getting 'em trained and getting everything on line. so i guess i think we need to -- if we want to do this, i want somebody to identify where we would really take the money from. if we're going to take it out of that fund, i'd oppose it. this is a finite amount of money. let's think of something we think is less important and take it from there, not from the schools, in my opinion. >> superintendent did you want to respond? >> sure, i think the question that's burdened on everybody's mind -- >> the line item is very closely related to our able to maintain or, in this case,

slightly improve, /phrao*es compared to last /kwraer, the weighted funding. for a change of this magnitude, we would not send allocations out again that reflect the weighted student formula being reduced by 43 thousand dollars. those were dis/treupbted distributed to school sites on february 22 and all the schools have or are just about finished preparing their site budgets, which they've gone through their local government chains and they've submitted, or are very close to submitting, all of those budget materials. so with that in mind, i don't think it would be practical for

us to send them a change of this magnitude. we would need to depend -- >> [inaudible]. it's not a small amount of this money, it's a small amount of the whole weighted student formula. >> right. and we would need to find an offsetting cut somewhere else in the unrestricted general fund extended budget. >> okay. >> thank you. so just a couple of thoughts for the board's consideration. i want to be very clear and be on record i wasn't here for the committee of the whole, i was in china, but were i there, i would have said my support for restorative practices is unwaivering. i think this is exactly what we should be doing. the first option is to keep kids in school, never to put them out. with that said, my support is

also steadfast for peer resources. i think with that community, i've been one of their biggest champions in times of need and have involved myself very directly in helping that program. so i also sometimes have to be ba humbug. i have to be the grinch. we're increasing the budget for peer resources 43 percent over last year's budget. we 're increasing restorative practices 31 percent over last year's budget. there's not any other program in our district that's getting that kind of a percentage increase so i think we do have a solid demonstrated commitment to really ramping up the funding for these programs. i will also share with you that one of the directions of

the board has been to grade our funding so we're not relying on any one funding source and i think a good example of restorative practices is that we are also doing tremendous work. we just passed a resolution this evening around inclusive practices and it's part of identifying our disproportionalty of our african american students. we've developed a safe plan that we've submitted to the state. in that plan there's also funding for three additional coaches which are not even reflected in this particular proposal. so we are braiding funding, we're finding more and more resources. and we will implement the board's wishes. i think there was also a discussion earlier about process. what is the process for identifying the priority work and what piece is all

about, and i agree, we will bring that conversation to the board. i think it's very timely. i would just ask us to be very thoughtful about the pro/seusz of changing the recommendation after everyone has kind of had their two cents and people have burned the midnight oil and just be very thoughtful about the process of making amendments at this late hour as well. i /aeu sewer you we're committed to restorative practices. >> i would say thank you superintendent. i just like to add that stem had a 100 percent increase because he didn't fund it before. i mean, i

appreciate the 31 percent increase, but stem got a 100 percent increase. i know that 43 thousand dollars isn't really a lot of money when you're looking at a huge budget like this. so when you're talking about support for our schools, and this is support that teachers have been asking for. this is why there is a wait list every time there is a training. it is overwhelmingly popular among our staff and schools. they are using this in their classrooms, they are using it to resolve conflict and as we know it has reduced suspensions in one year by 500. i don't know what else that we can pull out of our hat that does that. i feel like we made a decision when we first said we'd commit to restorative practices. it took a leap of faith for a lot of us and i think a lot of us now believe

in this way of dealing with conflict and resolving conflict and students taking personal responsibility. so i would say then, if i was forced to take the money from somewhere -- as i said stem got 100 percent increase, but i wouldn't take it from there. i would take it from the general infrastructure total because we're funding that at almost -- it's, like, 467 thousand dollars and it's been proposed to add another 45 thousand to it. so when i look -- i know dollars are really precious. when you talk about the weighted student formula, i'll just let you know, i've been on 11 school budget

councils. it's about schools that say we're not even going to have a /su ply budget. and i know this because i ran a huge garage sale to fund a supply budget for paper. but without really investing while we can while we have the opportunity to invest a little bit more into it, we can't reach our strategic goals. we need this hand in hand. we cannot keep up with the disproportional amount of /sus /spepbgss of suspensions of african american students. we are sending our children out into the 21st century and we

