charter does a phenomenal job of involving the community, certainly fostering an environment not only of academic success, but individuality and expression. so i will ask, you know, just based on the fact that i have a third grader and she is -- has really blossomed at creative arts charger, we are very excited for the future. i will ask the board for the confirmation on the affirmation of moving forward. thank you and i appreciate it. [applause] >> good evening, members of the board. my name is jason miller. we are honored and thrilled to be representing creative arts charter school tonight. we have thoroughly vetted and reviewed the charter petition and we concur with district staff that this charger meets or exceeds all the requirements for charter school authorization renewal. we ask for you to vote to authorize the renewal of the charter school and i'm available

for any questions. thank you. [applause] >> good evening. my name is ed, i'm a resident of the western edition. i'm a proud parent at creative arts charter school, always proud of this full and usually proud of my son who is in second grade. [laughter] >> my son is a very spirited, high energy boy, for traditional classrooms, they don't always work for him. the reason creative arts has worked is because of the focus on project-based learning and the arts integrated curriculum which lets him be hands-on and creative, and a lot of individual attention given to him for his different learning styles, as well as a really strong sense of community with the faculty, the administration, and families who can really rally to support. he gets into trouble sometimes, we have had some issues, by the

school has always figured out the most restorative, positive way to coach us to support him, as well as give him the support he needs when -- and he is really thriving right now. we have found a great fit in our neighborhood, and i really appreciate you all supporting the school continuing so we have options like this for families in the western edition. thanks. [applause] >> hi, we are speaking here for kate who could not be here. >> it is like nothing i ever experienced before. first of all, the students and teachers relationships. we call our teachers by our first names and i also think it helps. they are not only our teachers but our supporters. we know that everyone of us has potential to do our very best. every single day and they always want the best for us but it is

not something you can find it most schools. it is also very supportive, everyone in my grade knows who everyone is. it is so close and it is amazing whether they are in another advisor your art elective, it doesn't matter because at the end of the day, we all go to the same wonderful school, and that is what makes us closer. [applause]. >> learning at creative arts is so much fun. there's always an artistic escape. we debate and we make cartons, their messes, window arts, and it all connects back to learning it is just a great way to teach kids and help them learn. i definitely learned better this way and creative arts does it so well. [applause]

>> alex may, ellen stun, carla martinez, laura farley, lillian cordon -- or donna. go ahead. >> my name is alex, i am a proud parent of two boys at creative arts, they are in fifth and second grade. i want to quickly talk about the special education services offered by creative arts. my little one, he was hit by a truck when he was three years old. with three skull fractures, he developed some issues. outside of the support that we've received for a kid that

wasn't even enrolled in the school yet, that's what i wanted to talk about. it was absolutely incredible. but we could have -- he finally came to kindergarten, and the first year was ref. there were some issues. he would set off the fire alarm once in a while, he head butted a few people, he would run away from class and he would ride the school elevator, which i was told was frowned upon. [laughter] >> and then, the services kicked in, and he changed, he became interested in what is going on, and he slowly but surely started developing skills, and his behavior changed. all of the behavioral issues at the school simply went away within the year, and now we are at a point where he is actually

testing out of special ed. [cheers and applause] >> to give an example, in one year with the support of the school, he changed from reading at level c. to level ten. he will be graduating and finishing second grade at about grade level, which is absolutely incredible. [cheers and applause]. >> my suspicion is he would be lost at any other school. i don't know this, but i don't want to find out. i urge you to renew the charter. thank you very much. [cheers and applause] >> good evening, thank you for allowing all of us to speak, or at least many of us to speak, what a great turnout. i am a proud parent of a third grader at creative arts charter school and a recent recipient of the black honor roll, she was,

not me. [laughter] >> i am proud for the opportunity to talk about what i love about creative arts. there's a lot that went into the process to get schools around the sfusd, and i'm here to talk about inspiration that the teachers and staff and the community has on our family, our daughter, they are helping her thrive. it is in an quotable just a -- juxtaposition to talk about engaging, functional, effective school, after hearing the public comments on some of the other environments here. the some much i love about the school. i'm most encouraged about watching my dr.'s growth and excitement in learning. i believe the project-based learning has engendered that curiosity that extends beyond the classroom. she delivers -- develops foundational skills in math and reading and science.

