>> welcome. we're glad you're here. this is the regular meeting of the board of education of the san francisco unified school district. today is march 12, 2019. roll call, please. (roll call). >> thank you. tonight i will open this meeting in honour of zora that said those that don't got it can't show it and those that no got i, can't hide it. section a, information for the public and section b, approval

of board minutes for february 26, 2019. could i is a motion and second on the minutes? >> so moved. >> second. >> roll call vote on minutes, please. >> speaker cards for the regular agenda and closed session unnecessary. if you wish to address the board of education, members are reminded that an individual can complete a speaker card prior to the item being called and presented to the executive system, miss costco, members of the member have two minutes to address the board and time set by the president. according to the board rules of

procedures, speaker cards will not be accepted for an item already for the board. so we made announcements about public comment and moved up public comment to start of the meeting for a non-agenda itemized item. if it's for a particular agenda item, it's later in the meeting. number two, super delegates report, dr. matthews. >> thank you, president cook. (brief pause).

>> thank you all! there's no place i'd rather be than with all my family so thank you all. good evening, everyone. i'm going to try that again. good evening, everyone! >> good evening! march is national women's history month. [cheers and applause] during this month we recognize the contributions that women have made to history, culture and society. this gives us the opportunity in our schools, our workplaces and our communities to recognize and celebrate the often over-looked achievements of women. the theme for 2019 is visionary women, champions of peace and nonviolence. as we know, women and girls face

many challenges in our communities, nation and world and strive to overcome them everyday. women and girls confront disproportionate amounts of violence, poverty and exploitation and often paid less than men for the same work and face stubborn barriers. in countless ways overt and subtle, female voices and experiences are often marginalized. nonnonewomen are paving the wayr visual leadership like elected office, board rooms and in the media. we have to continue our own work in the san francisco unified school district to disrupt gender-base inequality and create positive change. for example, we must keep taking intentional steps to foster opportunities for young women to pursue stem pathways and

careers, athletic and other disciplines where they are underrepresented. i'm proud of the work we've done in this district to promote gender equality and also know we still have muchwork to did. i want to personally thank all of the the women who work diligently for students and families, classrooms, teachers, administrators, our chiefs and thousands of others, i thank you for all of your contributions. thank you. [cheers and applause] nearly 300 students and families will convene thursday march 14 to celebrate mexican heritage tradition. student performers from schools including chavaz elementary, mission education center, brian elementary, evert middle, school of the arts and mission high

will share the starch with jose hernandez from seoul, mexico and ballet florica. roberta hernandez will feature music and dance and it's to showcase a culturally art's programme that celebrates student diversity. i'm very excited to announce that sfusd has two more championship teams, the girl's varsity soccer team won the si f

division championship defeating reading 4-0 and the northern california champion for the second straight year. also, the mission boy's varsity soccer team for the cif for-cal division soccer championship defeating hilmar high 4-1 and they are the northern california champions. the california department of education sponsors the california distinguished school's programme. in 2019 california is recognizing outstanding education programmes and lowell high school is the distinguished school and honoured at a ceremony in april. congratulations to lowell high school. finally, all of our district schools will be closed monday march 25 for spring break and offices will remain open and

that concludes my announcements. >> good evening, everyone. today i would like start by making an update on our youth summit progress. last night leaders participated in the youth summit posters and our workshop presenters. this aims at the best professional development training for our inspiring student leaders and fun. the summit will take place on friday march 22 at fort mason centre from 19:30 a.m 9:30 a.m.o 2:30 p.m.

>> this friday, march 15, union from the bay area will be marching to nancy pelosi's office to gain momentum for environment activist. the student's goal is to call to take action. thank you to kristen tam for sharing this information. >> on february 28, 2019, student leers at wallenburg high school participated in the mou. in doing so we hope to present the engagement so a new revised mou is student centred. thank you to all of our peers so they're we're able to participate in the focus group. we would like to thank the student leaders and administration at wallenburg high school follow allowing us

to use their facility for their school meeting. >> next year's delegates began last friday. we are excited to run for this important leadership position. all students are encouraged to vote and partake in this year's student delegate vote. the link is tinyworld.com. thank you to all six candidates tor your dedication to student voice this serving constituents. we wish you the best campaign run. >> our next meeting is march 8 at 5:00 p.m. upstairs in the cafeteria room. this is a public council and anyone is welcome to attend. if you like to attend or like a copy of the agenda, please contact our supervisor. thank you and happy birth day, dr. matthews. >> thank you for that report.

