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 up and say my part in this. my name is joseph churchill, and i can say that i know the san francisco unified school district very well from the inside out, being that i'm now vapa ittinerant arts school and serving at the end of the year over 1600 students. i am also a product of the san francisco unified school district. i went to andrew jackson elementary school. i went to cabrillo elementary school. and you wonder why so many elementary schools. we had a retrofit for

earthquakes. i graduated from washington high school in the late 80's. i went to roosevelt elementary school, and i'm very thankful i had the opportunity at roosevelt to be in band. it didn't allow me to take the visual arts because that was my elective, but that stayed with me until now. i'm a musician now, but i'm a visual artist because i worked very hard after barely graduating from washington high school, okay? i'm telling you that i know it from the inside out. i worked hard at city college, 13th grade, to get myself into a four-year college, and that's where i realized no, you're an artist, and i graduated from the studio art department, came back, and was given the opportunity by my mean of students. so it takes advocates for the students. that's what i'm being right

now. so i want you guys to reconsider this because i'm doing the good work, and i lived it -- [inaudible] >> here we go. thank you. my name is alyssa scott. i'm here on performing arts workshop. we're a nonprofit arts education provider in the bay area public schools for over 50 years? and we acknowledge the issues that happening with vapa that may be influencing the discussion today and we acknowledge the discussion is being brought to the table, but the proposed redirection of funds doesn't address the

access to public education. vapa, their role is to fill in the gaps. for example, we actually interface with vapa legal requirements for funding which provides safeguards for our students. we hear and understand that the call for less admin and oversight and for more -- not oversight -- for less admin and more direct services because of this mission of equity that we are all here for. however, we feel like we're finally starting to get transparency with vapa for understanding the arts and education in san francisco. i think that's what we're here for, is to be more efficient with our funding. born and raised in san francisco. just came back, working again in the community that gave me -- put me here, and so on

behalf of the performing arts workshop and myself as an individual, i strongly urge you to at least take a pause at others have said tonight and think about where that supplemental funding would come from. if not from peef's end, we' we're -- let us know, because we'd like to know about that extra funding, if possible. >> i'm khaira petes. i'm here tonight to say my work in arts education nonprofit sector has proved time over time that the public has a great desire for better and equitiable access to the arts. i urge you to keep the money that is allocated for funding vapa for vapa. i personally don't understand how this move of funds will

address inequity in the arts. please focus on strengthening vapa. thank you. [applause] >> good evening. my name's isabel portman. i'm a senior at george washington high school, an a.p. arts student and president of the student art society. art classes have allowed me resources and a safe space to explore and understand my own emotions more than any other experience in my life. for much of my life i've struggled with low self-esteem and the impact that bullying has had on me, and the only way i've found anything effective.

art is absolutely essential in the mental well-being, growth, and happiness of sfusd students. i also have the privilege of running more informal art classes at school. for many, it is a place that we can feel involved in the school community and have a creative outlet, and they have a lot of fun. art has been proven a successful form of therapy for students with special needs, and some of those units help me with my duties, like handing out colored pencils and paper, help people find their seats, and cleaning up after lunch. at my school, we support each other, we give creative criticism, and most importantly, we love each other. in taking money from the vapa department, the school would be

defunding a department that promotes mental health, friendshipshi friendship, well-being, and community. >> my name is julie. i'm a parent of a kindergartener and a second grader so most of what's happened with the arts in our school has happened during the school day. it was interesting to learn last night in third grade is when we start learning some of the inequities. so i haven't seen, you know, sort of what the more opt in -- what the issues of equity have looked like around vapa, but what i have seen is the peef c.a.c., which is an advisory

committee, where folks looked at thoughtfully, the school sites, and they looked at existing proposals, and they gave advise. and their advise was to make sure that services go to sites, and we move away from administration. it was to focus on equity. folks really wanted to make sure that each school site has a social worker? and so i'm -- i feel like one of the narratives that's coming out here is this recommendation is a surprise? so i assume the peef c.a.c. presents these recommendations again and again and specifically drawing issues with vapa administration, i feel like the only way that that would be a surprise to staff is if we never intended that advisory committee's recommendatio recommendations not to be taken seriously. i thought one of the good recommendations we'll be moving forward is having site folks and educators as a part of the peef c.a.c. as i've been talking to folks