to bring that into the world around her, and to continue that outside of the walls of the classroom, to support that natural, innate curiosity, is something that is amazing to watch. the exposure to community leaders, we talk about last month black history month, this month, women's support, and just the inspirational leaders that they get exposure to and the social justice and participation , and awareness of what's going on in the world around is very stimulating. we talk about visionary women, and those start with the boys and girls of the school and having them thrive. i also appreciate my daughter's experience around developing leadership skills. we saw some students come up here and talk and they were pretty comfortable, and to watch that development of the students is amazing. i have a son who will be of age in a few years, and i hope you

will have the same opportunity to join a wonderful school. thank you very much. [applause] >> good evening. my name is karla, i'm a proud parent of a second-grader at crate of arts charter school. we have been there for the last three years and we are very happy at this amazing community, in addition to being a proud parent, i'm also an sfusd employee in early education and a family support specialist. working-class families like ours , the school has provided our child and many others opportunities to have arts integrated into their daily life and education, otherwise not able to be afforded. my daughter's personal favor classes art class because some of her peers masterpieces make it out into the community for them to share their vision and everyone to see. great if arts has helped us figure out her interests and passions and just a couple of days ago, she came home and

excitedly said she wanted to become a mathematician. as a latina and a woman, this brought tears of joy as to my eyes and i warmth of feeling to my heart. the community has -- offers project-based learning which has cultivated curiosity, joy, and a love of learning that has empowered her to make these thoughts possible. they offer many opportunities for parents, for family involvement and creative arts is conscious enough of the benefits and importance of a diverse community that they created and a community that i'm proud to be part of. we work together to make sure we can create a respectful and responsive community were each member is valued and supported. thank you and i hope you take into consideration the renewal of the creative arts charter school. [applause] >> hi, everyone. i graduated from creative arts mean 2015, and i'm currently a senior at the urban school of san francisco. i just wanted to talk about

creative arts' impact on my transition from middle school to high school. is a program at urban called urban bridge, which basically helps students from public schools and charter schools transition from the expectations of their previous schools to that of an independent high school, and i observed that my ability to easily and quickly transition into what they expected of me at urban came as a result of the academic education that i received at creative arts, and that especially stood out as compared to my peers that were coming from other schools in san francisco, and i think that, also, the relationships that i had with my teachers or something that i will definitely hold onto. i always come back to creative arts to pick up my little sister , and give hugs to all of

my teachers, and is like i never left. thanks for renewing the charter. [applause] >> hi, i am a sixth-grader at crate if arts. creative arts, i have been there for two years now. i started in fourth grade. it's always been a right school, a favorite school of mine. i've been, for three years, and it's given me so many opportunities. mostly with the arts program. i've tried all the different arts, dance, music, art, visual arts, theatre, and it helped me realize what i want to be in life, and it helped me realize lots of things, and their academic program is very great, and i really just don't know what to say. [laughter]

>> and one of my favorite things about creative arts is definitely their teachers. for fourth grade and fifth grade , i had laura. [laughter] >> she was definitely one of my favourites. [laughter] >> and then i had coco and allie , and they did so many -- they gave us so many opportunities, so many. alley, this year, she let us do a project called the cross direct project. she has prostatic legs and made us realize lots of things about prosthetics, it is really cool that she let us learn that opportunity, and not many schools would let us do that. anyways, overall, creative arts is just a really good school, and thank you for renewing it. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> hi, everyone, my name is laura, i'm a fourth and fifth

grade teacher at creative arts. [cheering]. >> i will tell you why i creative arts and why i am proud to be a teacher there. i creative arts, we teach to the whole child, the arts are interwoven into everything we do and provide students with opportunities to both engage in and express their learning. we balance arts integrated instruction with academic rigour we have both adopted and creative common core aligned curriculums that have led to significant growth in academic achievement for students. in addition, we foster community through responsive classroom practices and social, emotional learning. since the day i interviewed for my job at creative arts, it has been clear that fernando and the school at large have an unwavering received of educational equity. through our work, we have explored implicit bias and how it affects teaching and interactions with our students. we have discussed the work of hammond and how we can all strive to be warm in our classrooms. in addition, i have engaged in conversations about how to make our school environment safe for

students with trauma. last but not least, i personally value working for creative arts because i feel like as a teacher there, i'm supported and listened to. our administrators are skilled leaders who value the perspectives of our staff. this year, i have taken on the role of stopper -- staff are presented have on the board and i feel grateful to work at a school that values the importance of teachers at its highest levels. in addition, we are unionized and it is an arrangement that has led to a stronger school environment via collective bargaining. all in all, we are proud to be in arts integrated school. we are proud to be a public school, and we are proud to be a san francisco school. i hope you make the decision to vote in favor of renewing the charger this evening. thank you for listening. [cheers and applause] >> good evening. my name is lillian, and i am a mother of two middle school students at creative arts charger, and this year is our ninth year at creative arts.

