ethnic and cultural diversity but also the diversity in terms of families and the way families are constructed and i think i've been really fortunate to have lots of different kinds of families in my family child care and i think to be able to speak to their needs with a body like this would be very epic, not only for them but for the kids that i serve, i think a lot of times, the kids get left out, we are so interested in quality of querier, we forget what that looks like from the children's perspective and i also think the teachers themselves, especially family care child care providers are in a dangerous place right now. the more we push for quality care, the more chain store

child care dom *f comes into the city, the worse things are i think for our delivery system, so that's why i like to do it and i'm going to keep my comments brief because i'm nervous, so i'm open for questions. >> thank you. what's the size of your site? >> 14. >> and you have other staff besides yourself? >> two others. >> what kinds of child development -- do you ak chess in terms of knowledge or getting information around child development in terms of keeping your -- >> i have masters degree from early childhood education, and i teach at san francisco state in child development, i've been teaching there for 8 years. >> there are a lot of people in the field who actually go back to stay on with quite frequency

to keep up to date with a lot of the child development knowledge that's happening in the field. >> right. >> and that's been built into the system. >> i don't think so. i think the increase in demand for the assistant of b.a.'s for preschool teachers and more education for assistance that's prompted more people to go back to school through city college or through san francisco state, but i think there may be a plateau in that area because i think that there just isn't enough income in the field to keep teachers there, so a lot of teachers are not sure what to do with the education they just received. >> is the karis program -- does it still exist? >> karis has changed. i was a big beneficiary of

karis, they probably paid for most of my b.a. and a lot of my masters and half of my [inaudible] but when the program was changed and reduced, the stipends to teachers, probably more teachers, maybe more teachers get stipends is not a significant amount of money so it doesn't replace the time that you spend in school for -- and the cost in any way, so that was kind of a disappointment. >> why did that happen, do you recall? >> i think state funding --. er >> through the state, yeah, darn state. okay. thank you. and i appreciate your work in the field. >> anymore questions? >> anymore questions? supervisor cohen? >> i don't have questions but i wanted to just publicly state that i have to leave to go to another meeting, so i just

wanted to compliment the work that the applicants are doing and wish you good luck through this process. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> next up is kim garcia-meza. >> good afternoon, supervisor tang, supervisor avalos and supervisor cohen, thank you for allowing us to come and speak on the importance of early childhood education and our qualifications to be appointed to this really important committee for the early childhood education. i'm the founder and director of los manitas, i'm applying for

seat 6. i wanted to make sure we had high quality early education specifically meeting the needs that did not speak english as a first language. i really support bilingual education x the need for our community have an option for multieducation starting at elementary education. i also wanted to provide quality work opportunities for people like my mother who was a family child care provider for over 25 years in san jose, so my knowledge and understanding of family care providers goes way back, i am the daughter of someone who did this work for a number of years and i am very inspired by all the work that she and her colleagues have done. we as a site are very proud participants of preschool for all, we started our involvement for preschool for all a few years ago, we were recognized from preschool for all as having a high rate of families

giving back their tuition credit in the form of scholarships so we aes a small program are able to this year and last year all of a sudden have 20 thousand dollars in on a need base scholarships for our families which is amazing. we also this year and may 7th will be reck needed by preschool for all, our whole team for excellence in teaching and we are proud and honored to receive that award from preschool for all, it has been an amazing opportunity for us to access a bunch of resources for our families, for our staff and for our students. we are involved in see wages which helps us not only to help raise the quality of our program but also something really important to me and to hopefully all of san franciscans, at least increase the minimum wage for child care providers and increase the stipends or beyond, we need to be much beyond minimum wage for our child care providers.

