>> thank you very much for the presentation. i have two speakers for public comment on this. alita fisher and gina sheer. >> hi. i'm gina sheer. i'm a reading specialist at carver elementary. i was one of the teachers on the

committee. this was just a really, really solutions oriented committee, very unique having district representatives, teachers, and parents together all really working to the to find solutions and make sure that the practices in this case, the assessment practices that we were using were really designed to improve student learning. our conversation and everything focused on is what we're doing going to improve student learning and if not, what do we need to do to make sure that in this case our assessment practices are directly in line with how we're going to all work together to improve student learning. the representatives of all three of these groups met, went back and forth, and really came to agreement on all these recommendations. so i just really urge the board to approve the recommendations of the assessment committee especially increasing the number of sub days per teacher, per assessment cycle, up to two sub days per teacher, per assessment

cycle. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> good evening, everyone. thank you assessment committee for your important work. my name is alita fisher. i'm the chair for special education and the cac is grateful to be participating in the committee. we appreciate that our feedback was included in the findings, and we appreciate having a seat at the table the entire time. i can think of fewer priorities more important for our school district than teaching our children to read. assessments such as these are an important part of understanding our students current levels as well as tailoring instruction to their needs. without data, you're just another person with an opinion. so it's very important for the cac that we do everything we can to implement assessments such as

f and p with highest fidelity and we request that the board, the smart team, everyone and anyone who is involved in the budget process prioritize funding for extra sub days. thank you. [ applause ] >> great. thank you. commissioners. commissioner walton. >> thank you, president mendoza-mcdonnell. i want to thank the committee for the work and the presentation. i was sitting a cup -- visiting a couple elementary schools this year and i'll keep the names to myself. as i was visiting the schools and talking with educators who have had to administer f and p and speaking with the instructional reform cultures as we were assessing the data and talking about approaches to literacy and some of the things that need to do, one thing that was evident and clear was that our educators need more time to administer the test, to correct

and go through the tests and to analyze the data and information. i'm glad one that we had a comprehensive collection of folks on this committee to have that conversation because i think it's important to include everyone in the conversation. so for me, the only thing is, trying to figure out where we find the money that's being requested on slide 5 and not a matter of can we make this happen but actually will we find the resources? i'll give a couple of suggestions, even though they weren't necessarily requested. but whether spark sf, whether cost savings from unfilled position, qta carry over, i think there are resources that are available for us to get this done. so from my standpoint, i hope that we're focusing on figuring out how we will do this and take these recommendations into consideration because these are

important, and we need to make sure that we provide our educators with what they need to really make sure that they're adequately administering the tests and being able to use the data so that we can inform instruction as we move forward. thank you for this. my hope and my fight is that we are able to honor this request. >> thank you, commissioner. >> thank you. i want to recognize commissioner sanchez for bringing the resolution forward for this deep look at our assessment and i want to thank the members of the committee to put in many, many long hours to get us to this point. i agree with commissioner walton that we need to stop expecting our educators to go above and beyond and work for free. we need to find ways to compensate them for the time they put in to execute these

assessments. i'm curious about the recommendation to make the math benchmark. we have so many requirements as so much of our educators that i worry that opt in means no one will do the assessment. so what i would suggest is that i would like us to collect data on who actually does opt in and then under what circumstances because if this is not a good assessment, we should just get rid of it. right? i'm a little bit uncomfortable with an opt in. if the committee finds it's not useful and achieving the goal, we should abandon it. but if it's going to be useful in certain cases, i would like to understand in which cases it is useful. if i can have a sponson that issue. >> it is a standard aligned assessment it is aligned to the

standards. what we found is that the usefulness of it has not been valued by the teachers who need this information because it's not aligned so much with the scope and sequence. it only measures -- it measures the breadth, not the depth of the could not at the present time. -- concept. we're going to be collecting data twice a year now. in the fall and the spring on the math milestone tasks. the milestone tasks is at the end of a curriculum unit in math. they are curriculum embedded assessments. there are like 10 to 12 in the year and we will be collecting at least on two of those. >> and then finally, i do want to support the continuation of the task force. i'm amazed that so many people

