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.

supervisor mirkarimi: good morning. welcome to the san francisco county transportation authority meeting to i am ross mirkarimi, a chair. i want to thank sfgtv for their ongoing excellence. madam clerk, would you please read the roll call? >> >> supervisor avalos? present. >> supervisor campos? present. >> supervisor chiu? present. >> supervisor chu? present. >> supervisor cohen? present. >> supervisor elsbernd? present. >> supervisor farrell? present. >> supervisor kim? absent. >> supervisor mar? absent. >> supervisor mirkarimi? present. >> supervisor wiener? present. we have a quorum. supervisor mirkarimi: very good. item number two, please. >> approval of minutes of the november 15, 2011 meeting. this is an action item. supervisor mirkarimi: any discussion? any public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed.

roll call, please. >> item number two. >> supervisor avalos? >> supervisor campos? >> supervisor chiu? >> supervisor chu? >> supervisor cohen? >> supervisor elsbernd? >> supervisor farrell? >> supervisor kim? >> supervisor mar? absent. >> supervisor mirkarimi? >> supervisor wiener? item passes. supervisor mirkarimi: all right. please read items number three four. >> 3 commenters report. four, executive director's report. these are information items. supervisor mirkarimi: colleagues, this is my last meeting as chair of the transportation authority. i want to thank you all for allowing me to serve you for two years. as i look back over the last year, but in particular the last two years, i think it is important that we can all take pride in some major milestones that we were able to achieve together, such as the completion of the environmental impact report for the van ness bus a

rapid transit line. i project this is poised to move into implementation, and one that i believe will change for the better, the way people see public transportation in san francisco. on high-speed rail, we spent a very productive year forging a unified san francisco position in the face of rapid change them in the policy environment both in washington, d.c., and in san francisco. i believe we will see caltrain electrification in high-speed rail kunduz san francisco at center than most people predict. we only realize the dream, the downtown high-speed rail terminal, but we're also known to show the way for the rest of the state. our coalition building worked in this area, and it will be a major legacy. i am proud of the work we have done on the presidio parkway. we're poised to open the first phase to traffic in early february, and our work on the

public-private partnership has said legal challenges all the way back to the state supreme court. again, we are blazing new trails in project delivery. they will benefit not just the city but the entire state. we have made significant progress in presenting a unified front in the region on san francisco's infrastructure needs related to the proposed sustainable community strategy, scs, and raising their readiness for pungent housing policies that can provide governments to make the right decisions to enable us as the region to make the most of our investments in transportation and infrastructure and do our part in addressing climate change. aside from the passage of prop k, that when the first general it -- revenue-generating measures in 2003, weaver also successful in putting forward the first ballot measure to transportation authority, and that was proposition aa, which

passed last year. thank you, colleagues, for pursuing that it also, the transportation authority in providing the dollars to conduct one of the first shared audits of the mta, as the ta has been tapped in helping address some of the larger chronic problems certainly experienced by a sister agency, the municipal transportation authority. i believe that many of these are big topics in the legacy, and the progress we have made will be measured are the next several that it did not want to thank supervisor campos and supervisor mar and all of you for the focused energy and clarity have brought to the discussion of the many important policy issues that we have faced at the transportation authority over the past 12 months and previous 12 months peter i am grateful for the opportunity to work closely with the authority's executive director and staff. i greatly appreciative of the

due diligence and excellence that ta staff have provided a there is plenty yet to be accomplished, but i leave with a clear sense that we have moved the agenda forward. it has been in awarding experience. thank you for the trust you have invested in me and for the opportunity to serve as the authorities chair. i look forward to seeing the operatives work from the fourth floor and promise to keep in touch. thank you. mr. executive director -- >> mr. chairman, commissioners, a good morning. i am the executive director. my report is on your chair. many take a moment here to bank and acknowledge the outgoing chair for his distinguished role as the steward of the jurisdictional authority over the last year. we have worked very closely with him and have never been

disappointed in his ability to find the true policy content out of all the discussions we have had with him. and, as he said earlier, there are many issues that are legacy issues. there are others that he did not mention in his remarks that i think will continue to occupy us. the one that comes to mind right now is the new measure that will replace level of services, our measure of performance of the transportation system, which is something that he pioneered several years ago, actually, and we have been working with them ever since, and getting to the point where we will be blazing a new trail not just for san francisco but for california in terms of how the ceqa transportation impacts fincher is looked at from here into the future. and i, i am fund of making

predictions, predict that the work alone, one adopted by local community groups, will have a larger impact than sc375 in setting us on the right course to sustainable development. thank you, mr. chair. on behalf of the staff of the transportation authority and myself, we wish you the very best of luck in your new capacity. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. >> i do have a few items i would like to highlight. we cannot have a report without an update on what is happening in washington, d.c., on the reauthorization of the six-year service transportation act. you all heard about this at some length at the last meeting. the house, under the leadership of chairman micah, had worked to put together what looked like was going to be a five-year bill.

we are, however, again back at the point of discussing what their revenue is going to be. there was some sense of an agreement just a month ago about using royalties from extended oil and gas exploration to pay for the revenue gap, but that has fallen apart as republican members of the house have backed away from that. then we had the valiant efforts going on in the senate, led by senator barbara boxer, to try to put together a two-year bill there, and the gap there is smaller. it is still $1 billion, but it is still a gap that appears at this point to be almost insurmountable as far as the political will in congress to find the revenue source for it. it has not helped that this task as a sort of collided with the goal of at the supercommittee on deficit-reduction, which of course has a much bigger

mountain to climb. and i think it all boils down to confirming my prediction of about a year ago that we were unlikely to see reauthorization, certainly not a multi-year reauthorization, before the presidential elections. what we do have is an extension that brings the current bill, is essentially, to march 2012, and i will predict today that we will have another extension that will bring it beyond the november election next year. the other rather alarming aspect of the lack of action that the federal level is that until expiration of the $230 per month federal transit commuter tax benefit allowance, which expires at the end of this month. we have not yet seen the willpower to extend it. it could bring as to the point where