i have an eighth who is currently waiting on her acceptance to whatever whatever you sfusd high school, and we are very excited for that process. creative arts has done a lot for might two young girls. they have come out of their shells, they have a better ability to speak in front of a group than i do, they are very, not just creative in the way of arts, but they are very creative in the way of their thinking, and this school is so valuable, not just to them, but to all of the community and just the way the arts has integrated a curriculum. my girls are thriving. they do very well academically, but even more so than just academically, socially. socially they have no boundaries

, they see -- i won't see they say -- see no color, but they recognize there are different colours and are very accepting. they are very open and well-rounded children as a result of their time at creative arts, and the teachers and the administration are top-notch. you can't find a more dedicated staff and i just can't speak any more about them. thank you for your consideration and we really hope that there is a unanimous approval of our charter. thank you. [applause] >> okay. , thank you for public comment and thank you for all of those who did not decide to speak. [laughter] >> let's see.

do we have any comments from the board of superintendent? vice president sanchez? >> i also want to thank everyone for coming out for this item. i would like to talk about one thing that we talked about in committee with the principal. you can come up to the dais. one thing that i am especially interested in, and we've talked about it privately and i know you mentioned it in public, so wanted you to elaborate a little bit more for a wider audience around public housing and potential students being enrolled at your school and how that would work out and what you are planning. >> all right, thank you for that question. yes, we did see speak about it privately, and give a lot of our

leadership team, on our board, our outreach committee inspiration to go about changing our enrolment preferences. some of you know that three or four years ago, we came to this very boardroom to attempt to increase our diversity by offering, i believe, the third preference being two students who qualify for free introduced lunch. it did not go as well as we would have hoped, and after our conversation with you, commissioner sanchez, we were inspired to think about who in the city, and as a school, thinking about our least reached students at our school, and i released reached students at the city of san francisco in the district, and that thought about making enrolment preference for

students who reside in san francisco public housing. it was something that i think made a lot of sense for us, and in our commitment to equity and our commitment to serve a diverse group of students, and again, students who we feel like are the least reached. we feel that would have a big impact. so we are asking tonight, along with the approval of the charter , that you would also approve our enrolment preferences as well. >> thank you. i did want to highlight that it could be a model for other charter schools that are coming back for renewal as well. i think it is something that we are trying to do ourselves as a district. we want to give an advantage to students who live in public housing in any way that we can. i think this might be a case

where we learn something from you, which doesn't often happen with charter schools in the city and across the state and across the nation. i'm really happy to hear that, and i'm waiting to hear back to see what happens. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> commissioner? >> first of all, i want to say thank you to fernando for this process. i appreciate the back-and-forth feedback. i was thinking about how to really appreciate your leadership and you guys are here tonight, and we had some really good, hard conversations through the visit at creative arts, and mark touched on it a little bit, and i just wanted to appreciate all that you do. i also want to say thank you to the parents and the kids that are here tonight. [cheers and applause]

>> i know you have to go back to school tomorrow, so, yeah, thank you. >> i may take the morning off, we will see. [laughter] >> thank you. so i really, i want to appreciate you for coming here, and everybody else, and i really want to share my own experience. i really like your idea of integrating art into teaching, so i go to the national high school and i am english learner. in our school, english is integrated into every subject, and i can really tell how important it is to have english be integrated into biology, art, and every other subject, because i really feel that after going through ninth grade to 12th grade, and almost graduating, i feel like i can indeed, became a mushroom, the type of fungi

[coughing] >> through that kind of learning system. i really enjoyed that kind of thing. i really like your system, i appreciate that. [cheers and applause]. >> thank you. [laughter] >> thank you to all the parents, families, students and faculty and staff. again, i want to echo my colleagues for expressing appreciation, fernando for the authentic conversations we've had, not only by your leadership , but the school's openness and willingness to deepen plans of how to support english learners, students with special needs, and really being proactive as to move forward in your equity mission, again, thank you to this whole community and for your continued investment in the students around diversity inclusion. [applause]

