>> well, all right. isn't that exciting? let's give the mayor another round of applause. thank you very much. president yee: good evening. welcome to the regular meeting of the board of education of the san francisco unified school district for april 10, 2012. it is now called to order. roll call, please? [roll call was taken]

president yee: please join me for the pledge of allegiance. [pledge of allegiance] president yee: so, if it's ok with my colleagues on the board, i'd like to move item m today up to -- up to right after g, the

consent calendar. is that ok? that's ok. item a, approval of the board minutes. motion and a second to the regular board meeting minutes of february 28, 2012. >> i move adoption of the minutes. >> second. president yee: any questions? roll call, please. [roll call vote was taken] [motion passed unanimously] president yee: item b, presentation to the board of education superintendent's report. deputy superintendent? >> thank you, president yee, and good evening, everyone. as you can see, i'm not superintendent garcia. the superintendent is unable to make tonight's meeting. his daughter was actually

married this weekend in southern california, so we want to congratulate the father and mother of the bride. [applause] >> but in his absence, he's asked me to provide you with this report. we are extremely proud and honored to announce this evening that nine of our schools were designated as california distinguished schools and we'd like to congratulate all nine of the schools and they are alice fong alternative school, dianne feinstein elementary school, e.r. taylor elementary school, frank mccoppin elementary school, john chin elementary school, lafayette elementary school, new traditions elementary school, shermin elementary school and aowla elementary school. would you give them a round of applause, please? we haven't verified this but we think this is, per capita, probably the greatest number of schools of any city in california and we want to

congratulate not only the principals, but the teacher, the paraprofessionals and absolutely the students and parents at each one of these schools for their extraordinary efforts in achieving this designation. according to the california department of education, the distinguished schools program focuses on california's students and their entitlement to an equitable and rigorous education, which fits squarely with our strategic plan. the program identifies and honors schools that have demonstrated educational excellence for all students and progress in narrowing the achievement gap so on behalf of all of us in the school district, a hearty congratulations to our schools. i'm also very, very happy to announce this evening that you will see later in the agenda an item on 700 font street. and later tonight, we will be bringing to the board for action the sale of 700 font street to san francisco state university, one of our partners in the

community. this sale is possible and this possible sale represents the great opportunity for both our district and san francisco state. as you know, if a property is no longer needed for the advancement of our educational goals for our students, we are committed to pursuing other options. if the sale is, in fact, approved, san francisco state would gain a site for a potential new academic building that is adjacent to and surrounded by their campus on two sides and we would receive fair market value for this property which is $11.1 million. as the proceeds for this sale must be used for facilities-related purposes. and i want to re-emphasize this. it's not like we can use this money for anything. it must be facilities-related purposes. we plan to direct these funds to pay off a long-term debt obligation, similar to a mortgage, for one of our other

properties in the district. by not having to make an annual principal and interest payment on this loan, there will be a direct savings to the district of $850,000 a year for the next 16 years and for those of you doing quick arithmetic, that's a total savings to the district of over $13 million. that represents money we can use in our general fund. so we're very excited about this. we also would like to remind all of our parents and students in our community that we've come to that time of the year in the school year where the students take the annual california stand tests, the c.s.t.'s, the tests of mastery of california content standards. to our families, we ask you make sure your child is well rested, eats a healthy breakfast and is ready to come to school to do their best. we are proud of what they've learned throughout the school year and we want them to be ready to come to school and

tackle the test with confidence and energy. on a personal note, i will share that i've been traveling to and visiting schools this week and have been amazed at how confident our students and our faculty members feel given the results of their common learning assessments, many teachers were so confident that their students are going to do well this year because they've been able to track their progress all year long. so we wish them all good luck but they're not going to need the luck because they'll do very, very well. with, that president yee, that's the superintendent's report. president yee: thank you, deputy superintendent. item c, recognitions and resolutions of commendation. there are none tonight. item d, student delegates' report, joyce zhang and carissa tom. >> so we are going to go back. recently, we had our youth summit on thursday, march 22. it was a huge success and we

would like to thank president yee for making the opening remarks and commissioners fewer and murase for leading a workshop. we really appreciate it. overall, the day was really successful. we had over 200 participants from 11 different schools, with great student performances from jazz band, lowell dance company and marshall's lion dancers. we are also focused on internships and opportunities. the s.s.c. is doing outreach at schools and on facebook and twitter. so you can like our facebook, which is sfusd-student-advisory-council, or follow us on twitter @sfusd. or on our blog so we're very social mediawe are social media. [laughter]