number four, recognitions and rosresolutions of commendation. >> tonight we recognize our board-certified teachers. [cheers and applause] >> national board certification is an optional professional endeavor and it is a rigorous assessment of teaching practice. since the first san francisco unified school district educator became a national board certified teacher in 1999, the district has supported certification in partnership with uesf. starting in the 2014-'15 school year, our district has offered comprehension and coordinated support providing access to more teachers than ever before. in addition to the deep learning and leadership opportunities, national board certified teachers earn a $5,000 a year stipend supporting retention of high quality educators.

this is the impact of the programme. students of national board certified teachers make two months more growth and one-third to one-half of national certified board teachers act in leadership positions at the district and site level. i will now hand it to the national board certified teacher and programme coordinator for national board support programme to give this year's update. i would like to now call up nia ross. >> i'm niar ross, one of the co-coordinatorrers of the co-support programme. thank you for this opportunity to bring awareness to the accomplishments of the sfusd national certified board teachers. this is an equity strategy to provide convulsio construction n francisco. our students need educators who

are focused on them as individuals, who know their histories, their likes and dislikes and need the teachers to know what they teach and reflect on what is and is not working in the classroom. we know we need to work better for back and brown students. these beliefs are at the core of the national core for national standards. talk, for example, a cohort of seven teachers at paul revere who strive to embody the dispostions of the national board. these teachers choose focal students and are committed to genuinely knowing these children in multidimensional ways to achieve success. they share a video of practice with each other and reach the diverse learners in their classroom. we are pleased to announce the

tragedies receiving the highest level nationally. because of our intentional recruitment 50% are in pitch and high potential schools. that's right, 50% of our newest accomplished teachers are in schools where students need them the most. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> in total, this brings the number of nbcts in san francisco to 291. about 8% of all certified staff. additionally, there are 150 candidates working to elevate tear practice for thelevatefor . on the behalf of the staff, we value the continued support of the board. in fact, other districts look to sfusd for a model of what district model support of what accomplished teaching looks like. i would like to interest a special education teacher at the

middle school and newly certified nbt to share her experience. [cheers and applause] >> thank you. good evening. i want to talk about a lot of rewarding parts about national boards and participating in the national boards but the two focal points are in regard to community and reflection. teaching can be an isolating profession, specifically for black and brown teachers and i think being a part of the national boards have helped me build a community within my school and larger within the school district and see what other teachers are doing because usually we don't see that and i think the reflection piece is super, super important for me and not just like a normal reflection, my day went well, the kids learned something. this is me analyzing every move, who i am and every move i make in the classroom affects student outcomes. i'm give a quick example of something i learned last week. i was teaching a lesson, this

kid needs this and i had all of this stuff. but when i got up there been the kids were looking at me like this and i was like, ok, guys, i was honest that this is to the working and we'll go back to the drawing board and i think reflecting in the moment allows students to break down the power dynamic to know we make miss tablemistakesand we can learn ay and i'm putting their goals at the forefront of what i'm doing. so that is why i appreciate being a member of national boards right now. [cheers and applause] >> thank you so much for sharing your perspective. cheer cheer. >> on april 9, we will recognize erin as well as her peers for her accomplishment. join us at the culture centre to celebrate hard work and dedication to san francisco youth. look for our followup email

shortly. thank you to the board and dr. matthews. >> thank you. number two, commissioner lamb. >> thank you. in recognition of international women's day, which was last friday, march 8, day in which women around the world celebrate their power, demand equal rights and live with dignity. international women's day celebrates the rate of wome rigo be free from oppression. this year the san francisco unified school district want to remember the resiliency of the victims of the larger sex trafficking in modern history, also known call the comfort women. during world war ccs and world s

were trafficked, ti thailand, cambodia were forced japanese military comfort's system into sex slavery. the stark history was hidden over 40 years million these women, the comfort women survivors came out and told the world what had happened. sf unified remembers the courage to break the silence, leading the way for hundreds of thousands of victims for silence violence to do the same in the metoo movement. we dedicate this recognition to the victims and continue to urge sf to comply with resolution number 158-251 passed in 2015, which soughts i states in part t

community experts to work this consultation to incorporate an educational commitment of the history for comfort women of world war ii under the japanese military and educate the community about the harmful effects of sex trafficking in the modern-day context of protecting the youth community from trafficking. thank you. >> thank you. we have two speakers on this item. you have two minutes. >> thank you very much. >> you want to press -- >> thank you. president and superintendent matthews. i want to quote what you just said, there's no better place you'd rather be than here on your birthday.

