board meeting in january. and i want to thank all of our labor partners and the pac organizations and the community group and all the district departments. and the assistant superintendents that provided input and feedback from the calendar that all calendars are based. the requested action is that the board adopt the 2013-14 instruct instructional calendar. >> okay, any questions or comments. >> i have a question, can you tell me if this includes forced closure days? >> commissioner murase. if you look at the january -- sorry, the june first day in june, june 2. we have reached an agreement with united educators for a

two-year agreement. and both years have one-and-a-half of forced closure days. the half closure day is on the last day of school, noted on may 30. and then june 2 is the professional development day which also is a forced closure for our teachers. that's a furlough day. so we are pleased that in the school year is 179.5 days for the 13-14 year. and again those forced closure days may be revisited in the course based on the district and finances. >> okay. it's very timely as i got an e-mail today from someone asking me when the first day of school was in august. thank you for being so timely. >> thank you, madam president, this it will be the district website tomorrow. >> great, assuming we pass it.

roll call please. >> ly. >> yes. >> wong. >> yes. >> fewer. >> yes. >> haney. >> yes. >> maufas,>> yes. >> murase. >> yes. >> wynns. >> yes. >> unanimous. >> thank you. next item is -- let's see, informational items. initial proposals. i announce the signing of the following two proposals. 2012-13 initial proposal for a successor collective bargaining agreement from the san francisco unified school district, and

2013-13 initial proposal for a successor collective bargain agreement, both will be held on january 22, 2013. discussion of other educational, issues none. and item n, none. item o, we will vote on the calendar for one item that was severed. roll call. >> ly. >> yes. >> wong. >> yes. >> fewer. yes. >> haney. >> yes. >> maufas. >> yes. >> murase. >> yes. >> wynns. >> aye. >> item p, consent calendar resolutions, this our audit,

2-c, and our auditor is in the audience. >> i first want to congratulate president norton and vice president fewer, on your new titles. we have with us tonight leonard dana, to give you a short presentation on our 2011-12 audit. the company has done our audits for six or seven years now. and mr. dana has been a partner on this for three years now i think. >> i am on my second go around. >> exactly.

>> usually when we present the audit reports, we usually have a lot to talk about. because of the findings. but i went back and looked at prior reports. and i didn't find one that didn't have one comment in them. and some comments if you go back in time, they are more than ticky-tack items, they were fairly serious items. and it shows from my perspective where the district has been and where it is now. and this leads up to the basic issue and comment, for those of you that are astute at looking at district audit reports. you look at the back of the report first, because that's where the findings are. and this year i am happy to report, we have no findings. and the prior year findings that we are required to checkup on. to make sure that the recommendations have been implemented. have been so implemented.

again just want to bring that to everyone's attention. and the other reports, the audit reports that we issue on the financial statements state and federal compliance are unqualified and we have no issue on that. and we made no audit adjustments as well. the unaudit actuals you use for first interim report, those are valid numbers. and no changes to those numbers as well. i wanted to bring that forward to you. it's appropriate. it's good, not that we didn't try to find things. but this year we had no findings. if any questions -- [applause] if any questions. >> no speaker cards on this item. why is my phone ringing -- oh, my god. embarrassing.

we had a question on the audit, they were calling in. any questions or comments from the board? vice president fewer. >> i want to say congratulations, good job, joe. very good, thanks. >> i have to add that i have a wonderful team to work with. and not only working with a financial team. but our people in the different programs. and we had problems over the last few years, as you might note. as it relates to time and effort. and also in our after-school program. and they worked very hard on that this year. and along with our finance group. and that's the reason why we are at where we are today. >> okay, i am just curious, when was the last time there was an audit without a finding? commissioner wynns. >> i never seen one. and not only in this school

district or any other organization that i have been associated. and i have never heard of another school district. >> yes, i went back as far as i could, and didn't find one. >> double congratulations, joe and yung. >> yes, it's a testament to your work. that's incredible. thank you. >> but we can't rest on our laurels. we have to do this again. we need a repeat next year. >> yes. >> and mr. superintendent, you want it make a comment? >> yes, i wanted to thank all the staff for their tremendous work. and i appreciate mr. grazoly in recognizing. as you remember there were significant issues with timing and paperwork. and everyone doubled down and did a great job. and not only this is the first time i have never seen an audit

without a finding. and that's significant. and i never recall an auditor getting an applause. that's significant. >> we are not supposed to get applause by the way. that's not our job. >> does that mean you are not doing your job? come on, take the credit. roll call please. >> ly. >> yes. >> wong. >> yes. >> fewer. >> yes. >> haney. >> yes. >> maufas. >> yes. >> murase. >> yes. >> wynns. >> yes. >> seven ayes. >> norton. >> while yewe're on the good jo and there were no retro actives. i want that thank the staff for that, i appreciate it. >> and i want to mention we have two more audits in the near fut

