that information, again, is available in english, spanish, chinese, russia, -- russian, and vietnamese. in addition, we also have a fun website, a web site called quakequizsf.org, where it tests the knowledge of what to do when an earthquake strikes while you're at home, you're driving, you are on public transit, or even at the beach or at work. we have also enhanced our preparedness throughout the city department from using homeland security funds to conduct training, planning, and exercises, as well as purchase valuable equipment. since 2003, san francisco and the bay area region have received approximately $322 in homeland security grants precisely for that training and equipment. some of our other major accomplishments in emergency management include renovating our city's emergency operations

center, adding state of the art technology and equipment. we have continued to revive our disaster council, which i had, and expanding the council to include not only our emergency management partners that nonprofit community, labor, and business associates. purchasing major emergency response equipment, using homeland security grants, that include field care clinics and care and shelter trailers. in fact, i have been personally involved in recruiting and training people to help our department of public health erect those field care clinics in precisely the time its takes in a very quick fashion. we're training people and volunteers to do that exactly. and we have earned the national weather service designations for storm-ready and tsunami-ready designations. in addition to these efforts, it is isn't so that we all work together and share the best

practices -- it is essential that we all work together ensure the best practices so we can better respond to emergencies. this one and a half day seminar is a truly unique learning in relationship-building opportunity for all of us. representatives from a broad range of agencies at the local, state, and federal level have come together for this seminar and for the tabletop exercise that was conducted by our dem earlier this month. we're getting to know each other, but individually and organizationally. in advance of the next disaster. that is really what we want to be able to emphasize most. we need to do more in advance. we need to prepare people in advance. we need to keep practicing, because every time we looked around, there is new people coming into the city. there is additional immigrants to do not speak english as their national language. their new neighborhoods and new parts of our neighborhood that are already -- always being

developed. we need to get all involved. we need to involve everybody. that is why i am so proud to head up this effort and to join the secretary, join the major, and all of the volunteers in our fleet week to join in our effort to make sure that we do our best. this seminar is exactly that focus. thank you very much, and i hope you enjoy your stay here today. thank you. [applause]

>> good evening, and welcome to the regular meeting of the board of education. roll call, please? >> thank you. [roll call] >> if you would like, please join us for the pledge of allegiance. [pledge of allegiance]

>> the approval of the board minutes of the regular board meeting from september 27. thank you. any corrections? roll-call. >> [roll call vote] >> presentation of the superintendent's report. >> that was quick. good evening. i guess i will make it quick. i wanted to share some good news with the public. the good news is that we ended the last year, we closed the budget and ended up with $8 million, a little bit higher than we anticipated, which is really great news for us. not that we want to spend it

right away, by 2013, this district will be at a deficit of about $58 million. any money we can save and start putting against that will save a lot of jobs and hopefully keep our district cold. we are excited that it turned out that way. we were trying to save every nickel and dime because we know how bad the situation may get. as most of you already know, the governor and the legislature said that if it reaches $1 billion, below $1 billion in the budget, they do the trigger, which means they cut more to public education. that number in three months is up to $700 million. if that number gets $300 million more, which it may appear to look like it will get there, that trigger will be pulled. we have to cut even more.

what we saved last year will be helpful, and it will certainly not get us through everything. so that when we do face those cuts, we can absorb them. he second sang i want to mention, just a reminder that october 18, there is a committee as a whole meeting here. i want to make sure that everybody gets the chance, and we will be talking about the work that is being done, the priorities and talking about a lot of different things that have an impact on next year's budget. for parents, a friendly reminder that parent teacher conferences are going to be taking place next week, and that is for elementary and middle school students. parents, please get involved in your kids' lives.