felt satisfied by their participation. that's really exceptional. i want to thank the committee and hope they will continue this work. it's very valuable to us. thank you. >> thank you, vice president cook. >> i'm really excited to hear this report. this was the first resolution that i brought forward with commissioner sanchez that got a lot of push back. talking to multiple stakeholders and the district staff about the issues we were having with testing let me know that the push back was something deep here that we needed to unpack. one of the things -- one of the pieces of feedback that i heard from you this evening was -- what i was hearing was validated. when i was going out to schools talking about staff about if

these were improving their progress, the answer was no. it sounds like you came to a shared understanding about how implementing the test wasn't actually working for educators as they were trying to go throughout the year to improve practice especially around math and limited time to conduct the test was a big aspect of that. so we are spending resources currently to conduct the test where we don't have enough time and people don't have -- to conduct if t. and people don't have time to debrief what happened. the time we're spending using the test isn't giving us what we need. we're wasting resources if we're spending time working on a test that people aren't using to improve practice. all these things surface through this committee. i think this is a perfect example of the type of community

participation that needs to drive a policy, having parents at the table now is the first time we've been able to do this. these existed without parent and union participation. so i'm just like -- i'm really glad that not only you guys are presenting the recommendations thus far but that the process is working so get us the desired outcomes we want to see across our district. what i'm committed to do as a result of the changes of this task force is to continue to go out to schools asking them how is it working given the changes that the task force has introduced. i would agree with ms. black that if you're going to continue to execute a test and not have the resources to really use the information properly, we have to consider not using the test because we're spending time on results that we can't actually drive anything around.

so if we value the test, we have to find the money to find the coverage so people can actually do the work and make changes based on what the test rules are showing us. >> commissioner sanchez. >> thank you. i want to thank the assessment committee. thank you. working these past five months to come to consensus, to come up with a presentation that i think we all agree with and want to implement, judging from the comments of my colleagues, i think that we need to actually now find that money to be able to pay for the -- up to two days of assessments for k one and two. i know as a principal with staff, teachers assessing their students with the f and p assessment tool, that the teachers themselves almost

universally really want to give this type of assessment, enjoy having that one-on-one time with their students and the students love it as well, and they actually love it when they can actually use that information to drive their instruction and improve their instruction and make progress with their students. when we were giving the one day, we found oftentimes -- and we found that many times subs didn't show up, but when they did show up, the one day wasn't enough for most of our teachers. i'm happy that we can have a window or one to two days. some teachers don't need two days. they actually have a lot of kids at or above grade level and they're not going to test their kids a year before. -- before. other teachers the vast majority are below or at grade level and they're going to need the two days. it's paramount we as a district find the resources to make sure that happens. i'm really happy about that recommendation. now as a teacher myself, i've

never used it, and now i'm using dra. we don't get sub days to do it. so guess who has to volunteer his time to give that test? me. and that's not a sustainable model. we can't ask our teachers to do that. i'm in daly city, not san francisco. it's a different scene. this is a really good way to really help our teachers do the right thing. i do want to zero in a little bit more on calibration. we've also found over time is that staff themselves if at the they don't calibrate with each other at grade level, although expanding the grades, because there's a certain part of the test that is subjective, that you will -- find errors over time. we need to have that time to meet so they can calculate this assessment tool. and i think that we just need

more discussion of how that will look. across schools we need to that as well. we can't have one school assessing in one manner and another school assessing in a different manner and getting totally different results. so i think even across schools we need to have some kind of cohort looking across schools so we can have calibration as much as we can district wide. as far as the math milestone, i would like us to -- i mean, at this point, i don't have a problem with the two milestones especially if the union is okay with that. but i do think we need to monitor them to make sure we're using that data. i actually am not the kind of person or teacher that think it's that valuable that they get reported to the central office because i think that teachers and their own site cohort of teachers in the site leader can use that data and make the decisions themselves. i think that one of the things that drove the resolution -- and i want to thank commissioner cook for coegg author --

