>> good afternoon and welcome to the city and school district. i am chairing today's committee. i'm joined by supervisors john avalos and supervisor erik mar who is here in place of commissioner farrell and we are joined by the board of education. madam clerk are there any announcements? can we call item 1? >> thank you. it's file 140389, it's a hearing of water bottle filling stations in san francisco and that was sponsored by supervisors mar, campos and

chiu. >> i know this is a joint hearing of the board of education and board of supervisors. this is a policy hearing and so i'd like to turn things over to commissioner haney for opening remarks. >> you all are a little more 21st century over here. before i start on this particular item, and i'm excited about this conversation and to be here. i want to say how wonderful it has been to have such strong supporters of the school district and of children in san francisco here in the board of supervisors and city hall. i think over the last year or so since i've been on the school board, i've seen an extraordinary amount of collaboration, cooperation, new opportunities for how to work together, so i want to say that and also it's great to have former commissioners of course who are here who can make sure

that we are continuing that collaboration and also in some cases reminding us of the things they worked on and the new opportunities that can come as a result of that. this item comes in that spirit and is in that vein and thank you to supervisor mar for bringing this forward as well. this has -- i think there's really two thing i was hoping we could accomplish and i'll turn it over to the folks who are going to give us a presentation. the first is -- and the reason why i wanted to bring this and supervisor mar wanted to bring this is because this is really a model for collaboration between the city and school district. we have a number of city departments involved in this project. we've seen tremendous progress in a short amount of time on expanding the water bottle filling stations in our schools and expandsing water access in the schools and it couldn't

have happened with just the school district taking this on. it requires the collaboration and expertise and skills and resources of different city departments and we should be proud of that, recognize it, learn from it and i think we're here to celebrate it. hopefully we can have a conversation again in that spirit of how we might continue this work. what this work tells us in terms of how we can grow it in terms of what the needs are and the constraints we've had an the opportunities that may exist. i think this is particularly relevant, i think it's been in line with many of the priorities that this board of supervisors has had over the past year or so, the increasing interest in the health of children in san francisco and what we can do to expand access to healthy choices and also environmental issues. you know, recentsly the city i know passed and ordinance

around water bottles so this definitely relates to that and is in that spirit. last thing i'll say in terms of how this came guard, i was at mission high school and was talking to a group of students that were in their peer resources program and i was asking them what their priorities were and what their concerns were and their ideas for their schools, and one of the things that came up was that the thing we are most concerned with right now is access to water. if you think about that, here we are in san francisco, one of the wealthiest cities in the world and students in our high school are telling us they don't have access to water in their school and this is a concern for them. when you look on paper, we've done all the right things, there's a water fountain in their school and in the right location and on paper it all looks fine, but in terms of how the students experience it and whether they actually have the water they need and use the

water fountains and when they need it it's there and in their realities and how their data day goes, they can access it when they need it that wasn't happening. they told me what was true for many of the students that i came to hear over time which was that the water fountain's there, but sometimes it's not always working, sometimes it's dirty, sometimes it doesn't provide the level or volume of access that students need. you can imagine if in a passing period or during lunch you can't fill up a bottle that quickly, but just a sip. this was a certain for them. i had the opportunity to learn actually shortly thereafter about this extraordinary program we have in our schools, which we'll be talking about today that has found a way to address that and not just, you know, dot the is and cross the ts that there's a water

fountain or water device inside the school, but actually ones that are being used, ones that meet the needs and volume of needs that our students should have on a regular basis that reflect their reality. so that's what i've seen with these water bottle filling stations as i've learned about this program and as i've learned about the experience of schools that have them as opposed to the schools that don't. some of the schools that don't have them where this access to water remains and issue are in our highest need community and our highest need schools and i think that should be -- perhaps if we think of where to go next, the place that we focus our efforts. so that's kind of some backgrounds behind it. i think we'll have a presentation in the spirit of this collaboration, i think the presentation is somebody from the school district, somebody from the tuc and the department of public health. that's the type of program that

this has been from the beginning in terms of cooperation, so we're excited to hear the perspective of all departments in their experience in this and some of the needs, questions, and opportunities that exist as well. >> thank you commissioner haney. commissioner mar. >> this feels like a reunion here for his work not just on water and -- but sustainability in general and the systems in san francisco unified school district and besides laura page who's here from [inaudible] for their work. we did a hearing last july on the current water fountains and