who are site coordinators, i've heard mixed things that sometimes vapa doesn't support arts in school, and i have to wonder the testimony i'm hearing about old instruments, when we're sending $2.3 million into school is the best piece of funding. thank you. [applause] >> president cook: i also have jessica bloom up here, if you're still here. go ahead. >> hi. i'm lainie, and i have two kids. i've also on the peef c.a.c., and one of the first recommendations that i'd like to make is to meet with you earlier in this practices. it's really difficult to have spent so many hours, heard from so many people who have taken the time out of their evening to meet with us, give us public comment. we take that to heart, put it in our recommendations, and it gets kind of she horned into this process.

if we can meet with you, even earlier in the registration packet, suggesting we meet two or three times a year. we only meet with you once, and it's certainly not our intention to surprise the public and make the public come and spend more time and have more stress. i personally believe that the arts are an essential part of programming -- programming at our schools. i've benefited, my kids have benefited. i have great concerns, however, about equity and access at our schools throughout the district. k-12, all site. that came up quite a bit in our public comments in our conversations on the peef c.a.c. and our recommendations were that more of the visual and performing arts central office administrative staffing funding be reallocated in order to support direct student services at the school site level.

we heard from so many people that kids do not have access to instruments, instruments are broken, the materials are not available. at different sites, there's different things being offered. we have not seen a consistent inventory, yet, we've seen a growing administrative central office budget over the many years that vapa has been in -- oh, shoot. well, there you go. i have more to say, but i really appreciate all the comments, and i appreciate the clarification that this is not -- that this is what peef funding is focused on, which is direct and equitiable focus to students. hopefully -- [inaudible] [applause] >> my name is jessica golm, and

i'm a stay at home mom and arrest activit artist, and i'm a school volunteer. at the beginning of my school year, my cochair and i decided to ratchet up some of our action items because we found that there were some red flags in providing opportunities for kids in the classroom to do art, music, dance, drama droug throughout the school year. it's resulted in permanent art, teachers feeling supported that they can be able to deliver art in our classroom in a regular basis. we've been able to celebrate

and engage kids, parents, and teachers arc collaborative cultural art projects. our school has come up with some really surprising creative, colorful, joyful, and peaceful action that help sunnyside kids learn. so we're real evidence of new studies that come out like the one out of houston from rice effort that says that arts learning experiences benefit students in terms of reductions and disciplinary infractions to others, improvements to writing achievement and school as spirations and college engagement. i would take a page from the art of fine walkining walking. never go out without one cord

in one hand and the other in another. thank you for keeping vapa in pla place. [applause] >> president cook: thank you for your comments. we will now open this up to comments from the board and superintendent. commissioner lopez? lopez lopez >> commissioner lopez: so i want to start by thanking everyone for coming out and telling us about the importance of arts in our classroom. i completely understand the effectiveness, the positive work that this does for your children, especially low-income children of color. so in hearing that, what i really want to reiterate is we are not cutting the funds for these programs. what we're focusing on is the amount of money that's being spent on administration and the

amount of time and information that we've asked for them around clarity that we haven't received. so in the $1.5 million that's being allocated for administration in comparison to the one and change that a speaker mentioned earlier per student, that's what we're talking about. there's money being allocated for an updated website, which i've been on. as an educator in the district, i still have not been able to allocate. there's money allocated for community input and parent outreach, and additional funds to hiring outside consultants. that's over 120,000 additional funding that should be the role of the administrators that we are funding in this budget. i understand what you're saying, but i think the

information hasn't been clear. i'm just going to share and hear from other commissioners. >> president cook: before we move forward, i'm going to excuse our student delegates. >> okay. so just as a process check, we have the superintendent's recommended proposal, and we have allege are allege a-- an alternative that needs to be brought before the full board. so do we want to hear more comments? commissioner norton? >> commissioner norton: so i want to thank everybody for coming out on such notice. i think it was said many times that everybody in this district is so grateful and thankful to

