physical health needs. these students attend schools and come from all our neighborhoods. their needs are not geographically determined. it creates further inequities and destabilization. they need equal support in all our schools. [applause] >> good evening. i'm a teacher at a community school. i have been a para and this saturday is my 20th anniversary working for the school district and i'm happy to be here. tenderloin community school, community is our middle name and it extends beyond our school walls, into our neighborhood and throughout our school. and tenderloin community stands with all teachers and support staff at all of our schools. because we are san francisco

unified school district, unified, we are unified as is our name. i'm asking on all our elected representatives respectfully to rescind your decisive decision and stand together and work with us and i give a shout out to sandra fewer. we are a community, let's work together and help our children achieve our full potential. they are marvelous. you know that, we know that. let's work together. thank you. >> good evening members of the board. i'm the secretary/treasurer of the northern california district council of the international longshoreman and warehouse union. i'm the parent of two graduates of the san francisco unified school district and member to a graduate of the san francisco unified school district and live across the street from rosa parks.

we are a city that has values. we are a community that has values. we are a city that has history. we name our schools after people who are significant. i have the privilege of living across the street from one of the great americans, rosa parks, who we stand on her shoulders. we heard from martin luther king and we stand on his shoulders. but it's not just about standing on somebody's shoulders but right now you are standing on people's back. you have to walk the walk whenever there is difficult decisions to make. it's where we stand in times of adversity that matter. we, as a community, look for civic leadership and i'm proud to be in a room full of civic leaders who stand with each other and stand for the good of our community. and unfortunately i'm not looking at them right now with the exception of one. it would be really good to embody the values of the workers

who work for your district, which is respect for each other and no divide and conquer. you respect seniority. it's what matters. [cheers and applause] [inaudible comment] >> i stand before you representing hundreds of unsung heroes that work for the san francisco unified school district. we are devoted to students and families and come to school daily to work despite the cloud of layoff that looms every year. we are working with the teachers. we are the student advisers in the yard and calf teryass and changing soiled pants and restoring confidences and providing resources for housing, food and uniforms. we are the security guards who help to keep our children safe.

we are educating families on the importance of daily attendance. we are the liaisons between families and schools because of our trust. we are the mothers, fathers and grand parents who have children in the district. who are we? we are paraprofessionals. stop para layoffs. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> my name is james contendy and i teach third grade in room 17 at sanchez elementary. the windows in room 17 face east. we look out over into the zone. you see, there's just a cyclone fence separating our community from the zone. even though 92.6% of our student body is socioeconomicically disadvantaged, a percentage than

a dozen of the zone schools, i guess we are just on the wrong side of that cyclone fence. even though 23.3% of our students have disabilities. more than any school in the zone. we are on the wrong side of that cyclone fence. on the other side of that fence, my colleagues and i would have more job security, but because of arbitrary delineations, we are on the unfortunate side of that fence. why are our students less deserving? why are the efforts of our dedicated staff less worthy? what message do you send to everyone in our community? such arbitrary divisions do not foster the spirit of a unified school district. but we are united educators and cyclone fences or not, you will not divide us. thank you. [cheers and applause]

>> my name is rebecca morrow and i'm vice president of the r.n. community chapter and public health nurse. i'm a product of the san francisco unified school system and my son was and my mother was. so i want you to know -- my mother is gone and i look to her for wisdom even though she is not here and i never seen anything like this in this union town since i have been here. it appears that the board has forgotten their history and look up thursday, 1934, look at those workers who died fighting for unionism and remember it happened in san francisco that we believe in it, that this is a union town that i vote in this union town and i will vote you out of office, you board members. i'm not kidding.

seniority is a key part and we aren't going to let go of it. when children fall through your cracks based on zip codes, they end up shot and i have to case manage them and try to put their lives back together again. [cheers and applause] >> my name is tara ram omp s and teacher at the paul revere school. i would like to make two points to exclude teachers from receiving layoff notice and give them priority over other teachers. one, it is true that the zone may be disproportionately affected by layoffs because of its hire concentration of less experienced teachers. to me, the solution to this would be for the board and superintendent to first

investigate why teacher turnover is higher at the zone schools and then to work for changes at the zone schools so experienced teachers will want to work there. my second point is that this policy seems to give priority to teachers who don't even have a credential over credentialed teacher like teacher america teachers. not yet credentialed teachers in the zone will be able to keep a job from another area. i encourage you to investigate the number of not yet credentialed teachers in the superintendent zone and compare that to other schools in other areas. if keeping a higher concentration of not yet credentialed teachers providing students with equitable access to highly qualified teachers. that's my question to you. thank you. [applause] >> i'm a teacher at mission high