>> i wanted to talk about diversity and inclusion because that is commented on a lot, but i also want to recognize that our schools are not diverse, that is true in the district, but especially true with charters in general. when you look at charters, i am always looking at charters and seeing, who do we serve, and are we comparing apples to apples, or comparing apples to oranges in the types of services that schools are required to provide. and the resources that they are also able to garner based on their population, and it is something that is not new in the conversation with charters. so i just want to note, in this neighborhood, creative arts is also surrounded by two other san francisco unified schools that are also doing very well with

their student population. jonah me or elementary, and cobb elementary. in terms of looking at the student population, when we're talking about diversity, we talk about english learners and the percentage of students that are represented there. we also talk about race, we also want to look at foster youth, homeless youth, migrant youth, and obviously, students with disabilities and socioeconomically disadvantaged students. when i look, creative arts, i see no foster youth, i see note homeless youth, know what migrant students, and in the surrounding schools, there are 35 students that have been identified as homeless out of a population of 243. when i look at cobb elementary school, i see a population of 13 homeless youth in an entire school of 126. so those are populations that are obviously a very high needs,

and they require a lot of resources and support, and -- what i am seeing in our city, and this even happens within the public schools, is that we have schools where we are -- families that are advantaged to find ways to further advantage their children, and kind of horrid resources. whether it is intentional, or whether it is just the way the system has been built, it has been built like that. it was built like that when my dad was a kid and he's -- his parents were children and they were not allowed to attend schools. we have technically integrated our schools, but our schools are far from integrated. i want to put that on the record and acknowledge that when we are having conversations about diversity and who's actually being served by which public schools. thanks. [applause]

>> yeah, i don't disagree with anything you are saying, and a somebody who has been doing this work for 21 years in east oakland, brooklyn, and harlem, and the western edition, i recognize those patterns and, you know, hopefully i will be able to come back and have these conversations with you, commissioner collins, and the rest of the board to find out, you know, a better way forward. is not our intention not to serve where the populations are low, but, you know, like i said, there are areas of growth for creative arts and we are willing to hit those head on and have those open and transparent conversations, and i look forward to having those conversations with everybody here play or . >> other comments, seeing none,

roll call, please. >> thank you. [roll call] >> six imac. [cheers and applause] >> thank you. [cheers and applause] [laughter] >> fernando, if you can help move your folks out so we can

get going with the rest of the meeting. >> we have also moved up number 2 of session e., superintendent's proposal, 19226 s.p. one, 2019, 2020 public education enrichment fund. this was moved and seconded on february 26th, 2019. there was a report from the committee on the whole meeting on march 5th in the curriculum program meeting on march 11th. superintendent matthews, do you have a designated recommendation for the record? >> yes, we have the director, edwin diaz, who will be speaking about the process that far.

>> good evening, commissioners, president cook, superintendent matthews, and assembled leaders. i am the director of the public education and enrichment fund. it is my pleasure to recommend that the board approve the 2019, 2020 expenditure plan. the superintendent his proposal 19226-26 fp1. i just wanted to share a little bit of the materials that we handed out in some of the packages that you received. all of those materials are available on our website, on the webpage. included in your packet is the superintendent's expenditure plan for first reading. this document has not changed since first reading. also included in the packet are

some responses to some questions that took place at the community -- the committee of the whole on march 5th, 2019. as i mentioned earlier, there are no -- and of course, the resolution. as i mentioned earlier, there are no changes to the plan, currently. i understand there was a motion at the augmented curriculum and program committee yesterday, and that this motion maybe introduced by a commissioner, but i will defer to general counsel for that. >> before you jump into that, we do have a report from committee. do you want to go before that report or after? >> i think i just wanted to clarify that the motion on the table for the boy's vote tonight is the superintendent's recommendation. if the board wishes to vote on the recommendation from the curriculum committee, you just need to make a motion to that effect. >> okay.