the voters for their support of arts education and we are the envy of many districts up and down the state because of the money that the voters of san francisco have given us specifically for arts, libraries, sports, and music? we didn't have to make cuts in the other recession that other districts have h to do because we have -- have had to do because we have that peef. i want to say i think there's some real problems that have been surfaced around vapa in particularly this process this year and previously my own peef c.a.c. appointee, lainie, who spoke to you earlier tonight was on the vapa subcommittee of the peef are c.a.c. and wrote -- peef c.a.c. and wrote the long memo that you saw about the program. i'm not in favor of the

proposed amendment that the committee gave last night. i think we can have a conversation about how much is going to administration and what are the appropriate levels of -- what is spending that -- you know, what peef's -- what should peef go for versus should it be classroom spending, administration, what's an appropriate amount there? i would note that the all of rest of the plan has f.t.e.s. i'm not quite sure why vapa is being singled out other than there are people that have had some pick personal experiences with vapa, and that may be motivating some of this? i think that what i would -- what i would suggest is that we -- we should request an

audit. we should request there be an independent look at how we spend our money. i'm concerned about some of the allegations made about do we provide instruments? we do yet no one seems to feel they have accessed those instruments. that's one small example. i think the problems that have been surfaced this year are serious enough to require some kind of an audit. what i would also like to say is that even from my own appointee who i think you heard and in the e-mail she wrote to every member of the board personally had some concerns about how vapa is recommended and funded. she told me they were not going forward. they were not about the 19-20 budget year, it was about how we can make this better in perspective years? i don't think anybody on the

vapa intended for us to upend the budget this year. so what i would like to suggest is we pull this amendment back for the 19-20 budget, but that we ask the superintendent or really direct the superintendent to put forward an audit so we have much better information -- and not just vapa. i think we owe it to ourselves to look at all funding. who decides what money goes to

sports or arts and music? so rather than making a radical, to some extent, very disruptive change in the middle of the budget process that we actually use or -- our role as oversight and ask for better information and oversight so that we can make better decisions in procespective educators. >> president cook: commissioner moliga? >> commissioner moliga: i trust my committee, that they're going to do their job and put out recommendations that are important. i know a lot of them, and their heart's in the work that they do. so for me, i was trying to ask myself, like, what's important? arts is important.

p.e. is also important. p.e., just think like the hi number of diabetes and obesity in black and brown communities and the lack of support we have in addressing those issues when it comes to equity. but just being fair, being very, very fair, you know, i wasn't at the meeting last night. and you know i think for me personally to be good stewards and board members, for me, it's important that we have a process in place that's equitiable i am very supportive of the current recommendation, but i'm more supportive of a

process that's fair and equitiable. i'm just out of humility. what's the process of kicking this back to the budget committee wen? >> it was presented for first reading, and then, we didn't -- it was presented to the community as a whole. i requested in the community as a whole, i said this feels rushed? i still have questions about how money is spent? and i was told there's not enough time. and this happens every year, and this is intentional. so i just want to. >> president cook: before you -- the actual answer is there's an april 1 deadline. >> but it was presented to us without time for the -- i

specifically requested the district to present on brief's budgeting. i wants to look at it, and it was not slight -- -- i wanted to look at it, and it was not slated on the agenda -- there was no time that we agreed on the community as a whole meeting -- >> president cook: right, but you're -- >> commissioner moliga: so what's the process about kicking this back to committee? >> president cook: there is none. it didn't go back to committee because it has to be voted on by april 1. >> we can schedule another meeting. >> i'm just trying to figure out what our options are. does it come out of legal here?