-- future. one is on partial tax, and the elustrous bond program. >> great. and thank you, commissioner mendoza pointing that out. okay. item q. superintendent's proposals for first reading. we have item 131-8 sp 1, approval of a public education enrichment fund expenditure plan for the school year, 2013-14, that will be moved to the meeting on the whole. >> you need a motion? i am sorry, yes i do. >> so moved. >> second. >> now it's referred to the committee as a whole on january 15. item r, board members' proposals for first reading none. item s, board members' reports,

standing committees. i am sorry, do i do committees first or read it off. standing committees. we have a report from the buildings and ground committee. >> yes, the buildings and ground committee met on december 17th on two informational items. the first was an update on the current technology initiatives in sfsud. and i want to thank matt kensey and his team, we just have been able to advance by leaps and bounds. all of our schools are wired for the internet. there is still some last mile connectivity issues. but i want to acknowledge our previous superintendent, carlos garcia that made sure that was money in the qta dedicated to infrastructure. and some of you know in a previous life i worked in

high-tech. and when i came to san francisco and saw some of the antiquated systems we use in the city and the school system, it was appalling. but in a short time they have brought our schools up to the 21st century, and it was good to hear a reporting on that. and we secondly took up a pathway to community contracting and hiring a resolution on local hire. and we discussed the proposed resolution, suggested some language changes. there will be further discussions in january and february. we were talking about having stakeholder meetings during this time to really flush out that resolution. staff is hoping to put together a first draft in february for

folks to review before the building and grounds meeting in march. there will be a meeting this month of building and grounds, the third monday is a holiday. so it would fall on january 28. and i have been asked to take up the issue of project labor agreement. that's one of the agenda items. so that's going to be held later this month. thank you. >> commissioner mendoza. >> thank you. i will making a new appointment to the prop-h committee. because my appointee is now on the board. i will replace commissioner haney, thank you for that. right -- right. budget and business is not going to have a january meeting. so we are moving it to february. did we secure the sixth? >> the commissioner, the standing date of the committee through 2012 was the first

wednesday of the month. that would be february 6. and that's what we will plan on. unless the committee assignments turn-over between now and then and the dates change. we understand that is a possibility because of the timing of the committee. but in the meantime plan on february 6. >> and then i want to make one brief announcement. i wanted to congratulate the mission promise neighborhoods. we are the proud recipients of a $6 million grant that we anticipate getting every year for the next five years. there was a tremendous amount of work put in guadalupe and kevin and the team out in mission. and we couldn't have done it without you. and the schools that will benefit from mission promise neighborhood is chavez and bryant and oc, so connor will be part of that.

we will focus on those four schools with the expectation to expand what we want to start in those four schools. it will focus on academic achievement and family stability and early childhood education and technology. we are looking to build strong, sustainable, healthy families in the mission. and it will piggyback on the sig work we are doing, and it's a nice consideration since sig is going away. i want to congratulate everyone for that tremendous work done. and we were one of seven cities in the entire nation that received the implementation grant. and we are one of a handful of cities that actually received a planning grant the first year and applied the following year and six months later -- really, and received the implementation grant. i think it speaks to the

strength of the work happening in the mission. congratulations. >> if i could add to what commissioner mendoza said, of the grantees nationally we are one of two cities in the nation that received the highest award. the full amount. thank you for mentioning that. >> do we have any other reports from board members? none this evening. okay, we will move ahead then -- just one last on committees. vice president fewer and i will be go over the committee assignments. please get us your preferences so we know what they are. and the goal will be to get that all done well before the beginning of february. so we don't disrupt the work of the board. i believe like curriculum is going to meet this month as

well; right? >> i have not pulled the members yet. but i will. >> okay, moving along. >> commissioner norton, we haven't planned about whether or not we will have a rules committee meeting in january either. so we should discuss that, which i think is mainly dependent upon the legislative, so maybe we will just talk to our legislative advocate and make a decision about whether or not we will have a rules committee meeting. >> keep us posted. item t, report of closed section actions of january 8, 2012, the board approved the appointment of one supervisor. and also the expulsion of one middle school student.

and in the matter of the il and unified school district, no case number, by vote of 6 ayes and one absent. the attempt to negotiate settlement on specified terms. for this evenings closed session, i had something, we have it again -- here it is, the board of education by a vote of 5 ayes and two absent approved the expulsion of one middle school student. item u, other informational items posted in the agenda, the staff report on the notice of classified personnel transactions. and that being concluded. item v is adjournment. thank you very much everyone, meeting adjourned.

