and up to 338 students, 160 do not have medicare. if we do not provide a seek and service services, they will not be able to receive any treatment and we'll only find them in crisis services. so i really, really urge all board members to stand behind it are healings in our hands campaign to support the recommendations of the campaign. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> good evening, superintendent, commissioners, my name is laura markman, the president of the association of chinese teacher. wellnessaat gal ga galileo was l ahead of other districts. i have an adult group to work

with if a student is struggling to deal with life and believe me, i do not take my wellness team for granted. i heavily rely on them as presence and expertise allows me to do my job. so i was shocked when i heard about this topic and presented to the board. i was skeptical and ready to defend my coworkers with every last breath but it's not about that. i heard about the statistics, how asian american studentses are drastically underutilizing services and how they want peer-to-peer services, how they see wellness as disciplinary. last year i had four students suicidal and all four were chinese and all four didn't want to see a councillor, they wanted to see me which qualifies this data. so i met with them sometimes hours at a time and they ended up looking out for one another and they said, hey, you need to see jimmy, he had a rough night and these students are our

frontline. so firsthand, i can say there's a stigma with chinese youth about mental health and mental health services. firsthand, we need more funding to continue to grow and be a model for what wellness nation wide should look and be like. all wellness centers should have therapists front and center because health cannot just come in english or adult, we have to look at this data and make decisions based on findings. our student's lives depend on it. [cheers and applause] >> good evening, commissioners. i'm the president of the use nated educator educators of sano and when they brought this report to us, we knew we were seeing an important document.

we brought this asking for support for this recommendation and the resolution and in both bodies, both govern governance s there was a support here. we know that everything we do has to be student cente centered when students say w they need their voice heard, we believe them. so thank you for taking up this resolution tonight. >> good evening, commissioners and district staff. my name is kevin bogus, the political director at coleman advocates for children and youth and i'm here to ask you to support this resolution because students need access to support to be successful. for too long our school district

has been segregated for those who have and those who don't and so often it's black and brown students who get left behind and pushed out of school. a lot is they don't have the support they need, whether it's life-planning, college planning, we don't have enough people at school sites to do what our students need. we ask you to support this policy change and find a way to utilize students and their expertise to support each other and make sure they can be successful and that they're well. i just want to also just say from coleman's perspective, black and brown students are struggling in this school district and they aren't getting what they need. so hopefully this is the first step in a bunch of steps to take to address the disproportionalty that exists in our school district and makes sure everyone gets the type of education they need to have community in their schools. thank you so much. [cheers and applause]

>> i'm here to support wellness center. we need wellness center for schools to help the kids even if they look like they don't need help. and that does not mean to support them. and we mostly need wellness centers for all kids struggling in the schools, especially african-american students and latino students because they're the ones struggling more, going to the office and getting suspended and sometimes, it's not even their fault. they didn't do nothing. >> my name is daniel and i want

to talk about how colored students are getting punished pushed away. neither gettinthey're not getti. i was sent to the principal's office because a teacher thought i was disrespecting her by sneezing. i thought it was disrespectful. the youth have a voice to make decisions. i would have sided to make the solution a different way and i wanted wellness centers to come more out instead of the principal's office. i support this revolution and i hope you pass it. [cheers and applause] >> i'm with the coleman advocates making a change.

at our schools we should feel safe and supported and have somewhere to talk according to race, language, et cetera. we should have a safe space where we can go when we're feeling down or upset. at my school, at this middle school, there's usually no one in the wellness center or it's usually closed. there's more finding more wellness centers than can culturally correspond to us and deal with our problem and then we can feel safe. >> i'm here on behalf of the close--the-gap commission.