school and read you a petition that we passed around our school today that was signed by 60 teachers, paraprofessionals and others. we are in a zone as you know, a school in one of the superintendent zones reject the phony social justice of imposing 494 unnecessary layoffs while it sits on $78 million in reserves. if it was truly committed to social justice you would not send out a single layoff notice this year. if it would not force furlough days on our schools hurting our poorest families the most. it would not have a history of closing schools in communities that serve people of color and not eradicating our classified staff whose members come from our communities we serve and have a high percentage workers of color. we see the attempt to impose layoffs as an overall attempt to intimidate members into accepting deep cuts to our

schools next year. we see the attempt to protect the zone schools like ours, not motivated by social justice but an attempt at union busting by showing divisions within our schools. we believe that social justice should hire more teachers and paraprofessionals. we reject the imposition of any layoffs to our members throughout the district and demand rescinding of all layoff notice immediately. [cheers and applause] >> and this is for you guys. >> good evening sisters and brothers and the labor union members and citizens who have joined us tonight.

some things cannot be passed over in silence. some things have to be named. and a number of speakers have named them tonight. we heard the name michelle ree and the superintendent said no, what are you talking about? what does michelle ree recommend? she recommends using the fiscal crisis and the rounds of layoffs that are hurting teachers and paraprofessionals and school communities from new york to california and says use this opportunity to bust the unions. and what a shame it is. we have five commissioners who join the rambings of michelle ree and those who want to destroy the public school system in this country. so let's name what has happened

tonight and two weeks ago. well, we don't know what's going to happen tonight. what did the board two weeks ago? they showed disunity and disaffection and created an echo of things we named before. before my time when i was working up at a group home, my brothers and sisters wept on a long bitter strike. that was the same part of the massacre of thousands of teachers as they got laid off, destroying people's careers. there is an echo of the massacres. two weeks ago, you guys joined them. when i started out as a new teacher, we had a new superintendent. he instituted what was then renamed as reconstitution. in a sense, a dominoe effect of your superintendent zone skit is returning us to the years of

those days, it doesn't matter where you place teachers, they are like bank tellers. you have dehow manized teachers like that old criminal superintendent did. and then we had the dream schools. the dream schools which led to a nightmare year after year in this district. dream schools set up special zones for special schools and special money, special working conditions which destroys the young career of teachers. we have been through this before in this district oh too many times. and we have named it before. we named reconstitution, layoffs, dream schools and more dream schools and now we name it the superintendent zone. what you voted two weeks ago to protect 14 schools, at the end of the day, you probably will

not have saved one teacher's job and don't care about paraprofessional. you want to have helped one student? you will disrupt a number of school communities by voting for the unnecessary almost 500 layoffs where you have $78 million in reserve, $56 million is unrestricted which could be used to single every single job for next year. that's what that reserve is for. so some things must be spoken, some things must be named and unfortunately san francisco has joined the michelle ree's, the tea party activists, those folks who blame the teachers what's wrong in public schools. we call it union busting and we call it anything but what san francisco stands for, which is equity and equality for all. i think it's time for us to walk

out and leave the school board to its own design. >> shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! >> please don't leave. >> shame on you! shame on you! >> as you walk out as another teacher is yelling. i work at georges washington carver elementary school -- i'm talking for all of us i'm

hoping. i would like to make the first point that as an educator i would love for everyone to keep their jobs of the it would be the easiest and best thing to do for the district. i would like to thank the five board members that wept out on the limb to affect the status quo because there has been a stat tuesday "for some time. and i hope it brings real change. i hope that everybody in the room can decide to work for me. and i would like to work with you and discuss the issue with you if possible. hope to see you real soon. >> good evening. tough crowd. i'm not talking about that issue. i'm a parent and i'm here because i know you heard other parents talking about the transal -- transitional kindergarten and it is affecting me because of the timing.

and they told us -- basically sent a letter and i got mine last week, all the applications, they're done, they're finished for this year. i don't have a place for my child. offering me two spots in bayview and i live in the haight. during the rush hour, you are adding extra traffic. three perfectly good elementary schools next to me. if there are spots available to place our child in a neighborhood school. it will not cost the board any more money because the spots are are already there and that's what i'm asking because they told us all along that we were going to have transitional kindergarten. i was on tour the week they made their decision, governor brown made the decision, and now as a parent put yourselfs in my

shoes. so i would like to ask the board to please try to find an alternative solution to this transitional kindergarten. this isn't going to work for 240 families affected. if there are any slots open, please let us send our children there. stephanie fong, i'm a born and my son is julian and was born in november of 2007. thank you. >> good evening to all. well -- almost night time. i have five children in your unified school district. and i have a business in the city. single parent. your schools, the teachers, the people who have seniority have really been a help to me and my