drink tap stations and water bottle filling station stt city looking at rec and park, the public utilities commission and the city buildings and this is in some ways a follow-up for that, but i think it's working in mutual respect and partnership with the school district because we as the city don't have control over the schools as we know and it's an effort to build support for what commissioner haney are doing in the school district. i want today say in the hearing we did in july we were looking with an equity lens on where the needs were and it seemed that in many low income communities and schools and parks that are in those communities, that there was a higher need, though the need is all over the city, but i think we were looking at equity, and there were some good maps that were produced as well. i'm looking forward to seeing if we can prioritize neighborhoods that need it the most and schools that need it

the most. i wanted to say i think the educational programs from first 5 commission to the school district to educate about why water is so critical and water access, but i think capital needs and other support for pilot programs that the school district and the puc have launched and are currently expanding are critical as well. i wanted to say that the department of public health have helped us understand why water is so critical for the mission high students that commissioner haney was talking about and our department of public hoelt has a very good presentation they gave in july, but all this says is children and adults are not drinking enough water. people are dehydrated. when kids don't have enough water, their brains don't function right and their academic achievement is harmed

so poorer hydration can be extremely harmful to our brains and full body systems. many other beverages that are marketed like crazy at kids at very young ages contain unnecessary calories and are harmful, especially if the sugar sweetened beverages are consumed in large amounts. if we do nothing about this one-third of our population will have diabetes in their lifetime. i think it's a critical need why many interventions are needed. as the puc has acknowledged year after year, the water system that san francisco and the bay area benefits from produces the highest quality excellent water totally free and having access to it is critical in our city, but in our schools as well. i wanted to say lastly that

cultural change is critical so having affordable or free water bottles is really important and i know a lot of non profits and businesses contribute, but we need to do more to provide that reusable water bottle, besides the capital improvements as well. our city has a health equity coalition that i and my colleagues have worked with over the years. shape up ucf is one. we're working on a soda tax to help fund many of our water access needs and that will come up in november, but i wanted to point to the pilot program that is in the school district now. sutro elementary is one school that's benefitted tremendously with a new drink tap water water filling station. it's very clear that that school has it very prominently placed and i think that that's

a great example. other schools have some facilities improvements, but i noticed it's not as prominent. i'm guessing that because it was one of the pilot schools that there was a lot more awareness and there will be more water access. i'm looking forward to the expansion with the 36 other schools. lastly i'll just say that i think this hearing hopefully is a first step for us as a city to understand what we can do to support commissioner haney and the school district more. thanks. >> thank you. and so i believe we have a presentation from sfusc and public utilities commission and we have laura page and nick kasner. >> good afternoon, i'm the

sustainability director of san francisco unified school district and standing next to me is laura page who is a great advocate for all the collaboration that happens between our two agencies. also behind me the department of public health. we'll talk more about what that has entailed. so just a very quick refrer fresher of how we got to be here. in 2010 we had two pieces of legislation passed. we had the healthy and hunger free kids act at the federal level that said if you are receiving reimbursable meals you are required to provide access to water where the meals are served. at the same time the state passed a law that required free drinking water wherever meals are served or eaten during the meal period so that potentially

expandsed the number of locations that would be impacted. the federal legislation did not provide an opt out clause, the state one did. that opt out clause was for school districts to pass a resolution that explained a process for meeting the goals of the legislation even if the deadline of july 1, 2011 could not be met and that is what san francisco unified school district did. we set health and safety constraints, having open water con stainers in the lunchroom, not really a feasible option for us here, so we vowed to finish providing water access to all our students by 2015, 2016 and just to reference we're hoping to do that by the end of this calendar year now. the partnership involved is quite multifaceted. san francisco unified school district is responsible for

filling water stations in our [inaudible] part of my solar panels, the puc is involved. so let's talk a little briefly about infrastructure. on the left is the initial fountain. this was part of a global tap foundation. after doing that at five sites we discovered there were several problems with that particular design so after the pilot was over we actually moved to a different desigh that sign that you can see in the lower right hand corner and that's built into the wall that minimizes problem with access and travel issues and we found it to be a lot more reliable. after the pilot schools we basically went through systems