i want to thank the youth from mojo and sedeer and podare. it's been moving and i want to thank you as a parent with young kids because i know they'll benefit from your leadership. the close-the-gap coalition is in the best fra decision of community schools and part of the tradition of sharing power, listening to stakeholders and in supporting their solutions, understanding that the people that are closest to the problem are closest to the solution. we support increasing resources to sites and building on existing programs, again guided by stakeholders to best integrate and coordinate these resources and make sure they hit the students who need them most. most disagreeds ar ideas are no. but in high school in the '90s, we had peer-to-peer educators. we're already supporting each other -- i'm not young each

other, but youth are already supporting each other and having peer-to-peer educators is powerful to meet where their needs are and connect the needs into -- connect students into the needs and supports that they need. so we want to ask you again to support this resolution to listen to our youth and thank you all for the changes you're making in our schools. [cheers and applause] >> before the next speaker, marita gomez, jenny delapaz, michelle chan and shenbach, that's the last name and angela chow, ed lawrence, kylie hoffm

hoffman. >> good evening. my name is michelle chan and i work with coleman advocates. i am also a mother of a 6-year-old attending kindergarten in the san francisco unified school district. my son is half chinese and half arab and i want to say today that racial discrimination in our society and in our schools is very real. i dealt with it growing up in schools. his father dealt with it growing up as an arab american and we fear our son will deal with these issues as he grows older. in addition to that, i want to say that mental health issues in our children are very real. my son, after experiencing a traumatic life event, was diagnosed with adjustment disorder. he woke up in the nights for months screaming, waking up from nightmares. the healing process was a long

road. he has finally been able to heal and gain a sense of belonging, but i want to say that we need some investments in our school, invest in racially, culturally inclusive schools that are supportive and address mental health needs of children and families to give our students and families a chance to succeed. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> i'm emily and a union mojo leader and a senior at george washington high school. i'm here today because i deeply support our healing and hands campaign. i've seen too many friends struggle with mental health and struggle with reaching out for support because of the harmful stigma. my friends come to me about stress school, stress from family and other personal

struggles. personally, i was struggling with my own mental health in the spring semester of any junior year and wanted to get help but every time i was in front of the wellness center, i kept making excuses and telling myself i would come back the next day. it was not until i found out a friend of mine received therapy at school that i got the courage to help myself. put so i made my appointment along with other followup appointments to go over the paperwork, receive parental consent and finally after a month, i started to see a therapist. put and whilwhile i was able toe help, i know there are other barriers to accesses mental health resources. that is why i support this so we can all help build a healthy school environment where we can nurture each other and also ourselves, a recommendation that i would like to highlight in this is peer-to-peer counseling.

i believe in this recommendation because this will prove how youth had the leadership skills to create support and healing spaces. it is a chance for us to prove that we are worth more than our test scores, that we care about one another and enough to build a stronger community. now is the moment for us to join forces with other students, teachers, parents and all supporters in this room. the board of education commission education and superintendent vincent matthews, please stand with students of colour and others to work by these recommendation and show your public support by tweeting #ourhealinginourhands. thank you. [cheers and applause]

>> my name is maritza gomez and i'm a parent of a second-grader. my son has mental health needs and just by experience from kindergarten until now, i know that the schools don't have that support that he needs. from being at the school supporting him all the time, i know that there are -- the schools need more wellness centres and they need time away from class where someone will understand what they need to help support them, someone they can trust, who they know. they won't get in trouble or get suspended. for things that they can't control. thank you. >> hello. i'm a mother of three boys and growing up in a unified school district, i was one of those kids that actually needed a

wellness center and when i was growing up, it wasn't there. sometimes you need somebody to speak with you for five minutes and growing up and being a part of my kid's education, i see how important it is for wellness centers to be there for children that have mental health issues, that have behavioral issues, suspensions are very high and i stan here as stand here asking g that this bill does pass. it's very, very important for children to get that five minutes, that two minutes, that minute they need to speak. suicide is an epidemic out there and hopefully you can understand it's very important for the children to have somebody to hear them out and not blame them for what they don't know is wrong. thank you. [cheers and applause]

(speaking foreign language). >> so hi, everyone. my name is angela, i have two children, both of whom have gone through the district and i have been very active in school affairs at the schools that my kids have gone through. i'm very happy to see everyone and am representing the workers at cpa today.

