families via putting really great staff at our school sites. that's the second year in a row that our first day of school opened up with really just two vacancies and that's amazing for the entire school district and the report is so comprehensive, i hope it comes forward in early next year as a other educational item information because i believe everybody needs to hear it and i want to applaud the h.r. department for how diligently they work and their level of professionalism because i hear so many more positive reports about staff interactions with the h.r. department and that resonates because you are first face that somebody who's trying to obtain employment here at sfusd, you are first people they see, and if it's not a good experience, that doesn't bode well for the district as a whole. the other important items that will come back for the february

meeting for the ad hoc meeting for personnel matters and labor relations was teacher and paraprofessional consolidations. i believe this topic should have come before the entire board because we care so much about consolidations and what has been past practices, i think all board members should be aware of that and what those changes are going to be. and i know that information will come back. i know the h.r. department is creating a written brief for the entire board so i'm grateful that is in process and that will be distributed to all board members because you need to know, as you will probably get emails or have received emails or questions from folks from the outside regarding the consolidations and this is the educational department in teachers and paraprofessional consolidations. the other issue was the early

education department again and the staffing reorganizations. i know the board had a briefing on it but we didn't know what it would look like going forward and now that we've had time in the reorganization, we've had partners express concerns and i think the entire board needs to hear that. we heard some of that public comment tonight from ms. johnson-miller. now that we have time into the work, i think the feedback is relevant and the entire board should be monitoring that so that is also going to come back to the february meeting. i want to note something that happens at the personnel matters labor relations committee and that i heard feedback out in the wind. you know, we staff quite a number of folks in sfusd and for us to be able to create a space for our labor partners or our staff people to come forward and express their concerns or, you

know, something that they want to tout as positive for sfusd, i think the personnel matters and labor relations committee is a great space for that to happen and i want to encourage us, as board members, to be open to hearing that feedback, positive or negative. we need to hear it. and i think the committee provides a space where there can be the dialogue we don't have here at the board where it's people speaking to us in the public comment and we can't engage them or hear deeper context to the conversation. that's what that committee was created, to create the space, to have the dialogue before situations get into crisis mode with our, again, labor partners and staff. i want to encourage board members, those meetings are augmented, to come ask questions to the folks that are employees and what happened at that particular meeting, a member of

the public came to express, not a member of staff, but something that was going on that the board is taking up right now. they find the space and i think that space is perfect for us to have those interactions and the meetings, again, are augmented so it's a perfect opportunity for other board members to hear some of the concerns that our labor partners and staff may have with us. and i think it's a good thing. there may be a level of tension in the room but that's ok, as well, because we deal with tense situations all the time as board members and we want to encourage that dialogue. thank you. >> thank you. so, there was no city school district committee this month, no ad hoc committee on student assignment and no ad hoc school district city college joint committee. other reports from board members? commissioner muracy? >> i presented my colleagues with a a copy of the golden belt

awards from the c.f.a. conference and i want to congratulate oakland unified school district for receiving three awards and i'd like to encourage our own district to submit the many, many award-deserving programs for a future conference. finally, i also shared with my colleagues from my day job, we are hosting an inaugural teen poster contest for anti-human trafficking month which is january and the dynamics of human trafficking are very similar to bullying. you have a victim, a perpetrator and a sea of bystanders that we need to activate to the call out bad behavior. if you know any middle school, high school students, the deadline is friday and we have very few submissions so far. if you have a middle schooler or high schooler in your life who

would like to draw, take action against abuse, the information is available on the school district website as a community outreach service. >> commissioner norton? commissioner norton: i wanted to say that commissioner murase, myself, vice president wi and commissioner wynns attended the conference, and congratulations to commissioner wynns because it was her big day but also there was a lot of really interesting sessions, particularly jamie vulmer, who did one of the general sessions. i'm blanking on the name of his book. what is it? anyway, "schools can't do it alone." that's what it is. there was a number of really interesting sessions on what the thinking around the state is on teacher evaluation because that definitely is a topic that a lot of districts are taking up so

