[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 talking about, the research has been done. they have functional m.r.i.s -- when you are playing an instrument in a large group, every part of your brain is lighting up, and they are doing serious studies on alzheimer's -- >> president cook: i'm sorry. [inaudible] >> president cook: yeah. we have 100 more people behind you. please be respectful to the people behind you. [inaudible] [applause] >> hi. my name is shannon garrity.

i at the point visual art for vapa. and there is no doubt in my mind that you have the very intentions that i do, too, to serve everyone in this district. there is no doubt in my mind that you support arts education. i also understand that you have rules to follow, and you have to take as one person said a finite amount of money and support -- take a finite amount of money and support teachers and line items. but i live your budget every day, and i am here to give you the human vision of what it is that your line items mean. last year, i taught in four different elementary schools. by the end of the school year, i taught over 1100 students. my budget is 1250.

$1,250. let's do the pamath. that is 1.25 per student for art per year. the world economic forum, published in january 2019 the top ten skills that leaders around the world are critical for problem solving 2019. this is all art. i don't doubt that you don't value art. i know you value art, but i need to live it and see it in my daily live because it's really hard to stand in front of a group of kids with three glue sticks and say figure it out. the vapa department helps me

figure it out. [applause] >> hello. my name is ana kearney. am i waiting? >> president cook: yeah. i just want to call some more names. i know that people are passionate about this issue. i have about 50 more names here. i'm going to read them out. just remember that there are folks behind you. just give me one second. p.j. ryman. peter gobocic. what's up, peter. peter raymond, pat zamora, eleanor watabe. >> watanabe. >> president cook: watanabe.

carrie gray, sylvia sherman. carrie, you're here twice. jessica bush man -- bushan. >> hi. my name is ana kearney, and i teach vocal and guitar. i'm a professional musician and a performer, and i've come from the professional world to become a teacher because of my passion for educating youth. okay. so let's talk about two things, the ittinerate teachers. if you have extra funding, i'm not wondering -- i'm wondering why you're not giving it to

itinerate teachers, a lot of whom are living for their cars. why didn't we doing it for our public school elementary school students who also deserve a more rounded education? nobody works harder than a music student and creativity and innovation are supposed to be part of the fabric of america. how many great artists have come from america to the public school? i'll name you one. louie armstrong. so the second is vapa administrators. i have worked on coordinating the all-city musikfest value, and i want to say without the vapa administration, it could be so much harder for us to run that festival which is basically run by a -- volunteer teachers. mr. daniel was very instrumental in getting a bus

to run people from one side of the city to the other so everybody could participate in all-city. this is a partnership, and if that partnership goes away, we're sort of like a group of artists without a leader. now, i understand what the subject is here. but the first speaker here -- okay. i'll stop. go for it, everybody. [applause] >> president cook: thank you for stopping. >> hello. my name is alice mosley. i'll be brief. i am one of the afore mentioned music teachers, and i'll tell you it is very tricky. we have very little time. it's tlilg to see t-- thrillin to see the students, it's thrilling to see their parents, and it's thrilling to see their eyes light up. i think it does reach all areas, and many people have

referred to the research linking music to literacy innovation. however you try to divide it up, i think that now robbing peter to pay paul is not the way to be going forward. we should be looking for more funding for all of the apartmenarts and p.e., not saying we're going to take it out of one pot and put it in the other, so thank you very much. [applause] >> hello. my name is peter ryman or p.j. i teach vocal arts in san francisco, and i'm here to talk about vapa.

according to vapa, their mission is to provide increased access and equity to sequential -- quality sequential programs, in my two years of teaching on the east side, i notice a discrepancy in the program. some schools do offer stand-alone courses. willie brown has a single choir taught about a security guard, balboa has two taught by a math teacher. overall programming is inconsistent, nonsequential and fails to begin students on a developmental pathway. because of inequity inaccess, many freshman show up day one, having never sung in a choir or seen sheet music, furthermore, this means east side middle schoolers lack the vocal requirements to have a vocal

try out in the vocal art does. every secondary site needle sequential vocal and instrumental music. use the 2.3 million to fund sequential programming. thank you for taking a deeper look into what i've experienced as a serious miss on behalf of vapa and the district. [applause] >> good evening. i'm peter goverton. elementary music teacher for 31ers i can't. i grew up in pre-prop 13. i saw the diversity of culture respected in music, art, dance and drama programs sequentially all the way from kindergarten,

and i was happy to march with tom ammiano on prop h. i was thinking it was going to come back, and 76.8 million, and it has never come back. i want to tell you, i've never heard anything from the vapa superintendents except fighting for the issues in the bayview that i live and work at and teach. i have to say from our fellow educators as well as site administrators are crucial. so i went to the c.a.c., and i asked the c.a.c. an important question. are you willing to have an ongoing relationship with san francisco unified faculty, the people that made these diverse curriculums. i did not receive an answer. i'm asking you the same question. can we have a relationship and ongoing dialogue?

