>> let me do something that is technical in nature. could we have a roll call, please? we want to make sure we pass this resolution. [laughter] >> [roll-call] >> thank you. >> good evening. it has been my honor and privilege to serve as president of the association of california does traders. this year, i want to thank jim for giving me another full-time job, because that is what this has taken. i am so thrilled. san francisco swept every

category except for one because our superintendent has one in the past. >> you need to press the button again. >> there are past award winners and we want to acknowledge them also. this year, we have our esteemed group. they don't look like they have been at school sites all day. it is my pleasure to introduce the region five of ministers of the year. elementary school principal [applause] -- >> our next administrator -- >>

when the deputy superintendent announced the names at the summit, people did not understand that is to that was. michael primer from roosevelt. [applause] secondary principle -- school of the arts and the academy of arts and sciences. secondary echo administrator from hoover middle school.

central office administrator [applause] . and at the valuing diversity award. the district superintendents [applause] . >> we would like to thank the board for sharing their time with us tonight. we wish you good luck for the rest of your meeting. >> we don't need luck, we need money. >> can i make a comment?

>> would you like to present to the foundation? >> yes >> of want to quickly congratulate the administrators and remind people the teacher and principal of the year awards are online now. we want to ensure all of you are nominating them and you have until march 23. you can't find the link to it nominate your principals and teachers. >> now, i would like to call on the assistant superintendent. >> thank you.

president, commissioners, as you know, the superintendent's has more high eight needs and underachieving students than any other area. they face many obstacles, socio- economic, linguistic, daily when attempting to attend school. we know if they are not in school, it is difficult if not impossible for them to achieve academically. we try withstand advisers, attendance liaisons', principals and other staff to get them to school. parents try, but we need more help. the foundation works closely with us to give incentives to our children. they tutor them, they provide incentives.

for this, we want to acknowledge and thank them. i'm going to ask the family and community and a director to give you more specifics before i read the award. >> thank you. i'm going to enumerate the items they have helped us with that are not listed on the accommodation. the foundation has contributed to college scholarships and helped with the reduction of truancy by coming to all of our schools and giving monthly parties to perfect attendance. they established the power of five, an incentive to increase volunteerism at the schools. they teach a chinese-language class that malcolm x and this

will be their second year they will be providing a teacher appreciation luncheon for all of the teachers at the elementary schools in the sun. they teach environmental science class as well as insisting -- assisting during the summer program. the last two weeks, they helped us put on a chinese perfect attendance celebration in the bayview where 130 students were acknowledged. i want to thank a three have the commissioners that came and i have some pictures i will give it to you. wherever there is a need, whether it is coming up with statistics or developing graphs, they have been enthusiastic about helping.

they have been very humble and respectful. the superintendent the zone has found a tool in this foundation and the happy campus program. i would like to give each of you a copy of the perfect attendance chinese new year celebration that we had. could you come up so we can prevent you with this commendation? [applause] >> thank you. we have members of the foundation. i need to put my glasses on so that i can read this. san francisco unified school district and the board of education honors the foundation.

san francisco unified school district which is technology foundation which has been an incredible partner to the superintendent zone, bayview and mission. the foundation donated over 400 school uniforms to our students and members provide tutoring in math, reading, writing and teaching class is in environmental science and chinese language. they provide incentives and volunteerism and help sponsor perfect attendance where 130 students were recognized after four months after consecutive perfect attendance. their excellent work is a very much appreciated. thank you very much. [applause]

>> rim be executive director of the foundation. it's a very special night for the foundation and for education in san francisco. this award belongs to all of these great [applause] volunteers. it is a very special not only for the volunteers, but for school administrators, for students, and for parents. of course for the education board here to be able to make this program a success.

when i speak with our volunteers, she was so excited to tell me about a story in the school because the foundation is an international organization. if someone had a chance to read the newspaper, the founder is one of the 100 most influential people in the world. it is interesting to connect that award with this award. the common element is about influence and impact. it is the collaboration of the community organization and the community and school that collaborate together that can

make an impact. she was so excited to share with me a story because we are building three schools in haiti after the earthquake two years ago. the foundation is trying very hard to build schools. when this message was passed to students in a school that we were helping, i think it was a fourth grader. those kids, after they hear about the situation in haiti and what we wanted to do with the schools, the kids, the students, they voluntarily wanted to raise money for this project. these are students from families in need. needy family children.

they got together and come up with 11 ideas of how to help the schools there. it is this kind of spirit and inspiration that we see in that children. the hope of our future. vesey's of love and their minds and their heart that this organization and all of the volunteers are trying to uncover. it is a discovery for us as an adult and that is why this award is so special. when i heard that the economy is tough and we face budget deficits and layoffs, we face

all kinds of not so welcome news, but one thing that has never decreased that never goes away deep in your heart is the heart, the love, the spirit. that will never go away and that is what this organization and the volunteers are trying to do. with that, i would like to especially thank the san francisco education board for recognizing such a wonderful award. when i heard some people might lose their jobs, volunteers will never lose their jobs. we're going to join the foundation volunteers.

also, no pay cuts. [laughter] because we have no pay to cut. i saw all lot of smiling faces tonight. it is the smiling faces we want to see from our children that inspire the world of the future. thank you [applause] . >> we are going to move on. we are on the item d. >> yesterday, we had our general meeting and ruth from a parent advisory council came to speak to us about their restorative practices going on at different schools sites.

she wanted to know what kind of feedback we had as students with the restorative practices going on or our observations. basically, we are going to start a focus groups to talk about what is going on. >> additionally, we are continuing to work on signing up for our annual use summit. this year, we will focus on youth advocacy and empowerment. so far, the president will be opening day for us and we have our keynote speaker who is the program director of the all-star project of the san francisco bay area. >> thank you.

