>> welcome. we're glad you're here. this is the regular meeting of the san francisco board of education, october 9, 2018. roll call, please. [roll call] >> clerk: thank you. >> we start the meeting in honor of maya angelou who said, when you learn, teach. when you get, give.

section b, opening items. approval of september 25 minutes. >> so moved. >> second. >> president mendoza-mcdonnell: roll call vote. >> clerk: [roll call vote] 7 ayes. >> president mendoza-mcdonnell: number 2, superintendent's report. dr. matthews. >> good evening, everyone. i will try that again. good evening, everyone. great to see you all here, excited to see you all here tonight. across the united states, national bullying prevention month is a campaign held every october that helps to unites

communities nationwide to educate and raise awareness of bullying prevention. in our district, we're committed to safe and supportive schools each and every day, which includes anti-bullying campaigns as part of a comprehensive health education across pre-k-12, for all students. according to the 2017 youth risk behavior survey. san francisco unified school district high schools have seen a dramatic reduction in anti-lgbtq verbal slurs, decreasing from 40% in 2011 to 20% last year. we work with all staff and students to build the capacity to intervene when they do hear slurs. only 13% of our high school students say they've been bullied at school, significantly lower than the national average. we know there is more work to

do, and we're paying attention to what student data is telling us and working to integrate health education, social-emotional learning and bullying prevention, so every student has access to the skills they need to be safe, healthy, ready to learn. one commitment is to comprehensive health education classes to middle school students as part of the middle school redesign project. five middle schools have dedicated health classes. we appreciate and thank these schools for leading the way. second, tomorrow morning thousands of students are expected to participate in san francisco's 10th annual walk and rode to school day, including george peabody elementary school. they will be joined by mayor london breed, district 1

supervisor sandra lee fewer and myself with other city leaders as they walk to school. this is organized by walk san francisco, as part of the san francisco safe routes to school partnership, which aims to make streets safer for walking, encourage daily physical activity, reduce traffic and help the environment. the day aligns with the city's vision zero goal of ending all traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2024. finally, i would lake to invite families to our enrollment fair this saturday, october 13, at john o'connell high school. this is our annual fair where families can come to meet retch accidentives from all san francisco public schools. it's a great way it learn what our schools have to offer and find the right one for your child. i highly encourage parents to attend because this will be a

one-stop shop getting school and enrollment information. district staff will present workshops on how to apply, the different language programs, and what to do if your child needs special education services. you can pick up a guide and education available in six languages we will have bilingual staff that will help in spanish and chinese. again, this saturday, john o'connell high school from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. you don't need to register. just come on in. drop by. thank you, all. that ends my report for this evening. >> president mendoza-mcdonnell: thank you, dr. matthews. before we go into the student delegates' report, i wanted to mention that speaker cards are necessary if you wish to address the board of education. an individual can complete a speaker card prior to the item being called and present it to

the executive assistance. according to board rules and procedures, they will not be accepted for an item already before the board. number 3, student delegates' report. >> good evening, everyone. on the topic of 16th annual youth summit, the annual youth summit is a student leadership professional development day. the next upcoming summit will be in fort mason center at the presidio on friday. appreciate everybody that supported our voice. >> on the topic of inspiring our youth. the opportunity to gain office experience so they can build

their resume and have a mentor at hand. we want to establish a student-friendly mentorship program. next week, our training starts on tuesday, october 16. we want to thank the sf youthworks department for providing us with student mentees. >> they integrate our projects to leadership council. last month, the comedy chairs participated in the cabinet meeting. chairs and co-chairs reported ongoing progress. the cabinet meetings will take place once a month. thanks to the committee chairs for being at the last meeting bringing joy and excitement. >> the mayor's youth job plus advisory council reached out to make a presentation on october 15. this topic is being discussed currently.

>> our next meeting will be october 15 at 5:00 p.m. in the board of education room. the s.a.c. is a public council and anyone is welcome to attend our meetings. if you would like to attend, make a presentation or would like a copy of our upcoming agenda, contact mr. salvador lopez barr. >> president mendoza-mcdonnell: thank you. number 4, there are none. number 5, recognizing valuable employees for rave awards. none tonight. number 6, advisory committee reports and appointments. we have a report from the parent advisory council. will ask that you come forward.