coauthoring -- is that many teachers have expressed they feel they're being injured as a teacher individually or as a cohort of teachers at their site by these assessments because they're being reported centrally. that's just a fact. people feel that way. so if it's being reported centrally, i want that monitored as well. i know part of the resolution was we won't use assessments as a tool to actually punish teachers, but we have to recognize that many, many, many teachers feel that it is being used against them. i want to monitor the milestone task as we move forward. i also agree with other commissioners that this committee should move forward and continue the work as we go on because there are other assessments that we need to look at as well. and i just want to commend again the work you've done and the fact that as commissioner cook and others, this is the first time really we've had

significant stakeholders all at the same table over time discussing a really important issue and coming to consensus. congratulations again for the work. thank you, staff, as well. >> anyone else? okay. great. so this is just a discussion. we don't have a -- >> we need to discuss the financing and how that's broken up. >> for this evening, are we we presenting or is it going to budget. >> it was just noticed for discussion. >> yeah. >> we can't request to bring this up -- >> bring it back after we have e need to have some conversations around budget at either -- we'll figure out where that's going to go. does that sound right, mr. lee? >> if i can make a suggestion.

we have, i think, the relevant information about the proposal to incorporate into the budget development process and that's going to be taken place over the next several weeks. in terms of looking at the various priorities that are identified and to incorporate this, the committee's good work in that process. so i would actually recommend against having a separate discussion at the budget committee, if that discussion would be for the sole purpose of determining whether there should be a budget ask. i think we're clear on the proposal, i think. >> okay. so, again, thank you very much for your collective work. it has been really great to see the cooperation of our community to provide us with such a great and strong recommendation. so we will figure out what we're

going to do next on this. thank you so much for all of that. go ahead, georgia. >> i'm going to speak because this actually came up in the parent circle. one of the challenges was -- one of the reasons i'm sitting in the committee is because the other parent representatives weren't able to actually take time off from work, and that was a challenge, i think, as a committee as a whole that we have a lot of wor working parens the delegate couldn't participate any longer and same with other members. so this has been something that parents have brought up over time is that they volunteer time but to think about when they have to take time off work, that's compensation. >> were meetings happening during the day or -- what time were you meeting? >> 8:00 to 12:00. >> oh, wow. okay. yeah. i can see how that can be a challenge. all right. and were there other members of your committee that are here that -- okay. i just want to be able to

acknowledge your other committee members and thank them for the report as well. yes. >> it's hard to resist a chance to serv service one other -- something that's not reflected in the recommendations but was a concern that came up over and over again. it was computer based testing. put it on the bucket of really important things to take into consideration. as long as a test is computer based and there's vast difference in the implementation of access to computers, you name is, hardware, software, it teachers, how many elementary schools? what are we really testing? there's a question mark. we'll leave it for next year, but i'm also very, very pleased and grateful to have had the opportunity to work on such a productive committee, and i think it is really a good model for moving forward. thank you all.

>> thank you. and despite your retirement, we hope you'll continue to participate as well. thank you, everyone. our next item is item i, consent calendar. there are none tonight. next item is j, section j, instruction of proposals and assignment to committee. we have three policies. one public and board comment. sorry. i have one speaker on the proposals, but i'm going to read them and call for public comment. so board policy 5145.11, questioning and apprehension by law enforcement. and board policy 5145.12, search and seizure. these are policies being referred to the committee unless legal, you think, they should go somewhere else. all right.

i have one public speaker on this item. >> good evening. i am a policy director. i've been keeping tabs on things that we have passed with this board in the pastas well as things that are coming through in the future and have had technical things we want to comment before it goes to rules committee where there will be further discussion. first, with regard to 5145.11, we're pleased to see students are required to speak with an attorney before interrogation but urge the board to set a lead and a higher bar than what the state requires. instead of setting it in place 15 and younger, we believe it should extend to all minors, age 17 and younger within the school district. we also urge the board to include language from sections 16 and 18 of the mou between sfusd and sfpd into the section of related to police arrests of board policy 5145.11.

