sites. so providing something like the tiered fidelity index along with the score card could be great way to help our schools focus more on social emotional supports. i also wanted to point out as a highlight, inclusive schools week, we appreciate everyone's participation. one of the things we do every year, we have a spreadsheet -- there is a whole bunch of information that goes out to every school. there is a pact, a letter from dr. matthews, pact from special education. this year, julia martin walked to every elementary school and made sure they had the information related to inclusive school week. but the follow-up spreadsheet, last year, 75 schools filled it out. this year, only 28. inclusive schools week for us is a good barometer how seriously

schools take their models of inclusive practices. so that's very concerning to us as caa. -- cac. and professional development, we wanted to point out, we appreciate that everyone's time is very valuable. and, frankly, the conversations surrounding professional development days that were held around the instructional calendar concerned us quite a bit. one of the areas of need that we feel for staff, particularly general ed teachers, 76% of them sit in general ed, so we think that professional development surrounding inclusivity is critically important. in fact, we'd like to see -- we understand the challenges of getting subs, scheduling time out of the classroom, so we would like to even propose that some of these trainings go directly to the school site,

rather than having the employees take time off, get subs, develop the lesson plan. it's difficult to train one person from a school site and have them take it back to their school site and implement something school-wide effectively. so moving right along. >> special education is a focal population issue as you know for sfusd. we wanted to share key statistics that we received both from our special education department and from our student support department. we are 12% of total sfusd population. breaks down to 7,000 students. i'd like to point out there is an additional 275 students in charter schools. another 200 students who receive special education supports in

parochial schools and 150 in nonpublic schools. those numbers are very small, as lee said, 75% of our special education students receive the services in general education classrooms along with their general education peers. graduation rates for the students in the special ed programs have jumped up in 2018. it was 66% for 2017. new numbers are 73.5%. so this is a gain. but we would love to see those numbers higher. 88% is a graduation rate for our general education students, so we'd like to be closer to that level. and just for your notes, our numbers do not include students on certificate track, so that is not included in our percentage. the other thing we want to point out is that students of color

are overrepresented in sfusd by 40%. they are referred into special education at a much higher rate. in these cases, just as in the case of larry p, many students are mislabelled and do not get the intervention they truly need. the high number of absences and suspensions in the charts below, so the blue lines that are jumping way up, those are chronic absenteeism by grade level. i'm sorry, it's not showing on the bottom here, but the numbers at the end, the higher numbers in the chart are middle and high school rates. so the numbers, for example, for absenteeism for our students are relatively small in elementary school. and you have a lot of special education students like my own, for instance, that have medical issues that keep them out of school. but what happens as you move into the higher grades is what we're seeing.

we have lots of documentation we'll be sharing with you that students become disenfranchised. and anxiety and other things kick in. so you might drive them to school, but they don't want to get out of the car. we had many days in front of that school, my child's anxiety kept him from attending. it's happening all of the country, and all over san francisco. we get parents contacting us all the time with this issue. and the courts are actually starting to hear some of these cases. in a recent california office of administrative hearing decision, the garvey school district was found to denied to a student by not addressing the student's anxiety. because of his anxiety, the student refused to attend school and didn't make progress. in that case, the court found on the side of the family. so we provided that case information to all of you in your packet.

again, we want to emphasize the importance of social emotional supports in our schools and they be implemented with equity and fidelity. it's not about being touchy-feeley with our kids, it's that we let them know that their teachers and administrators believe in them and believe that every one of them has the ability to succeed and a place and belongs at their school site. staffing is still a challenge at our school site. we're still hearing about staff leaving and shortages and, you know, there is a lot going on. we're really, really happy the funding came through for our teachers. that said, there is still pieces

we need to be -- feel need to be picked up. one is really looking at case loads and how our special education teachers are being supported. so we are still hearing a lot about teachers feeling that their case loads are unmanageable and hearing of burnout. so there has been some discussions about a case coordinator position. somebody who would be responsible for scheduling iep meetings and some of the back end administrative work. this would free up some of our special education staff so they could spend more time with students. again as lee talked about, professional development is really important. we are -- one of the things that the special education department is doing and encouraging is to have the school site administrators be the representative at iep meetings. this helps with scheduling and can be a useful tool, but