>> hello. i'm the chair of the p.a.c. and my kids go to -- >> president mendoza-mcdonnell: pull it closer. >> all right. the light is on. sorry. it said, do not bend. [laughter] congratulations on the new equipment. i'm chair of the p.a.c. and my kids go to alamo 1st and 2nd grade this year. >> good evening. i'm cheryl fills. i'm a p.a.c. member. my daughter goes to mission. she's in the 9th grade. >> superintendent matthews, president cook, commissioners. resolution 189-285, developing a

student assignment system. the p.a.c. held its first meeting on wednesday, august 29, bringing both returning and new p.a.c. members together. we welcomed dr. matthews at our meeting to hear the top priorities and identify how the p.a.c. can support them. we started the process of establishing priorities with a gallery walk. p.a.c. members reviewed data, student demographics and trend. we revisited landmark decisions that impact our education policies today. at our next meeting, which is tomorrow, wednesday, october 10. we will finalize priorities for the year and establish project teams and develop working plans. at september 12, research, planning and assessments joined us to gather feedback on

assessments. we're creating family guys to go with the assessments. it's designed to help families understand the characteristics of the different reading levels, identify reading behaviors and support their students as readers at home. the p.a.c. reviewed samples of multiple levels of the guides and provided verbal and written feedback. they were developed in response to the recommendations, the district assessment committee made on may 8, 2018. p.a.c. members appreciate the responsiveness in creating tools so they could be implemented early in the new school year and to ensure that the results could be shared with families in a meaningful way. >> the p.a.c. began working with the african-american parent advisory council, apac, for special education, and district

english learner advisory committee to coordinate a meeting with commissioners, authors of resolution 189-25a1. developing a community based student assignment system for sfusd. our respective advisory members have questions, concerns and ideas about the resolution, which we would like to share with the commissioners to help inform their decisions, potential amendments, and their decision-making process, before it moves forward for full board of education approval. we believe any resolution proposing major changes to systems that are directly linked to sfusd keeping its promise to students and families such as

the student assignment system needs to -- needs to inform by family from the very beginning ideally, the development of any such resolution is written with families' questions, concerns and ideas in mind. in addition, it would include input from the formal district advisory council, whose mission is to ensure that the perspectives of our underserved families are included and inform the conversation and ultimately the solution. many of the concerns of the p.a.c. have raised over the years in past reports regarding student assignments remain issues for the board and district leadership to address today. we share these concerns with members of the other advisories, which at the core are issues of

assets in equity. changing the student assignment system as proposed does not resolve or address these concerns. members of the apac, dlac and p.a.c. want to be a part of the conversation to help inform solutions that will address the ongoing challenges that result from our current student assignment system. to this end, we look forward to meeting with commissioners cook, haney and norton on wednesday, october 17, to have an open dialogue about resolution 189-25a1, developing a community-based student assignment systems for sfusd. the p.a.c. is working with leadership from apac, cac for special education, dlac, early education department, office of

family partnerships and empowerment and lgbtq support services to plan and organize the second annual alignment summit. our theme this year is relationships matter. we will be offering four workshops on respecting cultural differences, addressing the community barriers to relationship-building, promoting anti-bullying, pro-social behavior, and building cross-collaboration relationships. dr. amena norris of sacramento state university will deliver our keynote address. >> the alignment summit is an opportunity to bring together your -- sorry. i apologize.

the alignment summit is an opportunity for the district advisories to bring together our respective parent leaders to foster relationship, enhance leadership development and build alliances. the event will be saturday, november 3, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at james denman middle school. childcare, breakfast, lunch and interpretation services will be provided. the p.a.c. will host a table at the enrollment fair this saturday, october 13. we encourage families members to stop by to learn more about the organization. we have a reminder that our next meeting for the p.a.c. is tomorr tomorrow in this building on the top floor. any questions? >> vice-president cook: we have one speaker for public comment on this item.