that don't around water access and we have been ticking off those schools one by one over the past couple years and basically the decision about which schools to do first and later are related to the ease of installation. ones that are a lot more invasive will happen during the summer and usually that's because there -- the plumbing isn't necessarily nearby or there's hazmat work that has to happen and installations that can happen over a weekend will happen during the school year during a three day holiday. here's where we are to date. installation is complete at the blue sites. that includes the five pilot schools, as well as about 12 to 13 puc funded sites and at the end of 14 we intend to hit those yellow spots on the map. i believe all of you have a

bottle filler spreadsheet that lists the different groups of schools. there are schools that were part of the pilot, there are schools that were funded by the puc and schools that the school district is doing because we passed the 2011 bond and as we modernize schools, the school district is taking care of bottle filling installations at those sites. there are 25 sites that are being done by the school district itself. and then the sites where we have some need right now, which i believe are here are sites that don't -- they have a fountain, but it's not close enough to the cafeteria to meet our standards, and schools that have a typical bub ler, but not a water bottle filling station so all told there are about 56 schools that are don't have any funding to get this water access we're talking about. >> can i just ask a quick

question. the list that you referred to, the second set are schools to be completed with current puc funding and the schools that are bolded are the ones completed and the ones that are bolded will be done -- >> imminently or by the end of this year. >> right. >> most will be done this summer when the students are not there. >> right. >> and i turn it over to laura. >> i want to thank nick for all his hard work on this program. the drink tap program is a wonderful program for the puc to be a part of. we have a community event that's programmed that was developed by our commission and passed in 2011 to ensure that we're being a good neighbor in all areas that we operate and serve. two tenants is our commitment to work force development and education. through this program we had a

partnership with tech # 1 program which is part of the career technical education department. we hired high school students from john o con nel to participate in shadowing our contractors to learn about carpentry, plumbing, becoming an electrician, all those trades that are integral to things like taps being installed so that was a great opportunity, both last skoolg year and this summer to get that hands on experience. it's important for us because we are going to be facing a shortfall in our own work force. 30 percent of our work force is eligible for retirement over the next five years. this has been a great way to do that in partnership with the school district. on the education side as nigga nick mentioned, or colleague has presented school assembly

which is a curriculum we offer to third through sixth grade about the water system, the history of how water needs first cropped up in the first place when san francisco was established after the gold rush and it also talks about water conservation, which is especially important in times of draught as we're experiencing now. several hundred students at every school gets the opportunity to hear those messages and understand how to preserve those. we have an audience at the end of this program, 17,000 students, to date over 8,000 students have gotten the assembly and received a free water bottle and we become a model for other cities.

there's a whole network of other schools interested in how to make a program like this work. as we mentioned our colleague helped develop a survey, she has a backgrounds in data analysis for the department of public health. our survey is administered to students prior to the tap station and prior to receiving assembly and as a follow-up to understand their perception of drinking water, whether tap water is good or not, whether they want to drink it at school and ask them how much are they drinking. are they drinking more now that they have a water bottle station. the initial results, which is a fairly small sample size from our pilot project showed that more than two times -- let me

read this correctly. kids are drinking water two times more often than they were. there's more bottle use at home and three times as many kids are identifying snow as a source of water. did doesn't come from the ground or wall. it comes from the reservoir for snow melt in the sierra nevada mountains. this summer we'll be installing water meters on every unit so we'll be able to gauge water consumption, not by listening to students how often they drng drink, but how much water consumption is going up. we'll do many more assemblies because the bulk of our installations have been done in the summer. if anyone has any specific questions about that you can feel free to ask her. so our next steps, access to water at all schools. there's 54 schools remaining

not part of the bonds program who don't have a water bottle filling station. the questions about sequencing the program expansion and how to prioritize those schools based on neighborhood, and zones are all resources. it's also a really exciting opportunity for regional and statewide replication of this program so we see san francisco as a leader in this effort. we've been reached out to by many communities, especially in california for people trying to figure out how to get engage wd their city to benefit the school district. we're trying to get rid of the arrowhead water fillers in their staff offices and replace those with the water filter where you actually get tap water, it's filt erld, which i would, you have to pay a small nominal rental cost to have that, but that's a project on the hor rise on.

