2002. now, 10 years later, thanks to the support of this board and our district, leadership is an excellent school. it is with a deep love for leadership and for san francisco kids that i have returned to teach at leadership after taking six years off to stay at home with my daughter. my 10th grade english students are reading james baldwin's essay, "a talk to teachers," which they find quite relevant today. baldwin writes, "to any citizen of this country who figures himself as responsible and particularly those of you who deal with the hearts and minds of young people, must be prepared to go for broke." all of us in this room are here because we want to nurture the hearts and minds of young people, because we are prepared to give our all so that our students can create for themselves a future that may look very different from their past or present reality. what i see as leadership's greatest success is the ability of this school to make good on our promise to students that

schooling can, indeed, enable them to transform their lives and, in turn, the lives of their families, communities and our world. this is not just a lofty promise. we do it student by student, day by day. we do it by design. we do it when each student has the same adviser for all four years and goes on to become the first in their family to graduate from high school and the first in their family to attend college. we do it when we make the curriculum both rigorous and relevant to our students. leadership high school continues to graduate many leaders that offer the -- excuse me -- to graduate leaders and to offer each and every one of our kids the opportunity to not just dream big, but to attain those dreams. thank you so very much. [applause] president yee: thank you, ms. large. >> sorry, i'm kinda short.

happy valentine's day, commissioners. i'm mornay morgan, a senior at leadership high school. over the years, i've been an active student and i can honestly say that leadership high school is the epitome of what a charter school should be. leadership high school not only teaches students requirements but it also teaches students what it truly means to be a well round student and young scholar. leadership high school is the type of school where it's more like a home. it comforts students and gives them different ways to -- gives them different ways to learn different things. it also teaches students how to be a student inside the classroom and how to teach others outside in the community. leadership high school also builds character and i can tell over the four years it's built me into a person that i never was and if i had went to a

public school, i probably wouldn't be. from my experience, leadership high school has motivated me to be a wonderful student. i can remember one time in my 10th grade year, where i was stressed out. i i didn't really know what to do in my situation. i had a lot going on and one of my teachers told me this quote and it stuck with me ever since. "wanting something is not enough. you want hunger for it and your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will be in your way." and it stuck with me ever since and it's going to stick with me until graduation. leadership is the type of school that not only teaches you stuff, it teaches you morals so you can be a better person and i know that once i graduate from leadership high school, i will be a better person. and i hope this charter will be renewed so that way students that are not in my year, in younger years, can have these type of teachers so they can be to the best of their ability, so that they could be better people

in the world. that's it. [applause] president yee: thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is michael evans. i'm an 11th grade student at leadership high school. i play baseball for the school. i live in valero, california, and i like long walks on the beach. when i started freshman year at leadership, i didn't always like it because it was like a stereotypical high school -- no huge football team, no jocks, nerds, all that stuff. there's no huge campus and in my opinion, there's not enough girls but that's not that important so i transferred after freshman year, actually. and i transferred to lincoln high school where i was there from the beginning of sophomore year to the -- just to the end of the first semester and after

the first semester during winter break, i got a call, because i live in valirro, california, i signed under a permit that says i can go to school in san francisco and only one day before winter break, i got a call saying i can't go to lincoln anymore so i was really upset and for the most part, i was genuinely upset because i feel like if a student makes an effort to wake up every morning, do the homework and pass classes, they should be allowed to go to whatever school they want to so i had one day to choose where i wanted to go so i chose to come back to leadership. i chose to economic back to a school that doesn't have a football team or homecoming king or queen or its own building, actually. but i felt confident that this was the school that would help me support me with all of my needs and provide me with the education i need to go to

college and isn't that the mission of high school anyway, to get students to college? yes. and transferring back to leadership ended up being the best choice i've ever made so that's why i think the school should be renewed for five more years. [applause] president yee: good evening, president yee and commissioner. president yee: hold on a second. if we can't put it off. unplug it. [loud noise]

president yee: go ahead. >> hi, my name is celia magtoda. and i am a parent of two students of leadership high school. i have eight years experience with leadership. my first daughter was among the first graduating class, so we saw many things happen through the beginning of leadership's existence. my second daughter started the following year. my daughter graduated. so eight years of experience of watching leadership grow and all the students grow. leadership, i know exactly what it's about. i saw ninth grade students grow sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, sometimes with ease, and sometimes with tears, into 12th grade leaders. leadership staff and teachers provided my daughters and their classmates not only with the academics they needed but with life skills, leadership skills and the kind of passion that it takes to carry on after on to college. both of my daughters took what

they gained from being a leader and used it all to be leaders in college. they are both now in the field of education. one daughter is a leadership high school teacher, the other works for san francisco unified school district. [applause] the drive and excitement that my daughters still carry from their days at leadership is incredible and they give it to me. i am also an educator. i'm a fifth grade teacher in san francisco unified school district. i have many students whose parents call me and come to me and ask me for advice on where to send their children. some of my students are students that could flourish at lowell, at lincoln, at washington, but there are many that could use the kind of nurturing they would get at leadership high school and so with that, i'm asking you, as a parent, and have

products of leadership high school, and as an educator, to please make sure that you consider what leadership has to offer to all of our children. thank you. president yee: thank you. [applause] >> sorry. i'm short, too, here. let's see here. i wrote it down because i get nervous speaking. leadership is not a school where children are numbers. the teachers are mentors and counselors in every child's life. my son is a freshman and was lost in the system a long time ago. he hated going to school due to how low his self-esteem had become from teachers not helping him move up in his studies and with trauma that our family had gone through. the care and motivation he has received at leadership has made him a student again. he loves going to school. he's even talking about stepping up his game to go to college.