because we have so much turnover, we have administrators that don't yet know special ed and what is available at the district. so again making sure those individuals are fully informed before we send them into meetings is crucial. the other they're we would like to -- area we would like to see is implementation of ieps. there is still inconsistencies on procedures. we're aware that special education services is working on a handbook which will speak to policies, procedures and regulations. and we're very thankful this is happening, but we would also ask that more information about special education policies and procedures be included in the family engagement handbook which is already updated annually. and i think that's it. so i would like to -- oh, there

was one more thing. lastly, the 2010 urban collaborative report which i think we bring up every time we're up here, has a bunch of ideas about how to restructure special education, sfusd special edition that addresses a lot of the case load concerns and implementation concerns we have. we have again printed out excerpts from that report and included those in your packets. so now we would like to thank you for your time. and we look forward to coming back in june. >> president cook: thank you. we do have a few people for public comment on the cac sped report. you'll have two minutes. meagan.

[reading of names] >> hi, my name is meagan, i'm a cac board member. i am an analyst with the school district and active on our sped committee meeting and i'm here to talk about my weekend job when i was a teacher in the district. on the weekends, i would get up really early in the morning to complete my weekend job which entailed checking e-mails about things i did wrong, reading memos and then sending e-mails to make sure everybody knew i was doing what i needed to do, looking at data and make sure i crossed my t's and dotted my

i's. and then that supplemented my regular day job, which was being a teacher. so i did everything you would expect a classroom teacher to do. i planned my lessons, i would get there early, set up my materials, teach for six hours. i would sometimes eat lunch not in the bathroom or with my kids and then i would spend the rest of the afternoon meeting with principal, collaborating with teachers, cleaning up my classroom, talking to parents. what you expect a teacher to do. and then during the weekend, i would go back to my weekend job making sure that i did the thing we like to call compliance. because that was really important and that's what most of my e-mails and inbox were about when i was a special ed teacher. my weekend job was about 10-12 hours a week regularly and a lot more during grading periods.

so i'm coming here to support the idea of helping our educators to drop their weekend jobs so they can focus on the really important job of teaching students with special needs. honestly, i miss being in the classroom and miss being with with those kids. i do not miss being a case manager. so i'm here to ask that we consider the proposal by the cac, continue with an existing committee that usf and the district created to look at this position of case coordinator. and -- >> president cook: thank you. >> hi. my name is meagan. i'm a volunteer with the grassroots organization decoding dyslexia california.

i co-lead a support group of children with dyslexia and my 10-year-old is dis-alexic. it affects 20% of the population and represents 80-90% of all those with learning disabilities. these guidelines describe the type of instruction children with dyslexia need to read. which is referred to as structured literacy. while it benefits all children, it is essential for those struggling due to dyslexia. i'm speaking today out of concern that sfusd's response to the legislation is not in alignment with the guidelines.

it's been purchased for all classes and that is not structured literacy. in addition those students identified as showing signs of dyslexia, the tier 2 intervention does not adhere to the guidelines. sfusd is using lli as tier 2 intervention. please stand by. please stand

>> i'm here to support the case coordinator position. i work on the special ed committee and i'm on the committee that is working with the district to create this position. this position will assist special ed teachers and the special education department in ensuring that schools operate in

compliance with all state and federal regulations. thank you for your time. >> my name is will patterson. i'm the co-chair of the special education committee. i'm also here to thank the community advisory committee for in concluding, in their report, the case manager to support the position or the case coordinator. right now, we have a major compliance commissioner in special education. we have hundreds of unsigned i.e.p.s and thousands of missing progress reports, dozens, hundreds of late meetings. it's a horrible situation. i say that because i hear the complaints and the concerns from special ed teachers who don't know how to go about getting their caseloads caught up. we're under a lot of pressure.

when we go in and face our students, we don't have the resources to schedule the meetings that need to happen. personally, we're trying to share some of our personal stories. i worked har part-time. i cannot maintain my santee taking a full time caseload without support from the work that has to be done. i want my i.e.p.s to be compliant. when i surveyed teachers, when our committee surveyed teachers, more than 70% acknowledge having i.e.p.s out of compliance. nobody wants to work in a job where you cannot complete your job and feel good about the work that you do for your students at the end of the day. so we're faced with the dilemma. do we make our i.e.p.s compliant or provide services for our students? i'm glad to say our teachers are currently providing services to the students. but if the district wants the i.e.p.s to be compliant, you need to provide the resources to bring those i.e.p.s into compliance. i would charge you, if you

could, to supply and coordinate a meeting with six people from this committee. all six being present during the workday within 10 days. when you can do that in the 20 minutes to 30 minutes that you have, for prep time in the school day, you will start to understand the problem we have. a case coordinated position would keep us in compliance, it would save millions of dollars from the school budget and settlements you are paying out. it would help us feel so much better about the job we do. thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. i am susan solomon, president of the united educators of san francisco. i want to thank the advisory committee for their incredible advocacy on behalf of our students. and also to thank the uesf educators who are also advocating for our students. thank you, very much.

