as commissioner mendoza said with their host families in bangladesh and will meet nobel laureate mohammed hamas. among many other interesting things. i will let them speak a little bit about their excitement about this program. >> hi, i just would really like to thank world savvy for this wonderful opportunity. i know i will learn so much not just from my host family, but from kids in a different country, which is just so amazing. not only a different country, but across the country and across the bay. so thank you. >> good evening, folks. thanks for having us here. we're just honored to carry on the great work that san francisco is doing into another part of the world. san francisco has been a leader

in sustainability here in the u.s., and we're going to go and carry on the wonderful work our community, as well as our educators and leaders have been doing. so thank you for the honor. thank you for recognizing us. thank you world savvy and we appreciate and we're honored and thankful. thanks again. >> and just in closing i wanted to give my heartfelt thanks to commissioner mendoza for the commendation, but for the many years of championing the work that world savvy does in the district. thank you. [ applause ]

>> okay. thank you commissioner mendoza. our left commendation is in recognition of lowell high school for attending the national blue-ribbon school recipient award.

superintendent carranza, would you make the presentation? >> thank you, president yee and we would like to recognize lowell high school as a national blue-ribbon school for 2012. and here this evening is the principal, the remarkable, dynamic, super principal of lowell high school, mr. andy ishibashi. andy would you come forward and accept this certificate of recognition, please? [ applause ] also joining us is the science department chair and the lead author of the report that led to the blue-ribbon designation.

so congratulations as well. [ applause ] >> go cardinals. >> do you want to say a few words? >> sure. i would like to thank the board of education, richard and all the outstanding student superintendent and staff and pta and i would like to give a shout out to dakota and jim and allison. thank you very much. [ applause ]

>> i wanted to wait for all commendations to take place so that i don't take away from this, but what i would like to do is have some privilege here and maybe make last comments for my last general session after eight years of serving on the school board. i have to say it's been a real privilege to have been here for eight years in this capacity and working with everybody in the school community. i think we have done a lot in eight years. we have accomplished a lot. we have steadily gone uphill in regards to student outcomes. people are beginning to trust us a lot more now in regards to the public in terms of sending their kids to the public schools. we have reversed that trend three years ago, even though we have done that for three years,

the general public still does not really know that yet. and i constantly have to remind them that this is what has happened. and this was even happening before the economic downturn. so it wasn't about the fact that people didn't have any money to go to private school. they were already choosing our public schools. so we have a report every meeting to talk about the positive things in the school district. and so i won't go on and on and on. for me, all of these things are really important to me. this is why i entered the school board eight years ago. this is why i entered education when i was 20 years old. so some of the things that i felt very good about and very positive about and probably have some direct impact were around three issues. one of them being the fact that we recognize this district not just a k-12, but pre-k-12 and

there is a continuity and we're all building to that goal. we need to recognize that and take advantage of those situations. i am also proud to have been involved with increasing the awareness and importance of parent engagement, and even though we have a long, long ways to get to the point where i felt that we could get to, we're moving in the right direction in terms of engaging all parents from diverse backgrounds, not just one set of parents. and the other thing that i feel good about personally about is the whole issue on the chronic absenteeism. it took me several years to convince people, in particular in the school district that this is an issue worth paying attention to. if kids don't come to school, and there were a lot of kids

that weren't coming to school and i am not talking about high schoolers, but i'm talking about elementary kids and if they don't come to school they are not going to learn. it's a simple fact and if you look at the correlation of those who weren't coming to school and who wasn't learning theres with a straight 1:1 correlation. when we focused on it last year, we captured 50,000 more school days for kids coming to school. so that is not peanuts to me and on top of, that we get more money. i think all of these things didn't happen by themselves, in isolation. i want to thank the parents, all the parents involved individually. but in particular the parent groups whether it's the pac, our own pac or advocates, parents who contribute and challenged the school board was

really important for us to be able to step up and say yes, we are hearing certain things and we want to respond to. it so thank you parents. students, again, these accomplishments wouldn't have happened without the students also caring and wanting to improve themselves. and we're just so fortunate to have these 55,000, 56,000 students ready and eager to learn and hopefully we'll present them the opportunity to learn. again, i have had the opportunity for eight years to really see the faces of the brightest and best and the leadership of our students, the people that students who sit on our board of student delegates, including windy and megan. i have seen some remarkable students come through here as student delegates and if i had

more time i would rattle their names off as accomplishments and the student advisory council has grown from struggling eight years ago to a very remarkable group, who is always coming up with new ideas as a group. thank you to all the students an to the teachers and support staff the without them, the student accomplishments would not have happened. all of these groups contribute to the welfare of our educators. these same groups support teachers to promote themselves or to move to another position as administrators, encouraging them. the best administrators in my mind in the districts are former teachers. and without that, we wouldn't

