board members. roll call

please. >> thank you. mr. haney, miss lee, miss norton. >> thank you. please join me in the pledge . thank you. item a is approval of board minutes. there are none tonight. item b. >> thank you president norton and i'd like to say good evening to everyone. a lot of exciting news this evening and

i'd like to start by talking a little bit about superintendent's great adventure over the last nine days. i was very honored last week to have the opportunity to visit china as part of an exchange program through the council of the great city schools and the foundation for cultural exchange who are exploring the partnership with our schools and chinese schools. i was one of five soupers from the united states who traveled to eye that to tour schools and experience their educational system. i was able to travel to five different cities. i visited the shanghai middle school, the foreign affairs school. i also visited the foreign languages school. and i was also able to

do something very dear to my heart -- see the cultural arts in china. we attended an opera in the beijing opera house. we also had a tour of the chinese national theater. part of the reason for my visit is exploring opportunities for our students and teachers to have exchange opportunities in china and our hosts were most appreciative when i was able to explain the deep value that we have in san francisco public schools for languages and language emersion programs. they're looking forward to having their teachers come visit us as much as we are about visiting them. before i go further i would like to present this formal letter of agreement that i signed. don't

worry, i didn't enter any contract, but i did sign a formal letter of undering between the san francisco unified school district and the bureau of education of hangzow stating we're going to continue to talk about establishing this relationship where our teachers will be able to study in china and vice versa and our students and principals will also have that opportunity. so i'd like to present this to you on behalf of the delegation that attended this trip. >> thank you. i'll pass this along and let other board members take a look. >> please do. on an issue closer to home, if you read the newspaper, the graduate and drop out data from the california department of education was annoyanced today and it concerns the cohort of

2011, 2012, which provides a four year graduation and drop out rate for the districts in california. this cohort data refers to the students who started high school in 2008 and graduated in 2012. that is is the cohort. i'm very proud to say that the san francisco unified school district has a higher rate of graduation than the state average for students who started in this cohort. overall, the graduation rate increased from 88.8 percent to 88.2 percent in this cohort report. as a comparison to the state, the state average is 78.5 so once again, our community should be very proud of the work they're doing. more of our students are grand jury waiting. specifically our

district also decreased its dropout rate from 10.6 percent in the 20102011 year, to just 10 percent this last year. what's going up is going up, what should be going down is going down. the state's 30.2 percent drop out rate. the district and the board has made a concerted effort to service disadvantaged communities. in that regard i'm proud to announce or pacific islander subgroup showed the largest gain in graduation rate, up one full percentage rate. the graduation rate for our african students increased 7.2 percent,

up from 63.3 percent the prior year. african american rates have increased 13.9 percent over the last two years and that's a cause for tremendous celebration for our community. unfortunately the grand jury ration rate for /hra tee no students drop edped.4 percent. however, that's /tepl /perd by the fact that last year our latino students showed a strong gain of 8.4 percent. overall our english learners almost a 68 percent graduation rate, compared to a 68.3 percent the previous year. i'd like to give a shout out to one particular school. you'll read more about this in a press release, but i'd like to highlight phillip high school because of that you are notable

gains. they are the most improved high school in terms of graduation rates. the school's graduation rate was 77.5 percent in 2010, 2011 and they just increased the rate to 87.9 percent. all of the significant subgroups of students at phillip high school showed gains as well so i'd like to congratulate the principal and his hard working teachers and classified staff, parents and students for the wonderful work they're doing to make these kind of results a reality. so congratulations to them. more good news is on its way. i'd like to highlight an

opportunity that or sixth grade students had last week. mayor lee has been very vocal about focusing his mayor ship on focusing support for middle school students in our district. so we're been working to craft an investment strategy, really engaging our private sector employees, creating a strong science, technology, arts and maths focus, starting with the district's comprehensive middle schools. more than 2000 of our sixth grade students attended a preopening event at our

exploretorium last week. this was a great treat for our students. the students and staff present from all reports -- and i was getting texts in china with pictures. sorry, it'll be expensive, but i think it was worth it. the text and pictures said people had a wonderful time. lots of joyful learning in those pictures and we look forward to sharing with you in the coming weeks our stem steam implementation strategy so you understand what that looks like. i'd like to offer con grand jurylation to our hill crest elementary school for being /aeu /warbded the 2013 community schools award for excellence which is given by the coalition for community schools of the united states. this is a national award. it's provided to highly effective and efficient community schools and hill crest has been selected from one of three schools across the

