the next agenda item, g, consent calendar. is there a motion and second for the consent calendar? any items withdrawn or corrected by the superintendent? >> yes. we have two items to withdraw, the first is 121-10-w-16 on page 77. and the second is item 121-10-k-15 on page 121. >> any items to be removed by the board. any items severed by the board or superintendent for discussion and vote tonight?

commissioner murase? commissioner murase: page 143, k-146, reference about hiring to train new employees. president yee: which k resolution? commissioner wynn? -- commissioner wynns? >> i'd like to several w-17 on page 78. president yee: any others? ok. roll call vote will take place

under the section on this item. item h, superintendent's proposals. none tonight. i, none tonight. j, requests to speak regarding general matters, we have a number of speakers and i will have the first speaker -- the first speaker will be paulette brown. ms. brown, are you here? go ahead and take two minutes.

president yee: press the button on the mike. >> my name is paulette brown. i have a daughter that goes to lincoln high school. i'm here to complain about that we were talking about bullying earlier. bullying. we're not talking about bullying from students, we're talking about bullying from the faculty, the teachers. my daughter, there's a breach of trust about her religion. the teacher has been bothering about. president yee: please don't name names. thank you very much. >> he's been harassing her at

school and she is -- i don't feel comfortable, i don't feel supported by the school. she's been there since she started. she'll be graduate may 23 and this person is still harassing her, putting his arms in front of her, stopping her from moving, standing in front of her classroom, talking about her religion. i lost my son to homicide, 0 rounds of bullet, and my daughter daughter is suffering from it, we're both suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and my daughter doesn't have a lot of counseling. this faculty member took my son's picture, which is a picture -- this picture, and put it out in front of the school for everybody to see on the desk. i had to -- this was not

supposed to be out. he goes to the front of my daughter's school, he's telling her about her religion. that's just like if she wore a turban on her head. i've bven there talking but still nothing is done. what do i do? this is not fairle president yee: can you speak to her? >> dr. schultz is over there. she'll be glad to speak to you. right there. she's the assistant superintendent in charge of that school.

president yee: the next group of people, i will call the names that were given to me. they are lillian phong, when i call your name, come up to the mike, debra quan, colin higgins, wayne yen, jamie ramirez, nancy lee, paul, ann kyung, terry wong, terence yee. what i'd like to do is give you one minute apiece. and when you get started, gist state your name and get started.

you need to press the button on the mike and then it'll be on. >> thank you, and congratulations president yee and vice president norton. i want to make one correction. we actually have pauline zela, one of our parents is home sick today. i have a replacement parent, her name is cassini. i'm the chair of the school council, as the first chinese immersion school, it's been highly successful in graduating students who are high academic achievers, active student learners with strong foundations in chinese language and culture. in fact, we received notification from california's state superintendent that we're up for the national school

award. i'm here with a number of concerned parents to tell the board that the district is imposing a drastic change in our enrollment policy which jeopardizes the integrity of the immersion program. [applause] president yee: thank you for sticking to the time limit. >> my name is debra qwan. the policy is to change the policy and enroll up to 2/3 of kindergarteners who are proficient in cantonese makes no sense. how can we be an immersion school if twisheds of the students already speak the language. this would turn our school from

immersion to a focus on learning english. mastering english will be the primary concern for the students, especially in our current high stakes testing environment. we were a chinese language. im-- immersion school. werdum founded at the district's proposal. how can an immersion program be successful with a 2/3 native speaking population? >> my name is dennis yee, i'm a member of the school site council. as debra said, we are requiring -- the district is requiring that 2/3 of the students should be 2/3 language speaking students. we co-have a significant english learner population at the elementary population, 1/3 of our students are english learners. at the last meeting, you ask if

e.l.'s are getting enough language in our immersion program. we don't provide much time for english language learning. we have modified the program. our english learners are classified to english proficient at a fast rate. we want to target speakers that give all students the best chance for success. i leave you with the question what is the legal basis for the 2/3 ratio? thank you. [applause] >> my name is wayne yen, i'm a member of the parent association. we were shocked to learn that not all applicants were tested

for language proficiency as was promised last year. language learning will -- imwill only occur if they say that cantonese is spoken in the home. anyone who says english as their proficient language will be taken at their word. this -- self-reporting of language leads to problems. help us stop this mad ps. without assessment of all aply capts, how an earth can an accurate proportion of english proficient students be assigned in the fist place. it defies logic.

>> i am the father of three sons in second, third and sixth grades. you can be sure that the proficient speakers will be ethnic chinese. this means that the older ethnic groups will be fighting for the valuable slots in the one-third english proficient. many i third grader is in a class where the dwertsity is imbalanced. i have seen a difference in his confidence in learning chinese than his older brothers who have been educated under the immersion program. english speakers like my son feel less confident in speaking

out in class because a majority of his classmate already speak fluent cantonese. i know my son is too embarrassed and humiliated to say he doesn't understand. please, how is this promoting ethnic diversity with this? thank you. >> good evening. i'm a parent at this school. placing an english learner in an immersion program is not going to work. english learners need more support. why the school district is imposing a model known to have

problems? at the december board of education meeting, they said it is great people are learning another language. but he also said that the district needs to make sure that such programs can serve. my question is, why doesn't the district try to replicate the successful model, one that has worked well for years, instead of trying to destroy the best of our school. thank you. >> good evening. my name is nancy lee. i'm a secretary of the parent association. i have a question for the commissioners. we talked about ratios, one-half, 2/3, one third. how can we talk about ratios when we do not test 100% of the pool?