>> they continue to sapele -- support the free muni for youth campaign. we testified on behalf of the sec. unfortunately, no decision had been made that evening, but the final vote will be held on april 17 at 1:00 p.m.. the next board of education meeting, we are looking forward to reading the bathroom access policy and the youth vote ballots have been collected. we might know who the next representatives and the student delegates are as early as next week. >> thank you, student delegates. let's move to the next item, the parent advisory council report.

>> hello, my name is randy martin, i am representative from the parent advisory council. we continue to have community conversations around restorative practices. since we talked to you about that recently and frequently, i will talk about some of the things we have been doing our around and after-school time. this is an issue that they have been involved with for many years, we know it is important to families in the district have access to quality after-school programs. we heard from hundreds of parents over the years getting access to quality programs that meet the needs of their children. we have been pleased that we have had the opportunity to work

with the district staff and representatives from the department of children, youth, and families to help align and the after-school programs that are run by the district. the district manages to programs, the early education program is primarily served hot with elementary school-age the children. we have been working in these meetings to form joint vision and goals for how to live his programs and how to create an action plan for a pilot program starting next year. but also helped to develop a streamlined performances and we were able to discuss challenges with the alignment of these programs. the goals that we came up with work to increase capacity so we can serve more students in these programs.

to create systems for accountability. we also discussed the goal of maximizing funding so that the program can be sustainable in the long run. the hope is to have a pilot for the 2012-2013 school year with a small cohort of schools that have voluntarily agreed to be part of the program. all of these schools are ones that had early education as well as itself. we are looking forward to seeing the results, and hopefully that will inform future actions. the rule in is going forward is to develop a communication plan and to communicate this as well as after-school providers and families in the larger community. we met with the district staff,

we discussed how to get information to the people that media -- need it. it is good to be in the district planning phase, and we feel like we have been really welcome. and the opinions have been valued and we appreciate that. we have also been participating after school for all advisory councils. i am actually the person that sits on that committee. it is a form of collaboration between the city in the district. and i tried to bring parents perspective and work on a specific programs.

i also want to talk about one specific event that the after- school council was going to be participating in on april 17. with state superintendent of public instruction. so we will be attending that with the after-school for all council. the superintendent as well as the mayor will be attending. and the final phase of wanted to know it is that we are recruiting parents right now for open seats starting next august. we anticipate having about nine seats open for next year, and any parent or guardian for the unified students during the next two years is eligible to apply. members don't have to be fluent in english and we welcome parents with all different

levels of experience and education policy. and also at the district office of community engagement. applications are due may 4. and if you have specific individuals that you think should apply. >> thank you, ms. martin. >> i want to thank her for her report, i always look forward to hearing from them. we have a list of, enters from very active family members, we hope everyone will consider applying for this great experience to help improve our public schools and bring families and of the conversation. -- into the conversation.

>> are liaison members helping recruit pac members? >> yes. >> are they also doing parents of pre-shoolers? >> i am not sure, but i will follow up on that. >> she can probably follow up on that. >> thank you for your report. i will suggest that maybe the next board meeting, we have applications out on the front since we anticipate a lot of parents coming in the next couple of meetings. would you mind, and all three languages that you have is available in?

dr. wheaton family is coming through continuously throughout the week. >> i believe they are available at the austin -- office of family engagement. >> i will make a note of that and follow up with people that can provide health. -- help. >> ok. item f. public comment on consent items. there are no speaker cards tonight on this. item g, consent calendar. >> i move the consent calendar. >> any items withdrawn are corrected by the superintendent? >> on page 14141, items -- we

would like to withdraw that item. k19. >> any items removed for first reading by the board? any items severed by the board or superintendent for discussion for a vote tonight? ok, let's move on to item -- as i mentioned earlier, i want to move to item m to this spot. this would be discussion of other educational issues. i want a commissioner to introduce the urban debate league. >> it is my great pleasure to

welcome members of the urban debate league. i was invited to observe some of their semifinal tournaments'. i was impressed and amazed at how articulate the students were. and to engage in a policy discussion it was a very intimidating environment, but they really held their own. hi wanted to have them come to the board had and be able to show some of their stuff. >> i am the executive director of the urban debate lee.