we can't tear these kids like solomon. they can only be in one place at the same time, and all of the answer is not money. having them at a particular place and getting the minutes when they have to do six weeks of test preparation, that's not money. so thank you for considering that. and i put it to you to please answer the question publicly, all of you, can we have an ongoing relationship on how to get this thing happened, the people that have been educated with a lot of degrees on how to do this stuff. i respect every member of the community to standup for what they've seen in the arts. i've seen it, i've lived it. let's help each other, let's work together. [applause] >> hi. my name's eleanor watanabe, and i'm a senior at george washington high school. i'm in the band, orchestra, and the choir.

really what started it was the middle school, going through and seeing how hard the teachers would work for us, and we're also severely underfunded, how most of our money seems to leave before the school year even starts from miss hendricks making all the practice rooms to all the money seems to be fund raised from the students. even though how busy their lives are, all of my music teachers are here to support us, and i think that's pretty cool, so yeah. [applause] >> hi. thank you for letting us speak. my name is sarah lawrence and i'm a parent of two kids in san francisco unified school district. my oldest son is a freshman at lowell in advanced orchestra, and my youngest son is in 7th grade in middle school in the

honor band. they both have participated in the solo and small ensemble festival. that's something that we need to keep, in my opinion. sorry, i have my notes because i'm a little nervous. sorry. okay. the music education that they are receiving at their schools are -- are turning them into the fine young men that they are becoming, and guiding them on career paths that they wouldn't eyes have. i think that vapa is very important, and vapa administration. if that's what the music and art teachers need to help the teachers, you know, get whatever they need going. i don't know anything about budget, but i do know that this

program is important to my kids and their friends, so please don't take away the vapa money. please consider it, and happy birthday dr. matthews. [applause] >> hi. i'm michael palladino. i'm the president of the board of the music alliance in the bay area. we work here with the public schools. i really appreciate commissioner sanchez' clarification about what this is really about, because i was around when p started. the idea was peef was supposed to be enhancing funding for the arts, not replacing general t budget for administrative funds. um i don't think it's clear what you're actually trying to accomplish, which is actually a good goal. i think that before you actually take money out of the

vapa to move it to sport, moha a comprehensive sports master plan, have a plan of when you're going to move it over, and not just have a unilateral things like this. you're going in the right direction, but there needs to be more education and planning. [applause] >> hi. everybody's been a little bibb fuzzy on this microphone tonight. i'm carrie gray. i'm district of the p.t.a. there's 64 p.t.a. schools, including two of the schools you heard from tonight, marshall elementary and visitacion valley elementary. so the reason you had two speaker cards for me, mr. cook, is originally, i was invited to commend the board and the school for its ongoing support for arts equity in our

district. we are an example in the state of california and in the country for our arts master plan, our intentional sequential curriculum and how we've been supporting working artists as well as family and emerging arts professionals. good job, sfusd. however, last night, wow. i was really confused, and so what i'd like to do is i'd like to urge you just to wait a moment before making a decision about an amendment to the peef recommendation from our superintendent. several people have mentioned some of the concerns that the p.t.a.s share. primarily, if you take money from the vapa administration, from the peef budget, and we're expected to fill in from sfusd's budget, i'm going to be

here in six months asking for sfusd not to cut those administrator vapa positions. we've seen the budget. there's not a lot of money floating around for new administration and new programs. we're trying to work with what we have. the intention in 2008-2009 was to fill in for a really stretched district budget that could no longer support the arts to the level which we expected. i'd also like to mention, nothing i've heard here tonight, because people have mentioned waiting on the arts master plan, why aren't we waiting to see what happens with the excess from the eraf funding? there's $9 million for peef still in play, and so i urge you to wait until that's been decided, as well. thank you all for your time. i could speak on this for a long time.