alita fleisher. >> thank you, everyone. commissioners, superintendents, meeting attendees. i would like to thank the p.a.c. -- >> vice-president cook: 2 minutes for public comment. >> i hope i don't take all 2 minutes. 5 want -- i wanted to say we're honored to work alongside the p.a.c., dlac, apac, and excited to be working with the commissioners and meeting on the 17th to discuss the student enrollment. access and equity are key. and we look forward to our shared concerns. the concerns of various groups

are shared between all of us. thank you for your collaboration and thank you for coordinating and look forward to seeing you on the 17th. >> vice-president cook: any comments? commissioner norton? >> commissioner norton: i know we have the 17th and a time and a place set for that as well? okay. email us if you want. looking forward to it, everybody. >> commissioner murase: thank you for your report and your service on the p.a.c. i had a question if there are any vacancies on the p.a.c. and if other parents are interested in applying how they can do that. >> yes, there are some current vacancies and they can go to our website and that will have -- it should have the application.

they can email georgia whose information is on the website. we just redesigned the website so it's more user-friendly. thank you for the question. >> vice-president cook: anything else? thank you. >> thank you. >> vice-president cook: any appointments to advisory committees? consent calendar. can i have a motion? >> so moved. >> second. >> vice-president cook: thank you. let's see, any items withdrawn or corrected by the superintendent? >> no. >> vice-president cook: any items removed for first reading by the board? seeing none, roll call vote, please. >> clerk: [roll call vote]

7 ayes. >> vice-president cook: section d, discussion and vet on consent calendar resolutions severed and separate consideration. we have seven. i will go through them one by one. number 1, board policy 3230, federal grant funds and board policy 3290, gifts, grants and budget. it was motioned and seconded. a report from mr. sanchez. >> it was heard in rules and forwarded with positive recommendation to the full board. >> vice-president cook: is there no -- there's no public comment on this item? roll call vote, please. >> clerk: [roll call vote]

7 ayes. >> vice-president cook: board policy 3220, claims and actions against the district. this was motioned and seconded. another report from mr. sanchez. >> this also was heard in rules and was forwarded to the full board with the positive recommendation. >> vice-president cook: any comments from board members or superintendent? seeing none, roll call vote, please. >> clerk: [roll call vote] 7 ayes. >> vice-president cook: number 3, board policy 3514, environmental safety and board policy 3514.1, hazardous

substances. seconded at prior meeting. mr. sanchez? >> also heard at rules and forwarded with a positive recommendation. >> vice-president cook: we and a half no public item. any comments from the board or superintendent? roll call vote, please. >> clerk: [roll call vote] 7 ayes. >> vice-president cook: board policy -- 6 ayes. okay. we're missing ms. mendoza. board policy 415 up, 4251,

employee compensation, and 4351, administrative and supervisor personnel employee compensation. this was moved and seconded at a prior meeting. report from commissioner sanchez? >> also heard in rules and forwarded with positive recommendation to the full board. >> vice-president cook: superintendent, do you have a designee to read it into the record? >> this item is to approve 4151, certificated employees, 4251, certified employees, and 4351, administrative and supervisor compensation. >> vice-president cook: thank

you. any comments from board members. seeing none, roll call vote, please. >> clerk: [roll call vote] 7 ayes. [laughter] >> vice-president cook: okay. number 5, board policy 0410, nondiscrimination in district programs and activities and board policy 5145.3, nondiscrimination/harassment, board policy 5145.9, hate-motivated behavior. moved and seconded at a prior meeting. report from rules committee. >> heard at rules and forwarded with a positive recommendation.