i saw some amazing transformations, particularly those at the school i have been taught at. traditional models have not work for them. a lot of times, it is easy to get tough on the students, but it is a way to channel everybody's love of expressing themselves in a way that gets them to achieve the kind of results that the board member murase was talking about. also in terms of academic research. let me tell you there is a reason we get the kind of test scores that we do. i want to thank you again,

coming into the fourth year of the program, we are at 12 schools in the day for san francisco, looking to expand the next year. not only some of the members of his board here, but some people in an academic and professional development. the last shanghai is going to say -- and the last thing i was going to say is that we are not an after-school program. we have an a to g approved course, and foundations to curriculum course over the summer. and does energize young people that are not motivated in

traditional classrooms. we asked for your support as we try to deepen the impact. thank you very much. >> hello, esteemed members of the board. i am the coach of balboa high school and i want to talk a little more about the experience, the seventh -- they can participate in policy debate and make up english creditors. they can target kids not being served by the present system. i will be dwelling on the successes of the program and my esteemed colleague that co- teaches with me. some of the things we can use in terms of support, we have about eight kids in these after- school programs with a semester each. we get to a makeup course, is a

master credit in english. 8 to 10 people are coming, and we have some of the most at risk students, we have been able to retain them each of the last two semesters with no real leverage. it is the activity that speaks for itself. it is one of little more prone to listen to what they have to say. a lot of these kids in the best case scenarios see themselves as debaters. the two-person team nature of the policy debate keeps them accountable. it is the nature of the debate. it is looking very closely at

the specific policy when they face. and we think it might be exported to other schools if you want to explore the possibility as a way to make up the english credits. it is extremely challenging. we have seen the debate there for about 10 years. we would like to institutionalize it more into the regular school day of balboa. i would like to introduce my colleague.

>> i am a former student of balboa high school and i am currently co-teaching the debate class. the high was involved in the first in section of the urban the vaguely and went to college. i really believe in the transformative power of this activity. i will focus my speech on the challenges that we run off against in deploying this pilot program. we have had the pilot program up and running. the program has had several instances of success. the first challenge is attendance. there have been an average of the students that regularly show up to class. this has been one aspect that we

have struggled the most with a sense of the students we work with have already had truancy problems. they have already dropped out of school and, in some other form, given up in the educational system. that is an issue we have run up against. the students that participate in the program have clearly benefited from it. the amount of time we get with them is a total of just three hours a week, not out enough to make up for the ground lost over the course of the year. we believe that it would be a benefit to the students if they were given more time during the week, especially if the class is truly to live up to its name.

the third thing is the fact that the class is only offered after school. as they already mentioned, we are in the process of developing a curriculum to incorporate the debates in to the day. again, this is an issue of timing and accountability. we have found that students are already, for the most part, tired and hungry. we try to offer snacks, but you can only gain some much ground with that. and this makes more of a challenge to get their attention for a longer time, and it would be during regular school hours. as far as accountability goes, the ability to assign homework and increase the intensity of the workload is severely limited, that the students will

lose interest. if we were to schedule into the regular day, and we have that kind of leverage where the grade is dependent on a, the alternative his home in no more. we would have the leverage that rating gives you. it is along the lines of special needs students. we had an english and the nurse students. no other reason than for the quality of the program, and opened up the possibility of the debate becoming a tool for

english learners, especially because it puts them on the spot of public speaking and increases their readability greatly. it is clear from this list of things that while the program has shown great potential for success, this can be tested by the and administrative staff, it made a lot more work and resources in the future. and with the help of the lead in the school's administrative staff, the center are round of the full and corp. of the program into the regular schedule. hopefully their freshman year.