[applause] >> good evening. i'm sylvia sherman. i'm the executive director with the community music center. we wa we pride ourselves on being a partner with the school district and the visual and performing arts department so that every kid who wants to study music has a chance to do that with the tuition assistance and scholarships necessary to make equitiable access possible. we have found in vapa partners with the administration who nominate kids and provide pathways for them to receive, just from cmc, over $2 million in tuition assistance, but also access to a number of the city's organizations who provide opportunities for kids.

additionally, in the past three years, we've been a proud partner of vapa in the mariachi program. you heard martha talk about that issue, and this was something that vapa started in the school district, realizing that some of the kids were not receiving the benefits that are awarded by so participating in the arts. that a mariachi had a chance as a culturally responsible program to allow children and families that might not otherwise participate. so we've seen the results of that. i'm glad you were able to announce the big concert coming up on thursday, but building on this initiative like the mariachi program, that addresses equity problems in the district, that the master plan refresh is building on that. and vapa administrators have

been very much at the forefront, listening to all of the hundreds of people who have been providing feedback to align with that and pitch and school and initiatives. [applause] >> president cook: i'm sorry, marcus. are we -- go ahead. push the button. >> i am a proud -- it's not working too well. [inaudible] >> okay. here we go. i am a proud parent of two daughters in this district. one at soda and one at buena vista-horace mann. i just want to urge the board to take their time, to pause, to not replace these funds, not to defund this program. i have been a teaching artist in -- as well for the last two decades here, working at rooftop and many other schools.

i know i don't have to stand here and tell you how important the arts are. i have seen is -- it first hard, working with kids in juvenile haul, working at some of our less advantaged schools, and i'm worried that there is no plan in place if we defund this program. there's nothing that i've seen, nothing clear, and the kids that are going to be hurt the most are the kids that are going to be left advantaged, kids -- children who are black and brown for the most part and going to these schools and don't have the access to arts and music that other kids might have. so i am urging this board to pause, and i have many colleagues. i'm standing here in solidarity with them that work at vapa as teaching artists, and i just want to stand in support of them and the many different

schools what have been doing this work who are the experts and who have been trained in leading this up to the schools. so that's what i'm here for, and i just want to thank you for this opportunity to speak. [applause] >> president cook: before you get started, i'm going to call some more names up. todd berman, roberto hernandez, karen siegel, melissa scott, julia roberts-fong, jill daneen, robin saunders, an

amarie tillian, bill armstrong, sierra ortiz, joseph churchill, isabella palomonde. go ahead. you can -- you can begin. >> my name is jessica buchsman. i'm a parent at new tradition elementary school. my two boys have directly benefited from the district's vapa program and funding with vapa teachers in their schools. i'm also a product of sfusd schools? i've had kids in the district for the last eight years so i've been through and seen many struggles for funding. so i was saddened but not surprised this afternoon to receive a distress call from our school community? i even left my eight-year-old

at home with my 13-year-old in order to be here. and i'm still here, even though a lot of people have already said what needs to be said because i want the teachers to know that they have parents' support. to the board, we're counting on you as our elected representatives to fund the arts. through vapa, through the peef as it exists, the last-minute change that we heard about today feels really sudden, inappropriately so in a district that's supposed to be democratic and open to the participation of families and constituents. we really need to know that replacement funding is in place before the existing funding is yanked. i thank you all and the rest of us in this room and probably everyone else who sends their kids to school in the district care about the arts. i care deeply about the arts.

and i ask you to please maintain the vapa funding. [applause] >> hello. my name is todd berman. i'm the executive director of the arts education alliance in the bay area. we provide arts programming in collaboration with the public schools. a lot of our board members are here tonight representing the cause and actually came here to give general public comment, and a lot of us came here for this purpose and kind of got worried about the vapa funding and change plans, but i want to stick to the plan, and i want to urge the board to adopt the declaration of the rights of all students to equity and arts learning. let's do this to become part of a statewide movement, the

create california movement, and to affirm that this is a belief that san francisco, to put creativity and the arts first and make is successful and available to every student, that we will teach the whole child. we can use this declaration to lay the groundwork for what we can do with the arts education master plan. we could use it to hold charter schools accountable. and i just want to say that putting art at the center of learning, it deepens learning for soall students, and for so students, it literally saves

their lives, so let's get this on the agenda for a future meeting to say that san francisco supports all students getting taught to the whole child, everyone getting arts, sequential learning, arts that also recognize their cultural heritage and their background and affirms their identity. thank you. [applause] >> good ulevening. thank you for your service to the children of san francisco. my name is karen segal, and i've taught music for the past 20 years in public and private schools, and i've been teaching with the district since 2002. i am pleased, proud and feel very blessed to currently be serving as a music teacher at rule wallenberger -- raoul wallenberger high school.

