resolve. huerta with cesar chavez cofounded the united farm workers and helped organize the delaine owe grape strike in 1965. she was the -- delano grape strike in 1965. she was the originalor of the phrase si se puede, and she has received several awards, including the united states presidential eleanor roosevelt award for human rights, and the presidential medal of freedom. she was the first latina inducted into the national women's hall of fame, and whereas during this renaming

process, the fairmont stufd has abided by the renaming of hall 73410. be it further resolved that -- that the name change is established during the 2018-19 school year, and further be it resolved that district staff will work with the fairmont delores huerta will work with the public to create and install a plaque creating the new name. >> thank you, commissioner sanchez. so we have several speakers this evening on this item. i'm going to call your name and please come on up. evelyn rose, griselda amazula,

gracie garcia, rosa hernandez, maureen sullivan va, and palom florez. and then, louise, do you want to open -- so if i may, i'm going to give the principal a few minutes to open and then, we'll have our public speakers, thank you. >> buenas neches, commissioners, good evening, director matthews, staff, and general public. i want to share with you all the genesis for the name change of fairmont elementary to delores huerta elementary. discussing with several people with the atmosphere enveloping our country before and after

the 2016 election, thinking about the absence of several members of our student community because their parents were afraid of what might happen to them on their way too and from school because of t the23edth the -- that they were not accepted. the question came up of how could we send a message of solidarity, of acceptance, of normalcy? how to send a message that their service to their greater school community, their presence was not only welcome, but also valued? what better way to show

appreciation for getting their children up every single day to bring them to school to a spanish part of the spanish immersion aspect of our schools thrived proudly. with those questions in mind, the idea of honoring service and commitment to a community to the betterment of a society began to take shape. a school is supposed to lay the foundations that will support the improvement of the lives of the children who attend it. a school is an institution of learning, an institution that should teach our students to standup for equity and challenge the status quo in which only a few privileged ones get to decide the fate of the many. selecting someone representing our latina community became the call to action. we began to think about who possibly embodied qualities about what we are trying to instill in our students:

respect for others, working to effect a positive change, being relentless and consistent, standing up for dignity and fighting for justice, giving a voice to those whois who has been historically muffled and silences? did he letter he is huerta, someone who has given her life to improve the lives of others became the obvious choice. we thought having the school named after a woman, a latina, a campesina was empowering in so many different levels. in her commitment to creating a face of awareness and justice based on evidence of hard work, sweat, tears and blood, in her

own unwaivering result to difficult a message of a better tomorrow, she has become an institution herself, an institution that fights and safeguards of human rights to those who still feel like the system is enkraeching on their ability to thrive. someone who personifies the struggle, the persistence, the endurance, the commitment and conviction of fighting for justice and not just us, an agent of change. but adopting the name of a strong latina leader, we also would like to send a message of empowerment to all female students, particularly or female students of color. our process engaged our school parent groups, our faculty and

staff, our students and our community at large, the proposal has been met with overwhelming support. lastly, not too long ago. at a friend's party, a guest at me regarding the name change proposal. what is wrong with fairmont? i responded nothing is wrong with fairmont, but everything is right with renaming delores huerta. i ask you support this name change. gracias. >> thank you, mr. rodriguez. okay. our first speaker, please. okay. you will each have two minutes to speak. >> president mendoza, honorable members of the board, i'm evelyn rose and founder of the glen park neighborhood's history project. we cover the district of the old rancho san miguel immediately south of twin peaks, cover glen park, glenn

canyon, sunnyside, fairmont heights, and diamond heights. i have to say, when i first heard about this proposal, i did have some trepidation. mainly because the identities of several neighborhoods in our city are being lost, and that's because for whatever reason, the boundaries of neighborhoods are changing. the fairmont district is one of those. when i heard that the name of fairmont school was about to be changed, it's basically the last physical landmark with the name fairmont in the district. when principal rodriguez had a meeting, i attended and shared some of the history that we have in the district.

