in meeting with other districts, having the systems and structures and commitment of the zone has created a greater system support for the change work that is found in other districts nationally. their state schools are isolated pockets. they do not have unifying structure. they are viewing it as a project as opposed to institutionalize change. in addition, we found a lot of interest nationally in our work to develop a full-service community schools and at a national conference, got called out in a positive way from the podium by staff of the department of education for having a community schools focus. we realize we focused the resources on the schools themselves and did not ask for as much money as we might have for the district cell level support of the schools. in 20/20 hindsight we did make a much stronger support for the schools although we are doing a

pretty good job. other lessons to be learned could be shared by any questions you have. we have a results orientation to this even with our short year funding in 2010 and 2011. seven schools were recognized for notable growth. significant gains on california achievement test. five are in the superintendent zone and four are recipients of sig funding. other shows signs of accelerated growth. in the packets, you can see the majority of the school's showed growth -- schools showed growth. in cases where they are flat, we had a need to replace the principle with a new leadership. we're making strategic changes along the way. with that, i can open it up to questions. supervisor campos: thank you for your presentation. commissioners, supervisors, this is an opportunity to ask questions. supervisor olague.

supervisor olague: i was wondering when you were gauging the performance of some of the principals in some of the schools. what were some of the weaker qualities that led to their replacement? what were some of the patterns that you were saying? >> i should qualify. in the first place, for all but two of our schools, we were required to replace. we were doing it out of a requirement to replace the principal. upon doing that, i can speak more to the criteria we thought were important. that was a commitment to diversity response of school reform especially in a city that is -- has bilingual and by- literate goals -- biliterate goals. and who understood the model and

urban school reform and had some track record. for two principles that we did change mid project because in the -- three principals we did change. one was not performing well and at one point became an absentee principal. we had to replace that principal. the principal had a lot of the reform qualities but parents in the community were upset about that and had a fondness for their part principal. there was a lot of to moll. -- tumult. the principal had some challenges in dealing with that. we realized we had not quite abided by sig correctly.

we had someone in place who was there as a vice principal and was not hired for reform purpose and we did hire the reform leader for that school subsequently. supervisor olague: i was wondering as well as far as cultural sensitivity, is there required training of teachers or of staff as far as developing certain skills or an understanding of the diverse cultures? >> sure. we require all teachers to have the cross cultural course work in linguistic and cultural diversity in terms of being sensitive to cultural diversity but specific strategies for addressing their learning needs in terms of multilingual and multi-cultural practices. we know that is never enough. that is part of that

fundamental trading. a number of our schools have other credentials. on top of this, many of our schools have an explicit commitment within their school communities to anti-racism. mission high school has a strong component of anti-racism. and many of the other schools do similarly. because of our concern about suspension rates and attendant issues, we have developed a process of restorative practices. we do role of professional -- roll out professional support. that engages students as problem solvers in the conflicts that might arise in the schools. supervisor olague: i see that there have been some shifts, more emphasis on core curriculum and studying habits, what ever.

are you able to measure the impact of some of the non- academic programs -- programming like the wellness and some of the counseling or mental health? >> we know they are having a positive at 10 -- effect on things like attendance and students being able to be engaged during the day. we are seeing growth -- we have a number of issues about trauma and mental health. as an outgrowth of having mental health services, the providers have gotten together and formed a notion of creating a mental health collaborative that will look systemically across the school. we're engaging with our partners to try to beef up those evaluations and in a moment you will hear about the promise neighborhoods initiative. we're looking at ways to strengthen the kinds of evidence and strength of evidence we have for activities.