we're also part of the family child care providers quality network which offers us amazing opportunities, we're able to access -- i think we have letters of recommendation from [inaudible] who comes on to los [inaudible] once a week to provide our education in spanish. we also through preschool for all have been able to access performing arts workshops to have dance and spanish come preschool for all, obviously we have outside monitors who come and we have received high marks in both [inaudible] and staff, i'm pleased with the staff that i work with, the families that support us, the quality of care and education we've been able to provide for our student. i bring to my family work and family child care a lot of experience in early childhood education, i graduated from

stanford university and entered the [inaudible] i have a multiple subject teaching credible current, i'm from san francisco state university and a masters from university of san francisco in multicultural and international education. i worked in san francisco unified in the mission district as a peer professional and a teacher for 10 years and until 2001 when i joined the rank of san francisco parents, i quickly went back into the field this time working for the reading tree as an early literacy coach for families who are in underrepresented community ins the mission district teaching literacy activities to parents in 0-3 setting. i'm proud of the work we were able to do in reading tree which continues. reading tree gives weekly literacy classes and free books to families who attend the parent education program f you

graduate from our program, in three years, you have 90 books in your home which is directly linked to school success. i am also taking a night class at city college now on wednesday nights and will be hopefully receiving my program permit, program director permit in the spring of next year and my civic involvement really reflects my focus and my passion for education specifically, closing the achievement gap in our city, we're supporters of [inaudible] we strongly believe that we need to put our money where our mouth is. if we say we're going to close the achievement gap, we need to make sure we're strong supporters for the children who most need it. as a parent, i have served in

the elac at fun elementary in leadership there which is the advisory committee for english language learners, very passionate about that. i went on to be co-chair for the bilingual community council which is a committee which keeps the district accountable to the action plan which overlooks the english language learner rights of children and families. i currently serve on the san francisco friends school diversity committee, stanford [inaudible] as an alumni which serves the chicano and latino khaount and stan fra*ns preschool group and through my work with the san francisco friends diversity committee, i was a strong supporter of our family's coalition that family friends host every year at our school. i am passionate about early

childhood education, passionate about the communities who need our most support, making sure that we are receiving the access that we need, the workforce, is receiving the support it needs and we're building capacity for the children and the families who most need it here in san francisco and i would love to hear any of your questions. >> thank you. that was pretty thorough of your work, and i've visited your site before and it's great to see your recognition for all the achievements you've been able to have there with your academic program and your achievement program, i'm excited you're interest in this seat and another very qualified person is also applying for the same seat as well which makes our decision difficult, but thank you for applying and we'll go on to our next

applicant. >> thank you, any other questions? no? thank you. >> okay, we'll go on to our next applicant. cath thee herrera-autumn. >> good afternoon, it's kathie mer reer ra autumn, i am a new voice for the community, this is my first step into something like this, that i work out on treasure island which is not really as [inaudible] as people think. we have a -- it has a child development center which i've been a director for from the last five years, it's a high quality preschool site now.

we totally embrace diversity, we bring in people from the women's incarceration program, we do a lot of inclusion work, we have a lot of children who are homeless, i add voi kate for the community, i believe in social justice, i believe at risk children being treated like everybody else. i grew up in a large irish native american family when i was the only one to graduate from college on a scholarship after living homeless in a ten through my years of high school, quality education comes from people who believe in you, i believe i have to give back and i mentored people from the academy and i mentor my teachers to the point that one of them was an award of excellence champion award winner last year as well. i believe quality education is the effective workforce and someone spoke about

compensation and education, i strongly believe that early childhood teachers are not given enough credit but they need more education so the compensation pays them well. and it's all about that relationship building, right at the core is at the heart of the preschool. i do a lot of advocating for my family ins the program, this is the first year we've gotten the families together to have a family advisory committee which was a long hall. i bring -- the experience i bring to you is i have a child psychology degree, i have a quick wit, bad humor, compassion for the children and family and is teachers in my program. i do believe following rules and ordinance that i support all walks of life. i can analyze facts and make quick decisions. i see the bigger picture i'm mri applying for the credentialing where they want to revamp the system because i see a lot of the top that needs to be corrected.

