something that agrees with us or does not. we need to hear it all. thank you very much. supervisor campos: thank you, commissioner. supervisor olague: i would like to move to continue this to the call of the chair. supervisor campos: we have a motion, seconded by president chiu. before we vote on that, let me simply say that i want to think the parents who are here. we will bring this item back to the next meeting, so we can get an update from the school district. i think all of us here the frustration. i have to make sure we recognize the challenges for the school district. i do not know how i would advise a client, given the nature of the target at the state level. i think the district is doing a fine job, given the challenges

we are facing. president chiu: a quick question to the school district. i was wondering. another is a question of legal advice from the district council. i wonder if we could understand that a little bit better. could we get some information? supervisor campos: we saw the deputy superintendent, who said yes. supervisor olague: since will be calling this item back, and wondered if we could have some discussion of geographic consideration our preference for students with siblings at a nearby school, that sort of thing, if that could be addressed next time. supervisor campos: ok. if we can take that without objection. thank you very much. we will revisit this item at the

next meeting. madam secretary, if you can call item number two. >> thank you, supervisors. this is a hearing on the fiscal year 12-13 budget. supervisor campos: thank you. i know we are short on time and may lose a quorum. i would like to think the deputy superintendent, who is here to present on this item. i want to thank mr. li for being here. i also want to note that at the last board of supervisors' meeting there was a hearing request by supervisor eric mar on the issue of what happens if the city receives additional and expected revenue. is there any possibility that more money could be designated for the san francisco unified school district?

i think it is important to have an understanding of what the budget looks like, if we are going to have that discussion, to schedule for the next select committee meeting. welcome to our deputy superintendent, mr. lee. >> good afternoon, supervisors and commissioners. it is always a pleasure to come and speak to the committee. it has been a while since i have been here. i was in your main chamber two days ago. that was a nice vacation, for recognition to the redistricting task force. that was everybody saying nice things. it took 10 minutes. if you want to do that again today, that would be great. supervisor campos: it proves you do not sleep. that was a lot of work. and having to deal with this issue is a lot of work as well. we appreciate the work. >> thank you. i know there is a time limitation.

i will try to go quickly, if it would be your pleasure to bring this back to the next meeting. i would be happy to come back. this is our budget director at the school district. she really does all this work. we tag team on making these types of presentations. supervisor campos: thank you for being here. >> this presentation is about a dozen slides. i can go through it fairly quickly, and maybe give all the committee members a chance to mull it over before the next hearing. the first slide is about the budget proposal. i know many of you are probably familiar, in a general way, about the state of the california budget situation. to go through this quickly, there is an estimated $16 billion shortfall. the state is wrestling with this.

that has grown since january by about $5 billion. that reflects lower revenue collection than had been forecast initially. a couple of decisions by the federal government, the administration, or courts blocked some cuts that were imposed or inactive by the state. that mostly has to do with social services. those factors together have cost the state budget gap to grow to $16 billion. but the governor has proposed is billions of dollars in spending cuts, mostly outside of k-12 education. however, i want to note that that reflects that k-12 has taken a disproportionate share of cuts over the past five to six years. that was an acknowledgement on the part of the governor.

in context, it is important to know that is trying to recognize the deeper cuts that have been borne by public schools. there is an important tax measure on the november ballot, going through the process of validating signatures which have been collected and submitted. that would increase taxes -- the income tax and the sales tax together. the estimate is an $8.50 billion increase in revenues. we have put in a few specifics about the forms of those increases it would affect individuals with more than $250,000 worth of income. there is a graduated scale for those increases. the maximum increase would be up to a 3% increase in the maximum marginal tax rate for the state

at the highest marginal level. that kicks in over a million dollars. sales tax would be increased by 0.25%. that is a quarter of a penny on sales tax. those taxes together would be in place temporarily. the income tax would be, in effect, for seven years. the sales tax would be another four years, through 2016. in terms of the education budget, the proposed budget would hold general purpose funding, which we refer to as the revenue limit, for schools flat, but only if approved by voters. a couple of notes about that. although the proposal maintains flat funding from a 11-12, it also includes no funding for