that was very interesting. and i took copious notes so if you're interested in anything particular, i'd be happy to do it offline. >> just to follow up on that. i wanted to say that the general sessions for the first time this year, the three general sessions at the conference, jamie vulmer's speech, zalman chawn and we need to talk about him and the state of the state where he had experts talking about the budget and the political context, are all available online through the month of january. so is that right? or through december, until january, through december. you can go online, i think it's aec.csba.com. >> i looked to watch one of them and i couldn't get it. >> that was during the conference, right? >> it was right after the conference. >> we thought they would be immediately available because they were streamed live for the first time, too, but they

weren't available until the monday after the conference because there was no staff, they were all in san diego. we should talk about staff, all of us that want to see them, they're online, but also staff might want to see some of them. >> thank you, commissioner yee? vice president yee: besides the teacher's evaluation, there was -- i went to a workshop for superintendent evaluation, too, so i'd like to share that information with you. the -- this is kind of interesting, the cohn institute, when we listened to him a few days later, i was in austin, at another meeting, and the topic was scaling up. it was interesting. >> commissioner fewer? commissioner fewer: . i did not attend cfba but i was part of hosting a workshop on

keeping safer school environment for lbgq youth. i'd like to thank our partners, transgender law center and gca network that they both presented and used our resolutions in their presentation as really good examples of keeping our schools safe. and then i also just want to say congratulations to gate weeder college, our partner program with city college of san francisco, they will be having their graduation this friday and i believe they're graduating three students. thank you. >> thank you. go ahead, commissioner lee. vice president yee: i'm going to start informing not only the public but my colleagues on the school board that there's going to be a summit that i'm promoting with other people

that's going to be focused on the pre-k-to-third-grade alignment effort that we're undergoing in our school district and the purpose of having this summit is to have a larger discussion with our partners in the city and the non-profits and the parents and there are some intermediate activities that are taking place right now with parent groups and teachers and having teachers exchange visitations that i've been setting up that should move us into a more thorough informed discussion when we have this discussion. so it's going to be on february 25, it's a saturday, from 8:30 to 12:30, and it most likely it will be at everett middle school. i'm trying to find out whether

it's available or not but it seems like the most logical place at this point to have that and we've identified a keynote speaker, national person from the nekc foundation, senior vice president that president mendoza have met. ralph smith, he's going to come. he's focused on his national initiative which is the grade level reading initiative that's sort of taking hold in quite a few cities so it's a perfect match for him to come as a speaker and there's other people that's going to be involved so hopefully we have a nice co-chair from the city. president mendoza: thank you. we need to talk about other stuff. too. a couple of things. i wanted to thank the cast of fala, they were in town the last few weeks and two of the cast members, iris wilson and melony

marshall spoke at burton high school and balboa high school so our students had an opportunity to meet with broadway actors and that was really cool. i want to congratulate richard heron and his corral collaborative project, chosen by the white house, to sing at the tree lighting ceremony so they leave on friday. he's bringing 23 of our kids to the white house for three days and they're singing on december 19, and that's really an honor and privilege to be able to do that. there is a snow park that's being built in front of city hall and that's going to be open to all of our students, all of the children in san francisco, both saturday and sunday and there's an open house at city hall from 11:00 to 3:00 so that all of the supervisors and the mayor opening their offices for our families to visit. i want to congratulate the principals who participated in the mustache for kids, thank you

so much for all the money you raised for your schools and awareness you raised for the need for more funding for our schools and i want to thank the benyov family for their contribution of $1.5 million for homeless families, many of our own families in transition will benefit from this donation and it's a combined effort with the city to open up over 100 public housing units and the hope is to have as many of our families housed before the holidays so it's a home for the holidays. and so big fat thank you to lynn and mark benyov for their generous donation and salvador lopez barr, our point person, has been terrific working with darius cahon, the city's person, so we'll be combining a lot of the efforts that the city and