the language provides guidance about how to minimize with carrying out arrests. that's important to be consistent across all policies. with regard to 5145.12, with school officials searching students, they want to be clear we should not be condoning the use of metal detectors. he can withent respond to school shootings and fortify systemic racism in our education system. allowing them have been proven to make students especially black and brown students feel like suspects, not scholars and policies like this do not improve student sense of safety which i know everyone on this board really cares about. they do, on the other hand, increase opportunities for racial bias and differential treatment of students, increase violations of students rights and increase the experiences of trauma among students. we also want to flag that police are still being called to

respond to student issues even with our young students in elementary schools. so that should be dealt with -- these are issues that should be dealt with by school staff. it's important to train officials in relevant sections of the mou between sfusd and sfpd sections 11 and 14 related to when it's appropriated for school officials to request police involvement. finally, parents and guardians should be notified of any search before it occurs. section 17 allows parents to be present for questioning of a student and so we think the same should apply when it comes to invasive procedures like searching our students or property. >> thank you. we hope you'll submit the recommendations for our committee to review. these will go to rules. can i hear a motion and a second, please, for first reading. >> so moved. >> second. >> thank you. so these will go forward to

rules. section k, proposal for immediate action and suspension. there are none tonight. section l, board members reports and standing committees. let's see. what do we have here? curriculum, commissioner norton isn't here. neither of you report up on -- >> we have an update on the partnership with the new tech network, an overview of kindergarten readiness. a presentation about emergency preparedness so we can go over the policies of how students are being prepared for a natural

disaster or emergency on campus or curriculum related to that. >> thank you. commissioner murase. >> we met on may 3rd and had one information item and several action items. the information item was really about the look back at the work of the committee the previous year with the addition of demographic research conducted. what's important for my colleagues to know is that at the end of the staff presentation, there was a set of recommendations that staff has made that was presented at a committee as a whole meeting.

i wanted to refresh everyone's memory. teacher staff preference for their children, so the recommendation is to allow permanent site based certificate indicated staff to live in san francisco and wish to have their child attend a school they work will have a priority in the appeals process. secondly, for the update to continue, we've not gauged demographers to let us know of any major changes. and then there are three recommendations that staff has asked to be put on hold, but actually, as a result of the meeting, they will come back with options for us. that includes the willie brown middle school preference for the school of the arts, secondly, bayview elementary school preference for middle schools, and finally, the transfer mechanism. so staff will be coming back with options for the board on

those three items. in terms of the action items, we reviewed several board policies, and one of the issues is related to district residency. i just want to flag to my colleagues that we're looking at potential changes to what happens when a student's family is discovered not to actually be living in the district. members of the committee are concerned about the impact on students when they're pulled out of their schools midyear for particularly elementary school students for a decision that their parents made in terms of a fraudulent address. so we've been talking about whether students should be allowed to stay through the end

of a semester before they're asked to leave their school. so that's coming back. it was also discussed in rules committee and it's going to come back to the rules committee for further discussion. happy to discuss these with my colleagues off-line. >> thank you. before we go to rules, i would like to excuse our student delegates. thank you very much. i know you have ap exams tomorrow. you should mosey out of here, please. commissioner sanchez. >> we discussed our appointee and that was heard last night and discussed and voted on with a positive recommendation. we had several other items that we discussed that are going to be voted on by the board at the

next board meeting. so we'll hear more about them at that meeting. >> thank you. so item 2, board delegates to membership organizations. any reports on those, commissioner muiration. >> murase. >> i did review 60 workshop proposals. i hope my colleagues will plan to attend a conference in december. there is a delegate a simply next weekend. i'm not able to be there. i'm not sure about my colleagues. but i do think -- i hope my colleagues will show some interest in -- i think we're missing a delegate or two.

>> no other reports? any other reports for the board? commissioner murase. >> i want to invite families to the second sfusd family welcome day on sunday, june 3rd. it's an opportunity for school communities to come and have -- spend time outdoors. we'll be at the park located behind bryant elementary school. again, on sunday june 3rd, 12:00 noon to 3:00. the superintendent will be stopping by. we hope to have -- it will be the last weekend before school let's out. a couple of other things. i wanted to congratulate the parent leadership group that met on april 26th, commissioner walton was able to stop by as well. really amazing work by this