have a core of people that understand what happens in the classroom. the administrators, again, i want to thank all the administrators, in particular this new batch in the last few years have been very, very focused, providing opportunities, leadership and giving the services and really focusing and asking what is necessary to move the bar? the principals, all the way to the central office, very important. to me it's been so rewarding to be able to work with them, and for them to respond to things and for us to be on the same page and saying we do care about kids and let's see what we can do to improve things. also superintendents, i have had the luxury of ushering basically three different people to run the district. and i think that is what has made the real big differences in the leadership that they provided whether it was gwen

chang or carlos garcia and now presently richard carranza. i would say again to my colleagues and the school board, it's been a real pleasure to work with people. we don't always agree. we don't necessarily think that we have to go in the same direction -- not the same direction, but for us to have our arguments and overall i always felt every single one of you have cared about what happens to students, have cared about our staff, and that because of the common ground we are able to work with leadership and the rest of the people that i just described to move us further along.

i really, really appreciate the way we have been working for the -- at least the last four years, the last eight years, moving from one level to another. we're at the level where we can sit down and discuss and agree and come up with consensus. and you know something? that just does not happen on every school board. so we should all be proceed of that and i want to acknowledge matt haney for coming into this family of elected school board members and hopefully you will get the spirit of all of this. and i would say one last -- not last thing, but one more thing. the last six months, i have to say that it's been a political process. there was a lot of tensions and i'm real thankful that my three colleagues who were running for re-election are re-elected.

they won re-election pretty readily despite opposition. i just want to say one thing about this, let's move on and really all focus. focus on our students and just move on. i hope to continue my interest in supporting our public schools despite all the range of new issues, i must respond to at city hall. just one sad thing and i wish i had a little more time to accomplish -- it's going to be on tonight's agenda as first reading. it's an opportunity for us to make a statement that we do care about people who live in the city. we do care about people who

stay in the city and we do care about people, in particular, people of minority businesses and businesses run by women in the city to have opportunities to take advantage -- not take advantage, but opportunities to earn the money that us the residents in san francisco put into for our facilities bond measure. so this one sad thing and i won't be able to vote on even though i'm a co-author and hopefully people see the light in that approach of supporting, in particular, everybody in san francisco, but in particular minority and women businesses. i will stop at that. i just want to thank you for indulging me and letting me say something. and hopefully, in the future it's not like i'm going to walk away from public education. i love public education. i have been at it for almost 40

years now in terms of public education. and thank you very much. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> commissioner norton? >> i want to thank you for those words and i don't feel it's goodbye. we'll be seeing you all the time, maybe more than you want to see us. [ laughter ] thank you for your service. >> commissioner mendoza? >> thank you. so norman, eight years goes by quickly, but the moments that i know that went by slowly and you have always been diligent and present and committed to your values. and i think your integrity speaks volumes and i think you

will bring it over to city hall and i'm looking forward to working with you at city hall as well. i was thinking a little bit when i think about you and some of the pieces that i will miss. i will miss your salsa dancing, which i was never invited to, but i heard that you are every time we did have an opportunity whether it was here or in other cities, you managed to find salsa, because that is part of who you are. i think a lot about our time at harvard and the work we did alongside commissioner wynns. i think about your daughters and i think that those of us who are parents on the school board, there is a sacrifice that comes along with being in public service to our families. and to see your daughters doing as wonderfully and, as well as they are and coming into public service themselves, i think you have been an incredible role-model not only to us, but to your own children.

and then you have been the lone male for the last two yearsp [ laughter ], commissioner haney, you are going to feel his pain. i think you handled that well. you have had experience at home with your daughters and wife, but you have always been extremely respectful to everyone's opinions and stuck to your grounds. there is one piece that i really want to honor. you almost lost your life, and you did not give up on your life, nor did you give up on your commitment to public service. and i think that despite this of the challenges you went through, you came through. you are healthy. you have the same passion and commitment to serve our kids. and i think you will do an

incredible job for the city. so from the bottom of my heart congratulations, and thank you for your incredible eight years. >> thank you. [ applause ] [ applause ] >> commissioner murase? >> yes, i want to congratulate you and your family for your election victory. you are now my supervisor, so i get to knock on your door. i think once a teacher, always a teacher and whether it was at the preschool level or any level you have always been a great teacher and you have been a teacher and mentor for me. i really thank you for that and one of the big lessons that i take away from your mentorship is how to be a bridge-builder and how to build consensus and how to be colleaguial, despite difference of opinions. so i really thank you for that and i'm not going to say goodbye. i'm going to say see you soon.