statutory cost-of-living adjustment. that is established in state law. there is a statutory basis. it is meant to be funded on the revenue. but it has not been funded. it has become the norm to not fund in this regard. it is becoming less and less meaningful. over time, the effect is the deficit factor, which represents the amount of each dollar of revenue limit that school districts should receive, how much the school districts are not receiving. that is up to 22%, many schools only receive 78 cents of each dollar they are supposed to receive. in our district, that means another $8 million for our district each year. all that being said, if the tax initiative passes, are projected

deficit grows under the governor's proposal. and if the taxes are not approved, the funding would be significantly reduced. it is not understood to be a measure that really is saving schools. it is problematic even in the best case. in the worst case, it is very scary. this chart is a historical chart of failure to fund. this is what has happened since 2007-2008 for the base revenue limit, the primary source of funding for the school district. if you look at 2007-2008, are district received $5,776 per unit of average daily attendance, which is a representation of each student in our district. the blue line, the top line,

represents if the statutory cost-of-living adjustment had been funded each year, as it should have been, and as we hope it will be funded in the future. we would have seen increases in per student funding each year by 2012 through 2013. what has happened is the orange line. not even maintaining the level that was founded in 2007-2008. we have seen decreases, in some cases significant decreases. it has gone from the level of 2008 down to as low as 59 $45. -- as $5 nine four five.

-- as $5,945. if the taxes do not pass, we would see a decrease down to $4,764. it is a 1900 dollar difference for every student in what we should be receiving and what we stand to receive if the taxes do not pass. when you add all the differentials upper for the size of our district, we are looking at underfunding, even if the tax is passed, by $77 million each year. if the taxes do not pass, we

would be looking at underfunding of $100 million each year. it is a very significant proportion of the funding. before this started to happen, the school districts would rely on it. it is a cumulative effect, not something that is isolated. it has been happening over time. our schools have been doing their best. the district has been doing its best. supervisor campos: we were commenting this is not upside down. this is the actual. >> many things are upside down, but the chart is hopefully right side up. this chart, just to infuriate you more, is a historical chart that shows the difference between california's per student funding and the national average

in the rest of the country. if you look toward the left of this chart, in the late 60's, early 1970's, the state of california was close. in some years, less or more than the national average. that was true until the early 1980's. you can see the effects of proposition 13 and other challenges to the state budget, and how that has manifested in funding for schools. very significant gaps between california funding and the rest of the country. more recently, that has gotten even worse than it has at any time in the last 40 years. in the most recent year for which data is available, there was a -$2,856 per student.

california funded each student less than the rest of the country. this is probably better than what we have seen since then, looking ahead. it is for the disgraceful, if you look at it. it is very unfortunate. supervisor campos: we are going to have a meeting starting in just a few minutes. i wonder if you do not mind wrapping up some points, with the understanding that we will come back to this item at the next meeting. >> certainly. i will point to the information on these slides, and not comment at length about them. this is our three year projection. i know the city and county is doing bucketing two years at a time.

we have structural deficit as a result of the underfunding for the state. we are looking at an $83 million shortfall in our baseline projections if the tax is passed. on page 8 is a depiction of what happens if the taxes do not pass. the number goes up to a $119 million shortfall. page nine shows some positive signs. there are some things that we do recognize that we have to be thankful for. there are protective steps we are taking in the district to try to improve the picture in creative ways. we definitely do not take for granted all of the support that is available through voter approved measures in san francisco, such as sales tax increases. that does flow to schools.

there is foundation support. there is the rainy day reserve. that is subject to appropriation by the mayor and the board of supervisors. we are counting on that money, $6.30 million for next year. we have gone out on a bit of a limb by rescinding, today, about 98, counting on those funds to be a protracted next year. on page 10 is a little analysis of a doomsday scenario. if those taxes do not pass, we face a very significant reduction, $23 million. right now, there are almost 20% of the school districts in the state that are in financial jeopardy. that is higher than it has ever been. we are not going that route now. we do not want to be in that

group. there are severe consequences of joining that group. we are doing everything we can to stay physically solvent. these are reductions the district will need to make in the future. this is just an articulation. i know some of the questions we have received that you were trying to explore with us are around how we are making these decisions and the principles guiding our priorities. these are some of the guiding principles. supervisor campos: deputy superintendent lee, think you very much. that is a lot of information we will need to digest. i hope next time we will have more parents here. to the extent that parents care about these other issues, it is directly connected to what is happening with the budget in

sacramento. i think it is very apropos that we will be talking about the request with supervisor mar. how can we, as a city, step in and help? any questions for a deputy superintendent? great job, as always. commissioner mendoza? commissioner mendoza: our next -- we are going to have a committee as a whole. we will have a bunch of discussion next month. perhaps we can report back to select on where the challenges continue to live, and the plans for the school district, in terms of approval and what have you. does that sound like the right thing to do? >> that sounds pretty good. i am not sure when the committee is going to meet next, but that sounds about right.