>> vice-president cook: thank you. superintendent matthews, do you have a designate to read into the record? >> daniel hoak. >> we're asking the board to approve 410, 5145.3 and 5145.9. >> vice-president cook: thank you. no public comment. any members? seeing none, roll call vote, please. >> clerk: [roll call vote] 6 ayes. >> vice-president cook: number 6, board policy 3551, food service operations/cafeteria fund. moved and seconded at prior

meeting. we have a report from rules committee. >> also heard in rules and sent to the full board with positive recommendation. >> vice-president cook: superintendent man use, a designate to read into the record? >> good evening, superintendent and commissioners. asking the board tonight to approve board policy 3551, food service operations/cafeteria fund. >> vice-president cook: thank you. no public comment on this item. any comments from the board? commissioner -- >> commissioner sanchez: are we striking out american commodities and board of education following policy, are

we taking the two areas out? >> good evening, commissioner. it's a new board policy and the red line are the edits that came from the rules discussion. >> he's smarter than i am, because it doesn't make sense to me. i'm curious how the policy interacts with the food purchasing policy. >> it complements it well and that's part of why we added in that language. it's a requirement for us to have this policy, which is way we're moving it forward and wanted to make it ex-poliplicit the language. >> vice-president cook: any other questions? roll call vote, please. >> clerk: [roll call vote]

6 ayes. >> vice-president cook: number 7, board policy 5101, student assignment, board policy 5120.1, lowell high school admissions policy. moved and seconded at a prior meeting. we have a committee report already given at the last meeting. superintendent matthews, do you have a dis adesignant? >> we're asking the board to accept 5101, and 5120.1, lowell high school admissions policy for approval. >> vice-president cook: okay. thank you. we have -- >> does the whole resolution need to be read?

>> vice-president cook: we have several speakers signed up for this item. if you hear your name called, make your way to the podium. you will have 2 minutes to comment. i apologize in advance if i mispronounce your name. orpheu crutchfield. deborah jones. terrence abhad. john trevina. kate lazarus. annie lee. if you heard your name called, please make your way to the podium.

>> good evening, commissioners. thank you for having me. superintendent. >> vice-president cook: hold on a second, while we get the timer ready. >> okay. sorry. >> vice-president cook: please continue. >> i'm a lowell graduate, 1985. and i decided to continue to volunteer with my alma mater and district and so i'm a co-chair of the diversity inclusion and equity committee. one thing that seemed to resonate at the last meeting, one of the policy meetings is that we're not just interested in getting underrepresented students into lowell. we're interested in getting underrepresented students graduated from lowell. so something that being alumni, we've been there and done that

and we know that we desperately want to have more people like us who get there and do that and so what we ask you to do is to please slow down and allow some input from lowell. we really want to get together with leadership, with stake holders, and make sure that there is more on the lines of retention than just recruitment. we have a meeting with apac and we'll talk about what we have in common and we hope that we can actually make sure that we really feel that it will be

important in ensuring that underrepresented, underserved families get a full opportunity to compete and thrive at lowell and we really would luke for a pre-high school achievement enrichment program we can talk about more later to happen. thank you. >> good evening, commissioners, superintendent. my name is deborah jones. i'm a member of the graduating class of 1973. and i'm a member of the lowell high school alumni board of association directors. want to thank the district for its efforts to in crease diversity at my alma mater, something that's of utmost importance to my colleagues and i. i attended lowell at a time when the enrollment of

african-american and latino students, a.k.a., underrepresented, was actually very high. i'm proud to say that many of my classmates of color are today's medical and legal professionals, financiers, entrepeneurs, public officials, educators, and like me, planners and engineers. we entered lowell very well prepared by our middle schools in the city. we came from schools in bayview-hunters point. i'm an old school san franciscan so i will use the names that i knew. fillmore, the mission, and from my old neighborhood -- ingleside/lakeview. we had differing histories of academic and personal involvement. black and brown 'excellence was

in full effect. it was always a rigorous environment. a student must be well prepared. i reviewed the sarc for willie brown middle school and i find statistics that are concerning. only 10% of the students in grades 3-8 and 11 are meeting state standards for math and only 20% e.l.a. standards. basically, what i want to encourage you to do is to slow down this process and allow us to work with you to create a transition program that supports these and other students to close the achievement gap. >> vice-president cook: thank you. >> that's your goal. i know you would want that for the students at lowell.