and in learning more about their reasons for the name change, it became clear that a lot of miss huerta's histories and activities are reflected in the histories of fairmont, including the route of the el camino real immediately adjacent to tendery street. and also a resident who made aviation history, being the first to fly in a fixed wing craft at high altitude. nearby, the home that is associated with mary ellen pleasant who is considered the mother of california civil rights. and even a former resident who amazingly went onto become granny on the beverly hillbillys, which -- who attended fairmont school, but whose father was working as an

immigration agent in the federal chinese exclusion act. so there's many things to connect. so i fully support the name change to delores huerta elementary, and i look forward to working with the school to continue the propagation of the remembrance of the significant histories of the district. thank you. [applause] >> good evening. good evening, everyone, board members, subject, commissioners, student representatives. good evening. i come to you today representing myself. i work here in our school district overseeing the indian education program, title six, which serves american indian alaska native american programs. it is a district wide program. hello, good hearted ones.

i speak to you first and foremost as a member of a california transcribe, pitt river nation. i say to you, hello, good hearted ones. hola, coma estas? how are you? well, i hope. i am the daughter of an immigrant farm worker from a small town close to zamora in michoacan. i speak to you in the identity as to supporting the name change because we ask ourselves what's in a name because we call a rose by any other name. connecting with the renaming, that there's always been names here in these lands of california. so when we look deeper at how

we represent themselves today and how we give respect to those who have always been here, those who are living, still creating that history, i support the renaming. i support the renaming because it is about time. like the rock work that my father showed us and still does to this day, almost 70 years old, i commend sfusd for laying down a strong foundation for all students to walk-through bby making this choice to rename. thank you. [applause] >> good evening. my name is kristina rapp. when the idea of name change came across, and it went from fairmont to changing it to

delores huerta, it gave me a sense of pride, being a latina. it just brought joy to me, and thinking, i've always questioned how we can better serve our students by giving them a sense of pride, and just as someone mentioned, the name change gives them a sense of pride, the sense of your language is valued and also your culture, so please consider the name change to delores huerta. [applause] >> good evening. thank you all. my name is laura tierra. i am a ten year parent at fairmont elementary. through my parents work with miss huerta, i've had the pleasure of actually spending some time with her.

when you meet her, the first thing you're struck with is how much energier she has. she's like an ennergizer bunny for justice. she always is looking forward. there's no campaign that's too small, there's no goal that's too big to be worked for and to accomplish. it's true that she and her whole life story is an inspiration for all of her kids, but i feel that setting the goals, always doing the work, and always standing up for what is just and what is fair, that if we have those people that's run through our curriculum at the delores huerta school, that we will be changing our children's lives

forever. thank you very much. [applause] [speaking spanish] [voice of interpreter] >> my name is rosa hernandez and thank you for the opportunity to hear my humble opinion. i have two daughters at fairmont, and i'm very proud to be a part of the fairmont school.

fairmo . >> i am among the people th-- e people that support the name change of the school to delores huerta. miss huerta is somebody who has struggled for and somebody who has championed the rights of laborers, students, and working people. huer we should take into account that this is an immersion school that makes efforts to preserve the language and

culture of latina children. knowing two languages will give them a great advantage in the workforce in the future. thank you very much to all of those who are supporting this name change. [applause] >> good afternoon. i'm a little nervous. it's a lot easier with students. i am a teacher at fairmont elementary. my name is gracie garcia, and i began when i was first presented with this idea. you know, i think i had initially the same reaction as my students, as, you know, for them, it's, like, something that's -- you know, since kinder, it's always been fairmont. when i had this conversation

with them through a restoreative conversation, it was, you know, it's fairmont. i have my jacket. it's always been fairmont. but then, i started thinking about our students and the demographics at our school. you know, fairmont was not a spanish immersion school before. you know, it was -- it was an english school, and that doesn't represent our body -- our student body. you know, we're a spanish immersion school now, and i think delores huerta is a much more fitting name for the demographic of our school. as they mentioned, 71% of our demographic is latinas. i can't speak much more than the obvious. another thing, i began to talk to my students, well, what is fairmont to you? what does it represent? do you know the history behind

fairmont, and we began having a conversation with the history of fairmont. and then, we also began talking about delores huerta, and i immediately, as my colleague mentioned, felt the pride and especially from the girls at my classroom. they stood up taller, and they felt good about -- they started embracing about changing the name to delores huerta. as we began to learn more about did he letter he delores huerta, i was excited to hear how excited they were about this name change, and that how inspiring. and i would hope you would allow this change because it's wonderful. [applause] >> good evening, superintendent, board president, board members, commissioners. my name is maureen sullivan -- and community members and

