spanning all of our grade levels. i want to emphasize spanning all of our grade levels, including our special day class here tonight, showing their support of principal sarah van belzer. we urge you to not only renew the contract of sarah, but retain her at our school. her instructional leadership is impeccable, and we need her to continue to shine a light on the discrepancies that we've seen in our achievement rates at our school. she's doing something that hasn't been done before, and she has the backbone to do it. we need her at our school for the duration. [applause] >> i'm m 5 ry spalding.

i'm a kindergarten through seventh grade day schoolteacher, and i would like to speak on behalf of the majority of teachers who signed the letter addressed to the board who supported the renewal of miss van belzer's contract. there are 12 full-time teachers and ten of them are in support of her contract being renewed. all of those teachers could not make it to this meeting, however i would like the teacher that are present to standup and show your support for miss van belzer's contract being renewed. thank you. >> hello. my name is mirrian moore, and i'm the parent of a second grade teacher. i come into this discussion really recently, and so that's why i would like to give my perspective. i truly do not want to take a side. i love many people here that are supporting van belzer. with emotions so high, i feel

it's really important to speak out for the community i love so dearly. if i have to choose, then yes, i am a parent that has encountered some issues with the leadership at the moment. the first is involving a lack of transparency of information. my daughter who speaks german with me at home was in this and tested out of it. in january , we find our daughter is still in some class 30 minutes every day. we don't know why she comes home, and we ask her, and she's very worried, what is going on? why am i in another class? now we finally learn this is the english learning program, and we talk to the principal. my problem isn't that she was in there by accident, my problem is no one sent a letter saying this is what's being done with your daughter in these 30 minutes, so i could have addressed it. the other incident, very personal, and i don't like speaking about it is when my

daughter was bullied by another kid. i went to the principal about it, looking for help, of course, and she promised me that. she was very sincere about it. and i talked to her, and days later, she offered a meeting. she was ill that day. that happens to all of us, and then, five days later, she calls me at home and asks me what have her teachers -- what have our teacher and what has the school psychologist done for my daughter? she asked me this question. now, i feel really strongly that my daughter was bullied. i wanted the principal to standup. >> all right. i have one minute left, just to let you know. >> okay. now having talked to parents and teachers on either side -- and as i said, i really love a lot of these people that are on the other side. and a lot of people in the middle, i'm convinced that there's not just a very small minority of us that have issues with the leadership at the moment. and my main question to the board is, well, with regards to moving on, no matter where we

all stand, how can a person that has divided our community so immensely move this community possibly forward? i don't see that happening, but i would love help in any way for that. >> thank you. >> hello. my name is jenna welch. i'm a parent of a student and a three year member of the sfc. i would like to express my dissatisfaction with our principal, and i resigned this year from the sfc because of lack of transparency when it came to scheduling. it is clear to us at the -- well, it became clear to us at the beginning of the school year that our enrichment teachers who were being paid from sfusd to be at our school teaching were not teaching. they were actually unable to teach and prohibited to teach for those morning hours, and when we brought this up in sfc meetings, we were thwarted. we couldn't get answers.

we tried to bring it into the general public pto meetings. we were really struggling to understand why these teachers brought here from sfusd to be at our school -- >> okay. you need to wrap up. >> your time's up. there's not time for another speaker. i just wanted you to finish your -- >> right now, i just wanted to say that we've lost our p.e. we had three days of p.e. now we have two afternoons, i believe because of this. >> thank you. thank you. okay. we want to thank all of you for coming out tonight, and we want to reassure you that we're received all of your e-mails and your messages. we are going to be taking everything that you've shared with us seriously in our decisions that we're about to go into, so again, we just want to thank all of you for coming out and expressing your feelings about the situation at your school, so thank you. and you young people, you need

to get home and go to bed, okay? thank you for coming out and advocating. we appreciate it. all right. good night. so item o, section o is closed session, so the board will now go into closed session, so i call a recess of the regular board meeting. so we're going to ask everyone to please move out of the board room so that we can go into closed session. >> so we are back, and we're in section p. we're going to resume the regular board meeting, and

we're going to do the report on the closed session actions. in the

i'm the ed of swords, the bay area vet service agency, i want to welcome everybody to the official ground breaking of this really exciting new housing development. you can tell, it's going to be great, right? it will provide housing for 62

formerly homeless veterans and 60 low-income families. a unique project. so thanks for coming out in the rain, and of course, the folks who will be living here will be out of the rain, right? this will be their home. beautiful. key neighborhood. lot of jobs, lots of energy. wonderful. where else could this happen but san francisco, right? i mean, san francisco really recognizes that everybody is together, we suffer together, we triumph together. the people to fight our wars, men and women working and who fight and die. and their families. boys, men, women. and their family. and this is the kind of project that they should have. they deserve this. and san francisco has made it possible. i really want to celebrate the san francisco inclusive spirit to allow something like this to happen in this spot at this

time. it's significant. having leaders like mayor ed lee who really dedicated this property and made sure -- [applause] -- i really believe it wasn't just words or speeches. mayor lee truly believed we needed to do something and spoke to us, if we have homeless veterans on the streets of the country. he proved that not just by words, but making this property available for the project. we're honored to have mayor mark farrell here today, another leader in the city, who also understands the sacrifices the veterans make, his father was an air force pilot. we have presidio, where there is a number of veterans who are formerly homeless, who has made the presideio a living memorial.