i have a strong understanding of children, i do a lot of social, emotional work on people especially on the population that needs it. we do a lot of behavioral support plans with our children, i do not believe in expelling preschoolers which is common, we keep the children, we work with the family and we work with the program and these children successfully graduate. i've been fortunate to have a mentor my entire life that taught me what i was doing. i can tell you i do what i do because someone gave to me and i believe it's time for me to give back. my employers will tell you i am the heart of the sentencing i love my children, families and i do love my teachers too. you'll hear me in the halls saying children before chores first, if i see a messy classroom, i know the children came first, it warms my heart, and basically that's who i am. i mean, and that's why i'm running for this seat. >> thank you, and i really appreciate your work,

especially no expel policy which is really significant, especially with the population you work with, that probably has on the island may not have places to go close by, so i think that's really important. there are a lot of applicant and is we're short on time so we're going to go on to the next one, i do appreciate you coming here and getting out of your comfort zone and come and speak before us. thank you. >> thank you. next applicant is yohana quiroz. >> [inaudible]. >> okay, next up is fonda david son. >> good afternoon, i understand that two of the applicants need to leave the proceedings before too long and i would like the ask if it would be permissible for them to present to you at this time. >> i appreciate that, yes, if

there are applicants would need to go soon for this item, we can open it up for them and we can come back to you. >> certainly. >> so, who -- >> i think it's the next item, supervisor avalos. [inaudible]. >> so, i don't want -- yes, thank you for that information, so i don't want to get our items confused but why don't we call item number 8 as well so we can have those applicants come forward and then we can deliberate on them at the end of the meeting but i think for the mayoral appointments, we're just hearing them, so item number 8, if you can call it, please, madam clerk. >> item number 8 is a motion perverting or rejecting the

mayor's appointments of carla bryant and september jarrett, terms ending may 1, 2017 and meredith osborn, yohana quiroz and gig yeah stebbing terms ending may 1 2018 to the office of early care and education citizens' advisory committee. >> i just got a call that my daughter had a fever so i appreciate you hearing us. i'm a san francisco resident, i grew up in san francisco and with my husband, i am raising my two daughters, ages 1 and 3 here in the city. i often turn to my mother who still lives here and ask her, how did you do it. one of the answers as to how we do it is with quality child care and preschool which we

were lucky enough to find at the south of market child care which -- i've served as the care and the fundraising care of the parent advisory committee there and through my involvement in the center over the past two and a half year, i have learned a lot about the challenges that the other challenges that the staff and teachers face. i began my service as the san francisco youth commission back in 1998 and after coming back to the city, after getting my undergraduate and graduate degrees, i worked as a deputy city attorney, i'm looking forward nr this role to serving the city again and particularly addressing the need for quality early childhood education and child care for all of the children in san francisco, i understand it's a huge need, i understand that personally and also, you know, through being involved in the city in numerous ways. if you have any questions, i

would be happy to address them, but otherwise i'm just eager to get going and get working and also get to my daughter. >> thank you. thank you for your presentation and let's see what's happening with your daughter, okay. >> thank you. >> okay, thanks. >> was there anyone else who had to go for this item, please come forward. >> good afternoon, i am carla bryant, chief of early education, thank you so, so much for allowing me to go out of order but i do have a 2:00 that i have to facilitate. i come to you as a person who has over 30 years of experience in the early education department or early education, i know i look 20 or i think i do, i'm not really sure, but i come to you very humbly with a very interesting past in early

ed, in my earlier career, i had an opportunity to work with a group of moms who unfortunately through various circumstances found themselves incarcerated and one of the things they had to do before they were allowed to get their children back was to go through a class with me on parenting skills and i have to say the lesson they taught me that everything is a two-way street, that the great thing about teaching is also the opportunity to learn and i took that lesson throughout my career which has been kind of interesting. i had ten years of work in head start and as an administrator over services for children with disabilities, services for children with their health and also an opportunity to run in a very amazing program that was later acknowledged for its work in education because of what we were able to do with the group

of children and fair families in partnership. that work i took with me to the city of see -- seattle as a strategic advisor, and i got the earlier learnings from that with a group of individuals who were looking to see what did it mean when preschool family, child care, the city, the school district came together to collaborate on one issue and what we called it was a problem of praktsz, and the problem of practice that we decided to study was what did it mean to do citywide professional development for individuals who had the same vision but were going at it in different ways, and we took a good two years to look at how we could do things together, how we could leverage our strength instead of spending time talking about what divided us. we took that also to create a