nation that it meets the criteria. so congratulations to the principal and his incredible staff for demonstrating what community schools is all about. >> that's ending on a high note, i must say. thank you. item c, recognitions of commendations. item d. >> facts annual youth summit was hosted last friday and it went very well. we would like to give a special thank you to those who spoke at the summit, associate we would like to thank the student speakers at the event. some highlights with the asb where asb officers from each school shared best

practices with each other to help strengthen the asb's. this was a great jumping off point for having more youth involved. vote for the candidate who you think would be best to be the voice of the students of the school district. and all schools must have the surveys and ballots completed by friday, april 19. >> moving forward, although the year is quickly coming to a close, we are -- grab and go program by allowing students to eat breakfast in class during first period and the action for childhood arrival program. we are supporting the work of the youth commission has. our

curriculum /kreut me has met with kevin regarding teacher feed back surveys and we will work with superintendent on the questions on the survey. we would like to advertise for the summer jobs plus program allowing for students to get a job over the summer and students who qualify are ages 14 to 24 so to get involved call 211 or email match bridge at uwuba.org. >> thank you so much for the report. and i would love to work with you on the gat got resolution. >> item s. public comment on consent items. everything is just general public comment.

the pack report -- item e, parent advisor council report. >> good evening. my name is gloria. i am a parent. i'm not feeling well so i apologize for my voice. i want to give a report on the redesign of special education service with doctor blanco and her colleagues a coupling weeks ago and she was able to give us some background and answer some

questions relating to parents act saying information and navigating the system. we staffed at the information and resource conference sponsored by the support services with children with children with disabilities, we did out reach and had surveys and i was really happy to see every well and you guys supporting the pack's work. i wanted to say thank you for that as well as mentioning the pack. we had a lot of people come over to the table after you guys spoke and wanted to know a little bit more about the pack and how they can be involved so really appreciate that outreach. and also we were really glad to hear that the district echoing its commitment for equity for

all students with disabilities. this allows for students with december abilities to apply to any school k through 12 that they choose during enrollment process and that's a really big deal, so we commend that. the pack applauds this shift for the willingness of teachers to work with children with disabilities. one of the more exciting events we had was a collaboration with james town and mission graduates. the pack helped organize this event. so we brought families together from different communities who spoke different languages whose children attend public schools and who are becoming public leaders at their children's school and their respective communities. so the building bridges event

was very inspiring. there were over 30 participants sharing their experience. despite the language differences in the room, they proved to defy any obstacle of building community with one another and it was a really great event. in addition, the pack wants to connect what we've been doing in the past with our needs in the district. last thing, the pack's report on community communications about restorative practices. one finding was that many schools were struggling to build communities in their schools because of ethnicity, social economic background and home language and during the building bridges event we showed that it's possible to do if you put a little bit of effort behind what you do and want to build community. so i

think that's about it. we have so many other things to talk about for our next report. we spoke with miss rachel norton and sandra fewer and so we'll be commenting about other things for the next report. thank you for your time. do you guys have any questions? >> thank you for your report. i wanted to mention to our viewing audience and the commissioner that this is the tenth advisory of civilian council and since they are the parent advisor council to the board of education and they are planning a celebration i thought that we could be part of a host committee at the board and we could all support this effort. and if you wouldn't mind telling the board a little bit about what you might have planned in celebration. >> and i will have miss williams come over at this moment to share that

information with you. >> good evening. we were planning to be reserved the 601 main conference room for the board meeting of may 14 which will be a day after the 10th anniversary which is may 13 and we plan on inviting the commissioners, past board members, our funders and parents alike to participate and come. we want to have displayed on the walls some of the projects that we've taken on over the years, as well as the different pack members who have composed the board over the years just to see how many parents we reached in the last ten years through community conversations, through community briefings and of course some kind of refreshment. >> that would be great. and if we could send a reminder to ourselves that you might want to invite our generous funders

