thriving educational experienced. thank you (clapping.) hello and 5 years ago my mom spoke here. she couldn't be here today. i attend the charter school from kindergartener or kindergarten to 8th grad. i felt save here and at home. creative arts taught me things more than cameras. i learned to care for myself as well as others. the astrology community created a stronger environmentalist to express my ideas. i felt my teachers gave me one-on-one time and they helped

me to be a vital thinker. i have the motivation to succeed. i moved to a higher place in education and we must continue to reach children and to nurture the young minds that will run this country. (clapping.) >> okay. and i'm the lucky teacher that got to teach that were i'm actually first and for most i'm a parent of two children alumni both my children are critical thinkers and attending colleges of their choices. i believe in public school and as a parent i spent a lot of time trying to find a school that shared any values and

shared did hi the academic challenges. i became a volunteer and spent many hours on the board as well as the athletic director and coach. then one day i quit my job and became a teacher. so this is my eight year in teaching and get to be a teacher in my school of my choice. i'm a coach and love it. i love this fabulous program and hope it continues to exist in san francisco. thank you (clapping.) hello, i'm michael cameron.

17 years ago i took my first steps into my new school. when i entered that classroom i found someone who was willing to listen to the musings of a 5-year-old. his name was tom and at any rate h at that time, he was our kindergarten teacher he took notes of a bug art and the teacher helps the standard put together a minnesota story that is acted out by other students. tom showed me i could do something with my stories. i spent 8 and a half at creative arts. when we studied messing man

adhesive i wrote an open are a and we were allowed to show all the 5 pill last year's by outlining stories in the muslim word. the school year i was offered the opportunity to rehave you known the arts program. although the school as grown and matured in many ways it's remained you it's essence. i'm happy to see that i'm in a great learning environment. for allowing this school to continue to grow and develop on behalf of envy generation and for all those who have come after me. thank you (clapping.) hello

>> hello, i'm a long the parents at creative arts. my oldest son this will be my 17th year at the school my youngest daughter is 12 she's in 7th grade. the reason we which i see arts is my middle son has dix election and i said to school with a special feed for learning difference. he bloomed at creative arts. his teachers were so poisht patient and they taught him how to read. my son has blot clotting disorders and w a single mom

with 3 sons with disabilitys i've been helped even though i was panicking they take care of my children. but anyway, i attended a creative arts school and throughout the years we've increased our exist of students of color and staff of color. and made the place a better learning environment for our children. and i volunteer one hundred hours a year happily and because there a second family to me. so i love this school. thank you for renewing our

charter (clapping) >> hello, i'm a parent at creative arts. my partner my kids dad is a teacher at balboa school. i'm proud to have our family at creative arts. so my daughter was going to come and speak she's in 5th grade she feel and hurt herself but she was going to talk about being a school ambassador. the kids meet and talk about how to resolve conflict and support other kids. this is part of an overall program they call the peace schools initiate to address bullying. so rather than waiting for

bullying to happen we work to foster school atmosphere that doesn't have room for bullying. i have a sensitive child who also comes from an unusual background we have a minority in our family and she's be able to be loved and nurtured and learn and excel at creative arts. i feel like creative arts predates the charter movement to create a place to innovate so i'm appreciative your creating

the creative arts a charter way back so thanks (clapping.) is it okay to have one of our other students talk? >> hi, i'm 13 and i'm in eight grad at the creative arts school. the school is a safe environment and i've been to go since i was in kindergarten i was born in november. i made friends constantly and everything he i've learned i remembered my friends and known people for 9 years. the arts integration has helped

me with academics it's been easier and having separate arts classes it's effected me because people are helping people. i'd be able to choose what i wanted to do. the staff is really, really amazing he have a one-on-one help from them. it is an amazing school. thank you (clapping) >> thank you okay. commits in the board? commissioner winn.

>> i want to thank everyone who has e-mailed me and i've had some interesting e-mail challenges from the parents. i do want to bring up a couple of things besides the financial impact that have been disturbing me since i was made aware of them at the curriculum committee meeting. so creative arts and i really appreciate and that's one of the most difficult things but really positive how much the supporter love the charters schools they work and send their students. we have a lot to learn about dedication from the charters. however, i think it's worth pouting for the record this

school as 45 of their ask the are white and a 9 percent that declined to state. so close to or more than half of the ask the are white in the school district and that's more than 4 times the number of light students we have. only thirty percent of the students are eligible for the under priced meals. and frankly some of those conditions have existed from the beginning of creative arts charter. so i appreciate the commits about the original innovation, however, the intent of the law when it says in the law the purpose is to better serve the

students who are not in the top of the achievement gap. we didn't use those words then but that's the disturbing part. the charter law requires that in order to be renewed you have to be in the figure out percent on the ap i this school was there and this year it's better. by the disturbing thing is for many years they languished in the schools ranking and now are in the second. incorporated if you look at a school you wouldn't find up in san francisco only half the students are white and 6 as it

is in the per actually in the similar schools ranking. so we don't really have the ability to do this but i just think - and i am fairly confident this charter will be rude. it would be stretched not to renew the charter so i hope you people in the audience are not anxious about what i'm saying. even to it would be a stretch we'd have to talk about what we think about those conditions and to speak with the charter operators and the board of the charter school about you know why this is true. if that were one of our schools

with the precedent low ranging we would be extremely concerned about that. and we don't see that in our schools. we see the opposite we see what you normally see the lower percent of the students who are poor the higher the achievement. we work against that. that's the core of our equity candle lights but we see this in a privately managed school we're going to under the law. so i am asking the staff and i do want to say i really want to thank the school for agreeing to the condition we asked inform in the curriculum committee. and i want to pout to those

members we need to realize that this is a big deal. accident creative arts has agreed to put in their charter an agreement for 5 years they'll not have an enrollment process that predates this. i appreciate that that's a big deal. but i also ask that we the staff on behalf of the board of education i will find support from my clearances but to have a discussion with the creative arts people about the social and economic conditions that are not good enough for the standards in my opinion.