>> thank you. >> yes, a few questions. my first question, nice to see you all. thank you. i wanted to just -- i was glad that she gave public comment. i did get some outreach from decoding dyslexia. they're concerned for the reasons that she mentioned about our approach to the dyslexia pilot. i appreciated the positive comments that you made about the dyslexia pilot and the work of the curriculum instruction. i just wonder if you have any thoughts about that criticism or if that's something that you are kind of thinking about studying more? >> well, first of all, every

time we've approached any leader or any department, they've been exceptional. they've offered data and gotten us any information we wanted. it's been fantastic. so, i think we're trying to move mountains with a shovel. here is the problem in my mind. i think that there are best intentions all around. i completely agree with the concern that structured literacy should be the focus. i'm sat in i.e.p. meetings to completely agree with what meghan said, where, specialized academic instruction is being blended between l.l.i. leveled literacy and wilson reading. above and beyond what mowing an said, to fully implement the wilson readings system, a teacher, a coordinator should have a full year of training and then a year of certification on

top of that as well. from my understanding, most of our implementers of the program have taken the three-day could not thcourse,not the full-year . there's a lot more that we should be doing to fully implement. you can say that about every, single department within sfusd. but i really appreciate the concerted effort to do as much as we can with our resources. >> the piece that i would add, i've been in some discussions this week with curriculum and instruction and what i have appreciated going through this process, and watching this from the start, we did not have a dyslexia pilot and we were considering adding this curriculum in and how we were going to train all of our teachers to bring people up to speed is that even though we have this where 1700 teachers

have to be reached and 75 schools and all the numbers you start to look at, there have been course corrections along the way. we have seen our curriculum and instruction staff, our special education staff, out there in the field attending dyslexia training and seminars and trying to get information. just this last week, dr. stephens met with kristen kohler from decoding dyslexia. i think the district and those that are really working to inform our staff are really looking carefully and listening openly to comments and how they can make changes. what i have, and i'm just looking at notes i have from drg with miss kohler he felt like she appreciated the comprehensiveness that is happening right now with the dyslexia pilot in san francisco.

and also, some of these newer district wired sets of supplemental assessment have been put no place as well as some common mechanisms for tracking the impact of these interventions at our schools. there are new things being put into place. there are additional things being considered. the feedback of the coding at dyslexia is being considered and listened to, specifically for our tier 2 students and how we can implement structured literacy across the board for our students. absolutely something that we're looking at and we hope to have more information about. it's a work in progress. to me the bottom line is there are 800 kids that have been identified through this process in the last six months. in the 10 years i've been here, we haven't had 800 kids identified for anything. i don't want to throw out the project. we need to keep moving forward and get better. >> thank you, that's really

helpful. i appreciate it. the other question, could we get some follow-up on the idea of the caseload coordinator position and what the background is on that? >> i wanted to follow-up on that. every school has a different population demographic. depending on some schools, they're handling a larger load than other schools. there's different needs at different sites as well, depending on what the students need. do we have people looking at different loads at different sites or does everybody get a certain amount of support? like i said, some schools have higher percentages of students with disabilities or with more challenging needs to support and i wonder how we balance that in supporting staff.