i want to introduce the mayor. >> thank you, michael and everyone for being here today. this is what san francisco is all about. when we have struggling individuals and we're here to pick them up and build a 100% affordable housing development in the city. i think as michael alluded to, we have veterans here in the san francisco that need our help as a city, we stand up for them. veterans housing is something that is personal to me. michael mentioned my father being an air force veteran and seeing a number of his colleagues as well from the armed forces, we cannot do enough to support our veterans. i'm so proud to partner with source shares and everyone that is here today. i want to pay a huge tribute to mayor lee and his wife anita who

was here today and his chief of staff. [applause] mayor lee made housing a central platform but it wasn't just talk, it was action. and he committed to build 30,000 new units by 2020, we're on track here in san francisco. but he was committed to people of all incomes here in san francisco. and affordable housing will be his biggest legacy here in san francisco and something we can all be proud of. and also when you think about veterans housing, this was something he prioritized and he knew the sacrifices that our men and women in the armed forces made and continue to make on behalf of our country. and what an incredible champion of this project and others in san francisco. proud to formally announce we're formally dedicating this affordable housing site to our mayor edwin m lee and when the

buildings are completed, they will bear his name on them here in san francisco. [applause] it is one of many tributes that will happen. obviously mayor lee. they're all fitting. but i think today, especially anita, having you here is fitting. so thank you all for being here. i have a laundry list of thanks. so for chinatown cdc, thank you for your hard work. michael, plow shares, incredible organization representing veterans here in san francisco. hamilton families, oci, commissioner and staff. a round of applause for nadia. she is transforming our city. housing and development. thank you for all your hard work. our department of homelessness

and supportive housing and jeff and his entire team. and a special thanks to our funding partners here at sf city, mark and ron. and so many others who played a role. sean and the golden state woreiers. these are organizations and individuals that stepped in when we needed them to. i want to say special recognition not only to the chief of staff and jason, but also steve who is here today for all of his years of hard work. thank you, everybody for being here today, appreciate it. >> i'd like to introduce supervisor jane kim. jane kim of district 6 has been a fighter as we know, for all of the citizens in the supervisor district 6. her integrity is up the charts.

she represents some of the most impoverished neighborhoods in the city, treasure island. in the tenderloin, et cetera. and we're just really happy and pleased and we feel honored to have her. so without further ado, supervisor jane kim. >> thank you for that super kind introduction, michael. i live across the street from the source office, he has to be kind because i might give him a hard time when i walk to work to city hall. it is a pleasure to be here today. ground breaking are a time that we can really celebrate our achievement as a city and being able to win funding for 100% affordable housing, which everyone here under this tent knows how difficult it is to accomplish. i am proud to represent this

district which includes mission bay. i'm proud of the fact that this city has fought to ensure before my time in office, that this redevelopment area plan would be 30% affordable. ranging from households that are formerly homeless to middle income housing. this is the type of model neighborhoods we want to continue to build here in san francisco. and it will be home to so many of our families who are either formerly on the streets, or struggling to live in san francisco in the working class job, and it will also be the home to the new warriors team and continues to be the home for the giants team as well. there is so much to be proud of. i'm excited because this is a partnership between the city, chinatown and plow share, three entities which i'm close to. norman fong hired me as a committee organizer. i know he's smacking his head right now.

no, no, i continue to serve you. these three entities and both chinatown development center and source of plow share are amazing organizations and i was able to cut the ribbon with you and mayor lee. i can't think of a more fitting site of many, because there will be more to come, that with ill be commemorating mayor lee. mayor ed lee was many things to the city, but the one thing he was very clear about was that he wanted to reduce the number of veterans sleeping on the streets to zero. he was emphatic about that. and actually he has been achieving and working very quickly to achieve that goal. we in the city have a lot of work to do around the homelessness crisis, but one akorean the mayor was -- arena the mayor was successful in is