>> dr. matthews, president cook, i'm terry aybad, lowell alumni association. is there a problem to be addressed? yes. we agree there is. due to the fact that willie brown middle school has no existing track record of applications and admissions to lowell, they've been excluded. that needs to be fixed. the policy before you to deal with this problem is not even-handed, not well-thought-out, or backed up by research and analysis. it looks like it's taken an off-the-shelf figure of 64 points as being a magic number, without any understanding of what that means. so i think that this policy as currently written creates more problems than it solves. i also think it's worth noting,

as i was very happy to hear, 21 members of the willie brown middle school inaugural class of 2018 qualified for admission to lowell under bands 1 and 2, not 3, because they were not included in band 3. and 17 of those students are enrolled as 9th graders at lowell. i think that's a great thing for lowell. it's a great thing for willie brown middle school. but what we need to do is under this proposal, find a way if we're going to expand admissions from willie brown to lowell to make sure that those students proceed. the current proposal threatens to reduce diversity at lowell because the students from willie brown will crowd out other band 3 admissions from other schools. if there are an additional 50 students from willie brown middle school admitted under band 3, that's almost half of the band 3 admissions for lowell

in a given year. it will crowd out students from other neighborhoods and parts of town and decrease racial and ethn ethnic diversity. i think the policy needs a rework. >> good evening. i'm john trezina. i'm disappointed to be before you tonight not so much in opposition to this proposal, but to urge you to send it become for study and consultation. the study and consultation that commissioners haney and murase said would definitely have to happen with two schools involved. it hasn't happened. i wrote to each men member of the board. superintendent said the staff would get back it me. didn't do it it. superintendent tang wrote to the board. no response. this is an important proposal. our students expect more and should have more. students of the entire district. this is a proposal that does not

need rushing. band three schools are not identified until march. no need to rush this tonight with the appropriate consultation from the two schools and from the larger community. and not considering what the lowell alumni association is considering, a robust mentoring program. start with willie brown middle school as a pilot, but all the students to increase diversity should have access to a pro rob mentoring program we would like to be a part of. this proposal shortchanges diverse students from other schools who have under the proposal a recommendation from their principal. there is no such requirement for students from one school it have a recommendation from their principal that they will thrive at lowell. we think it's important because the way this is set up, and it's all in the details, which i hope you are familiar with, this

proposal would permit students who have a c plus average or below 50 percentile, either one, to be admitted to lowell automatically. there is confusing language, qualifying for admission or recommended for admission. you can do better. we can do better. together we want to be able it have a strong proposal and increase diversity at lowell and something we can be proud of for our middle school students and for our city. thank you. >> vice-president cook: i'm going to call up a few more we have. supervisor katy tang. roana baptiste. louis lee. virginia marshall. >> good evening. i'm annie lee. i was born and raised in san francisco, where i work as a civil rights attorney. i appreciate the opportunity to make public comments in support of the changes to lowell's admissions policy. for too long sfusd has allowed

lowell to operate as an exclusionary island separate and apart from the other schools in our city. it's unacceptable that san francisco schools including lowell are racially segregated because racial segregation hampers achievement. one, reversing the trend of racial isolation and concentration of underserved students in the same school. two, providing equitable access to the range of those to students. improving the admissions process is the first step to achieving the goals. i support allowing 8th graders from willie brown middle school who meet band 3 threshold to apply. willie brown has one of the largest african-american population. if the board wants equitable

access to underserved students, meet them where they are. i want it address some of the concerns that other people have stated about if students willie brown belong at lowell and if they can be retained. before i was a civil rights attorney, i taught 11th grade u.s. history in the bronx. i can assure you that all students can excel when they have teachers that hold them to high expectations and create meaningful, relevant and rigorous curriculum. these amazing teachers exist throughout sfusd, but especially at lowell, who has some of the highest concentrations of veteran teachers with deep knowledge and extensive experience teaching a.p. courses. this is why this is so important. for too long, the students at