>> the staff has the caseloads and whatever that caseload is, they get the number of f.t.e. so that's how it is balanced. it's to the number of students that are there at the school. the idea of the manager that we can get more information on and get that information back. what that could look like but also what the cost would be. >> and do we look at the type of disability and does that factor into how much support we provide a school in terms of, you know, their caseload and their -- >> president cook: yes. depending on the type of disability, that the person who are assigned to the school are people who are equipped to assist with that type of disability. it is depending -- some schools

have a heavier number of students but then there's more adults at those schools. >> thank you. i guess the other question i had, i really like thaw talked bin conclusive schools. i just want to say, i would love to get this from every -- this amount of information -- you are giving me stuff i haven't seen that i've wanted to see. which is the t.f.i. so thank you for sharing information about our district. one question i had is have you seen any of the results of -- you were saying you wanted included in the balance score cards, do you have data on individual schools or is that something you are looking to get? >> the t.f.i. implementation? >> yes, based on school. >> that's above our pay grade. and our pay grade is zero, just for the record. >> i didn't think anyone was below mine. >> ok. do you think that would be helpful for school communities to have that kind of information? i'm just curious? >> that's exactly why we're suggesting that it should be

included in the balance score hard. i think having a higher level of transparency and accountability would be helpful. >> the other question, i love how you talked bin conclusive schools and you did an assessment of schools. we saw that 25 schools participated in this survey. there may be more schools that are participating. i like to get a gage of how we're doing. i would love to see this for black history month and lunar new year and all the different types of activities in our schools. it creates an inclusive school. i know we're focused on supporting student behavior and students that need extra support. with pro social skills and stuff like that but it doesn't address the school climate and making sure our schools are welcoming for students who may need extra support and may have different learning styles. i'm wondering, are you familiar with any of those efforts as far as curriculum or support that

are not addressing the students with dis a lots but addressing actual school climate for being inclusive of students with disabilities? >> inclusive schools week, although it's based in special education, it's actually for all students who are marginalized. all students and community members. whether it's race, religion, disability, youth, everybody is included. and there is a ton of curriculum online that we make available to schools, social justice curriculum, again der diversity curriculum, there's a lot of great information out there and. >> that all comes from central office? >> specifically sfcsd has rolled out an anti bullying curriculum. not to throw mr. truitt under

the bus but it's from the pacer center. we also do second step throughout and it's a social-emotional learning throughout our elementary schools. the pacer program is new this year and that addresses specifically bullying and that is something where they are met with support of families and other community leaders. but again, implementation at this point is voluntary at the school site. unless we have something like to hold them accountable, the participation of lead and we'll get more of that. so, whatever we can do to help support the implementation we're happy to. it's critical to the well-being of our kids and if they're not feeling included they're not

really. >> thank you for all the work you do. >> it's super helpful and i appreciate all the hard work. as a follow-up, i would love to be able to learn a bit more around the allocation to support around the caseloads. i think it's just for my own learning and information. that will help us to see possible path forward around that additional support as being recommended over all. so thank you. >> can i speak to that, tallly. by state law, related service provider and r.s.p. can have a maximum of 28 students on their caseload. that can vary, the students could receive speech and languages servicers it could be student requiring multiple hours a day of specialized academic instruction. it varies from circumstance to

circumstance. some schools will get neighbor one and a half r.s.p.s based on the caseload. some will -- if the school site has the means, they'll pick up and fund the extra half site r.s.p. on their own. schools will fund on their own to better support their students. there is some inequity built into the model and being able to look at other ways besides just the 28 caseload, which is the state dealing would be really helpful. especially now that eraf gives us a few extra millions dollars in money. maybe we can get creative looking at that too. >> thank you, again. i'm happy you got this third meeting to share now. in regards to the case coordinator position and looking at the reasons for resignation, i'm just wondering how that

would support in this? obviously not with the affordability but site leadership and school disciplines like how would that position support those issues? if it would? >> i think that what we're looking at and hearing from the district, what we all hear from the special education teachers our students work with and our own children work with is the what are special education teachers is doing so much work late at night. i can't tell you how much. if i getty males from m get e-mt night or on the weekends. they don't have time during the day because they're in the classroom with the kids. just today, my middle schooler had to have someone intervene if his classroom because of discipline issues. what we look at with this case coordinator position, some of

that extra administrative staff is taken off of their hands so the special education staff can be in the classroom helping with students. when a student feels supported and engage and that people actually care about them, that student is getting the service and support they're supposed to be getting, the discipline issue should go away. not go away completely. but if your needs are being met you are less likely to cause trouble in the classroom. you feel included in the classroom. you feel like people don't believe you can make it and you have no clue what is being said, if it's loud and out of control, he hears 10 percent of what is going on. how long are you going to listen if you only hear 10%? you are going to tune out and cause trouble. so, having those teachers be able to be in the classroom and meet the students where they're at, will make a big difference. as far as turnover, if you are