hope they will embrace this world. i would remind people that stem got a 100 percent increase, but i would take it from general infrastructure because i feel like this is our opportunity to change the culture of discipline in our districts. we, ourself, used the numbers of suspensions and how it's disproportionally racially divided. i think it's time we change. i hope you'll join me in this vote. >> i was actually interested in the answer to the question -- i

appreciate you're trying to make a statement, like, are we committed to this program or not, and i really appreciate that because i was definitely one of the people that had to take a leap of faith originally when we passed this resolution. so i appreciate the wanting to make a strong commitment to it. i do want to know what would another 43 thousand dollars mean? and if it were 55 is that a coach or what -- i'm wondering if any member in the staff can answer that question. i see claudia. as a corollary to that, i'd like to know what the thinking was on adding the additional 45 thousand to the general infrastructure budget. we beat up the evaluator pretty good a couple years ago and demanded evaluation and good data tracking for this program.

so my understanding is that's what the general infrastructure is supposed to do is a really robust tracking, that said, what was the extra 45 thousand dollars going to be for. >> the money will be used to increase our [inaudible] we'll be able to run more analysis on the piece programs and have some more outcome data to add to our reporting and also to reclassify our current program analyst position to a different classification. >> i want to add that we found it difficult at the current levels to be competitive in getting the quality people and keeping them. that's the reason for this. i appreciate that it wasn't there a week ago, but we had personnel changes that happened in the past week. >> miss ander son, do you have

something to add? >> it could go a couple of different ways. that amount of money would represent a coach when we consider how many /skaopls we have in the district -- over 100. one of the things we're trying to support is professional learning communities in every school so that people don't have to stay on their own time and they're choosing to do that. we have principals that are coming at 4:00 in the afternoon until 6:30 on their own. so that's another thing that we could do is to strengthen that so that people have more time to reflect on

their practice and take that information back to their sites. kind of vague, but best i can provide right now on the spot. >> i'm going to propose an amendment to the amendment. i really feel like the general infrastructure is essential. we need to have [inaudible]. we are facing renewal of the piece so i would like to propose that it be taken from the stem money -- 43,430 is equivalent of the 2 percent of the 2 million dollars that has come into being since january review of this. i am committed to stem, but it is brand new and we don't have the investments already so i feel like a 2 percent shaving off of stem is where i would take the money. >> mr. mendoza. >> thank you. i have a quick

question with regards to the 43 thousand. what's the current budget of restorative justice and do we spend that amount and is this 43 going to be helpful in terms of -- i mean i know we've been gearing up, so i'm okay -- let's just find it and put it in there, but it's just a general question about how much the current budget is first. did we spend how much we currently allocated this year and is this increase going to be -- are we going to be able to spend it for this up coming year or is this an allocation that we should add to next year's allocation. we're just kind of -- it's a small amount of money and i think we should rest it

already, but i am curious if this is going to be helpful in increasing the number of workshops that are going to be available to our teachers or do you currently spend your money in restorative justice and is that where it is helpful? >> claudia anderson again. >> i think that it's helpful if it is provided at the early part of the year. one of the challenges -- i want to be honest about this -- one of the challenges has been finding qualified coachers to do the work. we have a list of people that we've identified who we think would file for these positions. that wasn't true in the past. we didn't have enough experience from the district to feel that we had people who had been sufficiently trained. that's no longer the case. i think whatever the amount settles on, we will be able to find

qualified professionals to lead the work. >> so you'll spend it in this year's budget? >> i believe it will be easy to spend. >> so commissioner proposed amendment to amendment, so if we want to do that, we need a second for that. >> excuse me president norton. the amendment that i made -- i'm hearing a little consensus among here that i should identify where the money should come from in my original. i would like to add 43,430, i should identify it. that amendment should include an identification of where those funds are coming from? am i correct? >> i know that you said if you're going to propose

rejiggering things, you should say where it comes from. but i'm hearing that these are very complex and interdependent areas, so i would almost rather say will you identify where it comes, but don't touch peer resources and don't -- >> i was going to make the suggestion that i understand that it's this last moment where -- i would be more than happy just to take it from the reserve money and then we can work out in a regular budget because we haven't reviewed our budget yet. i'd take it out of reserve, keep stem in tact. i understand about the general infrastructure so i would make a suggestion that it would come out of the general reserve and that would be 43,430 less. >> thank you president norton.

