will see. thank you. meeting adjourned. [laughter] all right. you are right, i did not. it was informational. do i need to do public comment? >> it's ok. >> is this the appropriate place for her to do it? >> thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about this, it is very near and dear. united educators and our state affiliate's have been working on a program since its

inception. there is a lot of the motion and energy about what was said, but i only have a minute and 45 seconds, so one of the things that i really want to share with this commission, good evening and i forgot to say that. before things that the state affiliate's are asking every district to do is to make sure the curriculum is developmentally appropriate. that the ratio will be one to 10 with a maximum of 20 students per class. that the program the self- contained, a full-day program, and not a two-year kindergarten. it defeats the purpose. we have argued and we compromised with legislators on

this issue. number seven of the transitional kindergarten set is very clear and says that the law is to provide a separate and unique experiences for transitional kindergarten children. i cannot say lauder what the implications of this combined kindergarten program will have on our kindergarten teachers. first, we're telling them to be developmentally appropriate and we have taken away the ability for them to be developmentally appropriate. and now we say, it is ok. you have to open in your program, but have them for two years. this doesn't make a sound sense. sound decisions for young children. this is a unique opportunity to close the gap. you call in the educational, you

call its social justice, the gap is there. this is an opportunity to take those young children, separate them with the developmentally appropriate practices, and let them sore. thank you. and >> let's get back on track, students, thank you for saying. i will see if i can move around a couple of things because you guys need to get home and do your homework. n is pulled so we're ok on that. so item o is a vote on the consent calendar. it was moved and seconded, so roll call, please. >> it's on. it's on.

yes? thank you. [roll call vote] >> can i ask the superintendent on the consent calendar, there were several items severed? is that a quick discussion?

no? so these are the items? >> i think it would be appropriate to have the students go first. >> i would like to have the students come forward and we can have a discussion on this later. the superintendent's proposal, there are none. the board members proposal for first reading, i need a motion and a second. on suspension of the rules to have this item heard tonight. roll call? >> [roll call vote] >> i need motion and second for

item r. the reading? >> a student delegates will read this into the record. >> of the resolution supporting the implementation of free fast passes for all used in san francisco. whereas there are 75,000 live in san francisco, the remaining 23,000 attend private schools. out of 11,512 middle and high school students who responded to this question in the spring of 2011 used a vote student survey, 42% take muni to school.

those and respond to this question in the spring of 2011, 58.4% take it home from school. 36,000 riders per month according to the budget and legislative analyst support. while the price has increased 110% in the last two years from $10 to $21. and whereas a 61% of students that completed the lunch forms for the 2010 to 2011 school year qualify for free or reduced lunch. and the board of education approved a three-year plan in december to reduce the number of school buses serving 59

elementary and middle schools from 44 school buses down to 25. excluding the school buses for special education students. and because these and the it is unified school district aims to promote an appreciation of the diversity that exists in every neighborhood and community, you should be able to access of the opportunities advances go has to offer, including but not limited to after-school programs, museums, parks, and job opportunities regardless of what neighborhood they live in. at the result of the elimination of school buses as a commuting options, all students that depend on school buses are forced to find alternative in node of transportation. and whereas free muni would eliminate the challenges of purchase and distribution that

hindered the success of the life line passes. and whereas environmental awareness is important in the city of san francisco and allowing them to utilize public transportation systems advances our goal to a more sustainable environment. and whereas the recent downturn in the economy places a financial burden on families making it difficult for them to afford the additional cost of student commuter fees, and whereas article 2 of the student advisory council states that the fcc is committed to providing a voice for the students of the san francisco unified school district by representing and presenting the interest of the students with administrative and policy making body is with the intent of solving the and that needs of the youth of san francisco. therefore, be it resolved that the board of education at the urging of the student advisory council supports faster passes for all you've residing in the

city and county of san francisco. and further be it resolved that they support and join the work of the mayor's office, the municipal transportation agency and the board of supervisors of the city and county of santa it is in order to implement the pilot program. including the exploration of providing free muni for 18- year-old full time students. >> i have one speaker. wendy, are you here? , and press the button. -- come out and press the button. >> my name is wendy, i am representing the student advisory council and behind me are the student advisory council