colleagues. i'm maureen sullivan. i've worked in sfusd 18 years. 15 of them i've served fairmont as a teacher, as a curriculum coach, and now as a teacher librarian. [inaudible] >> that's not official. delores huerta is a champion of human rights and immigrants' rights, and she is sufficient an inspiration. she was just speaking this spring and bringing so much energy to education and working hard and speaking out for what you believe is true. i feel like i can speak no letter than one of my former students. one of my students wrote this and asked me to read this to you. hello. my name is abraham escalante. while i attended the school, i

learned in an environment that promoted inclusivity, tolerance, and respect. my sister and i both work for the san mateo public library, supporting many programs that help our communities grow. we help empower them with the tools to bring us a new generalration of kids that hopefully will reflect these values. these are all things that we have championed from our younger years and have taken pride learning said values during our form ative years at fairmont elementary school. delores huerta is also one such person to champion the idea of community through unity. the community that fairmont served with pride when we attended, and i would hope still does today. as former students of this beautiful institution, we are both in favor of the proposed name change and hope that those who are opposed will understand

that fairmont, while important to us, who have had the pleasure of having any alfiation with, is simply a name that we gave importance to for what it's been in the past. changing the name to delores huerta would be a great salute to one of the people in championing the things that she and cesar chavez pioneered. thank you for your time. [applause] >> good evening. i am susan solomon, president of the united educators of san francisco. delores huerta started her career as a teacher, and then, she went into union organizing. we think that's a pretty wonderful combination, and a very important piece of her life that should not be -- go unmentioned. she fought and still fights for

the rights of working people to organize in a union. we still see her at union events, and as a previous speaker said, she still has the fire in her belly. she still can talk and -- walk the walk, talk the talk, so we ve very much appreciate that the board is considering renaming fairmont to delores huerta. i also want to say that i was remiss in not getting up to this microphone to not getting up to speak about ed lee and renaming a school for himself and his wife, anita. if it weren't for mayor lee -- we had teacher of the year under gavin newsom. we got parent educator of the year under mayor lee, and if not for mayor lee, we would not have educator housing being

built on the old francis scott key site. i think this is a great night that we're going to see two schools named for great advocates of education, teaching, learning, and keeping the fight alive. thank you. [applause] >> okay. thank you. thank you to all the speakers. so comments from board or superintendent? vice president cooke? >> i want to thank everyone for coming out, for public comment. i actually have a cousin at fairmont, which i'm voting to change to delores huerta tonight. [applause] >> i won't mention his name, but during my last visit, i ran into him in the -- it was a beautiful school.

very great programs happening, and i was really impressed walking through the classrooms and meeting a lot of the students. so now, i can be even more proud when i visit and delores huerta's name's on the building. thank you all for coming tonight, and i look forward to going back and visiting the school soon. [applause] >> commissioner haney and then commissioner merase? >> so i actually also have a cousin who goes to fairmont. [applause] >> joaquin and cico hurtado are my cousins. oh, i hope i didn't -- seems like they're legendary there. so i'm also very excited to support this. you know, a couple years ago when some of us on the board started to talk about changing school names, i think some people panicked and said well, what's going to happen?

are we going to change multiple school names every meeting? and we would say no, of course not, of course not, that's not going to happen. but i have to say now that seeing what's happened tonight, if this is the sort of direction we're going, i'd be very happy to see us change two school names on a regular basis. this is a very proud evening for our school board and our school district to step into the future, to step into our responsibility for our children to see our heros and sheros in their curriculum and school names and on their t-shirts. this is something that's overdue, and i think we're especially proud that this has come from the school community itself. the school board has a role with this, but it's most powerful when the school community comes together and says this is what we want, this

is our identity. this is going to make our staff proud, our families proud, our children proud, and that's clearly what's happened tonight with both of these school names. delores huerta, incredible leader, someone who fought, continues to fight, to make our communities better in so many ways. and again, to have young people learned about her and know her name and look up to her and try to hopefully emulate her story is just so powerful for us and fits with what we are here to do as educators and as a school district. so thank you to the fairmont community for your support and for put approximating up with my cousins -- for putting up with my cousins. [applause] >> they're like, yeah, we need extra applause for that. and thank you to the -- to the commissioners who brought this