providing a permanent home to our citizens, our residents that serve our country, our men and women who serve our country. on top of that, to ensure that families, who are the fastest growing demographic are part of the project, speaks to the tremendous victory on the site today. so mayor mark farrell acknowledged many of the people that made this happen. it takes so many people to build a 100% affordable project, so thank you all to everyone. thank you. >> thank you. so you know, this is a project of the public and the common. and really, nothing represents that more than the community investment and infrastructure that makes housing development possible in this area. now more than ever we need to bring more affordable housing. so to increase programs like this, where you have supportive housing, it's affordable, it

reaches everyone, every level of income, especially low-income people, it's crucial. i want to welcome nadia. >> hello, m.p. i am honored today to be here to celebrate this project and ground breaking for incredible new homes for the low-income san francisco families and homeless veterans who need it the most. this project will add 118 units to the 1048 affordable units within the mission bay project area. when i think of how this project came to be, i am reminded by my friend and colleague, mayor lee, his response to obama's plan to end

veteran homelessness and his own 10-year plan to abolish homelessness. i cannot think of a better way to remember him than by naming this building after him. i would like to thank mayor farrell and thank mrs. lee for your presence here today and messing this occasion. i'm very excited that 62 units will be set aside for veterans homelessness and these individuals who have served our country should not have to worry about a place to sleep at night. in addition, the remaining 56 units will be available for low-income families. this project will be our fourth project in the mission bay south area. and it would follow the ten 1180 fort street project and the soon to be completed 626 mission bay boulevard north just a few

blocks away from here. i would like to commend my staff who continue to work on this project daily. we have jeff white here and the rest of the housing team. i want to thank our partners the community development, and more importantly, i want to thank my commission. who has encouraged us to build smart well designed functioning housing. i want to commend our partners, plow shares and chinatown community development center whose staff has been amazing to work with on this project. i want to acknowledge construction partners. lastly, i want to thank sf city, more specifically the conway family, sean parker and drew, alfred and rebecca and golden

state warriors for providing this generous donation that got this project up and running and the funds were able to provide precious dollars for upcoming affordable housing projects. with that, i want to thank you all and commend you all for the great work to come. [applause] thank you. so, just briefly i want to say that now we're going to start talking about the people really doing the work here, making this possible. i want to say that obviously a project of this scope is not possible without people that really know their stuff. we were so happy to partner with chinatown cdc, who are pros, not that their great people, but they're super competent. building housing development, nonprofit, that's as complicated and difficult as anything wall street does.

and yet the rewards are minimal, but great from the standpoint of making a difference in people's lives. that includes our own staff. i have to acknowledge leon winston. leon is the chief operating officer and it's his passion and dedication that go deep. he's also a pro. he knows his stuff. but is committed to the mission as much as anyone i met and work with. thank you so much. i want to say our other partners, again, we appreciate all the private support, but this is -- don't get mixed up, this is a public project made possible by the public and the common good and it's led by the

v.a. that made housing vouchers available to us. they run the social work department, we have of course all of the partners with the california state vet people who are here. i want to say this project would not be possible without the california taxpayers, the people of san francisco, right, who backed the bills. the v.a., hud, the veterans housing program, the local initiative support corporation, san francisco city, san francisco investment and infrastructure, all these acronyms, who are these people? well, they're the people who make it possible. they're the people who give the private sector so much backing they can't help but invest in in. like the california debt limit

allocation committee, the california department of housing, et cetera, et cetera, that's what it takes. so just briefly, other construction partners, the brothers, contractors, initiativy brothers. these are all topnotch people. architects, the design partners. are you here? design studios, castro. so, let me also i want to introduce teresa gunn, she's are the cal vet program and really understands the financing of what makes this possible. she helped us develop and support our $10 million grant that was a piece of this project. it's our friends and partners of

the cal vet home loan that make this possible. teresa, could you say a few words, please? [applause] >> good morning, everyone. i usually like to start because i'm with cal vet, i like to recognize our veterans and the families, if you're a veteran or a member of the family, could you please stand, thank you all for your service. [applause] as a military brat, the families often are forgotten. thank you all for your service. i want to thank absolutely every single person an entity that michael just thanked, because without everyone else this wonderful project wouldn't be occurring today. i'd like to extend a special thanks to the chinatown community development center and the sword to plow shares, our

cosponsor. california has the honor of being the state with the largest veteran population at nearly 1.7 million. with this honor is the challenge of having the most veterans experiencing chronic homelessness. according to hud, 29% of veterans experiencing homelessness in america are here in california. san francisco has homeless and underserved population close to 700 veterans. in california, the vets aren't the only problem. there are more than 100,000 veteran households that are low-income, that means less than 30% median income and 74% are burdened, meaning half of their income is spent on housing. in addition, there is approximately another 100,000 veteran households are ho are very low income, under 50%. and 42% of them are severely

