gave them to the city. lily hitchcock coit died without leaving a specific use for her bequest. she left a third of her estate for the beautify indication of the city. arthur brown, noted architect in the city, wanted for a while to build a tower. he had become very interested in persian towers. it was the 1930's. it was all about machinery and sort of this amazing architecture, very powerful architecture. he convinced the rec park commission that building a tower in her memory would be the thing to do with her money. >> it was going to be a wonderful observation place because it was one of the highest hills in the city anywhere and that that was the whole reason why it was built that high and had the elevator access immediately from the beginning as part of its features. >> my fear's studio was just

down the street steps. we were in a very small apartment and that was our backyard. when they were preparing the site for the coit tower, there was always a lot of harping and griping about how awful progress was and why they would choose this beautiful pristine area to do them in was a big question. as soon as the coit tower was getting finished and someone put in the idea that it should be used for art, then, all of a sudden, he was excited about the coit tower. it became almost like a daily destination for him to enjoy the atmosphere no matter what the politics, that wasn't the point. as long as they fit in and did

their work and did their own creative expression, that was all that was required. they turned in their drawings. the drawings were accepted. if they snuck something in, well, there weren't going to be any stoolies around. they made such careful little diagrams of every possible little thing about it as though that was just so important and that they were just the big frog. and, actually, no one ever felt that way about them and they weren't considered something like that. in later life when people would approach me and say, well, what did you know about it? we were with him almost every day and his children, we grew up together and we didn't think of him as a commie and also the same with the other.

he was just a family man doing normal things. no one thought anything of what he was doing. some of them were much more highly trained. it shows, in my estimation, in the murals. this was one of the masterpieces. families at home was a lot more close to the life that i can remember that we lived. murals on the upper floors like the children playing on the swings and i think the little deer in the forest where you could come and see them in the woods and the sports that were always available, i think it did express the best part of our lives. things that weren't costing money to do, you would go to a picnic on the beach or you would do something in the

woods. my favorite of all is in the staircase. it's almost a miracle masterpiece how he could manage to not only fit everyone, of course, a lot of them i recognized from my childhood -- it's how he juxtaposed and managed to kind of climb up that stairway on either side very much like you are walking down a street. it was incredible to do that and to me, that is what depicted the life of the times in san francisco. i even like the ones that show the industrial areas, the once with the workers showing them in the cannery and i can remember going in there and seeing these women with the caps, with the nets shuffling these cans through. my parents had a ranch in santa rosa and we went there all

summer. i could see these people leaning over and checking. it looked exactly like the beautiful things about the ranch. i think he was pretty much in the never look back philosophy about the coit. i don't think he ever went to visit again after we moved from telegraph hill, which was only five or six years later. i don't think he ever had to see it when the initials are scratched into everything and people had literally destroyed the lower half of everything. >> well, in my view, the tower had been pretty much neglected from the 1930's up until the 1980's. it wasn't until then that really enough people began to be alarmed about the condition of the murals, the tower was leaking. some of the murals suffered wear damage. we really began to organize

getting funding through the arts commission and various other sources to restore the murals. they don't have that connection or thread or maintain that connection to your history and your past, what do you have? that's one of the major elements of what makes quality of life in san francisco so incredible. when people ask me, and they ask me all the time, how do you get to coit tower, i say you walk. that's the best way to experience the gradual elevation coming up above the hustle and bustle of the city and finding this sort of oasis, if you will, at the top of the hill. when i walk through this park, i look at these brick walls and this lawn, i look at the railings around the murals. i look at the restoration and i think, yeah, i had something to

do with that. learning the lessons, thank you, landmarks meet landmarks. the current situation at pioneer park and coit tower is really based in public and private partnership. it was the citizens who came together to buy the land to keep it from being developed. it was lily hitchcock coit to give money to the city to beautify the city she loved of the park project worked to develop this south side and still that's the basis of our future project to address the north side. to the severance as

a unified school district meeting for november 15. commissioner murase: here. commissioner wynns: here. vice president yee: present.

president mendoza: please join us for the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flight of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god, indivisible, are here with liberty and justice for all. i move for the approval of an ordinance for the regular meetings of april 12, april 26, may 10, may 24, october 2015. >> secondary it. president mendoza: roll-call vote please. >> now for the board of

education superintendent's report. welcome back, dr. garcia. >> thank you. i just got back from china, so a little bit of jet lag her it how to start off by mentioning that this month is a busy month for everybody. i wanted to thank 3 -- i wanted to thank everyone who worked in the enrollment there. our school communities are really active. i want to especially thank the staff at the educational placement center for coordinating this great event. we have over 10,000 attendees for dissipates. that is a lot of people. as usual, this fair kicks off the enrollment process of. we have modified some of the things, so it is in full swing.