who have been consistently supportive of the parent advisement council. >> i have an additional request because the /staoupbts council wants to work with the pack as well. per /hapbs they could come and support the event as well. is that something you guys would be willing to do? we definitely need help? >> if you could repeat the date. >> may 14, which is actually a board meeting so actually before the meeting. >> and i would encourage the pack to reach out for do nation from board members as well because it's a small token of what we can do to support the celebration and all the work you've done. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you for the report. it was worth it. >> president norton, if i could just also convey my thanks. you brought this up as one of the original authors and really

promotors of the parent advisory council commissioner fewer, thank you very much for reminding us that it is the tenth anniversary. >> i didn't know it was ten years ago, but thank you very much for the ongoing work. it's clearly a great place to be. >> okay. /tha*frpbg thank you very much. now we will move on to item s. there is none, no cards tonight for that, so we will move on to item g, the consent calendar. may i hear a motion and second? >> a move. >> second. >> are there any items withdrawn or corrected by the superintendent? >> yes, doctor crawford. >> thank you. we have a

correction to 134-9k46 on pages 172 and 173. the cost of amendment request should be changed to 71,000 dollars, it is marked as 58,500. total cost should be parked to 296,000. there's an additional correction to 134-9k31 on pages 140 and 141. also to 134-9k32 on page 142 and 143. both of these resolutions are not retro active.

>> that's a nice -- yes, you can vote on those. just wanted to make sure you heard that. all right, thank you. are there any items removed for first reading by the board? none? first reading and then any items severed by the board or superintendent for discussion and vote tonight yes, commissioner men doe /stka. >> i would like to pull item 134-29w243x. >> thank you. any other items severed by the board of superintendents? seeing none. roll call vote will take place under section o. all right. we move on to item h. this item was moved and seconded on january 22. mr. haney, could we have a report from the rules

committee. this is regard ing >> we reviewed it and recommended it to the board for approval. >> thank you, short and sweet. may we have a reading by the superintendent or designee -- i believe doctor blanco will do the honors if she's here. i do not see doctor blanco. >> president norton, if i could ask deputy superintendent to read. >> thank you. >> happy to. good evening. we do have a superintendent's proposal coming back to the board tonight -- 131-22 regard inging principal -- the majority of students receiving

essential education services, there is an effective way to increase their time and success in the general education classroom. therefore be it resolved that the board of education hereby adopt and incorporate the following bedrock practices. it is a basic car rack -- are first and foremost, general education students who need additional services and support in order to succeed in school. their success therefore is the joint responsibility of all sfusd educators. inclusive practices recognize the -- when juan

objective service oriented process is used it is apparent that when more students can find success in general education classrooms with appropriate support and two, there's a continuing need for services provided outside of the general education classroom for some of our students. across sfusd schools, it is necessary to increase our expectations for students with disabilities, to assign shared responsibility for all and to add physical and social segregation of special groups of students through traditionally based practices. every student is a general education student and it is essential for every educator in sfusd to embrace responsibility for the success of each of our students. >> thank you deputy superintendent. i have no public speakers lined up for

this item. i am wondering now if there's any comments from the board before we vote? >> i think we can't underestimate the importance of this particular resolution. it's very clear that no longer are the needs of our special needs kids just the concern of the special education department. it's a concern of the entire school district, including enrollment and student assignment. and so i know there are going to be impacts in terms of the number of seats available at particular schools because we are moving full force on inclusion so i just wanted to mention that the proposed equal student assignment committee meeting will be /hraorbging at the impact of the inclusive policies on a student assignment and we hope to have a good public dialogue on that.

>> thank you. >> i wanted to say this is long overdue and it's about time we did this. and that also i'd like this to sort of be this idea that every student is a general ed student, that we also look at other areas in our district -- our pathways, emersion programs and hopefully we can get it integrated there and truly an inclusive school district. >> i'm going to go last unless there's any other comments on this item before we vote. this to me, is extremely personal and partly because i'm a parent of a child with a disability and when i first became a parent in this district, it was very common to be -- my daughter, we were told, oh, well, she can go to those schools, but she can't go to those schools. i did have educators tell me they didn't

have the training to work with her. a lot of fear about what do i do. i don't have the training, i don't understand what to do. this is -- it feels like such an achievement that it's underscoring our achievement and to educate all of our students. that doesn't mean educators don't need support to work with various students, but all of our students have needs, so it's tearing down the wall between you have this label and you don't. i'm just very grateful to doctor blanco, to our superintendent who has just brought about a transformation in the way that we think about educating students with disabilities. i'm very