themselves representing at supporting to show our support for the resolution for the past week. members have been a school's out reaching into collecting over 2100 signatures from all public high schools. just to show the support of this resolution. thank you. >> you have how many signatures? >> over 2100. [applause] >> nice job. thank you. comments from the border? does everybody like my sweatshirt? >> i love it. commissioner fewer: i just wanted to say that i wanted to thank the student delegates for writing this resolution and

bringing it before the board of education tonight. and also the student advisory council for bringing this forward and urging us to support the free fast passes. we are cutting transportation. students do choose to go to school, and i think our superintendent actually said it best when he said that san francisco students should have the ability to use all of san francisco as their educational class room. to have access to that, they would need transportation to do so. i urge my fellow board members to support our efforts and improve this. thank you. commissioner maufas: i just

think this really helps clarify that we care about our young people in this city. it sets the tone for how we should be thinking about young people, and hopefully other measures that supported the youth in our city will come about with this as a fine example. i am grateful to the student advisory council. your ability to out reach is clearly stellar, and i just want to support it all the way. commissioner wynns: i want to thank you for bringing this, and it is a clause that we support. i am concerned again about the -- there is no reference in here to the cost. the last time there were free passes for public school kids,

there is no distinction here between public-school students and other students. there is no distinction here related to -- there is a reference, but nothing in the result of making sure that our immediate students are prioritized or any of the public school students are prioritized. nor is there any reference to -- the first time this was brought up, the idea is that we would take the money out of proposition h.. i think we would feel unable to do it this year. i really appreciate the resolution that came that is being put forward by supervisor campos, very much in the mode of urging all the agencies to have a discussion about it and try to

move toward doing this. if i am totally in support of all that. i am a bit worried that such an unqualified language from us could be interpreted or brought forward in those discussions as we are willing to pay for it. i am looking for some recognition of that, that we might revise it a little bit referencing the budget crisis and protecting the school funding. prioritizing, not necessarily saying that that this budget time we just one of kids and college students to have free -- i know it doesn't say that, but i am worried that might be interpreted or used in the discussions if it is without qualification to promote that point of view. >> i certainly agree that is definitely a problem if someone

were to interpret it as the district taking complete financial control over the situation, but though it might not be written in the resolution, there is a verbal agreement that it will be a multi-agency effort, so it will be both the cost of this new plan that will come from -- and the funding will come from both public and different private agencies to cover the cost. it won't just be one certain group having to cover all the costs. this definitely can go into a lot further discussion, but as of right now that's all i can offer. commissioner norton: i want to support what everybody else has

said, i absolutely support the idea of our students be able to access it free. i am also somewhat concerned that how brought this is. i am a little worried, just because there seems to always be misunderstandings when there are verbal agreement that they are not written down on both sides of the streets. and when i looked at supervisor campos's resolution, i think this first resolved cause is very clear about how this would happen. all these agencies get to the table, the design of pilot, they secure funding. i am just wondering if we could change your first results clause in some way to align it more with what the supervisor is laying out in his resolution.

and to specifically give the board support for his resolution that i understand is coming before the board of supervisors very soon. i don't know what everybody else thinks about that and what the students think about that, but it would be my suggestion. commissioner fewer: i think we may be able to add, supports the idea of free passes. for it to be resolved, support joined the work. what this resolution is about, the heart of it is that they join the work and be a partner in developing this work. if you feel compelled to write in a monetary number, i would defer to the delegates. what this resolution says is the

support and joins the work. that means that we are at the table. that is the gist of what the heart of what the resolution is saying. if you feel more comfortable, we can say supports the idea that supports and joins the work, and i think that means that we are at the table, so we have a voice in that. commissioner maufas: i want to be very brief in reading through this resolution and hearing from the city side. and myself as a member of the public, i don't ever believe that the school district could find any of this. i don't think anyone in the far reaches of their imagination will think that this is our burden, and i have never heard that in the back and forth conversation. it is about welcoming everyone to the table with an equal share

