my family is so proud. through kipp, i learned how to take it to the next step. students need more to make the success in the educational world. i am now a scholar. i never thought that would happen. i am so proud to say i am part of kipp, and now interning for kipp. they're teaching me how to work in this world. i could not be more proud of myself and the people i work with. please support this high school. president yee: think you. i think we will end it there.

thank you very much. are there any comments from the board? commissioner murase: i had a chance to review all the materials. i know it has gone to several committees. i know the folks were very responsible to some of the concerns expressed in committee, including 2008 retention issues. they focused on it like a laser beam and were able to increase it from 86% to 92%. i feel like there is quite a responsiveness on the part of the administrators. i had the opportunity to visit.

what i saw was really engage students. there was not a single kid in the corner sleeping are doing other things. really excited about learning. i will be supporting this application. i think one of the lessons from this charterers "is that it in georgia a lot of community support and generosity of our community. it tells us what it really costs to educate a young person, which is wholly inadequate, the funding we are giving from the state. commissioner mendoza: i want to thank everybody that came out, particularly the students. it is always good for us to hear what your experience has been. as a bayview resident, is also really important for us to see the work being done in our communities.

i really want to thank kipp for staying in our communities. often, schools do not do that. you have been consistent in promoting our low income communities and communities of color. that has been an important value that many of us hold. i have always been really impressed with the work that our kipp schools in san francisco have done. you have always been very respectful with your relationship with san francisco unified school district. your middle schools have performed quite well. i am really happy to see you are the second highest performing little school in our district. both of your schools are california distinguished schools, which is something we always honored in any of our schools that are in our district.

i also wanted to know that i will be supporting this application. i think a lot of the work we have done, the deep conversations around equity, have to do with continuity. our students may come from challenging communities or are in homes with single parents. they come into these communities, and they go back out. you either sink or you swim when you come from a kipp school,

because the same support is not there in a larger comprehensive high school. i am not saying you cannot go to a comprehensive high school, but knowing that there is a similar continuous place that will provide the same kind of care and continuity for our students is really important. my current in turn is say kipp-- is a kipp student, now at mission high school. i was asking him last week the best part of being in kipp a cademy. he is extremely outgoing and very touchy. often, i have to ask him to let me do my work. but he wants to know what i am up to. he is always asking me lots of

questions. i think that is a foundation that kipp builds for him. he is at mission high school, doing wonderfully. what he misses is the big difference, and a lot of attention and being in a much more -- i do not want to call it a disciplined environment, but it is a different kind of care that happens, which i would like to see go forward, not only in your academy, but for kids coming from other schools. i just want to thank you for all the work you have put into this. for me, the part that is really important is that you continue to serve our community, that you stick to the commitment you have made over the last several years, which i think you have honored wonderfully. and that we continue a strong and respect for relationship over the coming years.

i look forward to visiting a high school. you absolutely have my support on this. thank you. [applause] vice president norton: this has been hard for me, mainly because, at least in the short term, i know we are looking at an overall demographic decline in the number of high school students in san francisco. that is going to create more competition for all high schools for students. i am very worried that a new kipp high school is going to have a detrimental effect on schools like thurgood marshall, that are working really hard to offer a robust and engaging program to our students. they really need to keep enrollment in order to do that. at the same time, i have come

down on the side of supporting the petition, mainly because i do not think that fear of competition is really the reason to turn down a petition. it clearly has committed to support. kipp is an institution that clearly has a lot of support. it does great things. i have visited and unimpressed. i appreciated the team being very open to listening to some of the concerns i raised about the petition and the moment concerns. i know they do not actually worry as much. i think they made a case that there will not be this kind of competition for students that i am concerned about. i hope there is room enough and options enough for everybody. at the end of the day, there was not a reason to vote against the petition. the school is clearly working