report from curriculum? >> so the curriculum and program committee met yesterday. we made a motion that the board transferred recommended money for rapid administrative funding towards physical funding at the elementary school level to provide full-time physical education teachers. the committee made a recommendation to manage the proposed budget based on guiding principles and recommendations. it's important we clarify the cuts are not targeting arts and music programs. we are not cutting administration. we should be funding the administration of the programs through the general fund. the budget is for services to sites, students, and families directly, not intended to be an extra resource for more administration for core content. if this passes, it is directing the superintendent to fund outside of this. we hope this clarifies the misinformation that has been shared. we also made no recommendation for the renewal petition of

gateway charter high school. >> i don't know if you want to chime in. >> okay. i just want to reiterate something that commissioner lopez said. the committee, last evening, was not recommending that administrative services not be supported, just that they not be supported to the fund. there has been information that has been spread to the community that we are gutting this with the proposal, it is absolutely false. the money will come from other places. it is not supposed to be funding per its values as said by commissioner lopez, out of the funding. the administrative -- there was funding for libraries and not out of funding for physical education. we are requesting that staff

find alternate funding sources to fund the administrative offices. >> before we chime in, we will have time for comments afterwards. if you would like to hear from public comment, do you want to wait? >> just really quickly, it relates to the reasoning behind the decision. i also wanted to chime in we were also supporting the community advisory committee recommendations. they put forward a recommendation recommending that more visual arts office administrative staffing be reallocated in order to support direct student services at the school site level. this is in alignment with the guiding principles, which say that we should be directing resources to immediate and proximate benefits to students and advancing equity and social justice among other issues. >> okay. and that's a web commissioner lopez initially red. so we have a number of people

that signed up for public comment on this item. when you hear your name being called, make your way to the podium. [calling names]

>> hi, my name is one. thank you for letting me speak. as the son of immigrants and an english language learner, i know that i would not be who i am today and where i am today if it weren't for access to the visual and performing arts in my life. and i know that i would not have had access to those services if it weren't for the administrators who were running those programs when they were made available to me. i hear you say that these funds would be reallocated from other sources, but i don't hear any clarity about what those sources would be, and i feel that it would be incredibly detrimental to the visual and performing arts in sfusd if this funding were to be removed, and if these positions were to be effected -- affected in any way. these people who are working in these departments, working very hard to ensure the equitable access to the arts for all

students in the district, and ensure that creativity is part of the learning process for the students that we serve. as an educator myself, i rely on my close partnership and relationships with the people in the visual and performing arts in order to achieve my goals of ensuring access to the arts for all students, regardless of race , socioeconomic status, country of origin. so i strongly urge you to reconsider, and i hope that you will do what is right for the students of sfusd, and for the visual and performing arts in the district. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. my name is marta. i am a musician. i work at the community music centre for the past 20 years. since two years ago, i had been working with the department.

i work teaching marriott teacher kids. i feel very proud to be able to share my expertise in mexican music, where -- just so you know , i study classical music and it was not until here where i learned folk music from my country. it was not until here when i realize the importance of really teaching that to my students. so when i heard that there was something going on with the budget, i thought, i need to be here. i need to say how important music and arts education is, and how much the music teachers that i go to six different schools every week, and i teach teach mariachi to kids all over the place. a lot of them are latinos, many of them are not, but that doesn't matter, it is about music and expression. i think that i could have chosen -- i always work at the symphony i could have also gone all over the world, but i want to stay here because i think this is a need, and i thank you very much the organization, and all of the

teachers that supports me, to help support the students that i am teaching, it is of vital importance that this keeps going right now i just came running from a a mariachi rehearsal right now. we are having a festival tomorrow. you can't -- i cannot explain how important it is for all the kids. i have been working for 13 years with youth at risk. they could otherwise be on the streets doing things. doing drugs. they are there making music and being creative and parents are involved. thank you very much for this. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, i'm emily, i'm the artistic director of san francisco arts education project. we just celebrated our 50th year serving students in the san francisco public schools.

there is no question that arts are important to young people, and i think all of you agree with that. but it's also very important that artists are administered and helped into the schools, principles are overworked, we know this, and one of the things that they have done so brilliantly in the last ten years is to help find, recruit, develop, administer, and help the principles and help the schools, and therefore help the children have these marvellous experiences that you just heard about. it -- if something changes in the budget for the administration, and there is no way that we know how it's going to be replaced, this is very serious, and this is why so many of us are here. the administering of these programs is very important. i've been an arts administrator for 35 years in san francisco, i have been an artist in san francisco for 50 years.