what's the process here? >> so ijust to recap- this was shared as a committee as a whole. so the prop c charter that was passed in 2014 requires a district submit a spending plan by april 1 for the upcoming fiscal year, and that is the driver. it's not to say that the spending plan could not be amended, but that that is a requirement that the initial spending plan be submitted by that date. i would like to point out, though, that the dates for the

discussion of the spending plan have been on the calendar since the fall. february 26 committee as a whole, march 5, and then second meeting tonight, march 12. we'll definitely take into consideration the feedback about -- from the board and others about wanting a longer period of time to deliberate about the spending plan in the future. but i do want to just point out that those dates have been established since the fall, and i believe those dates have been shared with all the commissioners. >> president cook: thank you, huang. i won't take to long. in terms of this process, what we're talking about tonight, what are our options? because for me, you know 2.3 is a lot of money to say we don't have the time -- i'll come back

to another meeting -- to have another look. i'm very supportive of our schools, but at the same time, are we doing our due diligence of really vetting this process and making sure we think through what needs to happen. you want to talk trauma? push through things soon. that's trauma. i know tonight. what's our options for this? >> so the board needs to take action as deputy superintendent lee said by april 1. that's the sense of urgency to have your decision tonight. . >> president cook: but just so it's clear, there was a recommendation of putting a process in place that was mentioned by commissioner norton, so it's not like this

can't come back in a future year. and i think part of it -- i'm going to let you -- part of the issue about tonight's meeting was that, you know, this came off as an attack on the arts which wasn't the intention of the spending reappropriation. that's how it came off, and we heard three hours of public comment because of a poor last-minute decision. we've heard very clearly from the community that, you know -- communication has been now made that this wasn't attacking the arts, but we have a recommendation from the superintendent about putting a process in place. dr. matthews, can you speak to that and we'll go into

commissioners comments. >> absolutely. hearing the concerns and hearing the concern from the pcac around the process, we are fully committed -- staff is fully committed to moving forward processes that make it more transparent, having meetings earlier, having board meetings earlier down so it doesn't come down to right before a budget item hassto - has to be made. we have heard the concerns that have come through. no matter what happens tonight, that commitment is going to happen regardless. i do want to say one more thing. i do think it's important that you've heard a number of the people who have spoken tonight

talk about the commitment from everyone in this room understanding the importance of arts education and wanting all of our students to have that education in the fullest possible way, especially when we have a district that values equity and making sure that the students that need the most receive the most. but that being said, i think it's important that we all come to this assuming positive intent that the people who have developed the budget, the people who work on the peef c.a.c. have come to this and just in a positive place. i've heard comments that this was intentional. in no way with my staff -- if anything, we want the board to have as much information as possible to make as informed decisions as possible.

i think from staff's perspective, we believe that all of the board members are coming from a place of positive intent. my hope is we are coming from the same place that staff is working so hard to make this happen. >> commissioner collins: may i comment? >> president cook: commissioner collins. >> commissioner collins: i've been receiving comments from peef c.a.c., and consistently -- and this is not this year, this is year after year, i've heard that -- and i wasn't ever on the peef community advisory committee, but i've heard consistently that they're not allowed to provide meaningful input in the budgeting process. and i want to quote a comment from a member this year that says i know that many of my questions cannot be answered by grilling the peef c.a.c.

these are the questions that the vapa department needs to be responsible for answering directly and they have not been particularly interested in answering our questions or even presenting pe peef c.a.c. meeting. this is a consistent thing that i'm hearing, and in our discussions as a community as the whole, i ask for specific information around who your kids are serving. my daughters were at gene parker, and they were not eligible to participate in a music program because the teacher didn't teach them the songs that they were needed in order to participate. when i demanded data district wide that showed all the schools, sanchez, el dorado, new traditions, drew, bessie carmichael, george carver,

there's a pattern in these schools. these are schools where no students participated in a music program which cost a lot of money. at that time, five years ago, i raised questions, just as you are. i stood at that table, and i ses i want all students to have access to programming. and i also share a similar concern reflected by many members and also reflected in the peef c.a.c. our district also said we give instruments to everybody. we make sure all the instruments are given out. i'm not hearing that from the peef c.a.c. there's some concerns around the information we're getting about how programs are administered. i also want to bring out we have school libraries, arts en masse. when it comes to vapa teachers,

we have -- currently in our district, we have $11 is million allocated to 92 teachers insite, and we are very much supportive of those insite staff being in our schools and doing what they do. we also have 72 teacher librarians that we're accountable for that. in p.e., we only have 51, so there is a disparity in how we're funding p.e. program, and that weight -- and unfairly so. i like the facts that folks are really fighting for our arts programs in our school. because i personally graduated from tisch school of the arts. i'm 100% of fighting for staffing in schools.