burdened. so with these truths come the question, how do we assist our at risk veterans and those experiencing homelessness? in response to that question and in show of support from the governor brown, our legislature and california voters, the veterans housing and homelessness program was created and cal vet, our sister agency were entrusted to be the custodians of this program. not quite four years ago as california voters directed $600 million for the sole purpose of helping fund projects like this mission bay, cal vet and our partners set in motion the process for competing for and being awarded the funds to make projects like this come to fruition. mission bay is a shining star in the vhp program, for a couple of

reasons. one, this is the first vhp project in san francisco. move in out of the rain. squeeze in. i'll be short. we have a couple projects in the surrounding area, but this is the first one that is really going be impactful for the veterans in san francisco. and as supervisor kim said, the previous mayor's drive was to take veteran homelessness to zero. is this project will take almost 10% of those homeless veterans and give them a permanent home. it's absolutely amazing. secondly, this project shows how projects should be done. how they should come together and move forward. mission bay is a recipient of the third round of vhp funding. it was awarded its funds barely nine months ago and here we stand with the ground broken and

this building going to be erected quickly here. that is amazing. many of other projects get stuck in predevelopment even though they have the funding and take several years more. it's a fantastic job, everyone involved. vhhp is a beacon for at risk veterans facing potential homelessness and those who are homeless. today, that line shines here in san francisco. mission bay will be a safe place for 62 veterans and their families. maya angelou said it best, the ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place we can go as we are, and not be questioned. vulnerable members of our community are ensured to receive not only a place to call home, but the services and support they need to stabilize their lives. they can find a place to thrive. cal vet is here, a trusted

partner, working to support, build, nurture local, regional and statewide collaborations. local, regional and statewide, everybody is involved in the project and will make it a success. i acknowledge the hard work as i've already said before from our partner swords and chinatown and the community leaders joining us today. thank you for your support. we're all working together to improve the quality of life of our california veterans experiencing chronic homelessness. congratulations on today's ground break and i thank you all for everything you do to support our veterans and their families. [applause] >> so this is the second project of swords and chinatown. 150 street, which houses 75

homeless veterans, has been around since 2012 and that was funded by the wells fargo folks and we're pleased to renew that partnership. i would like to welcome jeff bennett, the vice president for wells fargo community lending and investment. >> thank you so much. this is a great pleasure for us to be involved in this wonderful project. we have been working with chinaton for a long time, since the early 90s. we've done great things with them. this is our second veterans project with swords and chinatown. we closed this project before christmas last year, it was a little bit harrowing because the congress almost took away the taxes and bonds program we were using.

thankfully it was preserved at the last minute and we didn't have to go to plan "b" which would have been more difficult. i want to concongratulate the development team and thank the folks who worked on financing. they did a terrific job of getting this thing done. we're providing most of the private financing on this, we're doing a construction loan. we're going to be in the deal for 15 years at least, so we're a long-term partner. i want to acknowledge those in the audience providing the permanent mortgage which ace critical part of the financing as well. and i just want to say that wells fargo has been committed to affordable housing for a long time. we continue to be. it's a huge need in san francisco and the bay area. we're very open for business, for affordable housing and hope to see a lot more of these

opportunities in the future. thank you very much. can't wait for the grand opening. [applause] >> so again, we're thrilled to work with chinatown and i want to bring their experience as we know, they develop over 4,000 units of housing, affordable housing. and the reverend norman fong has fought for our communities since 1990. so without further ado, reverend fong, please. [applause] >> you know, mayor ed lee always says he wanted us to get together under a big tent. this is it! this is it, right! i'll be really fast this time. i need your help. you're going to help me bless this. we want all the good vibes on earth. i want to say that michael,

swords, raise your hands, thank you! it adds so much meaning in life when we know that our job is to get all the vets off the streets. and they can do it. they delivered it heart and soul. we can do a little housing and community services for the families, but i just want to super thank plow share, you've added diversity and meaning to our work. in chinatown. that's what san francisco is supposed to be about, right? embracing diversity. so today, you all should be super smiling in the rain, ok, ok. we're here under this big tent, ed lee's tent, to wish all these good blessings on this site. i need you to kind of yell after

me. may the spirit of peace -- >> peace! >> joy -- >> joy >> hope and love -- >> hope and love >> embrace this new ed lee veterans and family whatever. you know what i mean! this place. and turn to the burn to your left and right and go peace, brother, peace sister, that's it we're done. hey, do we get to do the shovels now? michael, you're in charge. are we doing the shovel stuff now? five, four, three, two, one! dig! can you dig it! all right!

this meeting will come to order. >> commission (roll call) >> the second item is the minutes of the meeting of february 20, 2018. >> the comments are ready for approval. >> so moved. seconded. >> are there any corrections to the minutes? if not, then the minutes are before you for approval. all in favor please say "aye." all those opposed. the minutes have been