please, use some common sense. currently, the 32% of e.l.'s of the school are not measured by how well we teach chinese. we are measured by how quickly we convert e.l. to e.p. it's hard work. it's tutoring before, during, and after school. 100% paid by the parent association. please think of the child and how we can equip them for the 21st century. thank you. >> i'm a member of the school council. my question to the board, shouldn't there be at least one school in 100-plus schools in the san francisco unified school district where

nonchinese speakers can go to learn to speak chinese? i hope the answer is yes. we can agree we live in a global economy, one in which future generations need to be on equal footing, particularly with china. did you know there are more people in high in a fluent in english than there are people in america fluent in english? our school has been teaching successfully for 26 years. now they want to change the purpose of the best school in the district? why? can there be one school in the san francisco city that provides nonchinese speakers with a right to speak chinese and learn chinese? by the eighth grade, our students are able to read, write and speak fluently in

cantonese and mandarin so well that they go to china on an exchange program with a sister school in beijing, can confidently bargain for goods, order in restaurantsing and live with a host family and communicate well. the district is proposing a significant change to the student composition without agreement from the community. we are outraged and object to a change which will negatively impact the success of our existing program. please help us understand why the district is imposing a program design change which will destroy a program which has been working so well. [applause] >> good evening, board members and district staff. i'm a member of the school's council and it is my opinion that changing to a 2/3 english learner ratio will have a

significant negative effect on ethnic diversity. hispanic, african-american and caucasian will be fighting for the 1/3 supposedly english proficient group, an i say supposedly because they're not testing for english proficiency so we don't have any guarantees. further under the proposed design there won't be any ethnic diversity at all because we already know that 2/3 of the students will be chinese that are going to be cantonese proficient, but what about chinese and other asian applicants like my families that aren't cantonese proficient? what about the other chinese and other asian applicants that will be fighting for the same spots as the hispanics, african-americans, and caucasians, as others have already asked, how can this possibly be called immersion? i urge me board to take immediate action. thank you.

>> my name is barry wong, i have been a community advocate for the school since it moved into the neighborhood. i have been so fraud oaf -- proud of the nation's first chinese immersion program. i probably spend as much time playing tour guide as i did meeting with the district whenever positions were eliminated or cut from our budget. we have never fully funded the school but through our parents association we have been able to maintain the successful program financially. so successful is the program that the district has started to use our model in immersion programs at other sites. i was fortunate that my three durs -- daughters all graduated able to read and write cantonese. by introducing native speakers

into an immersion program requires more instructional time and resources than is allocated due to continued budgetary reductions. [applause] >> good evening. my name is ronnie chisholm. i'm a member of the black student union and i thank the board for taking the time to hear us. my concern with the proposed change is that i have five children that have attend -- attended the school, two girls are still there, but my three sons have graduate. one of my sons returned from china after receiving a scholarship to study in china abroad for a number of months. that opportunity would not have been afforded had he not been able to learn the language. the population of african-americans and latinos

in the school is very low. african-american3% and dropping. my concern is to keep the field -- is not level now, we should make sure we at least keep the numbers that are english learners, so please take the time and make the right decision, not based on what is right for the district of what is right for the community moving forward like equal access to all ethnic groups. thank you for your time. [applause]

>> good evening. you have heard afy parents express our objections. we need resources and services to maintain our successful program designed, of the one of our families signed up for, and we would like you to maintain the current design for all of our students. there are seven questions. why is the district changing and highly successful program without input from the community? how can an immersion program be successful with the 2/3 cantonese language population? of no. 3, what is the legal mandate for a 2/3 english learner who ratio? how can students be accurately

plays without us? why change a program that has already been successful with educating the public? seventh, shouldn't there be at least one school were non- chinese speakers can one go to learn chinese? thank you very much. [applause] >> i want to thank you the parents for covering our -- for

coming out. any comments? >> i am just curious, on the information, we need more information. i know that dual languages can go through, but offices an award winning school but we should continue to use -- this is an award winning school we should continue to support. [applause] >> i would also like the staff to also inform the board about

the issue of zero students -- the issue of students, so if we could have an update on that. >> we need to be clear that having a discussion is not ok. this was not on the agenda, so i think the appropriate thing, i would like the staff to tell us if they will commit some making it possible for us to put it on some agenda. we cannot discuss it this evening. >> that is the only way we can do it. we cannot have this discussion. >> we are making a request. >> i wanted to know which committee this issue would go.

if you could address english efficiencies. >> i have the same question, and i would like these questions answered before any decisions are made. parks we planned to have a meeting in january, so the meeting is scheduled for the 18th of january at 5:00. i just sent a note to miss desmond to ask if staff can be ready to talk to us at that meeting. we will post an agenda later, and my intent would be to put

this item as an informational items so we can have a discussion either commit to a pure ego -- have a discussion at another committee. >> i am a parent of two kids who went through this program, and i know the benefits of the program, so what i am asking is some of these questions they raise i would like to get some answers. good are we changing the model? what is the premise of changing it, and they talked about some legal issues. please give us some rationale of long-regions of russia now, and i am also concerned with sued -- please give us some r ationale.

i am also concerned because i know this is a one-way immersion program. we have to be clear we are talking about one-way of merger and a. we have to go make sure they are english sufficient to the end of program so it would meet their needs, -- to be in the program so it would meet their needs. are we not testing them? >> this has not been agenda iiz. the appropriate way would be to put this on an agenda at a committee meeting or at future board meetings, where all of this could be discussed in detail at an appropriate meeting. >> what i am requesting is i

would like to get some answers. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you for coming. we have to move on. if you are planning to leave the room, can you leave quietly? the next group of parents are from paul revere. i will give you one minute speech. [list of names]