hor rise son. with that, i'll close and open up to questions. >> i have a couple of quick questions. i noticed on the list some charter schools are listed and some aren't and i was wondering what the thinking about that is. >> at that time the decision was these were the schools that would be included. >> i'm looking at the remaining sites too. >> yeah. and so, you know, we haven't had a conversation because we haven't gotten there yet, but i will definitely make a note and ask david what he -- i mean, the kids are still needing water. >> they're still our kids. >> right now my assumption is they are included. >> that it would be great. it would be awkward for [inaudible] to have it and -- but also schools on their own

sites, i also notice that life learning academy on treasure island wasn't on the list either and i'm not sure -- it's probably not a school district building so commissioner mendoza confirmed it's not, but that school is probably going to be there for a while so i'd want them to have access to water if that was a need. i was curious as to what the cost per station is. i'm -- you said that the complications are different with every school. >> we have rough numbers. i asked the project manager to give me an idea because he says they're all different, but he said if you were just doing a simple retro fit, you got a water fountain there, tap into the water line and there's sewer there so you can let the water flow back down, we're talking about a 3 to $5000 install, the average we've been working with is $3 to $5000 install, the average we've been working with is more, like, $10,000 because of hazmat costs.

so it really drives up the cost. we do expect that going forward the installations will be easier because we're going to be talking about locations that already have water access in the cafeteria. they may not have a bot bottled filler, but the water should be there. >> is there only one per school? >> right now there's only one per school. >> i think my last kind of technical question -- oh, you had mentioned that the five schools that got the pilot that there are some issues with it, but i assume they have the water bottles filler -- >> the only place it didn't work was sutro and we gave them one of the newer models so those pictures were at the same location. the main issue is there's dripping from the front and we couldn't install a water meter underneath because there is

almost no underneath so those schools we provided them with drip mats and contains the water. >> you had mentioned ada issues and path of travel. >> we installed those initial ones so that[.0n] an issue, but requires more than the newer system, which only sticks out about p #3 inches from the wall. that allows us more wiggle room in terms of placing and having the right height. >> my last question, i do remember from my days on the board of supervisors i sometimes heard from students that i wasn't about the water fountain itself, but they felt like the piping was the issue. they tres the the water is clean, but the piping is old and so they -- actually teachers and principals said they had to turn the water on for a while and let the orange water go through before they'd wash their hands in the morning. i was curious if that was addressed.

if the piping old and the water is coming out orange, you know, obviously doesn't encourage students to drink it. >> looking at the district globally we have a very small number of schools that have issues with led in their fixtures. it's the pipes that are health issue, but the fixtures and those are being addressed as part of the bond list. they'll not only get the water bottle filling station, but all that bad plumbing will be removed too. what we do for the schools we have already installed is we do a led test for every single installation after installation and we make sure the water coming out does not have any safety concerns. the yellowish water or reddish water is usually associated with iron which is a taste issue, but not a health issue. the led is much more of a concern. however, we had one school that somehow that led was coming from an old pipe and we had to figure out how to reroute the

pipe and remove the section of pipe that was causing the problem so we feel like we're doing our due diligence so we can tell people -- we sends the water quality test to the principal and say we're confident the water coming out of this station is healthy water. and i'm sorry, [inaudible] deleted during our editing process. >> thank you for your response. i want to thank commissioner mar and haney for their work on thchlt i hope we're able to find the funding to finish the remaining critical sites because we want all our schools to have the same access. supervisor mar. >> i want to thank laura and nick for the great presentations and i'm just referring back to our department of public health presentations to say that investments in water bottle filling stations and working drinking fountains that are

very prominent help reduce tremendous costs in healthcare from cavities and oral health issues to even just issues that lead to obesity and other issues as people don't drink enough water and more of the sugary beverages. i want to ask if we can get the financial numbers so we can quantify how much more you'd need for those additional schools. i wanted to say that as i visit schools and i've been obsessed with drinking fountains lately, i know maintenance of the drinking fountains or where they're placed is also important, but when i've looked at from the lookout with the national parks service or even at yosemite, they have a lot of water filling stations that are connected with new drinking fountains. is there a opportunity at some of the existing drinking fountains that are being replaced to replace them with