>> commissioner murase, the wins and then fewer. commissioner murase: you give some of the response from the schools in terms of insufficient materials, principals of 54 elementary schools, did you hear from 100% of the schools? >> yes, we always do. commissioner wins: i'm glad we do -- commissioner wynns: i'm glad we do this. i'm interested in what you can tell us, it doesn't have to be now, but if there's information about the postponement of curriculum adoptions by the state over time, so we've been talking about, you know, since we're spending a serious amount of money replacing textbooks anyway, getting some that are

better for the state -- even if the state doesn't do an adoption and also eventually we'll want to weigh in on the question of whether we ought to encourage the state to stop doing them and those kinds of things. if you could at some time in writing would be fine for me, or maybe we could do it at the curriculum committee or something leek that, having a hearing on the impact of the postponement of the adoption on actual instruction in our district and whichever way, actually, in my view, however the administration prefers to do that, that would be an interesting subject to me. thank you. >> commissioner fewer -- oh, deputy superintendent. >> thank you, president mendoza. i want to add to the discussion that we are undertaking a serious look at all our instructional materials. our english language arts materials are over a decade old. there comes a point of no return where does it make sense to

continue purchasing outdated materials instead of looking at newer materials as well. we hope to have a discussion with the board in one of the meetings soon. i think i would be remiss if i didn't mention to the board and the public that we owe a huge debt of thanks to daisy santos for her work in this regard you may or may not know but daisy is doing triple duty in this regard. she's doing textbooks, also leading our e.l.a. curriculum work and she's also doing work around the core standards and integration with all our other groups. so you know, she never complains and as you can tell, she's well organized but i do want to publicly thank her for her work. >> thank you, ms. santos for your fine work. ms. fewer: when i went to visit francisco middle school a year ago, they didn't have materials

in chinese for newcomers in sixth grade science or any science books. have we corrected that and have we made the science core curriculum available to them? because teachers were telling me there they were doing a synopsis or summary in order for their students, because as you know, it's our middle school newcomer site. i heard in a curriculum committee meeting when i was chair there that there were no textbooks translated or the curriculum was not translated into chinese. i wanted to know if that was part of the scope of work or perhaps it isn't? no, it isn't? >> it isn't but we can get back to you with that information. i don't know but i will find it out. ms. fewer: there was another issue, some of our u.s. history books being written by people in hong kong and not available -- i guess -- it might be more accurate history system of would you mind checking in on that,

too, for our chinese english language learners? thank you. >> i have a couple of questions. i understand there's fluctuation in enrollment so it makes it hard to order. but on some schools there was a high percentage shortage. we made orders almost a month after school had already started. what are we doing to try to kind of remedy that piece of it? or is it just too challenging because of the fluctuation? i'm looking at page five, it's showing 57% at balboa, that's pretty significant. >> that is because for health we need to make sure that the school has enough far class set so the number of students is going to far exceed what a class set would be. so what we made sure is that we

provide the school with enough health books for a class set and then some. we always get some extras so that every student in the health class has access to those books. >> so the shortage is netting that they don't have one for school and one for home but everybody has one, somewhere, so there's access to that? ok, thank you. there was also a little bit of chatter earlier in the year about elementary workbooks and i'm wondering if you can address that as well. i know some schools felt like they ordered and things didn't get to them in time and if there are workbooks at school -- that schools order that do not fall under our approved list, then how does that work? >> we order, in the spring, our office orders, or reorders, puts in orders and we survey the

sites and order several workbooks or practice books that come with some of our programs. our adoptions. for example, for social studies and science. the difference this year was that we did not purchase for schools the language arts practice books. those books no longer came gratis from the publisher and so it was a decision that was made last year by the district to -- and sites were informed in december of last year, of 2010, that those practice books were no longer going to be purchased and so that was the big difference between last year and this year. >> were they given the option to purchase them if they wanted to, if they wanted to raise money

for it? >> schools are free to purchase the practice books with funds they control. it's just the instructional materials adoptive funds would not be used for that. >> is there any policy at all about ordering too many books and returning and getting refunded? instead of waiting to find out how many kids we actually have, like thinking about ordering enough for everybody? my concern is the lapse of time between the start of school and when the books actually show up and whether or not the kids are, you know, i get that they have a set at school, my kids -- they always have homework. so i'm just wondering, with that lapse of time, you know, is there a way to make sure they have them and return books we don't use in it's kind of a quirky practice but i wonder if that's something that could be helpful for our students to ensure they have access? >> we could sure look at it. we are in a severe budget crisis