it is important to know how they are doing. i do want to make an announcement that on this friday, october 14 from 10:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m., we are having more than 60 colleges and universities that will be putting on a demonstration to recruit thousands of our seniors to go there and learn about their options for college and careers. that is an important thing for everybody to be involved in. it is a coordinated effort with the san francisco promised in the city and county and state, everybody working together to make sure the kids have options ahead of them and they get a chance to plan ahead and look at what is available out there. encourage your seniors to attend that. >> recognitions and resolutions

of commendations, we have done this evening. but i do want to make an announcement. i am pleased to announce the superintendent will be recognized by the mayor on thursday for his leadership and vision in the field of education. he is being honored as the heritage month award recipient. there will be a celebration and awards ceremony on october 13 at 5:00 p.m. in city hall. the leaders are either firmly established or in their communities for in valuable economic, social, and cultural developments to their communities. congratulations for that. student delegates reports. >> last week, last monday, our cabinet got together to create

the resolution we will be reading later on tonight in support of free muni for youth living in san francisco. we had a meeting where there were presentations from the bicycle coalition. that was about it. >> to the parent advisory council report. do we have members here tonight?

>> good evening, my name is george williams, i am a parent of two children, to fifth graders. and i am a graduate myself of san francisco unified school district. >> i have two children in the san francisco unified school district. one is that sheridan elementary and the other one is at a hoover junior high. excuse me, herbert hoover middle school. i went there when it was a junior high school. >> we will talk about deepening our understanding of student achievement. and ongoing concerns about the quality of middle schools as well as the process that we are taking right now for the goals for this year. and on behalf, i like to thank

the deputy superintendent and the assistant superintendent for taking the time to meet with us. we organized a special meeting in which we had members from the district and liaisons' present. and community leadership from the revisory for special education and graduates that were there to gain a better understanding of how the district interprets student achievement and to answer our questions are around the house student achievement is look at and answer our own questions as well as to discuss what strategy for the district is used to accelerate closing the achievement gap.

also, i want to take the opportunity to thank commissioner fewer and commissioner mendoza for stopping by and encouraging us to hold the board accountable for the things that you spoke to. and i want to say, thank you for acknowledging that our work is valuable and important. >> we appreciate the staff posting of the information that was on the district website. we also want to acknowledge the work of high achieving students. i am sorry. should i start over? first, we want to acknowledge -- thank you all for coming today. we want to acknowledge you for

posting the information on the district website, acknowledging the high achieving students. our concern is still around having equitable access to programs. it is important for all parents and students, and as it pertains to high achievement, and actually all students. we still want to see the plan. to strengthen building quality middle schools. parents and students are concerned about where that stands. if you can give us a time line of where you are at with that, it will be fantastic. >> one of the things we did, we also look at data. to inform -- the work as

subcommittee, it is one of the things we did in the last meeting was with that student achievement data. we have things around restorative practices, working with parents as well as district staff. reestablished we are going to be meeting with a coordinator around practices to discuss where the district is at around that, and what we can do to organize parents and inform parents. also, we are going to be meeting with the director of family engagement.

>> the achievement for restorative practices is for students to feel safe when they go to school. when they achieve their going to school, they don't feel safe. that is an issue that deserves a lot of attention. it comes with my experience of working within the community, being at the schools a lot. my job lets me do that so i get to see a lot of the operational aspects that some parents may

not be able to see. this is an important issue in the restorative practice process and deserves much attention. >> we had nearly 30 participants at the meeting on october 3, 90 minutes wasn't nearly enough time to answer, so the deputy superintendent was gracious enough to offer his time. how was it collected and interpreted. that is related to the restorative practices as well as suspension rates.

and what isn't collected, collecting such data to inform prospective and appropriate strategy. that is the report. >> thank you for your time and for listening. and your continued efforts toward -- bless you. and the continued efforts toward creating this paradigm that is very necessary. we look forward to meeting with the board of education commissioners to discuss the issues in more depth at a later date. commissioner fewer: thank you for the report. a very informative. thanks for holding the meeting, i think it's great that you held it with other groups so they can get the information and the street from the district.