do not forget that the enrollment applications are due january 27 of 2012. i know that seems pretty far. but it will be on us before you know it. since the board adopted the new guidelines, i want to remind everybody that we are still falling through. i know that the ballot initiative or whatever. we have already moved forward on what we are doing for the coming year. we want to encourage parents to follow that process and encourage people to read through all of the different guidelines. if you are interested in more information, go to www.sfusd.edu and get more information. we are so blessed to live in san francisco. in these tough times, we almost got a 71% vote from the public

to pass proposition 8. that is just incredible. congratulations. i know our board president was active. all of the board members, it was a team effort. i do not think we would have had a chance if not for the great work that our facilities department did. they have done such a good job in building schools and bringing projects in line. just a class act. world development when you look at how good our schools look. now we have our last third to get through to fix the facilities so they look as good as the ones where the previous bonds were passing. it is great to be in a community

-- think about it. 80% of people in san francisco do not have children. yet, when there is not a single item on the ballot this last election that got more votes than this. even if you do not have children, it is good that you are good stewards of the future. the children our our future. it is great that this community has rallied behind them. we are great to have that. we are going to build a state of the art school. that is pretty darned exciting. i am excited about that. i want to congratulate our new mayor, ed lee. it is a tough campaign, but we are looking forward to the school district and the county and city. we have always had a great relationship and want to maintain that relationship area

we are ready to roll up our sleeves and continue the great work that we have been doing as a city and county, together with the school district. another item i want to mention is this will be the last board meeting for our legal counsel. get that smile off your face. [laughter] we want to wish her well. she is going to a private practice down south. thank you for your service in the school district. almost four years now. time flies when you're having fun. she did a lot of great work for us, saved us a lot of money, and we want to thank you for all of your work. thank you carian -- thank you. [applause] since this is our last meeting for the month, i want to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving. we have a lot to be thankful for.

that is what makes living in san francisco so exciting for all of us. we have so much to be celebrating. i hope you use thanksgiving as not only an opportunity to give thanks, but to celebrate the success of these last elections. and all of the great work that are 56,000 children are doing out in our schools. and all of the faults helping our teachers. everybody have a greater thanksgiving. and thank you carry. president chiu: item indeed is the students delegate report. >> we have joined the school health programs review task force and the task force meets

twice a year to review a curriculum or supplemental classroom materials. and we are welcoming three new members from a mission and ida b wells high school. >> in addition, leadership san francisco has invited representatives from mission, burton, marshall, and low oil to their education system tomorrow at the conference center at st. mary's cathedral the assumption at 1111 ghost st. the focus of this session is high school leaders, what is

needed for education in san francisco. each group of students will meet with a small group of leadership san francisco participants to discuss issues such as what works and what does not work in san francisco's education system. in will also make an active action recommendation to our group suggesting how we can actively improve the san francisco education system. additionally, yesterday, we had a meeting and -- in which we continue to work on our bathroom policy. president mendoza: thank you. item e is our parental advisory board. that report will not take place because the meeting is taking place right now. they cannot accommodate us after we change our meeting.

the next meeting will be december the 13th. it is okay with my colleagues, i would like to move up item em. -- item m. the san francisco you commission is going to present a report on the immigrant summit that took place last month. seeing no objection, if mario and happy with like to come on up. welcome to the board meeting. you can sit at the sap table. -- at the staff table. before they begin, i want to congratulate all of you for an amazing event that you put on. our youth commission can do both the school district and

the mayor's office for support to bring together as many of our immigrant youths to gather and talk about many of the challenges that have. they will tell you what they have done. we have had the opportunity to be there for you in the morning. the kids are really engaged and value the time that you gave to them and information that you provided. happy, do you want to go ahead and start? >> yes. honorable commissioners, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you. i am a senior. i am the youth fellowship leader for the use summit.

i want to give a big thank-you to you for supporting the youth summit. president mendoza, with your help, we were able to hold a meeting including 99 students from seven public high schools, including mission, ifa, third marshall, washington, linkedin to their first-ever youth summit on friday, october 28 to. i want to thank president mendoza for supporting the use -- the youth. i would like to share with you how we got started area i came to the united states two years ago. when i first came here, i did not speak a lot of english. i had to translate for my parents and i got disconnected

from this new life. i did not know where to turn to for help. after i served on the u.s. commission -- on the youth commission, i realize there were a lot of education and political opportunities in san francisco. i hope that i can connect these opportunities to other immigrant youth. i formed the committee with a student advisory council member, with commissioners, and we decided -- we hope to use this summit to connect with these opportunities with the use and raise awareness of our needs with city officials, you guys and the board of supervisors and the mayor, we are going to also present to

them we also hope to gather data through interaction with students to make policy recommendations to better serve the youth. this is just a preliminary presentation. i hope you understand our needs and support us. next, i want to share with you about what happened on the day of the summit and what we learned. the summit happened october 28 and we had exciting speakers, such as president mendoza, rep from the assembly, supervisor campos and supervisor avalos, and we also