it's not my burt day bu birthdas the same thing, this is one of the best boards i've seen and you'll do great things and thank you so much. you know, in 2014, i retired from four-time judging to become a four-time peace activist. i picked an issue that was very difficult, very heart-breaking and challenging and turned out extremely controversial because of the denial of the perpetrators. and that is the history of the comfort women that is a term that are sex slaves of world war ii. the commissioner spoke about the dark history and what happens to them so i won't belabour that.

there are own 22 women survives left and none in taiwan and a handful in the philippines. these survivors are still searching for their justice and waiting for the day of reckoning, the day that finally japan would apologize an andrarepairations be made. this is to move on to promote education. this is how we continue to eradicate sexual violence. so without any more discussions,

i think i made my limit and i would like to introduce the president of the board of the justice coalition to introduce the education equal efforts. thank you very much for this effort and your recognition. >> hi, everybody. so glad to be here and to echo, the comfort women had it and they didn't hide it. but it took 40 years for them to break their silence. why did it take so long? because, unfortunately, in this world, when a woman is raped, often it becomes her shame and the shame of the community and we're just beginning to change that. but the comfort women were part of a movement in the 1990s that actually talked about this in a very different way and said, it's not normal, it's not acceptable for women to be

raped. it's not acceptable for women to be raped during war and actually, they were part of the movement that in the 2 thousands declared that rape during war is a strategy of war is a crime against humanity and helped the usunited nations say this was torture. all of what's going on, we can trace back to the brave women who spoke out and don't these women who are now in their 80s and 90s deserve justice and don't the students deserve to learn the choice about what happened in world war ii and learn the truth of what happened in asia, not just in europe and so i'm just showing everybody here, this is the curriculum that we've developed and we're hoping that this wen will be usn every classroom in the tenth grade in ethnic studies. we've had a lot of interest and it's very, very important and

we're very grateful that on this international women's day, a day now finally recognized by the united states and women and men around the world that we actually honour these brave women who are call the comfort women and we want to thank our board member, jenny lamb, for authoring this great resolution. thank you so much. [cheers and applause] >> thank you. as i mentioned earlier, we had announced several board meetings we would move up public comment because of the -- also, move up additional items, moving up creative arts, e1 to come up after public comment and for e2, on a public education enrichment fund to come up after creative arts.

so if you signed up for public comment, i'll call your name and you can make your way to the podium and after that, creative arts, we'll talk about creative arts p1 and then p2. i have a list of names of people who signed up for general public comment. when you hear your name, please make your way to the podium and state your name before the start. finally, i'll just say what we have listed, know that public comment is an opportunity for the board to hear from the community on matters within the board's generation. jurisdiction. we ask you refrain from using employee and student names and if you have a question, submit it so the supervisor. as a reminder, board rules not allow us to respond or answer questions during the public comment time. if appropriate, the superintendent will ask staff to follow up with speakers.

so we have reverend brown, reverend townssend, reverend birch, reverend brenner, franc francisco-decosta, shirley robinson, evelyn and jerry nickson. if you heard your name, please make your name to the podium and you'll have two minutes. >> i'm a little bit under the weather. the issue is important. and as the stewart and some of the people in the audience,

this is international women's day and all my life, i am 73 years old and i have fought for women's rights. but this board should be ashamed that a black woman with 25 years of experience, a principal, without cause is being terminated and the way this issue is discussed, she's not fired, just terminated. we should be ashamed of ourselves. you don't need to read anything. each one of us has a conscience. i am very well known in the city and i represent the first people, mark maloney. i've been the director of

environmental justice for 45 years and i served three generals. some of them were cowards, they would gang up on a black woman who is just mourning from the death of her mother. and we went to the naacp and we went to some of the housing and none of them are here. house negros, i repeat. so let's not talk about slavery. lead not talk about some women going everything in a convoluted manner when today in san francisco, the city that knows how, they are screwing our own black women. thank you very much.