(speaking foreign language).

>> i really thing the young people who have put the proposal on the table today are brave to share with all of us what is in their hearts. i really want to also applaud the wellness centers for doing their best with the limited means that they do have right now. i actually have a daughter who has faced mental pressures from and through deep listening and also encouragement, we have walked out of there together. but what i learn there was that when someone has mental pressures, the most important thing is for someone to hear them out and so, we know that their peers are the closest allies that they have. so that's why at my proposal here, specific about the peer coaching programme, i really think this will help studentses

to sharstudents toshare freely . students face a myriad of pressures, both from society and family and really hope the district can prioritize this issue so that young children can give out their lives and confidence. thank you. >> i'm from iraq, the arab and resourcing center and part of the al youth group and we're here in solidarity with cpa. i'm a sophomore at the high school and right now we experience high levels of bullying and islamaphobia. as an arab muslim woman, i see this and i experience this every since preschool. my friends have experienced this, too. this year, i did use our wellness resources, but for the longest time, i didn't know these existed.

i personally have seen the benefits of having wellness staff and anything that strengthens this can support all our communities. i'm someone who tends to not stick with things but i get excited to be a part of this and i wouldn't have been a part of this youth programme without the wellness center at our school. we ask you today to vote in the favorite of strengthening our wellness services. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> i feel like for many minorities, there's an automatic level of trust that comes when you talk with someone similar to you. this level of trust can help students be less hostile and

more open. this will help councillors for the students' mental an emotional state and find the next steps to help the student. it is alsos remember to convey messages or events that cannot be easily translated into english. there are conversations or events in my life and in the lives of other minorities that would be hard to translate into english while still holding the same tone, mood or gravity. it suggests simply to say it in the native language. additionally, there are different societal norms, rules and traditions that only people of the same culture can fully understandings. that is why i believe that our students will have better mental an emotional space if they can talk to a councillor and peers they can relate with and that is why we are here, to support the resolution to fight for cultural

support and resource for our communities, specifically for the asian pacific communities and other expects of colour. thank you. >> hello board of education, students, i'm the director of the san francisco youth commission. i'm here on behalf of our 17 youth commissioners who are appointed by the board of supervisors and the mayor to advice them on the unmet needs of people in san francisco. aon march 19, 2018, they presented to the youth commission and the commission voted to support our healing and our hands campaign. they want to enact implementationestimplementationt

youth commissions. as someone in bureaucracy, it's not only about the resolution by implementation of it and we are excited to see that action move forward. thank you. thank you all for coming out. just stick around and you'll know the next step. this is section j. for first reading, our policy 3260, fees and charges, 3515.4, recovery for property loss and damage, 6.190, and 9.192, athletic competition and 430 employment and we just heard the last one about our healing and hand. may i hear a motion and second to the board policies?

i'm referring the policies to the rule's committee, the resolution we were hearing public comment about will be budget and crim lu curriculum m. so that's where it will go and take a little while to get through the whole process but thank you again. you may want to take this opportunity to leave because there will be more boring stuff coming up and i know there's a lot of you here for this. thank you. so public comment on non-agenda items. we have a fair amount.

when you hear your names, you'll have two minutes. (names called). if you hear your name, please come to the podium.

ok, welcome. >> good evening. , board, community. i am here as one of many from the community of james lick middle school. [cheers and applause] because our community is concerned. we are concerned about the budget that was allocated to us for next year and what our administration chose to do with that.