>> so i just wanted to also offer my congratulations. no. 1 and not just to you, but to your family because i know it is a family effort in anything that you do, and that is because you really instilled in your daughters and your wife as a partner, your love of community, and people. and from the moment we met, where it was a strange conversation, just meeting each other for the first time in a coffee shop several years ago, so every conversation we have had since then, it's always intriguing, if nothing else to commune with you either at home or in this room or in closed session or out in the world, you and i have been lots of places and often times at your invitation and i want to thank you for that, just offering that perspective through your

lens. and for you being willing to see all that we do through my lens. congratulations norman. >> thank you. >> commissioner wynns? >> thank you, i just wanted to thank you for your service. i think i'm the only person here who has been here the whole eight years you have been here. >> you have been longer than that. >> i know, but he don't think anybody else was here eight years ago, but me, still on the board. so i appreciate your service and we have actually known each other almost 30 years for advocates of children for san francisco public schools. so i value your friendship and that we have been able to be colleagues in a variety of ways which i expect will continue. and i particularly want to commend you for your dedication to the children of san francisco, and for the work we

have been able to do together, from my point of view, actually the sort of one man or two in the middle of a big group of women is my life. because i come from a family with four sisters and one brother, three sisters and one brother, and other generations of my family were similar. so it just seemed the natural thing to me and i appreciate that you have been able to serve in that role extremely well, working with all of us. i will miss you here. and i expect to continue to see you often and to work together. thank you. >> thank you. >> i just want to thank the audience for taking the few moments and indulging myself. let's move on. >> are you sure? >> yes. let's go. item d, student delegates' report. >> so for our past meetings we

have reviewed and gave recommendations to mr. truette on the memorandum of understanding. we also after two long years of hard work with the youth commission and the ssc, muni has passed it and lastly our new representative from ida b. wells, representative at the community tasting and thought that the food was much better and more healthy and we support revolutionary foods for the bid. >> we also recently met with and gave recommendations to associate superintendent janet schultz on how to assist with outreach at the community meetings that the sfusd helps families understand the a-g

requirements. we have an announcement. we will be giftwraping for donations at the dsw on 400 post street to compensate for some of the money that the ssc program lost because of budget cuts. so please come and support us december 22-23. >> thank you megan and windy. december 22 and 23 where again? >> dsw at 400 post street. the entrance is on powell. >> what is going on those two days? >> we're just having a >> giftwraping. >> if i may, president yee, i wanted to ask sac if you could help us bet the word out about the free muni applications and perhaps work together with janet schultz and the other

associate superintendents about how we can reach as many students as possible at school sites? thank you very much. >> okay. item e, parent advisory committee pac report representative. >> >> good evening superintendent carranza, president yee and commissioners. my name is gloria and a member of the parent advisory committee and parent of two children and i wanted to extend my congratulations to all the achievements presented earlier today with staff and schools and our representatives. so thank you for your hard work and dedication. and for your commitment.

i wanted it make comments on several areas that the pac has worked on. pac will continue conducting some community conversations when asked. the pac is considering expanding its work with restorative practice by promoting the parent component of the whole school implementation. and the project team wants to look at how parents are being brought into the implementation process of restorative practices at the three demonstration schools and the focus schools. where practice parent is in place and the pac hopes to share successful strategies that the schools are currently using to inform familis about restorative practices and be able to engage them in [-eurpblts/]ing implementing the process. we want to be able to create a parent- friendly material guide that parents can use on an

everyday use to explain what restorative practices are. and so also i wanted to be able to update on the a-g requirements, some pac members are now participating on the new graduation requirements task forth at the last meeting november 28th, they identified short-term and long-term goals and now we are very encouraged with the short-term and long-term goals, but we're concerned the fact of numbers of student graduations, but happy to be working with partners. pac is committed to work with the district partners to address any barriers of graduation that impact any significant number of students. and the pac a-g project team will determine where to best

align our efforts. ultimately we want to support student achievement, especially with those areas of affected. i did want to share something very exciting. the pac was invited to have a representative at the community tasting panel last month. and i was there for the tasting. and we were able provide it comments on the appearance of the food, the taste, texture and overall appeal of the food. and the pac aappreciates being included in important, key decisions that are being used to affect so many students. and over the years, student nutrition has been one of the areas for pac. so we were super pleased to be able to be there in the evaluation process. i just have to share that my daughter, i pack everyday

lunches for my children. they do not like school lunches and i wanted to share i was going to be on the panel. and they were super excited and this morning my daughter said i want a lunch. well, you said that the lunches were going to be better next year. so i'm going to see next year, mom. and maybe i will get school lunches. so for me, that makes me happy, because she is actually listening to what i am saying. [ laughter ] and she hopefully will be able to look next year at the lunches and see that she wants to also participate with her friends and eat at least once a week would help me. and i feel good with the choices we were able to evaluate that day. that is it. any questions or comments? >> seeing none, thank you, gloria. >> next