school district have to make sure our families are cared for. >> i want to ask, what's with the cap? president mendoza: that was on my list, too. thank you for that, norman. so today we honor the mission high school football team for their aaa championship on turkey day against washington high school. and it was a 12-7 victory. mission high school's first victory since 1954. so all but three students came out. the thing that i'm proud about that, that's worth noting, is the mission high school football team almost had to dismantle two years ago because they didn't have enough kids that have grades supporting their participation on the football team and joel monahues, their football coach, came in and has kicked some butt and the kids, all of the boys, are doing over 2.0. most of them are actually 3.0 or

above. and they are outstanding students and they all came out and we had a great visit from dwight clark, dennis brown and guy macintyre from the 49ers and they all gave the boys football caps -- 49er caps and they took photos with them and it was just a really special moment for the mission high football team so congratulations to mr. o'bano and his 2011 aaa championship football team at mission high. commissioner murase? commissioner murase: . i want to thank president mendoza for your year of service as the president. i want to thank you. president mendoza: thank you. any other comments? >> happy holidays and happy new year to everybody.

president mendoza: commissioner "modern moffat? >> i want to thank the schools i've visited and it's a thrill to see them in rehearsals during the day with the principals there and teachers there and students trying to get their performances just right and as i pass by or i'm on my way to visiting someone, it's so nice to see that happens during the holidays and at all the schools, whether they're the youngest or the oldest of our students and i just wanted to appreciate them and their endeavors because i know i'll visit a lot of schools before the break and their holiday performances in the next couple of days. >> thank you. vice president yee: it's been such a long time since we had a general school board meeting, i've forgotten all the things in between but the commissioner has triggered that for the thanksgiving holiday i was able to go to a couple of schools

that celebrated it for the first time, these students basically celebrated thanksgiving for the first time ever because these students immigrated into the united states in these two schools, mission ed center and chinese ed center so it was great to see them actually getting a good sense of what thanksgiving is and how thankful they were and several of them especially in mission ed center -- education center, they had some of the kids read their poems in spanish and talking about how grateful they were because of their parents being able to get a job or not get a job and people helping them out and it was very touching. president mendoza: it was really wonderful. ok. item t is the report on the closed session actions. closed session of december 6, 2011. the board of education approved the expulsion of one high school

student, k.c., approved the suspended expulsion of one middle school student, c.z. the board of education approved an 18-month contract for one deputy general counsel and the board of education by a vote of six aye's and one absent approved a 30-month contract for one assistant superintendent and the board of education by a vote of four aye's and four nay's approved an 18-month contract for one general counsel. item u are other informational items, notice of classified personal transactions and acceptance of gifts for the month of october and i just want to do a heartfelt thanks to my colleagues, as well, as i adjourn this meeting as my last school board meeting as president of the board of education for san francisco. thank you so much for all of your great collaborations. good night, everyone.

>> good evening, ladies and gentlemen. i am the secretary to the police commission. on behalf of the commission, i would like to welcome everyone to the san francisco police department's 2011 medal of valor ceremony. please stand for the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america into the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. thank you. please be seated. mayor lee was scheduled to attend but was not able to make it. he sent his congratulations to our medal of valor recipients. we're joined by the police commissioners and the commission president, vice-president,

commissioners. also on the stage this evening we have the chief of police gregory surh. we have the deputy chief of special operations and the deputy chief of the operations bureau. we have the deputy chief from the airport bureau. we have commander in the operations bureau, the commander from the sfmta, the commander in chief of staff, and the commander from the operations bureau. this evening we are going to start with a few words from the chief of police gregory suhr.