for children like mine, i ask you to look beyond test scores and look on how many of our students are staying in school and graduating because of the wonderful job the staff does on knowing each and every student individually. they make every child feel worthwhile and prepare them for life after high school. this is something other schools in the district aren't doing and the children fall behind. please renew the school's charter and continue to give the children like mine who were left behind an opportunity to prove they, too, can succeed, if given the right motivation. thank you. [applause] >> hello, commissioners, my name is marco acosta and i'm a senior at leadership high school. out of respect for the board, i will keep the speech short. leadership hash

supporting this recommendation. president yee: commissioner maufas? commissioner maufas: we went over together to see leadership and it knocked my socks off.

i always ask when i'm going to visit a school, please don't dress it up, let me come quietly, please, please, please, i just want to see you as you are and i truly believe i saw leadership just as you are and it was wonderful. it was just wonderful. i can't tell you how impressed i was with your a.p. classes. i'm sorry, they were just kids of color in there doing a level of work that i saw was college level and i was blown away. i was like, oh, my gosh, thank goodness i graduated high school when i did and college when i did because i don't think i could do this work now. it was so impressive. it was impressive. and to think that you were doing that for our students, that may

not do well in a traditional setting and i said it to elizabeth then, i wish more of our families knew about leadership and what it offers to kids who aren't a great match for some of our schools. my daughter wasn't a great match for three of our high schools and then she dropped out. she came back to finish, but i sure wish i had known about leadership. i think about it all the time for so many of our students and i'm, like, you know, if families knew more about schools that are just not run-of-the-mill, but are doing something specific and give students specialized attention because you know how to do it right and it's not fake

, it's so genuine and deeply emotional and connects on a level that i'm sorry, some of our schools can't do. they have too many kids, they've got a whole different mindset, but the fact that you combine the rigor with all the other social stuff that connects in kids lives, i can't tell you, i'm so, so thrilled that you exist in san francisco. thank you. thank you, thank you, thank you. and i will be supporting your renewal. [applause] president yee: does that make it seven out of seven or what? thanks for coming. i'm glad you're here. i see that i've met two of the students that spoke today and that was great. i actually went to visit leadership also a few weeks ago by myself, i didn't have somebody going with me, and it was really nice because i

actually missed -- i walked into -- and i mentioned this at the committee of a whole so it's a repeat for some people, but i walked in during their lunch time and i missed the morning snetion -- session in terms of their portfolio defense. and elizabeth just says, hey, any student want to just spend lunch time with president yee here and i go, oh, no, nobody's going to want to -- as soon as she said that, a bunch of students raised their hands and she said, stop, stop, that's enough. so there were eight students. we went into a small classroom. they were eating their lunch and they were describing to me the portfolio defense, what they had to do and so forth and the three concepts and so forth and i was so impressed with what they said, how they said it, how they explained the process, how they bought into it. and as you heard today, some of

the students talk about how this gave them focus and some direction and that's what i heard from each of the eight students i sat with, and without going into -- i don't know what the association that's supposed to be supporting your charter schools are saying, maybe they need to go visit your school, because i don't get it. your school is doing excellent work with these students and these were not students that were set up to impress anybody. they impressed me, but they just spontaneously said, yeah, i'll talk to him, you know. and it was a good range of students. so, yes, that's going to be seven out of seven so i'm going to be supporting it also, thank you. [applause] roll call please. >> thank you. [roll call vote was taken]

[the measure massed -- passed unanimously] >> thank you, it's unanimous. president yee: i'm going to move on to the next agenda item and if you're going to be leaving the room, please leave quietly so we can continue the meeting. ok, so, the next one will be item 1112 -- >> president yee, can i make a request that perhaps we move

general public comment up ahead of the board rules, since there are -- i don't know about the rest of the board -- since it's past 7:30. president yee: we only have one item before that so i'm just going to move on. that's the next thing. ok. so it's 1112-13-sp2, adoption of california school board association series 9000, board policies and administrative regulations to replace current board of education policies and regulations related to board rules and procedures of p120. it's already been moved and seconded on december 13, 2011. and let me have a report from the committee of the whole. commissioner norton? vice president norton: yes. it was a long slog in an empty room but we did manage to mark

up our board rules at the committee of the whole and the results are what you see in your agendas, the red-lined version. president yee: so if we could have a reading of the resolution by superintendent or designee, casey coleman? yes, and if we could just have the short version, thank you. i don't want you to read every single 50 pages of rules. >> this -- as the board president stated, it's 1112-13sp2, the full title is "the adoption of california school board association c.s.p.a. series 9000, board

policies and administrative regulations to replace articles 1, 2, 4, 5, definitions and exhibits a and b of current board policies and regulations p120. the requested action is that the board of education of the san francisco unified school district adopt the california school board association cfba series 9,000 board rules and procedures as revised by sfusd to replace current articles 1, 2, 4, 5, definitions and exhibits a and b of board policies and regulations p120 with the exception of article 3, advisory committees of p120, which will remain in effect. the above changes, if adopted, will be effective as of the adjournment of this meeting of the board of education convened on this 14th of february, 2012. president yee: thank you very much. are there any comments? there's no public