artists and art are very important to our kids, but so is the administration of these arts for our schools. please reconsider. thank you. [applause] >> hello, my name is ryan. i'm a senior at george washington high school. i think the reallocation of such a significant amount of money from the budget robs students as a whole of opportunities in the hearts -- in the arts. while we need to go through the motions, reduction in finals -- financial support only serves to hinder only not only high schoolers, of the develop into an exploration of younger students. looking through the expansive visuals and budget tables, it seems irrational and the wrong areas are being given for redundant issues. the elementary school physical education program is siphoning off the program. it is far more damaging to the program's well-being and as to the financial well-being that

they have to make up for to provide a outstanding education. early physical education is important to having -- there other areas of the budget that can feel -- fill this need. this can be more beneficial for every party involved to provide the budget to consider more of the costs and supply a well-rounded education. growing up in the tenderloin and starting my involvement with music and fourth-grade changed -- i'm approaching nine years of playing my instrument, and without the organization, i would not be where i am without a focus on education in the arts and what they mean to our community. where i started, and even now through presidium middle school, they've all helped me grow as a person and i have respect for artists who have dedicated their lives to provide messages and an equity. ever since i began, the support of the department in the mentoring of teachers have given

me the opportunity to express myself. i'm frightened by the idea that the ability to do this can be taken away. it hurts me deeply. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> that was cool. hello, i am a product of a public school here in the district. i'm a professional musician, artist in residents at soda, to put it very simply, at a time when i was going to the principal's office, all my friends were joining gangs. the only reason that i didn't join one myself was because of music, just like what a woman from mexico said, music gave me something positive. i barely graduated from high school and i went on to teach at

that high school. if it wasn't for the enlightening experience that i had through being exposed to music and public schools for free, i would not be here in front of you, and i don't know where i would be. if i can't -- i cannot put it in any simpler terms than that in terms of how vital arts education is to public school in a time where here in san francisco, with gentrification, in a time with trump, with one of the first things he did which was cut funding for national endowment of the arts, i can't help but think in a job parallels about what is happening here with my own school district that i grew up in. i have a stepdaughter, she is here and she goes to glen park elementary school. her dance teacher would be cut, her arts -- visual arts would be cut, my girlfriend is a

kindergarten teacher of bilingual kindergarten at glen park. the relief that she gets, and the exposure that her children get coming from these countries, el salvador, honduras, they have a chance to have an artistic art -- outlet and it would be taken away from them if this was to be cut. so i know that in recent years, the school district has talked a lot about equity, and i would like you to reevaluate what your actions are against your rhetoric. thank you. [applause] >> good evening, my name is georgia. happy birthday to dr. matthews. i have to say that i am concerned about the proposal here on board, more than anything because we know how important it is to implement the impact of administrating a program and how important implementation is to the success of a particular program.

the arts programs are no different in that way. we have a finite amount of money in the budget that is coming in, so if we are shifting the resources here, they will have to come from somewhere else. i'm afraid that they will impact our focal students the most. we know that many of our students who -- they come from many schools that have parent funding basis that can supplement their children touch education, particularly the arts , and there are other schools who aren't able to do that. i'm afraid that our students will experience that impact the most. a perfect example, we are also trying to diversify our programs , for example, up at the school of the arts. the saturday art lab was started to do outreach and expand to try and get a more diverse student body at the schools. change takes time, and so it hasn't been that long, and though it is not reflective of our focal students yet, we need

an administrator to continue that work to oversee that work, because if there is not someone overseeing the work, who will do that? how will we change -- see the change for our students? i hope you will reconsider that. we have a finite pot of money to really serve our students and the state gives us specific money to serve specific student populations, but beyond that, we have a finite pot. thank you. [please stand by]

>> ultimately, the board, the district, and the unions have the responsibility of working together to get sufficient funding from the state in order for the district to pay its employees a living wage. that money shouldn't come out of any other budget, so whether or not i got any terminology or any of the finer points wrong, i urge you to please take another look at how the latest budgets are being administered, keeping in mind everyone's favorite picture. thank you. [applause] >> president cook: before you go, i'm just going to call up some more names. shannon gritte, daniel donahue, alice mosley, courtney lindell,

ana kearney. >> good evening, superintendent, commissioners. i'm sandra halladay. i have two students who graduated from san francisco public schools. i was very fortunate many years ago to cofound san franciscans for public schools and i had the pleasure to recruit your former director, hydra mendoza. i was in the room when it happened when peef was dreamed up. i was in the room when we dreamt up and lobbied for the arts education master plan to be dreamed up and implemented. and one of the things i would like to remind you of when peef was first discussed, it was