i just want to say a bit about the restorative practices. i am so glad that they decided to prioritize this. some of the things i would like for you to look at, thank you so much for bringing up safety. if the students don't feel safe, they can't learn. our purpose and our goal is that every student to be ready for college and the twenty first century. how do restorative practices work towards making students feel safe? our the practices related to student achievement. the data might be very interesting, they got on explanations -- and data on expeditions -- data on

expulsions. and those students that have been suspended three aforetime is. and to track if they are still in the system or if they have dropped out. in order to look at restorative practices, you have to look at that picture of it. as we change the culture from punishment to discipline and a feeling that we all make mistakes and we should learn from mistakes, and also forgiveness, these things are very much related to its. when you are looking at those restorative practices, we can see in a different framework that if we add this to what we are looking at, he will get a much broader picture. >> you brought up some of the

same questions that have been in some of the discussions we have already had. the other one is around the district traffic schools where there are police reports filed on students, and that would be something to look at. and if the district is tracking that data, where are the plans to all at the data? i know we don't want to be criminalizing our students. >> i think by law, we have to. maybe we can get the information to you. commissioner wynns: i just want to say, i know that i have the ability to phone somebody and ask them, but it turned out that i had a conflict. i was planning to try to come and i noticed on the web site that it wasn't on there.

>> it was. >> it wasn't. if we can check or be more careful about that, i would appreciate it. i appreciate hearing about the meeting, it is very important for us to have organized district supported ways for people to go more in depth into the data. for instruction and achievement issues, i appreciate you coming here and reporting to us regularly. it is really great. >> i read through the report, thank you for coming. i just want to commend them for reaching out to other organizations. it doesn't take a lot, but the representation is key because

even though there are other parent bodies, they don't disseminate that information. it may be different how the public school says it or how others do it, but they were at the table so that they can do it. and that is what is so important. i commend you all for taking a leadership role and i encourage you to continue, and have sort of an open door policy. you probably do anyway, but i am seeing its evident here, it is a wonderful thing. >> i want to thank you for bringing that out, because the key is going to be partnering throughout the city and hopefully, possibly creating a template that other cities can

follow. >> congratulations. >> there is no other comment, we appreciate your report. public comment on consent items, i have one speaker on consent items. >> good evening, superintendent, commissioners, ladies and gentlemen. a lot of us are dealing with some kind of cold these days. i have put several items, resolutions that i would like to look after. 1110, 11k4 on page 2. this is professional development for early education department teaching staff. i would like to know how this

professional development is going to be provided, particularly because it is so difficult with the days that our early education department program marks, it has always been an obstacle. i hope you will look into that. and is this for the teachers? or is it just for the presenters? on page 84, i see that the after-school program is going to be partnering with edgewood, and i am wondering, who is going to evaluate that program? it looks as if that is part of their charge t on page 86, we are talking

about p.l.a.n. eight monthly development professional workshops. we are wondering, when are these workshops going to take place? it says eight monthly workshops. are they going to take place during the school day? how will those people be replaced when they are not at school? and i think i have one more. there was one in here that referred to a report a lull, and there was no report below. i was just wondering what the problem was with that report

below, it has to do with one of the pride -- one of the contracts that has been given. i am sure you can take a look at that, and you might puzzle equally as to how effective the reports are, where is the report? >> as a reminder to the public, and concordance with the board policy, and individual wishing to address the board on agenda items on or matters other than those calendars can call the board office by 4:30 on the day of the meeting or by completing a speaker card on the evening of the meeting prior to the item being called. items will not be accepted. i of the students have come to support the resolution on the

calendar. if any of you were planning on making comments or speaking, i need to get a card for you. you will not be allowed to speak unless i have one of these cards prior to this item being called. i this want to be clear on that. the consent calendar, i need a motion and a second. any items withdrawn or corrected? >> we want to postpone action on 4b. these are the resolutions that are up for second reading on pages 1310. we like to postpone action and bring it back at the october 26 board meeting.

>> they have been pulled off, so there are second reading. to clarify, you're not pulling off any actual content items. >> is the consent calendars resolutions removed. they are not current consent items. >> items 3, 5, 6, 11? you guys, let her answer. >> they are on pages one through 10, they are zero the consent calendar resolutions that were removed at a previous meeting for second reading and action. they're not part of the current consent calendar.