the middle school received funding as it did in the previous year. unfortunately, with the teacher's salary raise, it means that we have now the funding for three less full-time educators. our administrator without consulting, our ubc decided to take that budget and make those cuts to classroom teaching positions without any consultation without any governing body. the school site council was shown without told what it meant, without being told or giving imput about what positions would be cut and did so without a quorum. we as a staff, as a ubc, as a parent community have all said that we not want these cuts to come from the classroom. we are worried because it takes a village to educate our children. it takes a community and we are a community. we are here tonight because james lick, unfortunately, we

are tired of that of the er classification and we're tired of coming at the top in suspensions. we want to do more for our students and continually asked do more with less. james lick is here tonight and you will hear from students, from parents and from staff that are saying that we need the school board, we need you all as part of our community to help us, one, rescind the budget that was already admitted by the administrator so we as a community can decide on our priorities and look at funding allocations that are designated as pitch schools or high potential schools, thank you. >> before you go on, i'm assuming that was mr. ariba

and i foregoat to mens, please note public comment is an opportunity for the board to hear from the community on matters within the board's generation. jurisdiction. if you have a complaint about a district employee, submit to the district supervisor and as a reminder, board cools d rules ds to respond to questions during the comment time and if appropriate, they will ask the staff followup with speaks. as members of the board of education, you should be fundraising money for our students and schools. budget cuts are not the way to help our school.

the spanish emerging helps many kids. it's not easy being a middle-school teacher. the budget for next year make my teacher's jobs harder. teachers deserve a budget that supports them. students need an education, full class sizes, updated des textbo. the ones we have are old without updated information. this budget cut will not make this possible but reduce the that materials. so this is why we're asking within the proposed budget to fully fund or gyms to help educate all our students of all colour and all income. [cheers and applause]

>> good evening. i'm an attorney with the california supreme court. like the back of my t-shirt says, i'm also a proud parent of the that particular eighth grader that just spoke. she's more than that, plea played volleyball, soccer, debate team, and she spoke to you tonight and her grandmother and i and the three of us rushed over after playing a girl's got goal soccer game run by the after-school programme. when i told her it would be ok to miss this meeting, but mommy, it's important. these extr extraindeed spanish y we are spanish in the first

place. we're determined to raise two spanish bilingual, bicultural children in this city. so with all sincerity that a proposed budget cut that forces cuts to spanish emersion, are why parents like me choose spanish education. this has taught me many things and it requires skills and qualities that is not easy to come by. i speak from helping in the classroom saying they have many, many great teachers going beyond a call of duty in service of their students. many which are here today. the district is proposing a

budget to force the school to make the difficult decision to cut three full-time teaching positions, two of which are in the spanish emersion programme. instead of a budget that requires teachers to shoulder a greater workload of a very diverse student body, we ask the student to re-evaluate the budget and recommit full and financial support and hard work. >> good evening. i'm proud to be here with the middle school. one of the best schools in the country. when i was in elementary school, i was in the ssc, the council for two terms and i am the

councillor at the middle school. and as all of you know, raising every penny is hard but we don't give up. we're still trying. at the end of this year, last couple of weeks, we found out that we will be losing three teachers, because of this budget allocation. don't think that's a very smart decision. in fact, it's demoralizing. after working so hard this year and last year to try to raise additional resources, i know you agree with me that it is demoralizing. i probably know you don't want to do that. do the right thing, rescind the budget, give us an opportunity to resign the allocations in accordance with school priorities and we'll engage stakeholders and community. it's not that hard. so we hope you'll mang the right decision and we know that you

have the right way of thinking about this, reinstate our tech funding, et cetera within an, ak we will have a better chance that way, thank you for your time. >> good evening. i'm mark deluki and i wasn't planning on speaking today, but speaking because fo of the yout. this has been very hard for parents at james lick. the budget is constantly being cut for us and we constantly have to be fighting for every little thing for our students and it's really, really hard. you know, your vision statement

says you'll provide quality instruction and equitable support and that's all we're asking we're fob equity here. help us do our job and if you could help us rescind the budget to get everyone together to really propose a budget to help our students thrive. we need this. >> good evening. i'm a sixth grade spa spanish emersion teacher and i taught some of the parents in the audience receiving work. i love my students and community. i'm here for my families who can't be here because they're working their second shift and i'm here for our families in the