forward, and i think that other schools should also take note of this, and this is the right direction for us to be moving and this is the right way to do it. and both of the school communities who are here really have set the model for how we do this the right way and honor the right people, so thank you. >> commissioner merase? >> i want to thank the speakers for coming out tonight to share their support for this resolution. at last night's building and grounds committee, we heard from the principal about this idea germinating about letting families know that sfusd is welcoming, and that there is crisis addressed given the hostility toward immigrants these days, and this was something positive we could do as a district. i'm very persuaded by the

arguments of giving hope to our students, and i'm a huge fan of delores huerta. i've had the privilege of hearing her speak several times, and she is such an inspiration. it's very important that we recognize women in the community and i'm so delighted that delores huerta will join the other women who have schools named after them, including rosa parks, bessie carmichael. we need more, but i think this is definitely a step in the right direction. i will be supporting the resolution. >> thank you. [applause] >> commissioner sanchez? >> thank you. i want to thank the community for coming out, speaking on behalf of changing the name of fairmont elementary school to delores huerta elementary school. i personally -- i grew up during the grape strike that

the u.f. -- united farm workers organized with the leadership of delores huerta and cesar chavez. and to this day, i still don't eat grapes, for better or worse. i have a phobia my mom instilled in me. my mom's a huge, huge fan of delores huerta, as well. and i just personally feel she's one of the biggest heros of my life. i've seen her several times. she's over 80 years old, and it's astounding that on octogenarian can lead a meeting, as well. i saw her speak this bicycweek and she said how are we going

to do this work to ensure that we live in freedom in this country? i want to echo commissioner merase's sentiment about female names of schools after women. i would be surprised if more than 15% of our schools -- you named, i think, half of them there -- are named after women. we're moving, in large part, naming two schools after women. we're lifting the bar, but we need to do more right there. it's an honor to honor her. it's really special to honor her while she's still living. we don't often get a chance to do that, you know, somebody who's still with us, who's still rocking it. she's still bad, and i look forward to the celebrations that come with this renaming. thank you all. [applause] >> so this is quite a night for

me personally because fairmont is where my kids went to school. yeah, 18 years ago, if you can believe that, miss sullivan. so my kids are 23 -- she's n i shell -- she'll be 23 in october. i was saying that santiago was on my hip when ashanti went to fairmont in 2000. you know, at the time, when we went to fairmont, there were openings at the school. it was an unenrolled school, and by the time we left, there was a wait list. it was such a diverse and dynamic community, and we came in, and we became a family. it was just -- it was a really great way to cut your teeth as

a parent who wanted to be a parent organizer. like, it was such a great place of support and love to do the kinds of things that we really wanted to do as parents for the kids and for the kids that were in the community. you know, i had the opportunity to serve on the p.t.a. board and as a chair of the school site council and was a parent that harassed carlene aguera. you know, when i think about delores huerta and this idea that that's going to be the name of our former school -- i was telling my kids about this last night. and they were, like, are you kidding me? like, they couldn't do that when they were there? like, we keep missing all the good stuff. like, the school's been completely remodelled. we were down on the floor putting in our open tile when we were there. but it's just amazing.

when i think about delores huerta and when i think about the school, we till the soil, that we built these amazing gardens. we toiled and did what we needed to do to make sure our kids were in a safe and loving environment. that's impactly what delores huerta is about. lastly, i was just thinking about the amazing teachers we have there, and the women in particular. we had karen zatapa, and vili wong, and maureen sullivan, and nancy lucero. and to be amongst these women was crazy town. they were -- when we didn't have a principal, these were our leaders. they stepped up to the plate. we -- there was a time when we had five principals in four years, and it was these women

that stepped up to make sure that our community stayed together and that we continued to stay empowered and our children did not miss a beat. for people who have children that are filipino, puerto rican, and italian, it's upon for them to know where they came from. and now with this name change, they can recognize delores huerta as a part of their culture and their own lives, and it's just such a beautiful thing. having met delores, i can't wait to be there when we cut the ribbon on a new name, and if we can do it before october 1, that would be really awesome. but i -- i am just -- i'm really proud to be able to do this resolution with commissioner sanchez. and luis, your leadership on this has been fantastic.

you've mentioned it to me several times, and i'm really glad that you guys got together and just hammered it out because this is long overdue. and so with that, any other comments or questions? and this is on the changing of the name of fairmont elementary school to did he helores huert school. [roll call] >> clerk: six ayes. >> thank you. can we just standup and applaud these two name changes? how wonderful.