that is a work in progress and that is one of those challenges i mentioned. we have focused -- we have had to turn our attention to the state and the fed's in working out some of the issues with these funds. it pulled away from our own efforts to create more folsom evaluations but we have been working on that. -- fulsome evaluations. we are creating a variety of sets of data and are relating that to achieve it. supervisor olague: that is still in the works. >> is still in the works. all our schools have working care teams and have other working committees that look closely at data and get to know students on a more personal level who have specific issues and we do see gains in the achievement and learning for those students who are cared for in that way. supervisor olague:. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you. >> i always like to hear what is

happening because it is helpful for us to constantly be mindful about the work and effort you have been putting forward. i am curious -- letters went out on saturday. i am curious what the outcome was for the six schools in particular, if you saw it at all and i do not know if you had a chance to dissect this. an increase in choice in the schools. during the process we were getting a lot of calls about mission and o'connell, how pleased parents were about these changes and everest, those are the schools that was hearing about pretty consistently. there are families that would not have considered those choices in the past but are putting them down as the first. i am wondering if you have had a chance to sort that out to see if there is some improvement around choosing schools that historically have been lower.

>> we have not been able to go over that day yet. i think we have not. i will say that at o'connell, that was one of the three that we had to replace, has been making great strides. as powerful as that is and as powerful as the reaction is, we still have -- see a shrinking number. we are concerned about the size and we're looking at creative ways. we do not want to lose the momentum and looking at creative ways to look at technology and other opportunities and career path ways for students to rejuvenate that but you are spot on when you say the buzz around the schools have been on the up. commissioner mendoza: the

sustainability component will be important thinking forward. a lot of the work you have been doing all in thezones -- in the zones can be replicated. the knowledge of the city in terms of how we're progressing and the kinds of things that we are determining through data that work and do not. it will be key. >> we like to believe that money could go way and everything could be sustainable. there are things we could do and we're building those in as capacity is being billed but there is nothing like continued resources to make the transformation stick. that is why it is so great we have the promise neighborhoods opportunity and we're looking at that for continuing funding for community school coordinators' or looking at a variety of potential possibilities within that funding stream that would support that transformation. commissioner mendoza: we just

came from a couple of days on the hill talking about sig and promise never hurts and the leveraging -- neighborhoods and the leveraging promise used with sig. all our representatives were pleased we got the funding for that part of it. we had an opportunity to sit with secretary duncan and he appreciated there was leveraging that happened around that. the targeted work in the mission is coming in strong so we're looking very hopeful around some great outcome. thank you for your hard work. >> sure, and thanks go meadows for the proposal that was one of the highest-rated. commissioner maufas: the highest rated. >> what was the other? commissioner maufas: the highest rated.

>> let's be clear about that. commissioner fewer: i would like to emphasize that we have had to make some administration changes in the zones. we are very conscious about the communities. many of those changes were driven partly by community requests. these are communities that had administration there that were much loved in the community but as persistently consistently stated, in the lower 6%. it is hard to make this kind of changes once administrators institutionalize into the committee to make that kind of change. strong communities, not strong academic foundation. we had to make some of those changes. it was upsetting to also focus

on the school board that a lot of administrators with the court -- we think we're going to work out did not. we do not have a huge selection of principals who want to work in the schools. it is hard work and you have to be transformational. there are people looking at you and over your shoulder all the time. giving a lot of support but still we listened to a community, we listen hard and well and will -- weighed everything. we had to make changes in the bayview zone. that traces we have been making are smart traces -- changes we have made our smart changes. you also have to bring the community along, too. supervisor campos: i do have a couple of follow-up questions. one of the things that i have seen and will have seen over the years is a different school reform efforts that have been

instituted at the school district, and so, the question is always whether it is d.r.e.a.m. schools, how do you institute this? i wonder if you could talk about what the long-term sustainability strategy is as we move forward. >> as i said, there are sustainable things you can do in the absence of resources and there is the need to find new resources to support the good efforts. part of it is identifying what works and even getting to the point when you know what is transformational and what is successful is important. building the capacity of the staff here this job imbedded professional development, we're building capacity among our teachers that will stay there. we're making the schools places where we are feeling we could have a better retention rate for the teachers who are there and retaining that wanted has been