both schools i teach at serve primarily underserved black-brown and economically discharged students who have had little or no previous access to music education. i teach them to express them creatively, to collaborate and learn music production recording, skills they can use as careers and earn well above minimum wage. both of my positions are vapa funded and i am concerned that students will lose these programs if the vapa funding is cut. during the summ

this is, i am concerned what our students will lose if the vapa budget is cut. just down the road from district offices is international high school, a high-end public school where students have access to a state-of-the-art recording studio. i believe that sfusd students should also have access and opportunities to use such technology as a strife to fund and raise a music production department at wallenberger high school, thank you, vapa, because i don't know who would administrated this if they weren't there. thank you. [applause] >> buenas noches. my name is brian hernandez, and in 1961, i went to britain school, and i was for bidden to

speak spanish. the only song i remember the teacher teaching us is mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb. and that's what we were taught going to bryan school. and then, as i grew up and got mentored by cesar chavez and everybody, i became a community organizer, and i worked on a statewide initiative to get bilingual education in our schools. because when i went to school, i got suspended for speaking spanish in school. and that was here in san francisco. in 1992, when arlene ackerman was the superintendent of public schools, she came to my house for breakfast and says, what should i do to fix the

schools? and i said let's take a walk after breakfast to flynn elementary school which at that time was primarily black and african american and latino and black kids. i said the majority of these kids are late to school, there's no p.t.a. why don't we start a dance program, and have the kids come out in carnival every year. we did, and since then, we've worked with over 9,000 children. i've seen these children in the parade. they start off with first grade -- we have got kids that graduated from college that are now teaching music in these schools. it's important to be able to feed the hearts, the souls, and the spirit and the minds of our

children with cotura, la cotura cuda, gracias. >> if evenigood evening. my name is jill, and i'm a professional musician. hello, arts community. how are you doing? so i'm pleased to see such great turnout tonight. i'm here to represent the students that aren't here. peef serves 6400 students in the district alone, and all of the funding come -- from our program comes from peef funding. i want to remind everyone that equity is not just about equal access at any common level of quality, it's about being really student centered and looking at what individual communities, schools, and

students need and being culturally responsible in a culturally responsive way. that's what the vapa is trained to help us deliver on. they help us identifying gaps and needs for kids, and they make sure we're able to provide those services infoto the stud. arts are the way into the hearts and minds and transformative experiences for students. so i urge you to reconsider, baby. reconsider, baby. [applause] >>io >>io98 --

[inaudible] >> -- and scrap, and i've -- i started my work with the school district with the residency program placing artists in the schools. i worked many years on that. i worked many different things, but i'm constantly into cals. either the funding, a situation where they're placed or people who don't have the time or the energy anymore to concentrate on children's work. and i really am extremely discouraged at this point. i just hope you reconsider this folly in a way. it's a folly, and i just want to really tell you that i'm very troubled by the problems of the district.

thank you. [applause] >> good evening. my name is robin saunders. i come from a music background myself, run a 23 piece band for 25 years. have always been centered on music programs in our school district and the bay area at large and have known from a very early age that children listen more carefully when you deliver things in the form of music and art. i really believe in the power of san francisco. i've been so proud to be from san francisco. i also lived through the prop

13. i know for a fact that our city and state took a dive -- we used to be number one, number two, and what are we now? 49 in the entire united states? it's because the children are not being given always the opportunity for express themselves, feel comfortable about learning and listening. we need to make sure -- i had something else planned to say, but so many other people have said the things that i wanted to touch on. but i want to make sure that everybody remembers the power that the arts have on children's learning. it's a proven researched -- more and more research comes

out. i went to a thing at sf jazz and watched someone go into a machine -- [please stand by].

>> -- that the vapa department and the administrators in the vapa department have done a very fine job not just for the students in our school but for all the schools in the district. and there's no art program that can be effective without administration. as wonderful as these art teachers here that we heard speak, they can't do the job that they have to do without an administrator. [applause] >> there are three programs in particular that come to mind that our children with strongly represented at buena vista

horace mann. that would be the mariachi night. the sfusd arts festival, which is coming up is another opportunity for our students to show their work to the city, all the city. and the all-city music festival is equally important and dependent on the work of vapa. please reconsider. these people are doing a very fine job. they benefit all our students. thank you. [applause] >> i'd like to thank you all first of all for the opportunity to speak u