[applause] >> i really waunt to commend or board. this is really courageous and brave, and it's the right thing to do. you know, it really speaks to the social justice priorities and the equity priorities that we have in our school district, so i just want to thank my colleagues for making this happen. it's really beautiful. all right. great. if you're going to leave, this is a good time, you know, so you don't want to disrupt anybody. and then, our next item is going to be public comment. so i'm going to start calling names while we're -- while we're moving out, and then, you guys can -- you know, why don't we take a two-minute break? why don't we do that instead, and then, you know, that way, people can say their good-byes and then we'll come back for public comment in just a moment. crowdfu . >> all right. [ gavel ]. >> we are going to bring our

board meeting back. thank you, everyone, for indulging us in that little break to give us an opportunity to thank all of our community members that came out. so we're going to go right into section f, which is public comment on general matters. i've got quite a few speakers this evening, so i'm going to try to organize this in a way that gets some folks that are together, together, and others that are not. so let me start with richard raya, and then, let's see...richard, margaret reyes. this is susan solomon, brooke

jones, brittany sterling, and then, breanna hall. hello, richard. >> hello. good evening, president commissioner mendoza. my name is richard raya, director of mission promise neighborhood. it's wonderful to be here on such an inspiring night. five years ago, mission promise neighborhood was a met work of more than 20 community organizations that worked with the school district and the city, namely president mendoza and mayor ed lee to win a federal grant to coordinate services for children in the mission district. it funded the appropriation of a powerful case management data to wraparound and coordinate servic services at four schools. after five years, we saw preschool assessment scores and high school graduation rates for latino and african american

students increase dramtly where student mobility rates decreased by half. we are pleased to announce the department of education has awarded us a two year, $6 million grant to continue our progress by aligning with the beacon initiative and expanding to five more schools. the community could not have achieved this without the school district's steadfast guidance and president mendoza's ongoing leadership. i would like to invite your board to keeping the promise, a community celebration of this extension grant, on september 19 at 4:00 p.m. president mendoza, thank you, again for your support for this bold equity strategy. i hope to see all of you there at the celebration. thank you.

>> good evening, again, commissioners, superintendent, student del gats. i'm still susan solomon, uesf president, and i wanted to address the freedom foundation's california public records request to hand over the names of all employees of the school district. so the freedom foundation is a blatantly aggressively antiunion organization. you look at their website, there's no question. we just celebrated the fact that we are going to name a school after delores huerta who almost died fighting for union rights actually here in san francisco. we know that union voice and union power and often in conjunction with the school district gives us great benefits. it gave us proposition g that

benefits this school district and our students. it gives safer working conditions and health benefits and salaries to workers around the country. please let us not make it easy for the freedom foundation to do what they want to do. it's blatantly political -- even though it's my understanding that the district can't disregard -- can't take into consideration an organization or individual's reason for asking for information, i ask you, where does that stop? so can a candidate for public office in san francisco do the same kind of information request and get the names and potentially contact information for employees? can a nazi group come to this city and make an information request about employees of the san francisco unified school district? sometimes we have to draw the line, and this very well may be

in our antiunion trump-devos era may be the line that we have to draw together. thank you. [applause] >> hello. thank you to the san francisco school board, dr. matthews and the general public for the opportunity to speak tonight. my name is margaret reyes, and i'm a teacher here in san francisco unified, and my employer i.d. is 18505. the investigation was conducted by the law firm vandermite and maddox. the investigator at the law firm has ruled that the matter is closed and no corrective action is needed. i'm here to request that the board keep the matter open and investigate sfusd par.

while the attorney did take careful note and put considerable declare ative weight into my use of the word "huh," h-u-h, they failed to investigator several key witnesses. most importantly, the investigator made no mention of the par whistle blower letters and the par data. i am certain that the investigator had this information. i'd like to briefly review for the board and the public my interpretation of the data that was supplied to me by uesf from labor relations. here is a few highlights. sfusd teachers age 46 and above account for about 40% of the population in sfusd. while those referred to par for the same age group account for almo almost double, about 79%. that number does not begin to address the people who are over