>> there has been an acknowledgement of the special places around san francisco bay. well, there is something sort of innate in human beings, i

think, that tend to recognize a good spot when you see it, a spot that takes your breath away. this is one of them. >> an icon of the new deal. >> we stood here a week ago and we heard all of these dignitaries talk about the symbol that coit tower is for san francisco. it's interesting for those of us in the pioneer park project is trying to make the point that not only the tower, not only this man-built edifice here is a symbol of the city but also the green space on which it sits and the hill to which is rests. to understand them, you have to understand the topography of san francisco. early days of the city, the city grows up in what is the financial district on the edge of chinatown. everything they rely on for existence is the golden gate. it's of massive importance to the people what comes in and out of san francisco bay. they can't see it where they

are. they get the idea to build a giant wooden structure. the years that it was up here, it gave the name telegraph hill. it survived although the structure is long gone. come to the 1870's and the city has growed up remarkably. it's fueled with money from the nevada silver mines and the gold rush. it's trying to be the paris of the west. now the beach is the suburbs, the we will their people lived on the bottom and the poorest people lived on the top because it was very hard getting to the top of telegraph hill. it was mostly lean-to sharks and bits of pieces of houses up here in the beginning. and a group of 20 businessmen decided that it would be better if the top of the hill remained for the public. so they put their money down and they bought four lots at the top of the hill and they gave them to the city. lily hitchcock coit died without leaving a specific use

for her bequest. she left a third of her estate for the beautify indication of the city. arthur brown, noted architect in the city, wanted for a while to build a tower. he had become very interested in persian towers. it was the 1930's. it was all about machinery and sort of this amazing architecture, very powerful architecture. he convinced the rec park commission that building a tower in her memory would be the thing to do with her money. >> it was going to be a wonderful observation place because it was one of the highest hills in the city anywhere and that that was the whole reason why it was built that high and had the elevator access immediately from the beginning as part of its features. >> my fear's studio was just down the street steps. we were in a very small apartment and that was our

backyard. when they were preparing the site for the coit tower, there was always a lot of harping and griping about how awful progress was and why they would choose this beautiful pristine area to do them in was a big question. as soon as the coit tower was getting finished and someone put in the idea that it should be used for art, then, all of a sudden, he was excited about the coit tower. it became almost like a daily destination for him to enjoy the atmosphere no matter what the politics, that wasn't the point. as long as they fit in and did their work and did their own creative expression, that was all that was required.

they turned in their drawings. the drawings were accepted. if they snuck something in, well, there weren't going to be any stoolies around. they made such careful little diagrams of every possible little thing about it as though that was just so important and that they were just the big frog. and, actually, no one ever felt that way about them and they weren't considered something like that. in later life when people would approach me and say, well, what did you know about it? we were with him almost every day and his children, we grew up together and we didn't think of him as a commie and also the same with the other. he was just a family man doing normal things. no one thought anything of what

he was doing. some of them were much more highly trained. it shows, in my estimation, in the murals. this was one of the masterpieces. families at home was a lot more close to the life that i can remember that we lived. murals on the upper floors like the children playing on the swings and i think the little deer in the forest where you could come and see them in the woods and the sports that were always available, i think it did express the best part of our lives. things that weren't costing money to do, you would go to a picnic on the beach or you would do something in the woods. my favorite of all is in the staircase. it's almost a miracle

masterpiece how he could manage to not only fit everyone, of course, a lot of them i recognized from my childhood -- it's how he juxtaposed and managed to kind of climb up that stairway on either side very much like you are walking down a street. it was incredible to do that and to me, that is what depicted the life of the times in san francisco. i even like the ones that show the industrial areas, the once with the workers showing them in the cannery and i can remember going in there and seeing these women with the caps, with the nets shuffling these cans through. my parents had a ranch in santa rosa and we went there all summer. i could see these people leaning over and checking. it looked exactly like the

beautiful things about the ranch. i think he was pretty much in the never look back philosophy about the coit. i don't think he ever went to visit again after we moved from telegraph hill, which was only five or six years later. i don't think he ever had to see it when the initials are scratched into everything and people had literally destroyed the lower half of everything. >> well, in my view, the tower had been pretty much neglected from the 1930's up until the 1980's. it wasn't until then that really enough people began to be alarmed about the condition of the murals, the tower was leaking. some of the murals suffered wear damage. we really began to organize getting funding through the arts commission and various other sources to restore the

murals. they don't have that connection or thread or maintain that connection to your history and your past, what do you have? that's one of the major elements of what makes quality of life in san francisco so incredible. when people ask me, and they ask me all the time, how do you get to coit tower, i say you walk. that's the best way to experience the gradual elevation coming up above the hustle and bustle of the city and finding this sort of oasis, if you will, at the top of the hill. when i walk through this park, i look at these brick walls and this lawn, i look at the railings around the murals. i look at the restoration and i think, yeah, i had something to do with that. learning the lessons, thank

you, landmarks meet landmarks. the current situation at pioneer park and coit tower is really based in public and private partnership. it was the citizens who came together to buy the land to keep it from being developed. it was lily hitchcock coit to give money to the city to beautify the city she loved of the park project worked to develop this south side and still that's the basis of our future project to address the north side. >> what's up san franciscans? we are very much in the the giving of the year. perfect time to learn something new and have a little fun. here are some events