after. this was the school office last year. that's the school office today. this was a classroom at downtown. and this is a career teach everybody how to cook and learn to live your life room. pretty remarkable space. this was the multipurpose room before. this is the multipurpose room after. this was the gymnasium at downtown high school. real inspiring space. and that's the gym today. this is martin luther king jr. middle school. no color, drab, dirty, barely a plant in sight in need of some serious work. if you've been out to m.l.k.,

one thing you can say for sure is there's no lack of color. this is m.l.k. today. this is the main entrance to the school. this is the main courtyard, landscaping, benches, complete overhaul, the entire school feels completely different. this is the walkways and central space in the main building. this is the gymnasium before. this is the gymnasium after. this is a typical new modernized classroom at m.l.k. chinese immersion, you can enter this school on grade on the first, second, and third floor. there were seven playgrounds at seven different levels. the school is still in progress and it's a lot of fun. this is a typical classroom,

chinese immersion, all new cabinet, awe null -- all new cubbies, everything brand new, ready to go. and of course bathrooms are big for those of you who don't know what the district standards are, we have epoxy floors and corian on the walls. these are bathrooms that will take the wear and tear and look new and fresh 15 years from now as one year from now. for those of you who don't know what serious construction really can be,s is the civic center, the normer -- the former john sweatt building, that's what it looks like inside if you walked over there. so this is a total interior redo seismic retrofit and when we're done, everything in this building will be brand new. the outside will look almost exactly the same, complete with

children's murals on the outside wall. this is to preserve the historic sort of landmark integrity of the architecture of the building. this is the old laguna honda building, the new home of the principal center campus. once it's done, if you drive by, you'll see that building and if you walked inside, that's what you would see two months ago. walls are starting to go up. this is what happens when you take a 1920's building, strip it down to the bricks and the walls, seismically retrofit it and make it safe. the steel pricing you see, that's an earthquake retrofit from the 1930's when the field act first was started. this is glen park before, for those of you who have been by glen park and celebrated their anniversary. that's glen park today.

one structure, controversial bright blue colors, some of the neighbors are upset with the bright blue colors. this is sort of one of our most interesting stories i think of all of our schools we worked on this summer. one of the saddest and most neglected, probably, other than m.l.k., was cobb. i think there was a sense among the staff, probably among the students and certainly anybody that drove by that this building had been neglected for many, many years and the question is, what was going to happen in its future? for those of you who have been by cobb in the last month or so, that's the same view today. this is not the same building. this is the view of the courtyard and the arcade. the arcade was turned into the new school entrance and a space

they can use in the rain and during the days as an overflow space as opposed to being a gated off no man's land. that's the view today. completely different school. i have heard stories that the faculty at cobb actually is so happy with this building that there's a sense of camaraderie and spirit that people haven't seen in some time. i guess as an architect, i'd like to think the building had something to do with it, maybe a little, and if it did, i think that's honestly what we want to achieve in our projects. certainly it gave the school a sense that we care and we hope they're going to be there for a long time. this is another view of the exterior from the lower level. that's what it looks like today. very different presentation. again, bathrooms, multicolored corian walls, epoxy floors,

partitions, this is an interesting project, this is wallenberg high school. i can't remember if it was a middle school or an elementary school once upon a time. this is a great example of a very, very talented architect who took a school and respected sort of the basic character of the building an remodeled it in such a way it's hard to tell the new from the old so this is the main entrance of wallenberg and this is the new a.d.a. accessible entrance with the new elevator tower and ramps char concealed but the style and character of the architecture is in keeping with the building. of course there's some kids charging out of the school, ready to either hit the streets or have lunch. this is the lobby before at wallenberg. this is the lobby after.