for a lot of kids. the icing on the cake was meeting ashley, who is going to graduate from my alma mater in three years. class of 1998, class of 2015. that was special for me. i am happy to support the petition. commissioner wynns: i will not be supporting this chart to this evening. i have to say that i am disappointed in the recommendation from the staff, because it does not have any analysis of the high school enrollment projections. a few years ago, in another high school charger -- san francisco has a disproportionate number of high-school charters, compared to any other district in the country. we have had, i think, predatory

high school development. our high schools have been doing quite well, particularly on a completely un-level playing field. a couple of times ago, when a high-school charterer came in front of us, i propose an amendment, saying that if the board voted to approve this charter, they would vote to close a comprehensive high school. as the school was built up, we knew the in a moment would go down. we ought to say that if you are for this, you are for closing commission or thurgood marshall, because that is the effect. the playing field is not level, particularly in what has been characterized by many as the corporate reform agenda, which i agree with. frankly, if all the donors to kipp would show me that they

were giving at least the same amount of money either to publicly manage schools or to campaign for taxes to raise money for public education, i might be open to the idea that this is not a predatory movement. since kipp in particular is absolutely at the core of the billionaire boys club, and people whose purpose is to undermine democratic governance and public education, and to say that we should recognize that their philosophy is we should not have educators from in our school district -- what you want in education is not to leave it to the educators. i cannot do it, frankly. while i have said this before,

the law says that given certain conditions, one of which is that it is not likely to succeed, and i think the democratic projections are long in that category in san francisco -- the board must group with a certain conditions met. the state law has no authority to compel an individual board member to cast a vote in any way. the board obligation does not force me to vote against my conscience, to vote for something which will demonstrably her high schools that are publicly and democrats to the government and managed in san francisco. i do have some concerns besides the political and philosophical ones i mentioned. i appreciate the study that we got. i think still the the enrollment practices and retention, particularly of

african american males, is something that should be honestly and candidly discussed. i know that one of the issues is that students who apply to kipp are not -- the school does not follow our practice of placing our students in the grade they would be in if they were in a publicly-managed school. many students coming in, who would be fifth graders or sixth graders, are put in a lower grade. i think that is a question will practice, and one whose efficacy and effectiveness i would like us to discuss. these are the kinds of things we never discussed, because structure proposals are entirely political, in my view. i will not be supporting this this evening. i urge my colleagues to reconsider.

there is one other thing i want to say. i appreciate that all of you are here. i know people do not have an obligation to have a broader point of view about the impact on the community. they support the charter school they like, without thinking for a moment about the implications for democracy, or any of those things. however, i also -- excuse me. i also have an issue, because we received the letters of support for this proposal, some of which came from people whose stated support to me would seem entirely inappropriate. that is, they play roles related to the school district or the political environment and community in san francisco. their public support for privatizing in school, or opening yet another privately managed school, puts into

question their ability to objectively play their roles that are supposedly in support of the school district. that is a specific concern that i just wanted to put on the record. thank you. commissioner fewer: i met with the kipp folks. i know a lot of parents stayed the entire time. some of them have left. my own mentee, left kipp. i sort of pushed back with the folks that i met with, and talk a little bit about that, and about discipline policies at kipp. there are certain things about kipp i do not fully agree with.

but there are things in our public schools i do not wholly agree with either. there are things we do in our own public schools that actually work against the students that kipp service, against them getting an equitable education. i also spoke to some parents who, quite frankly, when their kids work at middle school -- it was that excels your middle school. -- excelsior middle school. he lost almost a whole year of

construction. i think we will admit it was the very unorganized year. we opened it, i think, with excelsior middle school. the child was really far behind. i spoke to the mom. we wanted to look at kipp. her son repeated a grade, but is on track to graduate. this was a single mom with four kids. she had seen older ones lost to violence and drugs. i have to say this way is my opinion, -- sways my opinion.

this is the only charterer i can vote yes on during my term as a board member. i am waiting it with the fact that yes, we would be losing and high school population, but i also wait it against the fact that we lose hundreds of african american students in high school. we lose a lot of them. we lose a lot of latino students. we lose a lot of pacific islander students. kipp has a track record of success with those students that we have not been able to capture. are they governed by different policies? absolutely. are they small? yes. all of those things. are they funded? quite frankly, they are doing it.