second group collaborative which was around assessing children which is really tricky and emotional for people with children from 0 -5 years of age, we were able to come together that whatever we decided to do around assessment, it would be culturally competent and open for review at different times as we went on with the process. i now am fortunate to be here for five years to work with some amazing in the city, first started with first five. i cannot imagine what the work would look like with the district if first five had not taken on that mantle with what the preschool for all looked like. what i am looking forward to in the next five years is how do we as a city leverage all of our learnings and build on our strengths. this city has so many strengths

and especially when you're able to compare the amount of funds that come here to other places, so this committee is an opportunity to do a -- i'm going to call it a redo, a restart, to start talking about, is it really an issue of slots, is it an issue of quality or can we not have a discussion about how to have quality slots, is it an issue of child care, is it an issue of child care, or is it can we really not have a discussion about what all children deserve and not be contingent about the behavior of the adults. i'm not sure what will happen on the this committee because it's new, i hope for my sake is start it out in a positive manner by identifying all we can do to together and what we can all do in a way that we all walk away feeling we have accomplished something for our children and our families in

this city. thank you. >> thank you very much, i appreciate your presentation. >> questions? thank you. >> thank you. okay, so for item number 8 which is the same body, we'll go back to the same order we had for item number 7. my voice is not all here today. fonda davidson, please come forward. thank you for sharing your time. >> so, good afternoon and thank you for hearing about my interest in qualifications to serve as a committee member on the community action committee for the new office of early education. my name is fonda davidson, i serve as an executive director

at the cross cultural family sent e we serve over 350 children at 11 child development centers in various neighborhoods in san francisco. we serve -- we have four centers in visitation valley and what w we'll soon be opening a new center at the 50 raymond community building within the next few weeks. >> [inaudible]. >> we have two centers in the tenderloin, the western adashing, a center in haze valley castro and two site ins the richmond valley neighborhood districts. four of our centers serve children 0-3 and our other centers serve 0 to preschool. throughout the past years, i've had the opportunity to serve son a number of initiatives and advisory committees pertaining to early education, some of which are the psa advisory

committee. i had the opportunity to serve on the initial advisory committee even before the program was funded and later i continued to serve on the committee representing child care provider programs. i also have served on the karis advisory committee which is an initiative that provided incentives and reward for professional development that would lead towards certification and on many of the elements of that program have folded into our see wages operated through the department of human services and the new office. i also served on the workforce think tank in i believe it was 2009 that went in depth on issues and concerns about how to retain and properly compensate early education teachers and caregivers. most recently, i have served on our city, our city stakeholders group representing the ece community of center based

providers and currently i'm working with the state standard reimbursement rate initiative steering committee and we are working with child development agencies who are state funded throughout the state to address the serious issues of the funding crisis that we have with our state dollars for state preschool and early education in general child care. as a member serving in seat 7 and/or 8, i would bring the voice of preschool providers throughout the city representing views and issues from a practicetysing naer's perspective and to help craft strategies and solutions to provide goals for providing quality education that is equitable and just for all our children. i feel very fortunate to live in the city of san francisco and to be able to do most of my career's work here. we're a city that cares deeply

about children and we've worked together very hard through the various departments and communities to garner all of the resources that we can to show that san francisco is a model city that cares for its children and young families. should i be appointed as a member of the oece, my hope would be to work collaborative with all the voices represented on the advisory committee, to build upon the strengths and achievements on those organizations and departments that have brought us to this point. those organizations that have laid the foundation for the new office of early care and education. some of those are the san francisco first five preschool for all program and you've heard quite a bit about that this morning and this afternoon. but this organization has accomplished so much to increase the quality of early care and education in our city

and serves as a model for many other communities in our state and across the country. the department of children, youth and families in its part in working with early education funding and professional development over the past many years. the department of human services has worked on workforce development and now operates the see wages and has worked with access for children to live in high risk neighborhoods and communities and our san francisco unified district child development division who has been a trend center in developing strategies of excellence to address some of the critical needs to serve the needs of children in our communities. my interest in serving on the advisory committee for the new office is to help with the design of systems that will support high quality programming for young children and reach all of the children in our city. a system that is affordable for families, a syst