this is the hallway at wallenberg, the mile-long tiled dull and dreary corridor that nobody wants to walk down. that's the corridor today. this is the gym today, completely refurbished. handicapped accessible at both levels. brand new science labs, ready to go. brand new library. this is the cafeteria, cafeteria was dull and dreary, it had windows going to a cart-yard that did nothing. now this is the cafeteria today, it has rollup barn doors in the cafeteria that all roll up and the cafeteria becomes an indoor-out door space. this is the cafeteria with the doors rolled up and the spaceship outside ready to launch which i'll show you in a

minute. and this is the courtyard with the modular buildings, one very old wellness center, a couple of other bungalows sitting there, dull and dreary courtyard. that's the same view today. brand new building, all the modular is gone, brand new courtyard, brand new elevator, exciting space. that's the view looking back the other way to the cafeteria. and that's the view today. that's the new lunch shelter which leads off the cafeteria. trying to create a sense of place for the students of wallenberg so they can congregate and play an feel like they're at a real high school. there we have the lunch shelter with the tower in the distance, series of benches for students to have lunch. the courtyard is not quite as

large as that, distorted by the wide angle view. i want to end with cleveland because i think cleveland is a great story. cleveland is another 100--year-old plus building, we did an incredible interior and exterior retrofit, ran into the, what do you do when off mural on the building you can't touch? actually wound up paying the muralist to come back out, refurbish the murals on both sides, add to the artwork, replace all the stucco in the p middle of the building and had the artist repaint the plaques of all the faces in such a way that they can be taken down if we ever have to fix the wall again. but the story i want to tell -- and typical library at cleveland, completely

refurbished and of course this is the ceremony, for those of you who remember the gentleman who went to the library and the archive and discovered that there was a copper box placed there somewhat after the 1906 earthquake in 1910, this was one of the first major structures in that area reconstructed after the earthquake. they had a major sort of grand opening where every city official of the day came, the mayor wrote a letter, it was all placed in the copper box, last year they opened the copper box. a week or so ago, there was the ceremony of the new material put into the new copper box, all the students came, for the dedication, installation, placement of this box back into the wall and replacement of the cornerstone where it will sit for another 100 years. of course the picture here is

carlos spurring the troops to cheer on the placing of the box in the wall and all the kids are incredibly excited but what was fascinating from this and i want to leave you with this one thought, is i stood and watched almost 300 children and their teachers walk by the copper box which was inserted in the wall. almost spontaneously, with no instruction from anybody, every student, without exception, reached out and touched the box. and i had the sort of strange poetic epiphany that it was almost as if all these students were sending a piece of emselve queers into the future. it left a message with me that this is sort of our mission, we want these kids and the generation of kids to follow to

be able to feel about the schools the way we feel about them now, to open their box and have the same kind of pride 100 years from now as we all feel today. that's our sort of summer kind of -- in a nutshell, we have a lot more to do and i want to thank all of you for your support. [applause] >> wonderful to see david, great to be able to -- the transformations our schools have gone through, so questions? comments? commissioner norton. commissioner norton: thank you for the presentation. the photos are stunning. i drive by cobb a lot and one day i nearly crashed the car when i saw the mural.

i'm just wondering if it's possible to put a copy of the presentation on the district website because i just would love for more people to see these pictures close up and if you would email me a copy for my own website i would love that. >> it was my intent to do that, which is why i didn't bring copies. it's an enormous file. these are verying very high resolution photographs, a lot of them taken by professional photographers, i can't email it to you but i can burn you a c.d. or load it on a u.s.b. key. commissioner wynns: i heard the buzz about cobb and made a trip out there for the purpose of seeing it. i have seen some of these others. i want to sewallenberg, haven't seen that, since we built the spaceship, i want to see it. i want to ask about the

principal center, about the brickwork. i have heard the story -- story of of the presentation of the brickwork at roosevelt through one of our previous, even before my time, field act programs and i am really fascinated by seeing this seal work but i'm wondering about what we -- we don't have many brick schools so was work ever done to actually hold the brick facade onto it? and it's not necessary? >> if you go out to the 1350 site what you'll see on the, is it the eighth street side? the side that has the playground. sixth. the side that has the playground. in the 1950's, somebody came in and poured concrete all over the bricks on the outside. that side got completely