most need of education has been excluded. thank you in advance for changing this policy. >> good evening. i'm bevette bracket, alumni of lowell high school. i also attended lowell in the '90s when they had their step-to-college program, which is a successful program that helps students that were in what is regarded as band 3, be successful at lowell and they were not only successful we graduated at higher rates than before. i would like to be clear about what's happening today. what's happening today, we have a culture at lowell that has had racial disharmony. there's always been certain staff members and alumni that have pushed or prevented the rest of the district from knowing what happens at the school. that's why most of the students are having issues while at lowell academically, because emotionally they're stunted from

growth. so beyond that, i'm very concerned about what the statements have been today, surrounding the achievement of black and brown students that meet that threshold and the trump-like rhetoric saying that the black students are not able to compete with other students that are in private schools, who are meeting that same 64-point threshold. let me read off some of the names of the private schools so we're clear that it's not just public schools as they try to mislead you in the previous statements. i will read that, if you can give me a moment. the names of the schools are this, cathedral school for boys, covenant of the sacred heart, the french american international, san francisco community.

immaculate conception. our lady of visitation. the hanlon's. stewart hall for boys. these are the schools that are going in and have special admissions through band 3 right now. to say that a public school in our district should not qualify under that is disgusting. >> vice-president cook: thank you. thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. katy tang here. i have two different hats. one a proud graduate from sfusd. and one a policymaker. i come here you might think because i graduated from lowell that i'm here to try to preserve the lowell admissions process to as some people try to

characterize as keeping it segregated. that's not the case. i share your goal in wanting to make lowell a diverse school and wanting to make sure that everyone from every community succeeds when they attend lowell and they can get into lowell. and so i want it hone in on one particular point that i had in my letter that i sent about two weeks ago, which is that, why i'm opposed month the policy is not because of the goals that wore all trying to achieve. i want to see more discussion and more in terms of how we're going to evaluate whether what you will be doing will have a huge impact on the middle school students that want to attend lowell, for example. i want to know the criteria, the metrics. how do we know that maybe if this policy does succeed, do we need to adjust it, readjust? do we need to think about other ways? even tonight, i heard some ideas that i think will be good in terms of starting with younger students to make sure that they're supported not just at the middle school level, but

even the elementary level to ensure that they can have a great success at getting into schools like lowell. even also other schools in san francisco unified school district. the other thing i had an issue with is calling out one particular middle school. we have to give a chance to diverse communities from all middle schools. again, i understand there may be challenges with a new school, which is willie brown just starting out, but i do think that we cannot discount what we need to do to lift up students from other middle schools throughout san francisco unified. those are the main points, not just to say that we need to keep lowell the way it is. absolutely, let's make it more diverse, but in a more thoughtful approach, where we have evaluation metrics to see what we're doing actually works. thank you very much. >> good evening, commissioners. i'm rianne batiste, co-chair of

african-american advisory council and have been at willie brown from day one and close ally with the teachers and counsello counsellors. we stand by the letter that we wrote to you all a few weeks ago. we're asking for equitable access for the students. we're not trying to unindate lowell with our students. i asked the counsellor to give me information for lowell because the concerns i'm hearing across the board is that we want all of our students there. actually, we don't. of our 83 graduating eighth grade class, only 11 want to go to lowell as one of their top three schools. so this is not a huge number that's going to go off the charts and going to break any admissions policy.

all we're asking is for equitable access. that's it. we don't want special treatment. we've want our babies to be in an environment where they will be supported and loved. the majority of our students want to be with their fellow students. surprise. and they're not at lowell. they're at other high schools throughout sfusd and they have good sports teams and they have a sense of community and belonging. that's where our students want to be. but we're only asking for equitable access for our students that want to go. that's it. >> vice-president coo >> vice-president cook: ms. fisher, calling your name. go ahead, ms. marshall. >>

