sorry. yo vice president yee: no, that's ok. so go ahead and continue and we're going to have somebody talk to you afterwards. >> ok. and how i've been antagonized in order for her to get me out of the program. but thanks to mrs. janice cho i wasn't kicked out of the program. oh, i did it again, huh? i'm sorry. [laughter]

oh, man. but -- i don't even want to go anymore. she decided to film me without any reason in order to get me to drop the program and this is a program that i really like and i wanted to stay in but i can't go through me having someone in class and her having put me through this during my senior year, it's not going to look good on my college application. because of that i had to drop out of the program. and she graded me on my elementary school and she only came to supervise my class once and the teacher that i work with at the elementary school, she never spoke to her and not even one time but she gave me a grade and i don't understand how she could give me a grade without supervising me or talking to my teacher, the person i work with.

and because of this i have been like really depressed and stressed out and my grades have been, like, going down ever since this problem occurred. and that's all. thank you. vice president yee: thank you. since you mentioned janet shultz, she happens to be here. dr. shultz, maybe you can connect with her to try to resolve this. ok? thank you. >> hi, my name is lavonni wright. that was my daughter. basically my issue is pertaining to the student and parent guidelines, excuse me, student and parent guardbook. there are things being ignored and not implemented. there are issues in there where my daughter was accused of cheating, she was accused of -- she wasn't -- absences that were accused -- excused, she

was in the minutes' office. the principal's excuses her absence but the teacher wouldn't acknowledge her work. she would ask her things, she would ignore, she'd ask her for paperwork, documentations which are basically rights as a parent and i haven't gotten these things. i've asked her about an explanation based upon her elementary school participation which she gave her a d but when i got -- i got document -- documentation from the teach that are she actually assisted and unfortunately she said she's an excellent student so she said for her to determine that she is giving her a d, she's never spoke within her, is kind of like -- it looks a little bit wishy washy basically. i filed a letter with the board of education stating that she's been discriminated and harassed by this particular teacher. i was -- it was addressed but it was -- the issues that i had in the letter were not addressed. it was kind of like, you know,

i've got your letter and that was it. so at this point in time my daughter, like, she said, she's been really stressed out with the situation and the thing is that if students are to follow a certain protocol, why aren't teachers supposed to follow the same protocol? why do students have to adhere to certain things and the teachers don't? or why are things not being overlooked and not being -- not being rerp manneded for wrong doing that you've done? so my issue is pretty much, it's like, what's the point of this handbook if my rights' completely ignored. thank you very much. vice president yee: you can and your daughter talk to dr. shultz over here? >> ok, thank you. vice president yee: thank you. ok. let's move on to item k, advisory committee reports, appointments. to advisory committees by board

members. would you like to introduce persons giving a report on delac? so in this section we're going to have two reports. one from delac and the other would be the prop a oversight committee. yes. >> actually i was going to introduce lucille here who was going to introduce the delac chairman. >> good afternoon. i have had the pleasure of supporting the district english learner advisory committee for the last four years. i'm going to just say that our volunteer advisory committee

members are longer term and the district than i am. so with that introduction i would like to say that this is edwin, he's the president of our committee, and we have submitted a report that is part of your binder, i believe, and here's edwin. >> good evening. president, vice president, board of education commissioners, superintendent garcia and members of the public. i'm edwin, the chairperson of the district english learner advisory committee. i would like to introduce our committee, some of whom are with us today. if you're here, please stand when i call your name. the vice chairperson, sue, gloria, leonora, secretary, our

language and regional representatives are peggy lowell, cindy chow, dazey -- daisy, lucia. our district support staff members are lucia, fong and kevin. we would like to thank you for providing this opportunity to share our delac 2010-2011 report. rerespectfully submit our recommendation to improve service for english learning students and the families that support them. you'll find a report in tonight's agenda. we would like to use this opportunity to highlight the importance of our work as representatives of the district and to emphasize our key

recommendation. our first recommendation is regarding a communication. any information pertaining to english learner students should be distributed to parents by each site in their respective languages. recommendations should be clear using high quality translation so the parents will be able to understand and participate in their children's educations. the second recommendation is regarding principal involvement in it. principals need to take responsibility for their school -elect, taking steps to ensure they become and continue to be effective. the advisory committee would like to personally invite people to represent their school and attend things. the district will deliver an effective delac committee and keep people well informed. and our third recommendation is

regarding the information from state and federally funded programs. delac depends on continued high level of transparency from the state and federal funding programs office. access to this is crucial for delac and to their past. ensuring english learner students receive the support to which they are entitled. thank you for your time and attention. we would be happy to answer any question you have about our report or to further discuss any of the recommendation or access to english learner in our grict. -- district. as we move forward in the new school year, please know that you have an open invitation to join us during our delac meeting, the delac board member will be attending your meeting as well. we will not -- we would like you to serve your upcoming initiative with us so that we may advise in our rules as a