55 and retire rather than go through the punitive par program. at least one ethnic racial group is completely missing from the data that was reported. the average age for african american women in par is 63 years of age. i will say i did get something from h.r. yesterday. they did acknowledge it. it was said, somehow, that age is somehow linked to burnout and maybe we can discuss that another time, but i'd like you to keep the matter open. again, i request that the board investigate and answer the various practices of par and restore the past victims. thank you for your time. >> my name is brittany sterling and i'm a student in sfusd. i've watched my mom fight hard for my sisters and brothers. i've attended several meetings, and i've also been copied on several e-mails by sfusd does not respond to.

i would like to know, who are the people we can contact for help, complaints, and concerns that will actually listen and reply back. thank you. [applause] >> oh . hi. i'm brooke jones. i'm a seventh grader. last year, i was excited to be a new student at a new city. i didn't like the school that i was going to. many of my detentions will be during the union meeting which did not happen every day. i also was able to not present my black history talk on -- i was not able to present my black history talk on john hansen and the $2 bill. kids talked about me as well as the teacher had the class write why they didn't like me and

gave it to me in class. i hope me talking to you tonight will help my school treat me better. [applause] >>. [inaudible] >> my name is sabrina hall, and i'm speaking on behalf of breanna jones. she says i'm a current student, 10th grader at john o'connell high school. last year was my first year at the school. the prior school, i was student body president. the reason why i'm speaking tonight is because of what happened to me last year that still needs to be addressed and bothers me. 9th grade was supposed to be special, but it wasn't. i was bullied, jumped, and then kicked out of school all the

way. my perfect grades messed up; forgotten by san francisco unified school district as many african americans are. my mom fought hardtor me, but to our surprise, she got trespassed from the school for no reason. i just hope that things have change, and if i have a problem, i can talk about it without being fearful of getting kicked out of school. after all, i was student body president of my last school, but now, sfusd makes it seem like i'm a horrible student, and i don't want my perfect record ruined now or my concerns not listened to. this current school year, i just want to be the best i can be. i care about my grades and education. i just wish that the school and the district felt the same way. [applause] [please stand by]

>> i'm just upset with it. i'm frustrated. will they banish my family because we are homeless agree not one lawyer will help me with the school district with what is going on. something is going on for that

many principals to step down. some of you are sitting at the table and know what i'm talking about. i have a whole folder of over 150 e-mails. unresponsive, even from my kids that you haven't responded to. this matter -- this year, moving forward, i i would like some help. ok. [applause] >> thank you. there is follow-up that will be happening -- -- our next group of speakers work from monro. sue homer, paulus ~-tilde,

margaret rader, melissa rosenberg, know about her, rose medallion, peter hauck, at jessica ortega count lilia sierra, andre mar tech hag, and before these speakers speak,'s christy lum still here? why don't you go ahead and speak first before the munro group. and then i also have danny came, tommy craig and benito ortiz. let christy speak first. and then before the munro family , i wanted to come back to comment before the east bay. thinking. >> hi. i am a high school senior. deer board of education members and honourable guests. i would like to share with you about the middle school stem program that i created. during middle school, i wanted to attend programming classes that were not offered traditionally at school. however, they were too expensive

and my parents did not want me to commute on my own. i tried self learning online but did not know where to start safe looking back at my first computing classes in high school honourable. i recall feeling intimidated at my lack of prior knowledge. i wish i had the chance to learn earlier. this inspired me to start and teach a cost free program that allows middle school people to enjoy engineering -- learn engineering safely at their campus after school from a high school student mentor. i hope all middle schoolers, especially the underrepresented, can learn about engineering at an early age and have the confidence to enter the stem fields. one year. one year into the program, it was received by both parents and students. i am glad to see the students enjoying engineering. some of them even started raking basic programs on their own. several eighth-graders who graduated last year from my program will be returning this year as my teaching assistant. what makes my program standout

is cost is minimal for the school district and it is free for students. parents do not have to worry about commute time and safety of their children. my program alliance with the school district's values and providing stem access for all and encourages high school students to give back to the district by serving as mentors while gaining leadership skills. as i have committed the next semester at school to further refine this program as an independent study, i would like to present my three request to the school board here. first, i hope the school gartner school board can replicate my program to other middle schools pick second, i would like to serve as a schoolboard student liaison to help plan and promote the program. lastly, i look forward to meeting with the school board representatives to discuss this and receive guidance. my contact is listed on the handout. thank you. [applause] >> all right. to the munro family, i want to

remind you that we want to try to refrain from any names at being set employees, and there are 15, 14 of you. if there are common themes, we would appreciate if you didn't use up your entire two minutes but could get to the point with all of you here. ok? thank you. >> good evening. my name is melissa and i'm a parent of a fifth grader at elementary school. i am here tonight to ask that my son and his class of spanish immersion fifth-graders at monroe elementary be provided immediately with a qualified spanish immersion teacher and that the class size not exceed the 33 student up approved by the teachers union. for a week and a half, my son has been in a class or with multiple substitute teachers, none of whom are certified to teach spanish immersion.