-- talent once it has been developed is an important part of that sustainability. the board has taken a strong effort to make sure those teachers can stay in the classrooms and stay in the schools where there are now. that is an important part of it, the school leadership as well. we are developing sustainability structures there but also the reforms and changes at the district level. we're making some changes to support the community schools model at the schools. our student support services department have become the student, family, and community engagement department and looking for ways to check what it was doing fairly well and strengthen that in terms of the coordination and seamless as of those services, so those are things that are -- that can happen in using resources for when sig is done. the unit has a number of staff and social workers and others that are funded through funds that will continue to be there. maybe not at the levels we would

always like. at least we will have a better trained person there. we are also developing technology infrastructure at the school that will have a shelf life logger than the life of the grants so that is important as well. -- longer than the life of the grants and that is important as well. the difference is when we look at other kinds of opportunity comes down the line, we have a better sense of what is we want to do with those funds. therefore we have a better case to make for the use of those funds. part of the sustainability is to have a stronger case for the kinds of things that we would like to get funded in the future. of course, we are hoping to emerge from this budget crisis at some point. it is important for us to know what exactly we will do with the funds that we finally get back in the district when we do see those funds return again. supervisor campos: we are the joint board of supervisors,

board of education committee. one of the things we have to think about is how we leverage the assets of both institutions. we in this city fund a number of community-based organizations that are doing tremendous work in the communities that we're talking about. i am wondering if you can say more about your relationship with those community-based organizations and how you are leveraging those resources to enhance your efforts. >> absolutely. we live on and deeply appreciate the funding that comes to our school sites for the after- school programs. many of our after-school providers and other providers who are the lead agencies for the funding have also received some of our sig funding to do more, that enables them to do more than with the funding alone. in the community schools model

we wanted to have some opportunities for linked day staff. the excel and dcyf funding puts up the firewall for -- between the school day and the after- school hours. there is a separation of those two. with sig, we had some flexibility so we could have some partners come in through the school day and learn more about what is happening to better academically a line what is happening in the after-school program. that is what we're working on together. that is one of the ways we're working with the community partners. a number of the mental health and social-service providers are funded and out of that creative synergy i mentioned, some of them, the mental health services have gone together with the san francisco unified school district and created a proposal for creating a mental health collaborative process for the schools. that is a notch up. that is ratcheting things up.

those are all ways in -- and they are becoming solutions that we are proposing under the promise neighborhoods initiative. these are the best of times and the worst of times. this is the budget crisis. the best of times in terms of a single light in terms of what can be accomplished and feeling like we have a better handle on who to connect with and find the funds to keep that going. supervisor campos: a couple more questions. i'm wondering if you could say more about the use and collection of data through the sig program. wondering what is being collected and how that will be used? >> all the indicators are listed earlier are being collected for the purposes of compliance and showing performance on the sig grant. many of those are not new. some of them are new. if not new, they are not things we had as much of by a

systematic catalog. dual enrollment, we're becoming more systematic about understanding which of our students and how they are impacted by dual enrollment by -- in high school and community colleges and other locales. there is not much extra new data. i am trying to think what new data we are collecting. what we're doing, we rely heavily- -- relied on the annual achievement tests. we would know at the end of the year whether we did a good job all year long. if he did not do a good job at the next year you have the whole year before you -- we did not do a good job at the next year and you have the whole year before you to measure how well you did. the superintendent zone was the first set of schools to use interim assessments. those are assessments that are aligned to the final assessment at the end of the year but their

formative. they have been up to four times a year depending on the school. -- happened up to four times a year depending on the school. to take that data and start re-tweaking their responses. we do not have to wait for the end of the year to find out what we did did not work. in between all those interim assessments that are quarterly, we're finding more evidence and research based on going daily kinds of assessments from their resources. we're using other kinds of data. one of the things we're proposing with our work with sfusd and promise neighborhoods is to do early education data sharing across organizations. supervisor campos: that was my next question. whom are you sharing that data? are you sharing that with city agencies to maybe inform some of their funding decisions? are we sharing it with the