as you know so some of the instructional materials are part of the swept funds so a lot gets swept and we get back what we absolutely have to have to order this. so at one point, daisy and her office used to have a book room filled with extras, so when newcomer students arrived there were extras and they could be brought out an delivered to a school overnight but we no longer have that, it's a real one-on-one correspondence, so we'll look into anything we can do to get the books into the hands of students faster. >> good. i want to thank you for helping us get through this. other comments? seeing none, we have no public speakers -- so, no -- we have no public speakers signed up for this, so roll call, please.

>> ms. zhang. >> yes. >> ms. tom. >> yes. >> seven ayes. >> thank you very much. item m, discussion of other educational issues. superintendent gaffer seea? >> where is david gold? there he is.

>> so good evening, commissioners, my name is david goldman, i'm chief facility officer. it's my pleasure tonight to talk about and tell you the story of our facility construction over the past months, particularly i would like to focus on some of the projects that have been completed or generally mostly completed over the summer. we had an amazing summer. it's really clear before i dive into this, obviously i would like to thank carlos garcia, in part for permanently fixing my name in legacy as bungalow dave but in general carlos, deputy superintendents lee and karanza

for all the members of the board of education who have not only supported the facility program but trusted us repeatedly to do the work that we were entrusted to do, be allowed to sort of do it well by all of you and for that i'm grateful and particularly president mendoza. one of the first people i met when i came to the district and who from day one has been phenomenally supportive. over the summer, nobody can remodel schools without phenomenal support from every principal whose school we're tearing apart. some of those principals were brand new and had no idea they were walking into a school that was half destroyed and had to be ready by the start of school and fortunately, one of the schools, francis scott key, for example, the principal lives across the street, that makes things

easier, but in general, some phenomenal support and from all the teachers in the district who had to move and remove and pack and unpack and most of them did it with a smile on their face and a grace and a sense of help that sort of meant a lot to the entire spirit of cooperation to kind of make happen what we need to make happen system of what i want to do is sort of give you a pictorial kind of presentation of what we did this summer with a few slides, some background data. i want to see if our expert in the back can, when i do this, will call it up on the screen, i'm used to projecting on the wall, so we'll see. is he going to make it go up? or is he asleep? ok.

so this is susan gave me the title, beyond the talk, because that's our theme for the last few years, modernizing our schools to inspire learning. just as a highlight of the summer of 2011, we had 35 major modernization projects at 35 sites. we wrote checks in the bond program for almost $35 million this summer, we had 16 green school-yard projects and everything opened on time. facility design -- [applause] >> the facility design and construction department had another 45 projects, a lot of them were smaller, spent $10 million, moved five schools from one place to another, and everything opened on time. district custodians cleaned over 2,00 classrooms and 13 gardeners

mowed, clipped, and pruned an area half the size of golden gate park. on the 2003 bond, i want to bring you up to date of where we are, some of you may have seen these slides in other places, we modernized 30 schools, we had a budget of $295 million, we said we'd do the work by june 30, 2010. we completed all the work, we did it all for $295 million and we finished ahead of june 30, 2010. on the 2006 bond measure which the voters of san francisco were gracious in 2006 in passing by a wide margin, we said we'd modernize 59 school sites, we'd do it for $450 million and all the work would be done by june 30, 2012. all the work is either finished or going at all 59 sites, we've

done all the work for $450 million an we haven't even touched the state money which they owe us and we haven't received and all the major work is designated to be done in time for our legal obligation for our a.d. ample federal lawsuit by june 30, 2010. going forward, the goal, obviously, is to continue to fix, repair, make safe and modernize the remaining 50-plus district school sites. so that's the challenge going forward. looking at what we did this summer, i want to start with one of our flagship schools, this is aptos middle school, the photo on the left is what it looked like before, not so different. what it looks like now. if you look at the auditorium at aptos middle school before we went in, and that's what it looks like today.

classrooms before and after, new window, new lights, new walls, new floor, brand new complete total overhaul. places around the school that look like wastelands now look like this and are fully accessible. our libraries are accessible and completely his porically renovated in the character of the building. downtown high school, 1920, streamline moderne architecture, upper left before, lower right 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 doth