family. there are communities and subcommunities and these children look forward to going to school. they are trusting of their instructors and they learn to work with the children and things of that nation. some do come that are new. i have one child that is special. they don't always understand, but there is someone there with seniority who is able to help the new parent or what have you or help that new teacher that comes in. some people may not have children yet that are so gunho about this movement but i would like you to reconsider some of these decisions that you're making. that's all. it's affecting someone like me who has to get their children through the school system and it's not as if i have a lot of money or anything of that nature

and i can imagine them calling me to pick up my three girls and two boys. but these people have learned how to deal with my children and their moods and i have seen them work with other children. i'm done with all that and i'm leaving. i'm a bit shocked and i hope you can come to some kind of agreement that will be helpful to all of us. i'm a little shocked about some of it. so be sure to have a good night. president yee: with what i would like to do, there is one more segment of my meeting and rather than go straight into -- have a five-minute recess and gather the people here. president yee: we are going to

resume our meeting now. we should be able to get through most of this pretty quickly, but item k is appointments to advisory committees. any apointments by board members today? >> i would like to appoint ms. elvia, ebolo and a teacher at best yee carmichael. she speaks several languages and she has taught at english language development as well as in the filipino bilingual program and over 20 years of service.

i would like to apoint her to the bilingual council. president yee: m, discussion of other educational issues. would you like to introduce your crew and also the topic. this is the peer resources in san francisco. ok. >> just to introduce the group, i'm director of peer resources. and this is my group. and we have morgan here. and everybody will introduce themselves later.

somewhere there is a young person thinking of committing suicide. who is this young person going to speak to? most likely it's a friend, another young person. imagine if this young person has the skills to help their friend. way back in 1979, this was the premise that peer resources was founded on. go forward 33 years and here we are today and here we are with young people and students who are skilled who have the learning and experience to listen to and talk to their peers and provide referrals and to provide the information about critical issues that aren't part of the core cor can you lum. we support young people to help themselves and others. i want to thank you for us to speak about where we are today in 2012.

and to thank you, the entire board of your support at peer resources over these 33 years and helping us sustain the program whether we are at 33 middle schools and high schools in the city or where we are at 13 middle schools and high schools in the city. we thank you for your support and funding us through the public education enrichment fund to provide peer tutoring and peer education services. i have spoken with a number of you already and i thank you for your time and i won't go over pieces of the program. you asked us to talk about the impact of the program. everyone who is here today is here to talk about that from their perspective as a student who is in the program now, their perspective as a school ally and alumni of the program. >> i'm a senior at a high school

and i will be attending lincoln university or alabama whichever one i decide to go to. i have been in peer resource program for three years since my ninth grade year. during my sophomore and junior year, i had a lot of problems and was going no where. my father died and that took a big toll on me, which caused me to miss a lot of school during those two years of high school. and a lot of the times, i had teachers that would judge me like, i know you are going to be a dropout or something. and if i didn't have this program, i probably would have been like, oh, you know, like trying to argue with them or cuss temperature out. but since the -- cuss them out.

but since the program, i let them know what was going on with me at the time and have a better understanding of what was going on with me in my life. that's one of the major things that really helped me out in my time of having peer resource classes. so i really thank them for having me part of their program. thank you. [applause] >> good evening, commissioners. thank you so much for this opportunity. i hate speaking after her. and peer resources, you have done it on your own and incredible support for hundreds and hundreds of students at mission school. you want to talk about joyful learning, go into a peer resources class as you did the other day and see the students

learning and how to advocate for themselves and talk about health and learning how to be advocates for their community. there is so much impact that peer resources had at mission high school, from little things like make a friend day, which is an anti-violence day and walk around and trying to get to know other kids or the peer resources where they created plays and stories they presented to the community. at mission, we have the phenomenal mytv program and go to our resource web site and they talk about what is going on in the community and the school. when carlos santana visited, they helped me interview him and help me connect and make the deep connection between his presence and thinking about going to college and success important our students. peer resources is a place where

students find their voice, find their passion and find their vision which helps carry them on in the future and i'm thrilled we have peer resources at mission high school. thank you. >> i'm going to focus on one program of the program and i will stick some amazing data. i'm most proud of our site's commitment to the commitment of discipline practices, of which the peer resources program plays a significant role. so last year we were able to cut our school suspension rate by more than half over the previous two years going from 106 suspensions in 2009-2010 school year to only 45.

and that is a school of over 2000 students. peer resources have been key in these efforts. just this fall semester we had 40-led student remediations and they provide a meaningful consequence that addresses the issues around the conflict. we average about 40 mediations per semester. and you know, it's interesting, students are involved, but parents have been involved and even teachers. we have had mediations between teachers and students at lincoln high school. for me peer resources represents exactly the type of program that our students need to feel that they have a voice that is heard in school and respected and have a positive influence in their school community.