overwhelmed in your job, then all you are thinking about is how much you are getting paid. if you are not getting paid enough, that becomes really clear. does that answer your question? >> to follow-up on that, i think if you've spent any time in space, our special education information system, the data base where i.e.p.s are housed, it's a very bureaucratic system. the process you have to follow to get everything into the data base, it support the students' i. e.p., the check boxes and checklists and if you god for bid miss a check mark you have big red angry e-mails in your inbox, that's completely demoralizing. but, the process, as mr. patterson alluded to, when he very eloquently spoke to when he gave his public comment, the process of scheduling a meeting, trying to get a supervisor, your principal, the gen-ed teacher,

everyone to agree on a time for a meeting, that process -- for my kid that usually takes an average of about 20 e-mails to get everyone to the point where we find a date that works for everyone. that is just my one out of 28 that my case manager has. so just the time of that and the scheduling -- if you are an r.s.p. for kindergarten through second grade, that's three different grade levels that you have to coordinate and co plan with. if you are at the high school level, it's four. there's a lot of extra work that our teachers already have to be doing from the special education standpoint. the bureaucracy of compliance just adds so much more work that goes unrecognized at this point. >> i kind of want to add to that. i have a daughter who is ready to leave the district at the end of the year. leave it as a transition student. she has one of the most

wonderful teachers i've ever seen, who is constantly worrying about compliance and making sure that my daughter's i.e.p.s in accordance and her services are provided in a courtance wit acc. she understands because she has a child with a i.e.p. an adult child that has gone through the system. not in our district but her own district. i am in constant contact with the teacher. the struggle she's going through. when a para is out and she needs to find a substitute and is unable to, and she feels that she is not in compliance with providing the services because the child who are is required a one to one, is not getting the support they need, this worries her. where as, i've had other teachers where they just go with the punches but they're not providing the services in accordance with the i.e.p. this teacher understands the needs of following that to the

letter. seeing the stress she goes through. when she had two parents out, it put her over a barrel. and then, also, as julia mentioned, we get the e-mails in the evening on the weekend. we know darn well they're still working. a lot of times she is still working from the school. she's not at home with her own family. my heart goes out to her. for someone like her, i put her up on a pedestal. she's worried about presenting and providing what is in accordance, not just with my daughter's i.e.p. but what she needs in order to be successful. the underlying point is the success of our children. and that is what the i.e.p. is supposed to outline. if there are constantly working above and beyond their regular hours, the stress will buildup and we may lose these wonderful teachers. i mean, i try to bribe her to make sure she doesn't leave. and i think all parents here, with excellent teachers do the

same. i will bake you cookies. i will scrub your house and wash your car. whatever it takes to keep you here. if a position like that opens up, it also, not just releases some of the stress they have, but i think it also shows them the appreciatation and dedication for their own work that they can put in. if that position is open up t. may require a couple people for it to be effective and efficient. i really hope with that funding that is maybe on the table, they can take it into consideration. >> thank you, all. [applause] >> i want to make another change, move up public comment. please note that public comment is an opportunity for the board to hear from the community on matters within the board's jurisdiction. we ask that you refrain from using employee and student names. if you have a complaint about a employee submit it to the

employee supervisor and accordance with district policy. as a reminder, board policy rules in california law do not allow us to respond to comments or attempt to answer questions during the public comment time. if appropriate, the superintendent will ask staff follow-up with speakers. i am going to start to announce names and when you hear your name, please make your way to the podium. you will have two minutes. we have close to 40 people here. if you can respect the people behind you and take your two minutes and try not to go over your two minutes so we can get through everybody's comments. i have first virginia marshall and lynn lane, lula jackson, motorcyclamichael francis, laur.

>> good evening. president cook, vice president sanchez, board commissioners -- >> i'm going to have her start your -- >> why want t i don't want to rt again. i'm going to continue where i stopped. susan solomon, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, i'm virginia marshall with the educators. i'm here to invite each of you to the african american honor roll celebration held next thursday, february 21st at saint mary's cathedral with 1500 students of african american who

have learned a g.p.a. of 3.5. you are my bell tonight. [applause] they are selected by their principal and teachers. they earn their g.p.a. ending in fall of december of 2018. i'm also here to -- and there's donations, please, it's a very expensive proposition for us to do. we support our sponsors and including the district and comcast and uesf and others. if you want to give me a check, i'm glad to take your check. my other presentation is that all of us know that a couple of weeks ago, mrs. anna l. matthews was a long-time employee of the district, a fellow professional, worked for 29 years in many of our schools including glen park