>> vice-president cook: we need your mike. >> i'm virginia fisher. we thank you for this proposed change for the lowell admissions. i was sitting here thinking, i never talk about my personal children, but more than 25 years ago, the counsellor at my daughter's school calls me and said, i think that marissa should go to lowell. i said, absolutely not. i want my child to be in a nurturing environment. she went to bergmann. so i'm sitting here and i thought about someone who said, i'm sick and tired of being sick arrested tired. rosa parks said, my feet hurt. i'm not sitting in the back of the bus. this is the 21st century. it's 2018. when will we ever have an opportunity for our children to

go to lowell high school without people coming in to complain, not on my watch, not at my school. now the alumni. i was sitting here thinking and i thought to myself, alumni, what were you going to come here and say, i want to be a mentor to the willie brown students. i want to be a mentor to the apac. so i thank you, again, i thank you for having the vision to change. there should not be a golden school in the district. every school, all 100 plus schools, should be excellent schools. so we want to take the students from willie brown over to lowell. i thought about the bsu president that marched and said there were students that told us they were tired of being

mistreated at lowell. so i commend you. president brown is out of state, in washington, d.c., but there will be another to speak in support. thank you so much. >> vice-president cook: ms. fisher. i have louis lee here, reverend townsend, sara saldana. >> good evening. thank you, president cook. it's nice to say that, by the way, president cook. i'm going to frame this a little bit. we're talking about 11 students at willie brown that are interested in going to lowell.

2,728 students at lowell. willie brown, 387. demographics at lowell have been 1.9% african-american. this year, 1.8%. as the chair of the special education community advisory committee, would be remiss if i didn't mention that there was less than 5% special education population and we have 11% in the district. as we highlight all the time, just because our students look different or might have invisible learning disabilities, doesn't mean they're not able to achieve. so we're just asking for equitable access and i think this policy is a great first step. if not now, when? thank you. >> hello. hi. i'm louis. thank you for the time here to

speak. i don't represent a p.a.c. or lowell alumni association, but i'm a graduate of lowell. i was going to talk about the racial injustices of disallowing a population it allow other people into lowell. i'm not going to go there. what i want to talk to you about is as someone mentioned before me about retention and recruitment. and that's the gist of what i want to speak to today. i have a lot of friends who are hispanic and black that flunked out by 10th grade. they had no concept of how to study. the intent was there. they gave maximum effort, but had to travel a long way to get to lowell, which is a lot of them lived in bayview and the mission and i still remember the faces of my friends who didn't graduate with me. they flunked out by 10th or 11th

grade. all the cuts, resource cuts at lowell, really impacted the sustainability, viability and it is what is heartbreaking. you let the kids in and then they don't have too many options to succeed because you are going in there, i'm going in there with a certain amount of learning and they're going in there and in the same class trying to figure out how to do multiplication and division and a lot of us are doing algebra and geometry. it's sink or swim.

>> they say it's a great place for us. we are lowell. [applause] >> my name is julie robertson. even though some of the comments that we've heard tonight have been very sensitive to students and families, there is a sanitized version. it's racist to assume black and

latino students will not exceed. they will continue to. it's also offensive to assume that within 2,700 students and there's only room for the 49 black students there now. if there is not enough room in the bands, expand the band. i also want to point out there's nothing stopping lowell from supporting students there now and continuing to support students. the only thing supporting students is having access to the school. nothing is stopping lowell from being a meat blinder and there are folks within lowell who are work to go make sure it's more inclusive environment. i feel like the conversations we have taking back and listening to -- their school district was

folded into another district so they integrated the schools. to hear the white parents' comments about that situation and hear the same kind of comments echos in san francisco school board meetings is deeply disheartening. so in echo, this modest correction of an error that would otherwise exclude students from lilly brown from having access to the a.p. courses at lowell needs to be corrected and i feel like it's just the beginning of the conversation. it's deeply sad to hear that families are here in opposition. thank you. >> thank you, president cook. members, as the vice president

i'm representing the naacp as president brown is out of town. let me just say a couple of things quickly. i just heard a lowell graduate speak and it becomes very clear to me that they don't teach everything at lowell. that's for sure. there's certainly some things about diversity they're missing. i know it fits with what people's preconceived notion and it makes them very comfortable and secure within themselves to believe that african american students and latino students are not capable of surviving at lowell and achieving and excelling. only us, we're the only ones that are smart enough to do it and i know that probably makes them feel good at night. and later in life when some things don't go as well. we know, those of us