stabilized. but the other three sides did not. so we've taken down the bricks at the ends and we're going to pour big, massive concrete walls and then put the bricks, some of the bricks back and the center portion will look essentially the same. the goal for these really fine old buildings is when we're done, to have a brand new modern school on the inside and respect the tradition of the outside. it's kind of a commitment we made to the neighborhood. they don't want to sort of show up and find suddenly the building turned into something else. >> i appreciate that. commissioner wynns: i appreciate that. for the public if you -- you should go look at roosevelt and the brickwork is extraordinary there which is why i was told they decided to make a big investment in that. it's a beautiful art deco kind of brick work. if you look, you'll see small metal, looks like rectangles, very expensive, even in those

days, steel structure built on the inside with these rods coming out and things that hold the bricks on the facade and in the 1989 earthquake, that brick building, not one brick fell off, yet right along the area, there are houses like many in san francisco, stucco, one story above garage with brick facades around the garage and when you walked down the street you saw houses where the bricks all fell off. you know there was enough shaking that the bricks would have come off in the case of roosevelt, which is a brick build, would have probably fallen down. so i appreciated that and love that building. it's an extraordinary building. i want to say that we're so lucky to have these buildings. they are, you know, some of it is really things that you just never think about. but almost every child in california goes to school in a

building that has no hallways. there are just classrooms that open outside to the weather and i understand that we're lucky that the weather is mild and we can do that and build cheaper schools in this state because it doesn't snow here or there aren't hurricanes and things like that and we don't need air-conditioning, for the most part, at least we don't here, which we're lucky about that too but these buildings are an extraordinary resource and make the educational experience for the students profoundly different, i think better, because they go to school, you sewallenberg here and downtown, which are elementary schools, built with big common spaces, auditoriums, gymnasiums, things that schools don't have today, and most of the schools in california are modern because the suburbs didn't exist when these schools were built. so the investment we're making and the wonderful work you and

your staff have done are really something that we should all as a community treasure and luckily we do. i thank you for all this. >> vice president yee. vice president yee: on the one hand, we are lucky to have these buildings and on the other hand, prior to renovation, we're not so lucky because they're so old. i walked into most of these buildings prior to renovation and it didn't feel good. it was drab and you wondered, why are our kids going to these schools when, whenever i see a movie or watch tv, which i want to do a little of, they show schools and what it could look like.

this is what all the kids deserve. more recently when i've gone into some of the ones you've shown, cleveland, cobb, and so forth, it feels like those schools i see in movies and on tv where it's what the kids deserve. and these are the schools that we have worked on recently. unfortunately, we've had several bond measures to support this work and yet, you know, as happy as i am with what we've done, we have almost 50 other buildings we have not touched and all our kids need to have the same feeling, as those kids that go to cobb and so forth. so hopefully, you know, i'm

bordering on probably not -- probably shouldn't be saying anything but there's an opportunity for people in san francisco to sare about this stuff and maybe support it. >> thank you. other commissioners? commissioner murase: i want to congratulate your team for their work. i was a fifth and sixth grader at wallenberg when it was an elementary school, i was shocked when i heard they were making it a high school. it's wonderful to see that now it's designed for the state of the nsgo there. i've seen the work at modernization at rosa parks, it's made a huge difference.

the really nice way that the school was structured contributed to a good school community. i'm glad to hear those things have been taken into consideration for the chinese immersion school there. and just along with vice president yee, i think it is important that people know that there is a bond measure in november to fund the last group of schools. >> commissioner fewer? commissioner fewer: i want to say the schools are beautiful. i'm a fourth generation san franciscoian and my parents went to schools in san francisco and one of them was stockton, which we just saw the other day, what a beautiful school, also that you redid there too. anyway, i want to say thanks, it's beautiful, great news, everything is on time and budget so thanks so much.