elementary. a work after she passed, i received an e-mail from an anonymous donor who said what about this idea. i have an idea. let's start a scholarship and memory of the superintendent's mother. i said why not. give them a round of applause. i said to the donor, that our last scholarships of $1,000 each given to a senior at a banquet on may second. i'm happy to report. i must run it by the superintendent first. we have a little over $2200 collected thus far and i know there's more to come. we'll be honored to present this scholarship to a young person in this district who will go into education and one day sit where you are sitting. thank you. [applause]

>> good evening. my name is anne. i am the director of arts at creative arts charter school. i've been an educator for the past 22 years serving as a special educator and arts integration specialist. and i'm here tonight to speak to creative arts charter renewal. i will be reading a letter on behalf of dr. julia smash, who imarshall whois a professor at . dear commissioner cook, i am writing in support of creative arts charter school which suppose for its renewal of its charter. i am a professor of san francisco state university where i taught arts courses for over 30 years. over that time, i have followed the progress of cacs from a small, parent organized experimental school to a highly successful innovative leader and arts integration. over the past eight years, i have had the pleasure of working closely with anne and various teachers at this school.

[ please stand by ]

i lost my daughter three years ago and i was looking for someone to help me and i live in the community so creative arts has been that place for me. i don't know if you know what it is to lose a child, but to have a child who is young and lose him, i was searching for someone to help me with this child. i went and met with creative arts and they had the things i want for my child. they have embraced by granddaughter. she went through some problems, they got her therapy at the school to assist with the problems of losing a parent. there was behavior that came about the faculty was able to

help her overcome some of her grief not knowing where her mother was. so i'm here as a grandparent, speaking on behalf of creative arts and asking you guys to continue the work they're doing with our children in community. thank you. [applause] >> my name is michael. i'm a parent of three kids, single dad. disabled and low income. native american descent, a minority. my 16-year-old daughter is now a 3.55 grade point level and wants to be a neurosurgeon. she started out in creative arts. she had a lot of problems. all three kids had a lot of problems. we went through a fire. creative arts was there for us when we went through that fire. and they organized clothes and

prepared meals for us. and helped us through all that. my son, he had behavioral issues, his mother and i are separated. drug issues and everything. he's received counseling and through creative arts, they hooked us up with other resources. my daughter, the 11-year-old, she's had a lot of issues, a iep that is helping her out a lot. she's been given therapy at creative arts and therapy outside and they coordinate with each other and helped her out a lot. i'm here in support of them because they were in support of me and my family. and i can't imagine getting help from a school in my day, in public school. i'm not knocking public school or nothing like that, but creative arts has done so much for me. and my family. and i just want to make sure

that it continues to be there for them. you know. i attribute all this getting over traumas in day-to-day life and educational hurdles, truly all the success is to creative arts. their staff come up with innovative methods to deal with my 11-year-old especially. and her teaching methods and everything and gotten her through. just want to thank them as a whole. and really want to make sure they're still there for us. i had a whole lot to say, two minutes ain't enough. >> hi, everyone. i'm the delighted mom of a beautiful 7-year-old girl. and i'm just to express my thanks to creative arts charter

for all the support you've given kids exploring their gender identity. we've had a great experience starting with the application which two years ago we were allowed to select a third option for gender. we didn't have to choose boy or girl. we've had parent education meeting to talk about gender identity led by a transeducator. we have a great school communication system where i've been able to publish letters and talk about gender identity and what i want them to know. if they're able to communicate back with me. i have a teacher who has never misused a pronoun for my child, which is beautiful. my child came out of the girl's bathroom with a friend and that friend was sweetly questioning why she was using the girl's bathroom and my child, because of her time at creative arts

charter has been able to advocate for herself in bathroom choice. they jumped in not so much to support my kid, but the other child who is learning about bathroom choice and how children identify in their hearts and not in their bodies and their gender. so i also want to give a shutout to sfusd and the guidelines for teachers for lgbtq and gender diversity and how wonderful that has been for all kids. i appreciate charter that has adopted those in full -- adapted those in full partnership with sfusd. thank you for advocating for all kids in san francisco. happy birthday, commissioner collins. >> cheryl lee. if you hear your name, please make your way to the podium.