of say and making sure that we participate, it will really be affecting our constituents. that has been my public impression, but that is also my commissioner impression. thinking that we are going to take this burden on financially, we don't have any. commissioner wynns: i appreciate all the things that have been said, and if we have the idea, that would be great. i am fearful that if we say we don't want to pay for it, they will say, the idea, let's get them to pay for it. what is at issue here, we have the proposition h. money. we think of it as our money, the board of supervisors often think of it as their money, and we have had the situation where they have said, unless you spend it on this, we will not approve

your spending plan. that is not his intention, i understand that. his language is release specific as only being exploratory. this language is not that specific. to tell you the truth, if we take the idea of putting it in as language and have this conversation on the record, that goes along way. then just having the board of education be clear that we had no intention to be in support of spending money that could be spent for educational purposes. >> i think in your reference, particularly around proposition h., when we have this discussion around funds and who it belongs to, i think we have been able to

rightly clarify that the citizens have said that the unified school district has control over that money with approval from the board of supervisors and we have had to go in and beat the drum for the folks that might be new to the table because they were recently collected or those that decided they need to come back around again to that conversation. those points are on us and we have not hesitated, from my understanding, to reiterate that every single time that it comes out. >> every single time. >> we would not hesitate to do it again. >> a couple of comments. i have been a little bit intimately involved in this. i appreciate support of the work and want to commend you for bringing this forward.

this has been a conversation that has been going on for a while and i am glad you took a position on this. this is about a 6-$8 million project. when we think about the examples that have been given, portland and new yorker the school district takes a large lead in the funding of this, it is also additional taxes that have come through, we have had multiple conversations. they're seriously considering what we would be able to qualify for. mta has stepped up, and they have already given $1.2 million for what we implemented as a pilot last year that worked out wonderfully and helped us think about how we can help all of our kids more permanently. there is money that has been set aside, but we are still short

several million dollars. the gesture that the school district may for what was -- it was basically saying that our kids need to get to school and it matters to us that they are able to take it and they are not sleeping on the bus or coming to school because they don't want to get thrown off the bus. it is a true reality for our students. i think that the concerns that have come up are true concerns as to the supporting, and it is the word "support" that concerns me the most. it doesn't sound as if we will be contributing. or that we agree with what is happening when i think the original intention behind the resolution is thinking about the

urge to work together. the school district has to be at the table and our resolution should reflect that as well, and we should be saying that we need to be at the table because we should have a voice in that. i agree that if we can add some language to that, the way that the language is now, it is about urging us to work together to design the program to secure the funding and to work on the launch. these are all pieces that we should be participating in. and instead of on the second resolution saying that the board of education supports and joins, if we can perhaps say participates in the work that the mayor's office, mta, blah, blah, blah. it might have us joining the

forces to find a solution. we don't have anything in place yet, so there isn't a program that we are supporting. we support the concept. but it is the development of the program, how it will get implemented. the implementation conversation that we have been having, it has been extremely challenging because we would be talking about having the school district implement selling the passes, and that is why the free passes were more attractive. i would push to have support for coming together to come up with a program to identify funding into be able to participate in the launch of this program. i am a little worried about

supporting free passes, especially for all youth. i get what we want to do this for all youth, but i think for the board, we are looking at what we are doing for the public school kids, and that is all we can speak to. this is just my own opinion on supporting the free passes. as an individual, i am not sure that i personally support it for all youth. i think there hasn't been any clarity to that yet, and that there are some, one of the discussions, could some of them pay a very discounted fee to augment what the cost of the program would be.

if you would be willing to at the supporting -- and not be supporting. the urging the school district to work together on the design of the program, helping to secure the funding and launching the initiative or something along those lines, it might help. >> i think that the work is exactly what you are describing in paraphrasing what you have said. that the work is about what they are planning to do. i would defer to student delegates. i am hesitant to speak for them,

actually, so maybe we can get the student delegates, if you can weigh in on her suggestion. >> i would be fine with keeping the work in there, it is the support, have it be participating. >> what president his is proposing is that we resolve the second one, that the board of education participate in the work of the mayor's office? >> be resolved -- it is after -- right. it is after the urging of the sec. nasa supports free me any staff passes -- instead of supports free muni staff passes, supports the idea, design, the