we know that arts program, because it's not required. because it's required, we have p.e. teachers that are required to do the work, and we underfund that funding. it's important to have this dialogue, and it's important to have this in an equitiable conversation. please look up the peef c.a.c. recommendation. for this -- last year, it stated in the peef c.a.c. recommendations, it says, the vapa office includes a fair number of office administrators compared to other departments. i would -- we're arguing for more teachers in schools, those are direct services, not central office administration.

this is what peef says. we're also concerned that the saturday arts lab, there's concern around that, okay? so i'm going to go back and go to 2015-16. we're going to go back in time, and we're going to see -- i'm sorry. i'll go to -- this is from 2016-17. it says, the peef investment and arts teachers is a secondary level has increased while the number of schools and other funding support for arts has decreased. while we understand the district is consistently challenged to stretch limited resources, peef was explicitly meant to increase offerings to students. we should increase funding so western ae concerned to see -- we're concerned to see inclusion for the arts center added to the budget that do not appear to provide direct services to students. the c.a.c. would like to see

administrative costs for the arts center moved out of the peef center in the coming year. several years ago this recommendation was made, and yes, there's $335,000 that is still in this budget and it's money that could be spent on staffing and schools and supporting students, and the -- primary roll is to support students. >> okay. superintendent? >> yes. i'll touch to you in a second, but i just wanted to clarify about one of the data that was

requested, commissioner, and we know that there's a breadth of information that it relates to peef. it's a vast funding source covering a wide array programs, each with a lot of complexity. just in fairness, though, i do want to restate that -- that of the many questions that were raised by the board in last week's committee of the whole, that the team collectively deferral -- you know, a lot of different staff folks did come together to make a good faith effort to respond to the questions, and that meeting took place on tuesday. by friday, you were provided 16 pages of responses to those questions. again, we know there are many more questions, and we'll continue to make a good faith effort to answer additional questions, but i just did want to speak up a bit around the staff that's been trying to answer the questions that have been coming in.

i also wanted to ask mr. diaz to reiterate a point that was made in last night's committee curriculum meeting about the participation of the vapa team at the peef c.a.c., and i think it's an important point that deserves restatement tonight. >> so yesterday, i shared a point that the process for the peef c.a.c. is that after this body votes and approves the plan, we then reflect on the process and which programs we still have lingering questions about and which programs we want to invite throughout the cleaned year. last year, vapa was not on the calendar. it was not one of the programs that the c.a.c. decided to focus on and invite throughout the year to make a presentation. prior to 18-19, the vapa department has presented almost on an annual basis. so it's not that the vapa department refuses to come,

it's just that they weren't asked to come in this particular year. but they are going to make a presentation in april based on the conversations that we're having. they have been invited in april, and they are going to come and present to the c.a.c. thank you. >> president cook: commissioner sanchez, commissioner norton, and commissioner lam. >> vice president sanchez: thank you, everybody for coming out. everybody has a lot of thoughts about this money. it's a lot of money. a little known fact. i actually helped amamiano -- tom ammiano to write the peef. this is not perfect, but any stretch. we have so much more art and

music provided for our students and it's vote -- because the voters approved that by 70%. they knew that we didn't have librarians, that we didn't have artists in our schools, we didn't have dance, p.e., but rural athletics in our schools, and once they found out, they voted in large part for this. and we have what we have now, and we're having arguments about it. but i think that one way we can handle this structurally, it has to have more teeth, so the recommendations they give more staff through a vote actually has meaning so the recommendations are actually looked at and so the board can

act accordingly. [please stand by]

. >> vice president sanchez: we can deliver this to the city by april 1, and then deputy superintendent lee said we can actually amend it later, so i would propose that we go through with the recommendation and then direct staff to find the funding in the general fund to cover most of the administrative staff and then come back to amend it later once we've identified where that money's coming from. so we have a process we can come back to. because the fact of the matter is there are things that we do in this district that are actually not necessary, and there are things that we fund that we don't need to fund, and there's other sources of money -- in fact, the new eraf money that we're going to get we might look at, as well, but i think we should move this along and we should look at it after we've -- we've passed it.