[reading of names] good evening, i'm xo executive director of the united administrator of san francisco. i come before you tonight to speak on behalf of principals. one of their tasks is to facilitate school change, especially those with underachieving african-american and latino students. they bear a huge responsibility. they gladly accept that responsibility, but are often met with barriers within their school communities that hinder them from achieving that goal. often these barriers result in conflict within a school

community. the most conflicts occur, it is imperative that a school community work together to resolve the issues. in the past couple of years, there has been increased theme judged and vilified in the court of public opinion with all the facts werenpresented. as a school board, we hope that there is an objective investigation. we respectfully request that principals be afforded that opportunity to tell their story. most would welcome the opportunity to have an open and honest conversation with you and showcase what is working in their school. shadow a principal for a day or a week so you can see what they do every day. our members are hard-working, dedicated professionals committed to doing what is best for the school community. we invite you to visit our schools to see the innovative

programs and practices principals are leading to address the needs of students and families. it's ironic i noticed on the district web page last month, there was a picture of dr. martin luther king, jr. with a caption, building social justice and kindness. this is a tenet that should be exercised not only for students, but teachers and principals. in closing we ask you to view each situation with objectivity, open-mindedness, kindness and respect. thank you. >> hello. i'm a product of sfusd. i'm here with the support of a few students, a few parents, including my own parents. and i'm just here to get clarity

as to why i was terminated from my position last school year. i was never given a reason. i can only guess it has to do with some sort of breach of policy, so i want to understand that a little bit more. no one has spoken to me, although i've reached out quite a few times. i have dedicated my entire adult life to youth work. i've been doing this since i was a teenager. i volunteered over a thousand hours at my former elementary school. so this is in my heart, this is my passion, that is what i love to do. and for the past nine months i've been processing this and i'm tapped into the community and the efforts of the sfusd. i've had a chance to sit in the meetings of the alliance of black school educators. i've attended a couple of board

meetings and i had the pleasure of attending yesterday's partnership network meeting where i was introduced to an amazing initiative to support young african-american students. i just don't that i it's possible when there are cases where young black educators are being treated like garbage. i think president collins said it the best, we're here for kids, so we need to find equitable solutions to problems, problems that have to do with restorative justice to best support our community.

i'm in the same body, looking for answers to questions. my main question is, i don't know if it's part of your policy. i haven't read the whole thing, but when it is okay to receive information from an outside entity and dismiss two african-american males who have dedicated their adult life. i've also had -- dedicated my adult life to working with kids in the city and other cities. summer programs. i've been a tutor. i've been after-school program. i've worked with schools during the day. when is it okay to dismiss those two african-americans based on information you got from an outside entity without doing any research, without talking to anybody who was involved in the situation? and that's my question. thank you.

>> hi, my name is forest page. two years ago i was an 8th grader in middle school. these two were counselors for me since 2013 when i was in 4th grade. they were probably the most favorite counselors in the whole school. they were the counselors that every kid wanted to play basketball with and get help with homework from. they have been great mentors at my middle school and they've very important to many kids in middle school for support and to keep kids out of trouble.

they dedicated many of their own hours to run sports programs with us on just -- yeah, just run sports programs. they always wanted the best for every kid, and i'm sure they wanted the best for every kid at the other schools they worked for after they were let go. so i would like to know why you let them go without any explanation? thank you. >> hi. i'm ryan, sophomore lowell high school. i've known both men since i was in 3rd grade and i cannot express how much love and respect i have for them as human beings. i can only name a handful of people who have been greater or

more influential in my life, what it meant to be tough, teaching me lay-ups in basketball, i cannot express how much these two changed my life. they've only wanted the best for kids, helping them to develop to be the best kids they can. they're always going the extra mile to help as many as they can, because that's the people they are deep down. oooh. laugh. i speak for the hundreds of kids they've mentored, talked, helped bring up, laugh with. they're great people and deserve to know why they were let go. and, yeah, so i was wondering how can you let people go who have done so much for the community and meant so much to the kids? if you would just give them

clarity, that would be great. thank you. >> hi, my name is dawn. i'm a parent of a student at clare lowen at all. i'm here to speak on behalf of these two men who have been the best thing about school for my son. they helped him through hard times. extremely professional. just amazing human beings, so i hope they get clarification on why they were terminated. none of us understood why that happened. we'd like