representative of san francisco diverse families. other than what i have on the paper and i want to say a few words about thank you to parents. they put in hard work during the summertime, in their own time, to write a report and also this year, because of budget cuts, we used to have two full time staff, now we have two part sometime staff. but our staff is doing a full time job, even they only getting paid part time. so i thank them. we spend a lot of time in the weekend, spending time on email, talking about delac so even with short staff we still moving forward. like i said, i was in the last

meeting, we need to communicate. that's why i'm here. commissioner maufas: thank you very, very much. i would like to have delook and our bilingual -- delac and our bilingual community council speak to us more often than occasionally. so we have the parent advisory council speak to us at every single meeting and sometimes it seems like they're crunching to get a report together. i would like to put on the table the idea of maybe you all coming to us in every two months and also having the

b.c.c. speak to us more regularly, maybe every two months. instead of again once a year you're coming once a year, these are -- the time period between your presentation and what's happening in your world and communicating that to us is just -- the length of time is too long and i'm hoping that we as a board and you as a committee and you advise us can work out that you come to us more regularly. and we can have a presentation from you all. those are my comments but i want to continue that discussion maybe with the rules committee and with other board members but i wanted to let you know that that's my highest desire. it's been something that i've spoken to you about and we just talked about it. i want to present that to all the commissioners and staff as well. we very much want to hear from

you more regularly. i think it's imperative and that the public hears from you and understands that we also have other parents wanting to engage the board of education and the district's executive staff about what's happening in their communities which is our community and that we just don't know. so i again appreciate your leadership and the staff, thank you so very, very much. i have been to the meetings. very exciting. i had to have translation myself which is good. i appreciate that. so thank you. >> ok. vice president yee: we already have our first meeting. we already decide to -- >> we already have our first meeting. we already decide to have a representative come to our meeting every single time. so we get connected with the school district. and also we be educating our parents. most parents are speaking our language, either chinese or

spanish. and we start doing training, let them know it's ok to speak your own language and we have translation and you're welcome to come to a meeting and speak on your own languages. commissioner maufas: absolutely. thank you very much. vice president yee: commissioner fewer, commissioner norton, commissioner murase. commissioner fewer: thank you, vice president yee. thank you very much and thank you to all the volunteer parents on this committee, very important committee in our district. i just have a couple of questions. one is that on your recommendation about the school site principals need to be held accountable, i wanted to know, do you find that principals don't have a full understanding of the purpose of delac, the importance of an elac and that also they don't also know how to organize a membership for elac?

>> i feel most likely it's a communication problem. principals have a lot of work to do. i've been with delac for the past seven years. i have so many complaints from the parents. some of the principals try to have a functional elac so this way they're less -- say it this way. so they can plan the budget themselves. they don't have to go to the meeting with the elac member. so they kind of avoiding on it. [inaudible] definitely not. commissioner fewer: so, can you imagine if we gave this program a chance to be fully funded and how fabulous it could be? so since it's not fully funded and has been underfunded consistently and persistently

as long as i've been involved in the san francisco unified school district, i think it's time probably to put some resources there but i wanted to ask, you think that -- i have been told by some principals that elac's must resign their rights over to the school site council which in fact is not true, so i'm thinking that there must be some sort of mixed communication about what we are training our principals on and so the scenario that you present of course is not acceptable at all. i think that if this district has a real commitment to english language learners and the academic achievement of demrish language learners then with you should fully fund this program, too. if that's what our priorities are. so i want to know, do you think that more resources put toward elac, i think that some of our principals, what i've been hearing from principals is sort of a frustration on their parts

is they know it's important, they want to have an elac, they just don't know how to get those parents engaged in a decision making process that is somewhat foreign to what they're used to. or many times we are responsible for our own home budgets but when you come across a high school with a budget of $6 million then it becomes somewhat daunting and so i'm thinking -- daunting, so i'm thinking, do you think that if we put some resources toward the development, i mean, training for principals about how to develop an elac, do you think that is something that could help with the principals being more supportive of having elac? and not being so -- i'm not going to say afraid of it but just a little intimidated by the process also. >> i just want to say that one of the requirements of the

elac, the english learner advisory committee, which is a school site committee, is that the members need to be elected. once the members are trained, which is typically a two-year time term, once they're elected then the committee can choose to delegate the responsibility that comes with the committee to the school site council. i think that people don't know that that is the requirement. first the election then the training, then the delegation. if the committee after it's being trained, chooses to do that. commissioner fewer: i have spoken to some elac members who have said, how can we get our rights back? you know, because they have resigned over their rights and they're saying, well, we made a big mistake. part of it was they didn't know

and i think that principals didn't tell them and so i'm sort of wondering, that's why i bring in the idea of development. i think it is -- this is of course a federally mandated program and so we have to be in compliance, right? and so we should put some resources toward being compliant. so i'm wondering if a training for principal is is sort of a real hands-on sort of training about how to approach parents to be on the elac, right, how to continually, as elac members graduate out, you know, we sometimes see a void, because the same people stay on it, so how do we build a contingent appearance that will train other -- contingent of parents that will train other parents and continue on elac. sometimes you see a strong elac for a couple of years and then it dies off, right?