particular network, really great sharing, really great best practices at that meeting. i want to thank the members of the community advisory committee for special education. i had the chance to attend their awards program and wanted to congratulate will patterson, david miller, dj irwin and patricia for receiving awards that night. and then finally, i wanted to thank president mendoza-mcdonnell for residing over the 12th annual sfusd retirement celebration which she helped start with then mayor gavin newsome and then dennis kelly. it was real eye a -- really a wonderful event. >> vice president cook. >> i wasn't at the last board

meeting, but i wanted to shout out to all the organizers of the black family day that was hosted at willie brown a few weeks back. it was a great event. i got to serve on a panel with incredible young people. i just appreciate the multiple years that that event has been hosted. also, commend the educators for the really wonderful he are tirement -- retirement event that i attended last week -- retirement/scholarship event, really, really inspiring evening, and congratulations to all of our educators that have retired and our students going off to multiple four-year schools. i commend your success and service to our district. >> thank you. commissioner murase. >> we didn't read the names of

the scholarship winners. i would like to do that quickly. [ reading names ] >> thank you. i just have a couple of announcements also. this thursday, may the 11th, we're going to be welcoming a life-sized ceramic panda which was the winner of a competition that was hosted by the chang do sister city friendship city

committee. it was something that the mayor put together as part of their relationship building between china and the u.s. and the winner came from dian die finesn helementary school. it's been replicated and it's now almost a four foot panda that was replicated by a famous artist. so it's going to be displayed in the foyer of the element real estatelementaryschool. they are going to name it edwin, which i thought was very sweet. we also are going to be honoring five teacher of the year awards and four principals.

we're going to be honoring a para-educator which we're really excited about. that's happening on may the 18th and the giants will be hosting the teachers for teacher appreciation at a home plate ceremony with the giants playing cincinnati on may the 14th. then we will be also honoring -- providing $1,000 scholarships to students in sfusd or former sfusd students currently in college with scholarships and we'll be hosting that on may the 2 3rd. any other announcements? all right. thank you. great. our next item is the calendar of committee meetings. we have a standing ad hoc and joint committee meetings coming up. budget and commissioner services, commissioner haney.

>> it's at the end of the month. i don't have the exact date. the 30th. okay. >> thank you. wednesday, may 30th is budget and business services buildings and grounds will be monday may the 28th at 6:00 p.m. curriculum and program, vice president cook? we have it monday, may 21st. that one will be at 5:30 p.m. rules, commissioner sanchez. >> june 4th, 6:00 p.m. >> ad hoc committee on student assignment is to be determined. labor relations, vice president cook. >> thursday, may 24th at 5:00 p.m. >> and the ad hoc school district city college joint committee will be thursday, june 14th, at 6:00 p.m. and it will be held here at sfusd this time. section m is other informational item. there are none tonight. section n is a memorial

adjournment and there are none tonight. and then we have superintendent matthew. >> i made the announcement that we would be making a donation in the memory of your mom. we collected from the central office managers and central office administrators. i want to thank you all for stepping up, and this donation will be made to the filipino american development foundation which provides scholarships to filipino students in $1,000 in memory of your mom. we just want to let you know that. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you. i wanted to thank all the staff that contributed to that. my mother finished third grade and raised a family of 7 and brought us over and never had the opportunity to finish school

or even go on to college. she saw several of her children be able to go on to college. this was just a really wonderful gift in her memory. so i just want to thank everybody who contributed to a scholarship that will be given to a young person and i'm -- we were thinking about what characteristics we wanted this young person to have, and as you heard when we did the adjournment in her memory, she was an athlete, and she was very committed to serving others and so those will be the characteristics we'll be looking for. thank you very much for the contribution and for helping a young person get on to college which is an opportunity my mother never had. so thank you. okay. so at this time, we're going to

take public comment from those who have submitted speaker cards for closed session items and then we'll have some time just before public comment -- i'm sorry -- just before closed session to hear the comments. so section o we're going to go into closed session. so the board will now go into closed session. thus, i call for a recess of the regular meeting. i know that there were several family members here or parents and community members from cleveland that are still here. so if we can have -- let's see. so we're going to clear the room. if you're from cleveland -- >> excuse me, president. i just want to reiterate. we have to take public comment in public even though it's on personal matters. >> okay. all right. so this is a new process for us.