let's go on to item e. the pac representatives, if any. >> good evening, commissioners, district partners and community folks at a school board meeting on a tuesday night. i staff the parent advisory council and i'm here to do the report because the person who is going to do it had to go to a doctor's appointment this evening. i have a question about the reports to the board. in december, we were contacted at the rules committee is talking about a proposal to have a report that one board meeting a month and then have different advisory committee reports for the other meeting. we thought that made sense, that it was good to have a schedule

for hearings from the different advisory committees. we were wondering if there had been further conversation about when the rotation would start so that we could plan accordingly. >> that was one of the discussions we have at have had and no action was taken. we could put that on the agenda for the next meeting. >> if you would like to come and discuss that, it would be great. it would require a rules change. that would require two readings and a two-thirds majority of the board. however, of the rules committee were to recommend it, we could start doing at and while the process changes ongoing, the board can vote to suspend the rules. >> i'm trying not to lose track

of all of these things. the next topic i wanted to address were some questions about the priority initiatives and how they relate to the budget process. last week, the project director for the strategic performance initiative came to the meeting along with the executive director of the san francisco school alliance which is funding the strategic performance initiative. she had offered to come to the packed meeting to answer questions that were raised in december and january and members hoped to get answers to very specific questions about how different projects were going. we are frustrated because the

answers were not provided. people still have all of the same questions they have had since last fall. we understand the performance initiative is a three-year initiative to develop better management systems and it's a complicated process. the idea is to follow -- to develop systems and communicate priority work going on in the district. we know that teachers and principals and school staff are working very hard and it is exciting that principals and other administrators are getting recognition for that work. we have been told that while a lot of data is being gathered to evaluate the work so that it does better in the future, information about the project would have to be significantly reformat had to make sense to parents and there is no one with

the time to do that. so we are really frustrated about that, that we cannot get answers to questions they feel that at this point in the school year staff should be able to give straightforward, big picture answers to questions about what's happening with big work happening in schools across the district. i do want to thank the middle school team because they offered to provide us a summary of the plan they are working on. the information about how the middle school quality work is going. i just want to say that i had dinner with a friend of mine who is coming straight from a council meeting at her child's middle school. they were talking a lot about what are they going to do about these proposed budget cuts. she shared with me some information about amazing work happening at the school to support students who are

struggling and to challenge students who are doing well and how their conversation was framed about how they would continue to fund that work given the cuts that were coming because it was the most important work to ensure they would keep doing. that is the spirit we are asking these questions in as they are not have to be hot file. -- to be hostile. it is because we're playing the role you have asked us to, to be partners and ask questions and provide perspective to help you make these decisions coming before you. given the budget situation and the fact the state has put us in a crisis, leaders of the district in this room have said how a important is to make the decisions based on priorities of this district, to support children to succeed and

accelerating closing the achievement gap and the pact supports that. we think to do that job, you need the answers to the same questions we have been asking. and that's why we keep asking them and i know it gets frustrating the whole thing about the definition of insanity being doing the same thing over and over, i feel like that asking these questions. i also want to say members attended a budget briefing last week and the deputy superintendent presented a description of the state budget situation and advocates strategizing about ways to engage families to try to play a role in that process and where

he is planning to come barring other meetings where we will continue talking about these issues. i quickly want to say that the executive director for family engagement came to the meetings last weekend we appreciated that she shared with us a lot of information about the work of the family engagement office this year and is going to share the comprehensive plan after it has been discussed with board commissioners in the next few weeks and we look forward to seeing that. i appreciate the report about our conversation last night. we are excited to be hearing from students in the process of having conversations are restored to practices. we have heard from over 50 people, including parents, staff, and committee members and

one of the highlights was the fourth and fifth graders who were part of the conversation and they did a question and answer session with parents to explain how they help their fellow students resolve conflicts. it was amazing and a fantastic experience and we hope to replicate that in other schools. it was great to have seen that early so we can organize that in future conversations. we will continue to share our schedule and hope board members can attend some of these conversations. we have one of these pretty much every week until the end of april. >> any questions? >> i am taken aback by the the report and the lack of answers

you were given on the strategic projects performance initiative. i don't -- i think it is unacceptable that they could schedule a meeting on a very important addition to the board has been talking about and the district has been talking about for a long time and ask for update and be told if i understand your report, sorry i do not have the answers and there's no one available -- that does not seem acceptable to me. i have articulated this allows it to you. we need more clarity on where we are with the various high impact projects of the district, but i am taken aback that if you asked for an update and have specific questions, those questions would not be answered.

what can we do about that? >> thank you for the question. i would like a specific set of questions that you feel you have not received an answer to and i will schedule a time that's not in closed session time of the board where i will personally meet with them and answer questions. we have not had a meeting that doesn't conflict with a closed session. we are more than willing to enter into conversations and clarify whatever questions they have. >> i know you generally have meetings on what day of the week? >> the third tuesday of the month, generally because that's when board meetings are not happening and by understand

closed sessions get scheduled closer to that, but this really hard to schedule a week before something people have on my calendar for the school year. is it possible to look further down the line to change a day of the week where you would have maybe two months out -- sometimes i would like to come and we end up having board meetings on tuesdays. as a board, we made a commitment to free up our tuesday's thinking we would have some form of meetings and it and set that we usually have meetings on tuesdays. a lot of us would like to participate more and come to the meeting and listen to that

dialogue. it would be much more possible if it were on a different day of the week. i am not saying change it right away. any other comments? thank you. let's move on to public comment on consent items. there are some speakers. i will call up the people who signed up for this item. [reading names]