so i think that to continue the mow ten umof it and it is a skill -- momentum of it and it is a skill set, among the many things you have to do and you're absolutely correct, you have a lot of things to do. but this is a federally mandated thing that they must do. >> i workshop, that would be wonderful. and also a workshop for the parents so they know to work with the principal. it works both ways. i think that's really important. instead of avoiding each other. if they think it's a problem, you know, i don't think it's a good thing. so i think a workshop, hope the principal understands, most parents and students are new immigrants and they don't understand how this school system work. and sometimes they think going to principal or talking to principal is a bad thing.

the child has done something wrong. but in america, you know, we have that in our society. commissioner fewer: i think that if we are to close our achievement gap and help our english language learners then we need guidance also as a district on what the parents of english language learners feel that they need to help their children at home. so real funking elacs that have been very empowered, they have full membership and membership forums, they have 80-something people in their elac membership, they've gone through the elections. they've been able to make great changes at their school, around how that funding is spent. so they've said things like, you know, we need a tutor to help our children with homework because we cannot or because we can't, my son who is chinese, i know, i can't help him with his homework. they've said that and they were able to allocate some of those funds when the other part of

the school had wanted to hire a gardener instead. the elac stood up and said, with this money it is designated for english language learners and you cannot buy a gardener but this is what our elac members want. alall three of them. and they've been able to make great change and help us toward our strategic goals of closing the gap. so i think it's so important, i think that the work that you do is really important. what i would like to see quite frankly from staff is probably a list of elacs that you think are functioning in our district, to see where we're at, and maybe this elac can help us to see whether or not you feel that this is a functioning elac with a really vibrant membership that is aware of what they're doing. so i'd like to see a percentage maybe of how many elacs in this district that are really functioning with parents that are aware of what they can ask for. how the funding works. about our achievement gap with the demrish language learners.

and also how schools can be more respective and warm and also welcoming and more informative to parents who are monolingual, nonenglish speakers. i want to thank you for your work and thanks to everyone on your membership, too. commissioner norton: so, thank you for the report. and i just -- i wanted to respond to commissioner maufas' suggestion and second that to say that it would be great to hear from you and from the other advisory committees, the board has a lot of advisory committees and the only one we hear from regularly is the pact. and the students. i would like to maybe request of the rules committee that we look at this or that the committee look at this and sort of see if there's a way to hear from all of our advisory -- advisory committees more frequently because they had also mentioned to me that they

would like to talk to the board on a more regular basis than once a year. so maybe we could look at a review of that and come up with a way to hear from all of these volunteers who are spending so much time meeting and doing things at the school site that we really appreciate and that we want to hear what you're doing and what you're thinking. commissioner murase: i also want to thank all the members of your committee. i know it's a big time commitment, it's a lot of work. and thank you in particular for your recommendations. i want to follow up on senator fewer's suggestion about getting an inventory. i would like to know where the elacs are functioning, where there is none. but also whether it's been delegated to the s.f.c. or not. because i think there is this issue of once it's been delegated how do you get it back? by school. because there's some

accountability here, right? principals are responsible for complying with this requirement and i think it's up to us to really make sure that that's happening. finally for members of the audience, if you could please announce your meeting time and place because your meetings are presumably open to the public with translation, so we want to make that an opportunity for folks to participate in. >> we do send out our information to each school. when we have the meeting, time and place and location. the problem is some of the school principal is not passing out the information. so that's one of the problems. commissioner wynns: thank you. i want to thank you for the report. i appreciate it. i'm interested in the issue

about the school site councils and when we decide, when we con figure the school site council it's and kind of talk what about what authority they should have, could have, who should be involved, we always knew this dwst was going to be difficult. and as i recall in looking at deputy superintendent yee because we worked on this, it's always been kind of something that we have wanted i think to monitor on a more regular basis. kind of get back to and we think about our school site council training, sets the effectiveness of the places where those have been integrated and where they're not and how they're doing and if we can provide better training and make sure that there's not only compliance but effectiveness, that the members and the parents feel in

whatever the model the school decides to use as well as training on making a good decision on what model they decide to use. so i'd like to know this year when we talk about doing training for the school site councils if we can sort of pay attention to that for all the mandating committees and look at the structure and figure out some way to assess effectiveness and have some discussion about that. if we may. >> anyone that want to find out our meeting information, i believe you can go to our website. you can see the information from the meeting and the place. vice president yee: thank you for all your comments. my fellow members on the board. i concur with most of what's been said. the importance of delack and elacs. and -- delacs and elacs and i know that some of the elacs are functioning w