so if you are here to make public comment on personal matters, that will be heard publicly. so i'm just going to read off the names of the cards that i had earlier, and if you are here to make public comment and i have your name, would you please step up and before we go into closed session we're going to hear public comment. so myrna vasquez, maria gonzales, johana, evelyn rodriguez, c strong, evelyn, martinez, david alam, n, elizabeth castro smith, and doris chan. are any of those people here. if you are, please come forward.

we can't invite you to closed session. it has to be only the board. >> so just to be really clear, people that are going to be speaking for clos closed sessio- you have the opportunity to speak about if there was a comment that you wanted to make about a principal from cleveland and then this opportunity now is to speak about a teacher that is on our agenda for closed session. so if you're hear to speak about a teacher, a teacher that's on the agenda, then we'll allow you to make comments.

if this is to reiterate or make another comment about the principal, this is not the appropriate time to do that. that was in the previous opportunity. so if you're here to speak about the teacher on our agenda, please -- [ inaudible ] >> how many are here to speak on this item? >> this is very different for us. i've been on this board 12 years and we don't typically do did thido itthis way -- please moved if you want to speak so that i havihave a better sense who have wants to speak. in our previous process, we

would also only allow five minutes for the entire discussion in closed session. so if you can show me how many people would like to make a comment, i'll have a better sense of how much time to provide you. okay. so there's roughly about ten of you. i'm going to give you ten minutes to speak which is double the time renormally provide. so if you could just be brief in your comments and just go one by one and let's go ahead and go forward on this. thank you. >> good evening, everybody. sorry. i'm going to take less than the ten minutes, but thank you for giving me the ten minutes. i've been here for hours ever since you guys started. i'm just here because as a concerned parent, it came to my attention that two very wonderful teachers are going to be pretty much fired at the end of this school year. we -- me as one of the parents,

i'm just concerned because we never got a letter or they haven't given us a reason why. it's sad because both of my children have these two teachers and they've came home crying that they think it's so unfair that why is it that these teachers are being fired when they think they're amazing and they have helped them a lot. both of my daughters are good in math, but because of this teacher, they've gotten even better. they really have gotten up there. to them, it means a lot. every time they come home, you know what i learned today? i learned fractions or this or this. my third grader, i told her let's go to support your teacher. she didn't want to come. she said it was devastating for her to come today because she said that if she would have heard that her teacher was getting fired, she was going to cry. so, i mean, i just want to put it out there. even a child, if they're 6, 7 years old, they have feelings, you know. i can't talk for them because i'm not there with the teachers.

i can't tell you what they experienced, but me being born and raised here, i was part of the school system, and i can say it has really changed a lot. it's not what it used to be back in the day. it's sad to see it's degrading, unfortunately. i hope we can give the best for our children. that's all. thank you. >> thank you. >> so you have a short amount of time. so be as brief as possible, please. and we would like to allow the students to come up and speak first if they could. i know that you have been waiting. we would love to hear from the students first. and i appreciate that you're not mentioning the teacher's names. if you would continue to refer to the teacher as just the teacher. thank you. >> hello. my name is juan, and i don't

want one of my third grade teachers to leave. if he does, i'll miss him real bad because he helped me with a lot of math in third grade. when i'm in fourth grade right now, i moved up a whole bunch of things that he teached me. i'm trying -- my parents are trying to keep -- try to stay because even my little sister wants him to be her third grade teacher. i really -- i would really miss him if he left because he teached me a lot of stuff that i

didn't know in third grade, a whole bunch of words that i didn't know about that i was going to learn in fourth grade. thank you. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> hi. i am here to speak in honor of my two favorite teachers -- i can't say her names. i feel sad they're going to get rid of two of my favorite teachers, and it's really unfair because they don't deserve to get fired. thank you. [ applause ] >> hi. my name is nathan, and i'm pretty sad that they're going to fire my two favorite teachers that i had, one in third grade and one math.