the class has had limited to no support in the classroom of 41 children. the end result has been chaos and absolutely no learning taking place. some parents have decided to transfer their children out of the school and many parents are considering this as well. munro has always had to watch all classes of spanish immersion in each grade level with a fourth and fifth grade being combined into split grade classes. this year, a decision was made you only have one fifth grade spanish immersion class. when the decision was made, the principal was aware there would be about 45 children in this class. the principal has shared that she has been trying to hire a qualified spanish immersion teacher for this class since april. but one still has not been hired and it does not appear hopeful that a spanish immersion teacher we hired for this large class. according to the principle, the plot is to hire a permanent substitute along with the

spanish-speaking assistant of some sort to support the teacher it has been a week and a half already. i have two comments regarding this plan. number 1, 1 -- when will the long term sub and assistant be hired? how long will this take? and number 2, how is this even a good plan that one teacher teach a class of 41 students who expect to be ready for the spanish immersion, middle school curriculum next year? this is the last year at monro for these children. most of most of whom have been together since kindergarten. i will let my community continue >> my name is tommy. i'm a parent organizer at coleman advocates for children and youth. i am here on behalf of of an aunt and support for demand of the parents from munro elementary. the fifth grade immersion class. i want to address the fact that the fifth-grade class started with 40 students. overcrowding was already a huge problem.

in addition, it is an injustice that the students have been without a permit teacher for their class for an extended period of time. this is a pivotal year for all students as they will be entering middle school. next year. they cannot build trust and form necessary bonds required for a successful student-teacher partnership with substitute teachers. they have begun to solve -- c. crimes. parents have begun to transfer their students out of this school. from front -- for a president -- present but more will follow. this is an issue that affects every school community in our district. we are concerned about our families leaving the district schools for charters or private schools. this will, most certainly can't be increased if we do not do what is necessary to higher quality teachers to educate our students. we must move with urgency and purpose to make these changes and retain our families and district schools. we have the right to a quality education for our students and

numbers are committed to solutions. we aren't willing to work with the district and local educational institutions and universities to recruit qualified teachers that we desperately need. thank you. >> good evening. i have been a parent in munro elementary school for eight years and a spanish -- in the spanish immersion program. i have seen the school change from a diverse and supportive community to a cold and unwelcoming environment. we have had four principles over the short periods. each new administrator has made changes and cause disruption. this current year is especially hard because only two of the 11 teachers in the spanish immersion program are still's teachers at the school. through all these changes, i have been able to take comfort in the fact that i knew the teachers in the classroom that worked hard and had earned my trust. last year, our current principal spoke about the problem of kids underperforming in the spanish immersion program. her plan was to break up the

combination classes into separate grade level classes. consequently creating one large class and two smaller classes. she told me she would have two teachers in the classroom with a larger amount of kids. it seemed like a reasonable plan to me. at the end of the year, we learn to know none of the immersion teachers where returning this year and the decision to change a class structure moved forward to. had 40 kids matriculate into the fifth-grade class and despite what the principal told me last year, only one teacher was being hired to teach that class. it is not surprising to me that the class was the only class not able to find a permanent teacher by the start of the school year. sadly, this plan was hurting the very kids that it was supposed to help. our kids are being undervalued and shortchanged. munro parents are not recognized as male partners and making rational and sensible school improvements that are sustainable. our school needs to be held accountable. any serious plan moving forward has to include hiring two

bilingual certified teachers for that many kids. the district must support parents and children with an immediate plan to keep our classroom safe and sane. our kids learning and thriving and parents are appreciated and valued. thank you for your time. 's. >> [speaking spanish] >> good evening. my name is jessica ortega and i am the mother of a fifth-grader at monro. [speaking spanish] >> voice of translator: i'm here because i am very concerned and i realize that there are parents of other ethnicities that are just as concerned