parents, with the public? >> some -- a lot of the data, you know what is available. blog is available on the department of ed website. -- a lot of it is available on the department of and website. there is a number of processed data that can be used. we're having some conversations with -- around promise neighborhoods and uc-berkeley around the use of data. we have mous with stanford university. there are a number of confidentiality issues. there are a number of legal and compliance issues that figure into the use of data. we're interested in finding out better ways to know our students and our families and meet their needs. supervisor campos: a final question about one specific school if my colleagues do not mind. with horseman -- horace mann, what is happening with them next

year? >> they are continuing with buena vista. the school is becoming bilingual immersion school. k-eight. you often grow it year by year. they had it through fifth grade. they grew it -- they will grow into the sixth grade and into the seventh and eighth grade. as they did that, we are phasing out a general education strand within the program. we are having a fully immersion bilingual school. supervisor campos: in terms of the leadership, the continuity going forward. >> i should let the assistant supervisor speak to that. >> good afternoon. what i think makes the zone work

is is a collective effort. there are key set of high leverage priority areas. there is capacity building that is happening at the central level as well as the school site level. each of our schools have to undergo any assessment. we have to scaffold the improvement that is happening there with -- that is happening there. that is a new school that came into the zone a year later than anyone else -- everyone else. what you find is a building of the systems and structures and a lot of the priorities -- the schools have been undergoing that earlier. sometimes there necessary, the changes in leadership. this is another situation where the supervisor of the school beams that is appropriate. what is not changing is the priority work that is happening there. to make sure we continue to work toward division and

establish a flagship model, tool immersion k through 8. that also -- bull immersion, k throug a period t-- dual immers, k-8. supervisor campos: i want to thank the assistant superintendent for their work. this is difficult work. i do not know of the would like to add anything. we have heard from patricia gray and guadalupe guerrero. i knoew you when you were a principal at balboa. >> thank you. is t is a difficult job but that is what we got into this for to

make a difference. you were talking earlier about the changes that have happened at mission high school and at some of the other schools where the parents are saying that good things happen. it takes time for the reputation to really catch up. the buzz is out there now. as you know, people will sit back and wait and say, let somebody else try it out and see how it works. it will be a few years before we see the enrollment trite -- start to improve as a result. i know it will happen. my biggest challenge and i do not want to put a bus killed on anything. my biggest challenge is that two of -- six schools. they're doing wonderfully. we finally got a really good principal in one of them. the first one did not work out in one of them.

and as commissioner fewer said, we listened to the community. but putting together what they needed because they felt they had lost so much but with what we knew we needed to make things change. it has been very challenging with only two sig schools but we tried to leverage our resources by having sig schools with professional development and they would share that with the other non-sig schools. we do not have the funding to pay for extended hours. that is about it. it has been difficult, like i said. when you say that a beloved principal or teacher has to leave, they seem to feel it is important that the child be happy and they overlook the fact that the child is not necessarily achieving

academically. it may not be because that person is not a good teacher or a change baby needed. and more professional development. supervisor campos: thank you. thank you for your leadership. i would add a couple of points. we are thankful to have this opportunity to have the district make the commitment. a lot of our partners make a priority, a set of school's historically have underserved students and families. here is an opportunity, think we have the blessing of the -- thankfully, we have the blessing of the sig. it is important for the need to not have this seen as the remedial cohort of schools. what are the kinds of practices that result in the achievement gains and acceleration for some of our urban schools? it is an example and you do not

see a lot of pockets of that happening across the country. as i exchange notes with a lot of leaders doing similar note -- work across the country that are thoughtful about it, that are seeing the same kinds of double- digit gains we're seeing, it is an opportunity to build the infrastructure. we get to a place of heavy emphasis on literacy. how do you assess that? how do we engage in conversations at the school level? how do we build our leaders so they are transformational and they are exhibiting a lot of the kinds of qualities we wrote into the new job descriptions we wrote for this effort? we're able to innovate with the community schools model. how do we continue to work with cbo's. the after-school providers? why are the promise applications -- they were ng