>> commissioner maufas. commissioner maufas: i can pretty much speak just to the transfrmation of the middle schools into high schools. just like you saw for wallenberg that long, narrow corridor, it's really meant for smaller bodies and the work done there to widen the hallway, high schoolers, when that bell rings an they get to walk down without bumping into each other, it's great. the same thing for thurgood marshall, the difference in the hallways, they're wider, high school is still more comfortable. this is made, this is my lane and i'm in here and i love that we recognize that and make these accommodations for older kids or different student bodies. i cannot, that's my experience,

and i love, absolutely love that we care for the murals that are on our school buildings. they are beautiful characterizations of the neighborhoods that they are in. i'm so grateful that we are stewards of that artwork and take special care in maintaining it and preserving it for the generations of students and families that come to those schools. they're just beautiful. they're beautiful. whether it's a cloudy day or sunny day, it's gorgeous. i'm so glad you took the special care at cleveland. that definitely took, i'm sure, some negotiating and finessing and again that just shows the love and attention that we here as well as your department and deputy superintendent lee, i want to commend you as well for really overseeing the work and

superintendent garr see yo -- garcia, you too, monitoring the process and making sure that everything fits in the puzzle. it's a puzzle that has to get put together and a combination domino effect. that's the tall -- that's a talent. it's not just something you have automatically. it takes skill and talent and know-how. it's savvy and political will. you all have been able to do that. these schools reflect that effort. thank you so, so very much. we talk about it, not only here in san francisco, i want you to know it is a pleasure to speak to staff in the schools and they're so pleased but also to people who come and visit san francisco and see our school sites because they are amazed. thank you. >> by the way in conclusion, i

want to apoll jidse for the heat. i should have had my tool belt on and fixed that. >> we'll be talking to you about that later. i want to make a couple of comments. i missed fairmont, was fairmont good. the changes to the learning environment for our students is just tremendous and for our kids to walk into this beautiful, clean space, with a lot of lighting, and the whole idea that we're doing this to standards and greening, i want to thank the communities because for our communs and homeowners and our businesses that surround our schools, what a big difference it is for them also to see this big, beautiful site that's now in their community, many times they overlook,

they've everlooked the school, didn't even know they were there, if they did and weren't fixed up yet, they never wanted to see them system of now, what i'm hearing from businesses and just neighbors is what a great addition it is to have a newly remodeled school in your community. and then just our families and our students that take ownership of our sites, you know, it's been really wonderful to see the care that our kids and their families have taken on the sites and particularly around the investment we've had on the greening and on the gardens and wanting to make these spaces, you know, not just a good, strong learning environment academically but also touching them in ways, when you're living in an urban environment, to bring gardens to our schools has been tremendous. and then lastly, this was really all about a.d.a. and safety and

modernizing and technology and doing all of these things that all of our schools should have and so i just want to commend you for your amazing work. i know you have a fantastic bond team, also, that helped do this center, they're just remarkable and i always loved the story, david, once upon a time when we couldn't get people to come to our bidding sessions and now we can't -- we fill a room and people are really coming in and billing us some beautiful schools. so thank you for all your efforts in making that happen. i think it really speaks to the quality of san francisco unified school district. so commissioner -- that's the wrong -- >> still not correct. >> superintendent. >> i want to emphasize one

aspect i don't think has been brought up as much as it deserves to be which is that the financial management of the program has been stellar and for members of the public who may be interested in these aspects, every dollar of both the 2003 and 2006 projects is accounted for every month and very detailed reports, financial reported prepared by david's team and subject to both regular eversight by the citizens, bond oversight committee, that the board of education has appointed , which has done great work in this regard, they have been very diligent over the years, 17 years they've been in place and met much more often than they're required to by state law, they have twice the number of members they're required to by state law thanks to the board and they received very good professional

information from members of the bond team and the work is also subject to an annual audit and every year for seven years the audit has come in clean i wanted to emphasize that the money has been accounted for very carefully and is squeaky clean and if any member of the public wants to look at the reports themselves, they can go to www .sfusd.edu and look for themselves at all the financial reports. >> thank you for that, deputy superintendent lee. i wanted to say, we have a bond on the ballot in november, i hope everybody will vote for it but you know, a number of years ago, the situation you just described was not as true then as it is now. and so there was a lot of media coverage of that