>> president cook: commissioner n norton and commissioner lam? >> commissioner norton: so many things to say. so thank you, first of all, vice president sanchez. i appreciate your willingness to take a little bit more time and look at some structural things because there hasn't been enough data delivered to the commissioners to aspire what is happening. i would just like to dig a little bit into the couple of items that the people had mentioned. there was a discussion about the 1.5 million for

administration. there was discussion about the money, the 300,000 dl$300,000 funding the art center planning. there was discussion about the consultants that have been helping with the arts education master plan refresh, so all of the -- all of that money is what kind of got lumped together in the curriculum committee's thinking for a $2.3 milli $2.3 milli $2.3 milli $2.3 million repurposing of money, and i actually think we should look at those things one at a time as opposed to directing staff to find $2.3 million in the general fund budget to replace that? there may be some that we are interested in fubding out of peef? if it's true that we've been

spending $1.3 million a year on a website, then i would like to know more about that and why that continues to be a line item? i think there continues to be a discussion to be had, and i'll start by saying i think i'm still interested in paying for some of the art center planning coming out of peef because in the presentation we just got for the vision for 135 arts, it is a resource that is being conceived of to benefit every single student in this district. i also think that we want to make sure that we do that right. we're about to embark on a really big fund raising campaign. so if we don't have a really good, solid plan for that new program, for that new school, that's going to hurt our fund raising, so i would want us to consider that? but let's talk about it. and i also think we should get an update either now or some date on the refresh arts education master plan.

that is the core -- the arts education master plan, it's -- like, it's the hub of the whole wheel, and it's -- you know, it's been due for a refresh for a while. i'm a little concerned that we've been hearing about a refresh for, i think three years, and so i really do want to know kind of where that stands, why is it taking so long. it sounds like there's been some really rich conversations from some of the public comments we've heard, but let's understand where that money is coming from. i guess i would just say i understand the spirit of the recommendation that was made but i also -- it feels very -- it just feels like what are we trying to accomplish here? and to say, you know, we're going to create this whole bucket of things that we don't like and put them into here and put them into p.e. feels very arbitrary, honestly. i'm not sure that i want to spend $2.3 million on p.e. i also want to say my own -- i

don't know. that's just me, maybe. my own kids -- my daughter, many of you know went through the district with an i.e.p. from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade? i will say that her experience at washington was wonderful, and it was because of drama actually that she had such a great experience at wash. she was welcomed into that program and every single production starting in 9th grade. vapa was an incredible resource for her and something that really changed her life and made her high school years super positive. so i think there's a lot of really great stories to tell, and i would just like to say let's -- let's be more thoughtful and let's actually rely on data for making some of these decisions? and if it takes a little bit

longer to gather that data to make better decisions, i think that's okay. so i would just ask for a little bit of -- just slow it down a little bit and let's talk through the issues and make a good decision as opposed to a quick decision. >> president cook: commissioner lam. >> commissioner lam: thank you. thank you for everyone coming out and sharing your testimony tonight. i just want to express the frustration that has been felt by my colleagues, from community around what the data impact and vapa -- of course, first and foremost as a parent, i completely support arts education, my children's elementary school was a distinguished school for the arts. i think i also want to

acknowledge the tremendous work that's gone into the arts education master plan over the last, i believe, two years. i know that it's been a really entrenched community process? at the same time, it's also been a real missed opportunity around the timing of it. from what i hear, it's only a few weeks from being released. at the same time, it's like kind of had we been thinking around the peef budgeting process, with the school district's process, we just don't have all the information in front of us, and i think there is frustration around, you know, the time frame. why has it taken so long around the master plan roll out? so when that, again, i just want to extend an greesh because i know tremendous work has -- extend an appreciation

because i know tremendous work has gone into the process and lifting up -- there are some serious concerns and issues around accountability around the vapa program and its ability to serve equitiable to all schools and all students. i also want to acknowledge that i do think as a new commissioner more data to really understand the proposals before us. so my overall comments or position is that i have concerns with the proposed specifics around the administration. when i served four years on the peef c.a.c., that was a leading value, around the administrative costs and how that could be supported through