i have said, to even many of my good friends, who are raising african-american children, why don't you look at kipp? there has to be a viable option for these young students. i believe it is aligned with their strategic plan. i do not see charter schools as not public-school spirit i see them as serving the public. i am supporting the charter. i also feel that maybe we can learn a couple of things about what they are doing. as i said before, i think there are a lot of things we do not do right in this district. a lot of things are broken in this district. there has to be an option for these students to be successful and go to college. there has to be more options for them. i hope you can do it.

kipp high school, i hope you can do it. [applause] commissioner maufas: i will be really brief. i understand a lot of commissioner wynn's' concerns. i have them as well. i do not see this as a competition. we are struggling to get kids off our streets. i see you guys managing to do that. i do not see you competing for the same students. that is what i am banking on you doing. i know you are going to do that and follow up. i hope your school is full of

kids that would normally not be in school. that is what i am hoping for. i know many folks that have been -- families that have gone through the kipp academies. they are not saying it is easy. they never said it was easy, but they are in. believe me. we tussle over that quite a bit. why couldn't you be in one of our other schools? kipp is the place my school -- my kid is going to be successful. we need to learn better how to wraparound a family. but if you are going to do it, please look at those kids. president yee: thank you, commissioners. i also feel some of the things

that commissioner wynns has said. i share some of those concerns and values. it would be nice if we could, in the public schools, be able to capture as much resources per child as some other entity. indeed, it either way you looked at it, we will do some -- i do not want to say damage. but some impact, in terms of how many kids will have in the public schools we are running for high school. those are the things. people have already mentioned that that is the case. but also, we have seen kids'

track record, in terms of being successful. when i way out the tension between them, i come down to the side of -- if i really want and care about our kids, this is not the place, to provide public funding for kipp. you are supporting an entity. hopefully, some of the donors will hear this and say that these kids in san francisco are here, and all the kids deserve the help that any particular kids get from our charter. in the past, i have never been

on the side of voting for a charter that has impact to our regular system. but in this case, there are positive step will outweigh that particular negative. i will be supporting the kipp charter. roll call, please. >> just for clarification, that this resolution and 125-8sp2. >> it is sp1. >> no, it's sp2, as reported on the agenda. it is on page one. if it says sp1, that is

incorrect. is s-- it is sp2. president yee: ok. let's make a correction. >> miss zhang? joyce zhang: yes. commissioner fewer: yes. commissioner maufas: yes. commissioner wynns: no. >> six ayes. [applause] president yee: now that he

successfully have gained a charter, we are going to have to continue the meeting. if you like, you can stay for the whole meeting. but if you would like to leave, please leave quietly, so we can proceed. this is still a long meeting. the next item will be 126-12 f p one, adoption of the fiscal year 2012/2013 budget. >> give them a couple of minutes. president yee: no. nobody has to hear.

ok. i guess we can proceed, now that they are leaving so quietly and not having a discussion. thank you very much. this item has already been moved and seconded on june 12. the budget was discussed at length at the board, by the board, by last week's special meeting. it is now before us for action. before us is the

superintendent's representative. it is the deputy superintendent. >> thank you, superintendent. this is the adoption of fiscal year 2012/2013 recommended budget. should i read this whole thing? i will read selects choices. the recommended budget for the school district and the san francisco county office of education be submitted for first reading as the budget for fiscal year 2012-2013 and replaced in the official files for the secretary of the board of education. the superintendent is authorized to make any transfers necessary to correct erroneous account specifications or to affect the changes in accounts made necessary by the method of expenditures. i will leave it there.

as president yee pointed out, this has been discussed. this will be the third time. it was introduced for first reading to weeks ago on june 12 and -- two weeks ago on june 12 and the board held a fairly detailed discussion about the recommended budget last tuesday evening, june 19. my comments tonight are going to be fairly brief but i do want to share some important information about our staff's work since that meeting last tuesday and one or two developments about the state budget. >> are the differences