crucial of that discussion to have an arts education master plan. the city did not want to fund something until they had a master plan. i would ask you before you fund something, you wait for the 18 months of conversations with artists, art teachers, students, parents in the school district, to find out their 18 months of discussion. i think it's very underhanded to come up with an amendment that would gut vapa without any of the recommendations in that plan. a lot of the issues that came up with vapa, those issues are all laid out in the plan to build on the work that we've done with the arts education master plan to provide excellence, access and equity for arts education in all of

our students in all of our schools. i urge you to not dither around with this anymore and give the arts community and the people that worked on this plan the experts. this country seems to not like experts. listen to the experts and make your decisions after you've had a chance to listen to the refresh plan. thank you. [applause] >> good evening, board members. i am dan donahue. i'm the director of board of musicians. i've taught music in san francisco since 2004. i'm here to express my support for the recommendation of the community advisory committee, that more funding be going directly into music and arts classrooms across our city. i am also pleading that you do not cut $2.3 million from vapa

admin and programs and give it to the p.e. department. funding must be in place to support fundamental planned and choir in k-12. there currently isn't enough funding, and schools do not have the same fundamental music education programs which in turn leaves large discrepancies in the ability to have sequential programs and have actually opportunities for all students. in our district's band and ork extra's program, we have a whoa -- doe vent a program for instrument repair and access. at some of our secondary schools, our students who score we low grade level in math, reading or english language skills or in a language

immersion program are not given access to band, orchestra, choir or music programs. already underfunded vapa programs should not be cut and given to other departments. that is not what the voters of san francisco had in mind when they passed the public education enrichment fund. thank you very much for listening. [applause] >> my name is courtney lindell and i'm the building union represent and middle schoolteachers and was published in the fall in one of the most highly reviewed peer

education music journals. i'm ask you to reallocate the p funding to stop educational inequity. i teach at the number one middle school. we have six vapa teachers. you can't tell me kids on the other side of the city are getting the same education because they don't have the same access. require each school to have one vapa teacher for every 200 students and unit peef to fund it. before the massive art cuts in the 1980 es, every school had vapa teachers, arts, orchestra, and choir. the federal government recognized vapa as a core back in the 1990's. parents' top school choices are always the school with the sequential arts and music programs. every teacher in the school

resigned cohort recommended making music and arts a core course but the district won't listen. and it makes sense that all the parents want kids to have focus in the arts. a recent study found that musicians' brains are larger than nonmusicians. i've seen kids that don't want to go to school all of a sudden have a reason to come. we have an abbottee program in this district. wire one vapa teacher per 200 students, be arts advocates. thank you. >> president cook: thank you. [applause] >> hello. my name is travis guyer. i'm currently a band teacher at

presidio middle school, and i just wanted to talk to you guys a little bit about what we do with our peef budget. so every year, i'd have to say that i have over 200 students a year, and i have to say that we use all of our budget pretty quickly. if you can imagine between pairs and everything else, it goes pretty quickly. most of our instruments are from the 60's or earlier, and they're falling apart. when we go somewhere to perform, i usually bring paper clips and tape just to hold them together. in addition, the funding for peef also funds our jazz band, and we only have -- i'm not sure if any other middle schools in the school district are teaching jazz band right now, but that's directly funded by peef and without that funding -- we're not really

sure what's happening to that funding, that would be no more. i'd also like to sort of say about -- about what may or may not be happening with our vapa department, i can personally say with my experience with one of our vapa directors, these prepare with very, very, very equity based. one of these individuals is -- i was blessed enough to have as a very mucher and my entire mission statement, all my goals in teaching would not be what they are without this individual. so i'm asking you guys to really recompany all the things that vapa does and all the things that peef does throughout the district.

thank you. [applause] >> thank you, travis. my name's veronica bottini, and i work across the haul from travis, and i work at stringer middle school. i've been here longer than the lady who had the peef discussion. i know how important music has been to me. i taught privately for 30 years. i decided to go and jump through all the hoops, become a credentialed teacher and teach sequential music at presidio. 17th year. gets harder every year, but i'm there every saturday, repairing instruments. i believe in public education, i believe in equity. we have a lot of asians in our school, but we have students from el salvador, viet nam.

i have one student, father vietnamese, mother, mexican, and she's going to be in the summer music program, free instrument access. i have violins that were bought in the 60's. they were new when i went to presidio, and the necks are warping. but we don't buy new ones. no one can stretch a penny like a music teacher. we have the manner plan in san francisco that i was hired upon in 2003-2004 to have sequential from kindergarten through high school uninterrupted. the brain that courtney was