>> good evening, mr. chairman, and members of the board, ladies and gentlemen. my name ii'm amos brown, seniorf the church of san francisco and i'm president of the national association for the advancement of colored people. i wish to introduce my remarks against the backdrop of the poignant words of robert frost and i quote him. the woods are lovely, dark and deep, but i have promises to keep. and miles to go before i sleep. and miles to go before i sleep.

we have often uttered friends soothing, braggadocious words about san francisco and we've sung about, i left my heart in san francisco. but brother decosta you spoke and if you look around, you would see, the naacp very much has your back. we can brag all we want to about san francisco being liberal and progressive, and we can be bewitched by those words, but i wanted to give you a reality check. san francisco still has miles to go and promises to keep before we can say that we are complete

and we are really a first-class world city. for any time as mr. decosta mentioned, a woman who happen to be african-american has not received due process and from all indication of the facts presented thus far at this point, we have an obligation to do a full investigation of the matter and finally, i say, we have miles go, promises to keep to make sure every black child in this district has quality wrap-around services in every school and no one is left behind in the city and county of san francisco. thank you very much. [cheers and applause] >> good afternoon. my name is shirley wilburson and

on behalf of visitation valley elementary school, happy birthday. you know, i heard you say it's black -- not black, excuse me, women's month. i just say women's month. we had another day the other day and i can only imagine how the principal, miss scott, feels to be sitting at home and to have gone through what she is going through. what type of platform has she been on? what type of platform is she on? my understanding there's only ten black principals in sanfrancisco and she hasn't had her due process. from the time i have been there, no one has came out.

she asked for help and no one calm but there wacame but theret yesterday saying she won't be back and that can't be, not as long i have breath in my paid becausin my body.we have our opt you must have both sides. no man is perfect but by the grace of god when i wakes you up in the morning, you have a chance to get it right. my prayers for us to get it right. she had a presentation. they had a black history dinner there and she had a presentation going through what she's going through and you know how you have, like, something that's missing and you're yearning for

something? well, this presentation filled it up, ok, that she has to have this black classroom in valley middle school and everyone there, you could hear the mouths all cotton because the presentation in what she was given was sole fulfillment and we need it. please, i beg of you, look into the situation. it has not been looked into and sign her contract, please, again. she is what we need. (applause). >> my name is david austin and i'm here to speak on behalf of april scott, principal of the school. i was brought in recently -- >> i'm let you continue and just so we move forward, i've been

kind of lenient on letting people go over. i'm going to try to make it tighter on time. because we have about 150 names here of people behind you and keep to your time. thank you. >> thank you, sir. i appreciate that. appreciate that. i wanted to speak directly to assisting principal scott. you was brought into helping her during a time when staff members were not availabl available to d what i saw was a lot of chaos and disorder to the site she was been instrumental in trying to shore up and trying to bring unity into the community and classrooms and into our department as a whole. i witnessed a turn-around myself just in a short period in which i've been there. the students, the unity the students have and the way the kids come to me in which i'm pleased and proud about.

people speak of diversity but i see it on a daily basis and what i see in her absence is that disorder has come back because she is unavailable. they miss their principal. there was somebody leading the ship and without this person, it has made things difficult to do things daily administrative duties. i am asking you just as a new employee and as somebody to use her assistance and guidance, please bring her back to help us and help the district, help the kids because it's like a mother that leaves the home. they're missing their mom right now and we could really use her assistance. i appreciate you understanding that and helping the kids out who embrace me and have embraced miss scott during the duration of time she's been there. >> so no one else came forward of the names i listed.

>> i'm right here. >> sorry, i didn't see you the there. >> you have told us once again, the systematic oppression has risen in our school. you talk about diversity but we have not seen this. it's diversity of kids but when it comes to our programs, dealing with our principal, this is not for our brown kids and that's not fair. you had whatever is available with the chinese people of our community, but we were not able to have our meetings, and our principal is -- you guys did not give her a due process as it should have been. tame and timtime and time agains

brown people left out and it's times like these we need to see our own people that's strong and do the work. you talk about core but you do not live up to what you're saying with this education system. you guys keeping telling us, as my kids are in public school as well here, but we get let out of the loop. we were not invited to the table from the chinese community and that's not father for parents thafair for parents thatgo ther. i mean, people work in the evening and we're not heard. i guess you guys didn't hear us when we were here the first time and the second time you didn't hear us and you still don't hear us. miss scott is a capable body and holds the core values that you guys implemented and in place. so i'm just not understanding why she hasn't had due process.