general funds, and that we really needed to concentrate those peef dollars to helping students first. so with that, i would want to be in support of additional processes, and i think that's what i thought out yesterday when i joined the committee meeting with staff and superintendent to hear some possible solutions, and i want to hear if there are any additional to the superintendent's -- that are around what options we do have in the interim before the april 1 deadline. >> other options? i'm not quite sure -- >> commissioner lam: well, i think i was commenting, one, that the process has gone by too quickly for me to make full

decisions, and i think, again, yesterday the options, and would there be a chance to look at some of the cost allocations from the peef budget that would come from the general fund? not in its entirety, but if there was some alternatives. superintendent superintende >> i don't know if you're asking for alternatives to the budgeting process, but you've heard -- you can schedule meetings to get more information or you can ask for the budget to be changed. that's one of the things that

was underdiscussion right now is an amendment to do just that. that's one option, of course, if the board wanted to spend more time. but you -- of course, the biggest issue, though is even if it went to another committee, there isn't another board -- a board meeting between now and april 1, and this has to be voted on by the full board. >> president cook: commissioner collins? >> commissioner collins: i appreciate what folks are saying around process and about specific items, because i do think -- and i also want to say i appreciate folks coming out and advocating for the arts because it is really important for us to make sure that those programs and the folks that are providing those programs directly to students are getting to students at the site level. and so that is part of my concern, when we're spending, it says $50,000 on a master

plan refresh, and that's a consultant, and that's, i'm assuming, been over the last few years, and i haven't been able to see previous budgets. but you know over a few years, that's one teacher at a school. support for central office instructional quality infrastructure, that's a website. it's a website for $30,000. that's something that, like, the math team, they do their own website. the humanities team do their own website. these are funds that could go to buying instruments for students. we've got 50 or 25,000 for state standards, like, those are things that we do as our district. the math team does them, the science team does them, and by putting them in this budget, we're basically taking away money from sites -- from programs that could benefit students, when it's in visual and performing arts or whether

it's social workers or whether it's nurses, those are all vital resources that we need, and those are also people that are loving and caring people. and what we are hearing from also community members is this idea that -- and i want to clarify it. we have not been discussing taking staff out of site, and when people talk about some of the amazing programs or experiencing that they're having or that they had as students, those are relationships between students and teachers at site. so we want to make sure that we're funding staff, and we're funding art materials and instruments, and we're not funding a website design that could be designed in-house by our current staff. so i would love the opportunity to pick through this budget, and i feel, also, like -- as commissioner lam mentioned, similarly pressured in this process to get a budget with very little information. and also, i also want to site

that the peef c.a.c. has had a year to look at this, and they haven't complained -- everybody knows what social workers do, everybody knows what librarians do, but there's consistently a lot of questions around how money is spent, and it's not a little money. if it's $2.3 million that isn't directly going to sites, and of that 1.5 is administration, about another -- you know, there's almost $1 million in other stuff. and i'm not clear what that's doing and how that's supporting, you know, kids and schools and teachers in those schools in delivering high quality programs for every kid, and especially our most marginalized students. >> president cook: okay. so i think everyone's points have been made and remade. the -- the -- we have a recommendation on the table

will whether to approve the superintende superintendent's budget or whether to make a budget or change the expenditure. i would say before we -- we do have a proposal from commissioner sanchez. i would say with vapa, the process needs to be earlier. staff hears that message loud and clear. and for my colleagues that are new, you have four years to work on this, making a decision like this in this way is really disruptive, and i don't think it -- i don't think the energy that we're supposed to be giving around policy for the entire district is served well, where you take up as much time as we're taking right now. it's not 2.3 million isn't a significant amount of money, but what i want to think is the

superintendent is going to take heed of the comments that he's heard, so that this time last year, all these questions are answered about the particular line items that people have concerns about. i think it's good governance and policy to approve the superintendent's recommendation as it is now stated and to work with him and staff to make these reforms over the course of the next year. so you know, my recommendation -- i agree with commissioner norton's suggestion that we -- and for any of the comments that you hear tonight, i ask that you refrain from responding too heavily so we can get through the rest of this discussion. so i'm going to recommend that we move the