i get to vote at the end and i frankly even though i've been thinking about this i will vote for the renewal. there's no point in being the hold out in my opinion. but i wanted those things about which i'm concerned to be put on the record their things i find highly disturbing thank you for your time >> thank you. commissioner winn's thank you for bringing those attention. it is depressing that 5 years ago we brought up this issue. 5 years ago when this was going to be ruined we heard from amending parent and i'm looking at our racial breakdown it

doesn't reflect the operation of our public school students in san francisco. we serve 90 percent students of color and the majority ever our students are in the reduced fee lunch. you said 5 years ago we were isn't it true a diverse committee. i think you need another plan. as the categorically leader i expect a plan that has been changed and step it up a little bit. and because of our location i think this whole board and district would like to see more diversity. i want more students that are part of the gap that i mentioned to be able to par take in the

opportunities it our school actually perpetrates to our students. 5 years ago i think you were a little bit more shake i didn't and regardless of this ranging i don't know how much we regard that but you're on firmer ground and significant growth for all your students. i have to say that the racial diversity is upsetting and it's not up to standards. candidly and a hashly to our educational leaders. i also want to question you a little bit about our lgbt diversity and your inclusionness and what kind of programs you have for your school age if you have a response i'll appreciate

it. >> so ash that topic around 4 years ago we started a advisory program in our middle school we broke down our classesful from 28 to fourteen ask the with one teacher who has become a sixth grade advisory specialist or up to eight grade because no school students have difficulties they're facing. their identity crisis that came

up. through the program we have been able to bring up those the issues that you speak of and in sixth grade we do a lot of work around knowing thyself and being able to discuss the family dynamic. ask the background, it's a safe place where students can share that information. the same thing happens in 7th grade. in eight grade we adapted marie didn't notice but i you believe it's beyond beats and rhymes the curriculum that we adapted for our eight grade students and a

lot of the topics around the issues that you brought up are brought to life the discussion of just being culturally aware and television and media. things they hear that they see on tv. that really kind of goes head on in the advisory program. >> another issue that's come to our attention is gender identity and help to recognize those students who are coming to understand how they identify and we'll have on september 17th that will be for all our teachers. i was asking about school inclusionness around lgbt

issues. it's a start but it doesn't so you would you have a plan or program about closeness for our middle school that are clear of questioning our lgbt x; is that correct >> it exists within the safe schools program so students are helping others to recognize how to be honest with the students who are confronted with the difficulty of approaching the largest community. in addition to that all our teachers have been working in collaboration to make sure we have curriculum materials that sport students. in addition our counselor works with her curriculum on sexual education to present to students explicitly the concerns they

might confront when coming out in this way. i was going to suggest. you might want to get in touch with kevin. we have resources and i think we are looking our middle schools to have those deep discussions about lgbt q issues and how to create a inclusion environment. so i appreciate that. i do think your charter will be renewed you'll be on a astrologer foundation and that's a testament to your leadership. the issues i mentioned i think you're growing and that you will

address them. i look forward to a invite and mr. on the ground last year, we, sit down and have a deeper discussion about the plan you have got to put forgot to defy >> i think we received a petition we sent to mr. district attorney's office prior to it date. i sent an invitation to every commissioner member here board member because we're not shooi away from those issues you know the truth is i'd love for our feedback about outreach you know what we can do and what are the things we can put in place to improve. we have a situation they're not good by your standards not by

ourselves either. so i welcome you all of you i believe we have that opportunity to sit and kind of discuss those. i was out of the country but i'd like to see your school. it was under construction and had a lot of facilities. i'd to come back and look at it our school >> thank you. i think commissioner wanted to go as well. i didn't want to tax cuts in line. so i visited the school in the discussions. i visited but you were not ott on staff then; is that correct

>> at the time, i was the assistant director. >> exactly and i'll be honest traditionally i don't come to visit your school when you're not renutd so and invest. you may be still in presentation mode. maybe in a couple of weeks but i'd like to ask you now because this was an issue before and since you're here and there's a lot of community members here i want them to understand this it hugely important for the board of education. in t in t in the school district who are

keeping the ones at your school what's deeply families from applying to your school. tell me. share with us what's happening and, yes the last time your renewal was up we heard from a lot of timing parents who said they were not happy there. it looks like many of them shared the information so i'd like to hear from you, you know, i've spoken to ms. torres and she tell me about the times on the committee. she did say it wasn't a cakewalk so - >> i think some of those, you know, things you're talking about like have to do with some of the leadership issues that

we've down through over the last 5 years. there's been turmoil, you know, i'm the third leader of creative arts since creative arts came before you guys last time. i can't speak for the previous leaders you know what their main goal for their school would have been. i know where i stand like it is a major initiative to myself and a our board to change things around. i think there was and i mentioned a couple of last wednesday night i think that was a shift or not enough outreach was being done. maybe 4 or three to four years

ago i think that there's been a challenge and we would like to build off of that. i met that e yet around being able to attend some of the festivities we use to go to with more vigor rather than just get yvette going and a couple of parents but being support by the entire school. and it was definitely i want to take on something by the president to get done this year. finally, after 19 years i say that with some eesht we create