commissioner mendoza: we are combining our budget committee for that. after june 19, we can report back to the select committee. supervisor campos: thank you. any member of the public would like to speak on this item, please come forward. >> it is a pleasure for me to come to this committee meeting. i came here to celebrate espinola jackson. i watched the proceedings at home. they are very long, back and forth. it is always speaking the horse dead, reviving it, beating in baghdad, reviving it. we have 10,000 youth that are traumatized daily.

there is a-vibration floating around. we cannot allow that to go on and on. every year, the school comes. tom amiano was a teacher. he created a rainy day fund. a lot of folks on this board are profiting from his vision, his legacy. 35 teachers cost $80,000. they give than the pink slip. it is very traumatic. i do not know. maybe the supervisors will have a heart. we need to work with a private industry. 80 billionaires' floating around san francisco -- if they cannot give a little bit -- i am not saying charter schools. we need to revamp the san

francisco unified school district. i was listening. the gentleman could have gone another two years, giving you all the statistics. we need to address this. i know i have passed my two minutes. the thing is not working. it is not my intention. supervisor campos: thank you. is there another member of the public would like to speak? can we have a motion to continue this item? a motion by president chiu, seconded by commissioner maufas. we have a very important meeting that is going to follow us. it is important we get out of here on time. the human rights commission will be honoring some pretty amazing individuals, including a very special and amazing as pamela -- espinola jackson, who will be honored as a human rights hero

for 2012, which is well deserved. we take that motion to continue to the call of the chair, without objection. >> is there a recommendation? supervisor campos: if we could file that item, unless you want to bring it back, commissioner maufas. a motion to file. if we could take that without objection. thank you to all the parents and members of the public. thank you to commissioners and supervisors. do we have any other business before this joint committee? thank you. the meeting is adjourned.

>> i love teaching. it is such an exhilarating experience when people began to feel their own creativity. >> this really is a place where all people can come and take a class and fill part of the community. this is very enriching as an artist. a lot of folks take these classes and take their digital imagery and turn it into negatives. >> there are not many black and white darkrooms available

anymore. that is a really big draw. >> this is a signature piece. this is the bill largest darkroom in the u.s.. >> there are a lot of people that want to get into that dark room. >> i think it is the heart of this place. you feel it when you come in. >> the people who just started taking pictures, so this is really an intersection for many generations of photographers and this is a great place to learn because if you need people from different areas and also everyone who works here is working in photography.

>> we get to build the community here. this is different. first of all, this is a great location. it is in a less-populated area. >> of lot of people come here just so that they can participate in this program. it is a great opportunity for people who have a little bit of photographic experience. the people have a lot, they can really come together and share a love and a passion. >> we offer everything from traditional black and white darkrooms to learning how to

process your first roll of film. we offer classes and workshops in digital camera, digital printing. we offer classes basically in the shooting, ton the town at night, treasure island. there is a way for the programs exploring everyone who would like to spend the day on this program. >> hello, my name is jennifer. >> my name is simone. we are going on a field trip to take pictures up the hill. >> c'mon, c'mon, c'mon.

>> actually, i have been here a lot. i have never looked closely enough to see everything. now, i get to take pictures. >> we want to try to get them to be more creative with it. we let them to be free with them but at the same time, we give them a little bit of direction. >> you can focus in here. >> that was cool. >> if you see that? >> behind the city, behind the houses, behind those hills. the see any more hills? >> these kids are wonderful. they get to explore, they get to see different things. >> we let them explore a little

bit. they get their best. if their parents ever ask, we can learn -- they can say that they learned about the depth of field or the rule of thirds or that the shadows can give a good contrast. some of the things they come up with are fantastic. that is what we're trying to encourage. these kids can bring up the creativity and also the love for photography. >> a lot of people come into my classes and they don't feel like they really are creative and through the process of working and showing them and giving them some tips and ideas. >> this is kind of the best kept secret. yoou