so my teacher in third grade taught me a lot of stuff. he taught me a lot of stuff that i didn't know. i've been growing up, and my math teacher has been teaching me a lot of math. my math teacher taught me a lot throughout the years. mithered gradmy -- my third gras well. i'm sad they're going to get dismissed and they're not going to be teach them. i really, really like for them to stay to teach.

thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you. >> [speaking spanish] >> good evening. i'm the father of nathan, the child that just talked. the reason i'm here talking to you is because we have been having a lot of problems with the -- i'm hoping you take action about the problem we're

having with the new principal that you assigned to our school. he's getting rid of a lot of the teachers that we like, as you heard. >> i'm sorry. are you speaking about a specific teacher because we're not going to be talking about a principal. this needs to be on the agenda item. [speaking spanish] [ stand by ]

>> all right. that's not an item that's on the agenda, so thank you. so just another reminder that we're only hearing items that are on the agenda, so comments about the principal or other questions about the school will not be permitted. thank you.

[speaking spanish ] >> my name is teresa jano. i'm a mother at cleveland, and i see here that we are sad, i'm sad, the children are sad because we're losing these teachers. i don't know really right now if they're being fired or not. all i know is that they might be leaving, and the kids are really sad. my kids have been with these teachers for a long time. my fifth grader has had these

teachers for a long time, and really, they're -- from what i understand, they are letting the math teacher go because he doesn't speak spanish. and honestly, a math teacher doesn't need to speak spanish to teach math. [speaking spanish ] >> and i want to know -- i want to know if there's a possibility for the teachers to stay in our school because they are really good teachers. and it's not just because i'm saying it. a lot of people say it. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. [speaking spanish ]

>> good evening. my name is -- >> i'm sorry. i'm going to stop you for just one second because this is a comment about the principal again. so this is not a discussion about the principal. [speaking spanish ]

>> but that doesn't make any sense because everything that's happening is because of this new person. >> but the discussion that we're going to be having isn't about the principal, and if we're going to be having a discussion about -- about a personnel issue with regard specifically to the teacher. so if you'd like to make a comment about the teacher, i'll allow that. [speaking spanish ]

>> so then i'm going to ask how come the teachers at the school, punishing the kids? i think kids go to school to study and play. and you put your kids in the hands of people that you trust, that you trust that they're going to treat the children properly. but then, they are punished, and they are traumatized, and i'm wondering why. >> okay. thank you. so i'm going to allow one more speaker. so i'm going to allow one more speaker because of the translation. [speaking spanish ]

>> good evening. my name is guadalupe hernandez. i am a mother from cleveland, and i have been at this school for five years. and i'm very sad because several of these teachers that are leaving -- and i don't know if it is because they are being fired or if it is because they are retiring, but they're being let go. and some of these teachers have been my kids, my son's teacher, and he's been crying and

telling me that it's not fair for them to let go of these teachers. and i have to say that these teachers that are being let go, they are exemplary teachers. they have been very good teachers. [speaking spanish ] >> and unfortunately because of the situation, i have to take my kid out of the school, and i think this is a very sad situation because my child isn't going to be able to finish this school year, graduate this school year the school where he started school. [speaking spanish ] >> and i decided to take him out because i don't think it's good, and it's not fair for my

child to be crying because his teachers are being letting go -- let go. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. so we've heard from several parents. i'm going to allow one teacher to speak, so if there is one teacher that hasn't spoken, i'm going to allow them to speak, and then, we're going to wrap this up. >> hello. thank you, board of education for giving me the opportunity to speak before you. my name is david aleman, and i am currently a bilingual teacher at cleveland elementary. to tell you a little bit about myself and why i'm in education, my parents were immigrants from mexico, and they were migrant workers. i come from a family of 15 children. my parents knew the value of an education, and they didn't want that life for us, being a migrant worker. so they ensured that all 15 of

us graduated from the same high school. 15 kids. now, eight of my siblings are either in education or teachers. two are principals, so the value of education is something that my family truly, truly knows, and i try to instill that into my students. so i've been at cleveland since 2011, first as a bilingual paraprofessional, and then as a third grade teacher. this is my third year as a third grade teacher. in all my time at cleveland, i've never been the subject of disciplinary actions. as a first year teacher, my students' writing scores were the highest of three