there has been no investigation or anything. it's sad that we have state heae and you haven't investigated anything. (applause). >> my name is brandy spencer and i'm probably 125 on that list. i'll be brief, thank you. members of the poor, i'm brandy spencer, the new adviser of the elementary school. since my on-boarding in december of 2018, i've been thoroughly impressed with the professionalism and quality leadership displaced by miss scott in virtually every aspect as a role of principal. despite the somewhat tumultuous climate of the school, miss scott has maintained poise and made herself available for any and all transparency.

a firm believer and activator, she reinforces the importance of all students on campus to make sure every aspect of our school's resource are used to support this goal. in my humble opinion, it is this type of leadership and stewardship that inspires steps towards success. i hope i can describe the huge impact miss scott and her leadership have made on campus and will continue to make with your support. feel free to contact us at the school to touch more with leadership and stewardship and we can definitely give you telling examples from the staff and the students and the community in general. thank you.

we have sasha cronen and cecilia cecilia avalinji. >> she's probably going to need a spanish translator. >> if you heard your name, can you make your name to the podium. >> i'm here to talk to you about marshall letter school. i heard your comments about personnel matter so i'll modify my comments to talk about the toxic environment that currently existed at marshall elementary school. we tried the recommended channels of communication. we spoke to this person's supervisor. we met with a board member who's no longer on the board and nothing was done and the situation continues to get worse. the leadership at the school is

vindicative, retaliatory, talks unilateral actions that harm the students academically. many of the students are treated in a manner that is demeaning and disparaging in front of their parents, in front of other parents. the leadership is discriminatory against the latino families at a school that is 80% spanish-speaking only. i'm not longer at the school, which is why i feel free to come here and speak out about it. most of the parents there are afraid to speak about because they have seen the vicious retaliation that takes place against students and parents and teachers. it is an absolutely toxic, untenable situation. it cannot continue. we need you to intervene. we've sent letters. the letter that we sent to this

person's supervisor was then just forwarded to the individual that we were complaining about and there was, then, further retaliation against the people who were assumed to have participated in composing the letter. so i have another letter that has specific parent's names and there are seven copies for all of the board members. we need to schedule a meeting with board members and something has to be done. it ca cannot continue. >> my name is sasha harris-cr harris-cronen. as many of you know, mr. tobar left our school last area and he was the heart for the spanish-speaking and especially for the undocuments ut in the s. school.

when he left, the communication was completely ineffectual. students were given no emotional support. there was no loss to the teachers or especially to the undocumented families in our community. when families gathered at the support of mr. tobar, the police were called on them. let me repeat that, the police were called on undocumented families at a school. this has had the effect of being hugely intimidating on the community and specifically on the 80% latino community in our school. since then, many families have pulled back their involvement from the school, including volunteering, family reading in

the classroom, pta involvement and fundraising and from their own self-advocacy and from the advocacy for their children. this is a community in crisis. two minutes is not enough to talk about this and we need a meeting with the boa board to address this situation and we need it separately and we need it soon. thank you very much. >> good evening. my name a sharon hoff. i'm a parent of marshall elementary. as a white parent, my daughter has had a pretty good run at marshall but through my involvement through the latino community at the school, i have come to learn of a lot of inequities in the school and the treatment of latino parents, children, in the way that the governance of the school happens. and in terms of retaliation against parents, teachers and

children sanding up to the administration. standing up to e administration. i was heavily involved went we lost a teacher last year due to a controversy and the way that was handled was incredibly unprofessional and inappropriate as the previous speaker just said, but there have been other pervasive problems for years and years. i think many of which haven't come to the forebecause it is mostly targeted against the latino community. i stand as an ally with them to advocate for them and i think we need new administration. it's a beautiful school community. there's so much community. it's a small school with a lot of local families, some multigenerational families have attended there. so much that we can do with the community school and in terms of bridging cultures that just gets squashed by the laziness and the

maliciousness of the administration. so much more we can do. (please stand by).

>> that infused arts throughout the curriculum. just as i stood here at a recent board meeting in support of the recharger ring of the five keys charge of school, the same national applies here. this is a kind of charter school that albert schenker, who was present of the american federation of teachers from 1974 to 1992, his vision of a charter school was the kind of school that was trying something different that could be a model for other schools, and the rich arts curriculum at creative arts achieved that through their curriculum, and so as a neighbour of the school, as president of ubs f. and as the negotiator who worked with some awesome educators, by the way, on the bargaining team, i support the reopening of the charger for the charger school. thank you. [cheers and applause]