this is actually a wonderful conversation to be having. how are we going to spend additional funds. we haven't had this experience in a while so it's good. wd 40, work out the kinks, but it's a good thing. i would suggest that we take the money from stem. we can't afford to take it from the general infrastructure. i am insisting on a rigorous evaluation for every spending proposal. i want to be -- the board has directed that we are able to go to the voting public and say this is how we spent your money and feel good about it. by the way, we cannot in any good faith tell our students they're getting an a through g education without stem as part of that. i would

offer that up if commissioner fewer is acceptable to that. let's identify it out of stem and we'll find a way to work around. >> so the amendment is that we take 43,430 from stem and put it in restorative practices. so roll call on the amendment. thank you. miss lee. >> i don't know. >> miss lee. >> can we speak before we take a vote on these? she wanted to make a comment. >> what did you want to do? >> i think we can -- now that

we've had clarification on the amendment and the superintendent has offered up, that we can now move forward, but my comment -- and i'll make it right now because it was in this context is that as you heard claudia anderson mention, this will offer just this dollar amount so as we go forward hopefully the staff sees how the board -- we wouldn't be at this conversation with everyone chiming in if it didn't have

>> i withdraw my amendment. >> thank you. >> roll call please. >> miss lee. >> yes. >> miss wong. >> yes. >> miss wong. miss fewer. >> yes.

>> mr. haney. >> yes. >> miss mofus. >> yes. >> we have now adopted the amendment and we are continue inging conversation. are there any other comments on the main motion? no. >> okay. roll call please. before we call -- i'm sorry, i want to acknowledge the members of the cac and actually there's a few of you in the audience and if you could stand please so we can applaud you and thank you for your work. excellent

timing. ing, i must say. >> roll call please. miss lee. >> yes. >> miss wong. >> yes. >> miss fewer. >> yes. >> mr. haney. >> miss wynn. >> i. >> miss norton. >> yes. >> seven i's. >> thank you very much. okay. you can see how seriously this board takes every dollar. item i, board members proposal. there's none tonight. item j, request to speak regarding general matters. i have a number of speakers cards. i also have a list of folks that called to sign up. on the

dismissal, i'd like to give this group a total of 15 minutes to speak on this item so i'll read off the names of the people who called to -- and the cards that i have. if you can please, as i read your name, line up at the podium and when we're ready we'll begin timing the 15 minutes. so doctor, mr. pedro, marie ramero, doctor richard, evelyn, michael, carry, carmen, marty, rudy,. so we will begin timing now. you have 15 minutes for

your entire group. >> i am rosita, professor of american and [inaudible] where for more than three decades i directed the preparation of teachers and administrators for the san francisco public schools. i join concerned filipino educators and community members and advocate quality education for filipino students, the second most rapidly growing asian population, but remaining underserved. they need to grow roots in the united states without forgetting their roots in their country of or gin. research has shown that [inaudible] helps students to

foal good about themselves, their families and their groups, which translate to success in education and employment. maintaining their hair /tapblg, culture and language leads to empowerment and more active participation of parents in the successful education of their children. this can only be achieved with a culturely relevant curriculum and competent teachers and administrators. although parents are demanded that district offer language instruction and hire more filipino teachers and administrators, such as those of [inaudible] it is very sad that such personnel are very few, if at all present. distinguished board members, it is long overdue that the

unfortunate gnat situation of filipino students in san francisco be corrected. please ensure that the educational needs of this rapidly growing population are met by hiring the much needed qualified filipino teachers and administrators. thank you for listening. >> good afternoon. my name is pablo, i'm a parent of a 4th grader [inaudible]. i'm writing this letter because i felt that my daughter's teacher received a very unfair evaluation. to give you an overview of what my daughter's teacher, miss valet hoe has done this year, in come /paeurplt to her performance last year is the following. in

spring 2011 my daughter received that she scored a 418 advance in language arts and 407 proficient in mathematics. due to budget cuts from the state and district and reshuffling of teachers my daughter wound up with the same teacher the next day. in 2012 her with the same teacher two years in a row my daughter dropped 74 points in english language arts, went from advanced to basic. my daughter dropped 56 points in mathematics and went from high proficient to low proficient. my wife and i are very active in the school and we stay on top of everything and i've been

there since my daughter's been in kindergarten for five years now. we feel that not only that we have kept in communication with our teachers, but at the same time that miss v has brought the best education to my daughter. there's no cause for her to be dismissed and there has to be no explanation for no cause. everything has a reason because a teacher who is being told that you cannot continue to work for the unified school district and you're being fired because low cost. no, i'm sorry. when my studen