>> good evening. i want to thank everybody for being here. we are a very proud police department, rich in tradition. this week, we had a promotion ceremony on monday where we promoted sergeants, lieutenants, captains, and members of the command staff. we've recently brought back the retirement ceremony. i think for everyone in the police department, this particular ceremony stands above the rest. every day, the men and women of the san francisco police department go out and put it on the line every single day. they leave their families and little ones -- it is so great to see the kids and parents here. every day, they go out to put themselves between the bad guys themselves without us. more than every once in awhile,

the officers do something extraordinary. you will hear some stories tonight that are going to make you amazed that someone would do that for someone they have never met before. i know one of the stories myself. i could not believe in it and i was actually there. i do not want to take a lot of time. i want the little ones to listen. your moms and dads are unbelievably brave people who do the right thing every day. for the families here that raised these officers, god bless you. san francisco thanks you for loaning them to us. without further ado, i will let the lieutenant explain the process. it is a link the one to get here. these are not awards we pass out lightly -- it is a lengthy process to get here. these are not awards we pass out lightly. >> as the chief mentioned, it is a long process.

i will go over the highlights. when officers actions are such that any supervisor takes note of a store near bravery, they prepare a report along with supporting documentation and forward it to the commanding officer. the commanding officer conducts a personal investigation of the event. if they approve the nomination, they prepare a report for the chief of police. the chief of police forwards these nominations to the police commissioner's office. the office for was the nomination package to award screening committee. the committee is composed of three captains within the department. if the award screening committee approves the nomination, they send it back so the secretary may schedule an award committee meeting. this is a meeting of all department captains and command staff. they get together to review the nominations. the nominating commanding officer presents the nomination. the nominated officers are

present to answer any questions the committee may have. by secret ballot, the awards committee votes on whether to approve the medal of valor and what grade. the chief of police boards approved the nominations to the police commissioner for final approval. you can see it is a lengthy process. these awards are taken very seriously. to give a few words also this evening, we will have the commission president speak. >> ladies and gentlemen, i really want to thank you for being here tonight to honor these officers. every police officer that enters the department enters with the goal of serving the community and helping others. these officers are getting medals of valor. valor means something extraordinary. they risk their lives for

somebody they do not even know. those are very special people you are related to. your mom, your dad, your son, your daughter. you should be very proud. i am honored to be here tonight to stand in front of these four officers. they are unbelievable. i thank them for their service. ordinarily, there is one commissioner in the meeting when they vote. it is an awesome experience. i will ask commissioner slaughter who was present at the time of this note to say a few words. >> thank you. next time, and give me a little more warning if you are going to ask me to speak. i will say this. i had a great honor to sit on the fifth floor of the hall of justice some months back as the entire command staff and captains of the san francisco police department heard the

stories of this tremendous bravery and valor of these officers. it is the first time i sat through the meeting. i did not have a vote. i am glad did not. it is an awesome responsibility. i can tell you each of those members of the committee take their obligation and responsibility in considering these metals -- imedals industry seriously. these are not likely awarded. the officers in front of you have really done tremendous things in service to the city. i was honored and proud to be able to sit and listen to these stories. i will tell you that there were other stories told that were tremendous. it goes to show how significant these awards are and how significant the actions of these

officers were that there are not others sitting here before you. the officers of the police department to themselves in harm's way every day. it is much more common than we would like to think that they have to take actions that are just tremendous and that average folks in sen. cisco are tremendously indebted to them for. trust me. -- average folks in san francisco are tremendously indebted to them for. trust me. this is a tremendous honor. thank you. >> to present this evening's first award is the commanding officer of the northern station. >> as the chief said, it is a great honor. this is the highest honor we get

as commanding officers. i will recount the events that led up to this evening. i do not want to miss anything so i will read it. on the night of july 23, 2010, a woman was driving home. she noticed a group of people involved in an altercation near her home. she backed into her driveway when the subject approached the driver's side window of her car. she locked her car doors afraid for her safety. the suspect, a subject at that point, yelled at her to get out of the car. he produced a gun and finally struck the window shattering it. the victim. for her life got out. the suspect fled in her car. the same suspect accompanied by another attempted an additional carjacking prior. carjacking is when a car is taken at the point of a weapon.