southeast corner of the city that are underfinished in theirr school is a pitch school, one of 781 schools designated of not meeting needs of our most struggling students and end of measure is based on deficit mindedness and because our students see the beauty in our school. our students come back year after year after they graduate to support our emersion programme. they appeal to the board to support our most vulnerable students. mission education center is one of our feeder programmes. our new-comer students receive their support in language development, in sheltered instruction through the spanish emersion programme. we were cut by .6 for for a

full-time position and cut .2 and what that means we have to delve into the pockets of our school site funding to replace those or cut them. what our administration chose to do without any consent from the community or consensus building with our staff and parents. we have more parents and more faculty here at this board meeting after our long workday, after their second shifts and we have children here, more than were a the pleasant quorum. we are asking you to look at the central funneling for our school. we are a pitch school. we are a school you keep measuring as failing but our kids keep coming back and saying we win. we need your help. [cheers and applause] >> my name is charnell russ and i'm a sixth grade science

teacher. i was not able to get my card in on time but as an african-american woman i would like to be heard. >> that's fine, but can you keep it short. >> i got you. so i'm just here with the rest of mickles to talk about the two things we're asking from you. one is to rescind the budget and two, is to fully fund our school. we are cored. my first core, i have 21 students and my second, 28 studentses. this is a big shift where i have a small amount of time to work with them and going to my 28 students where it's almost chaos because of the amount of opportunitieses i have in that class. we're talking about next year, this shift being 28 students for every class and that is kind of crazy and it's due to the budget and so i am personally asking

for the budget to be rescinded and us to be fully funded. thank you so much. >> they did not get this information and still do not have this information. in general, the best decisions are made when all of the shareholders -- stakeholders are at the table and it's clear that all of the stakeholders are not at the table. it really is important to revisit this issue, see if something better can be done for this school, this pitch school and make sure that information is shared with the union building committee, which is a contractual right, once again

and with the school council. thank you. the next speakers are involving the mrk.

would the first speaker please approach the podium. (speaking foreign language).

>> good evening, board members. first, i would like to address a couple of points on the letter that i had received from mpd today. in response to the first point in the letter, information on the letter and the survey does not match. survey did not mention the number of chinese classes we provided during the school hours, nor did it become computer-based. the survey included three ons fooptions forparents to choose n the class is offered. therefore the response letter from mpd provided false information and it's a lie. another point to address is that the before-school option was not

preferred by most parents. the parent's first option is chinese class during school day, previousably sixth period. the information on the letter is inconsistent with the response to parents during the meeting. >> my name is cindy. (speaking foreign language).

>> good evening, boar members. my name is cindy and i'm here to

demand the san francisco school district fulfill a six-year-old promise. i would ask for additional funding to hire chinese bilingual teacher. chinese bilingual programmes to start at mlk and uses the middle school and we're not asking a lot, we're asking for enough funnelinfunding to hire one chie teacher to teach six and seventh grade. the cost of one teacher is $100,000. this amount should not be a problem because parents were informed of this expansion six years ago and we believe that the district has had full time to prepare the necessary funds for the endeavor and that you are now prepared to fulfill the promise to the community years ago. theis the district planning to e

to us another six years and continue to disappoint students and parents. we want the district to fulfill a long promise and please provide a chinese bilingual teacher for august of 2019 so our children can continue their bilingual education. (speaspeaking foreign language).

>> good evening, board members. i'm a parent of er taylor and i'm here tonight to demand that san francisco unified school district to fulfill a six-year-old mp promise. i'm not asking for much. i'm asking for $100,000. the schoole school district wile to fulfill a project of $100,000. the district will also be able to regain the trust of studentses and parents with $100,000. please provide immediate funding to mlk to hire chinese bilingual teacher for august of 2019 so our children can continue their bilingual education in middle school as promised. perfor

pai(speaking foreign language).

>> good evening. i'm a parent of er taylor and we met on may 8th to discuss start of the bilingual programme this august. at this meeting, they stated this was possible with additional funding from the district to hire one chinese bilingual teacher so we are asking that district to provide immediate funding to mlk to make this possible. please do not use insufficient fund as an excuse. this amount should not be a problem for the district because the parents were informed of this expansion six years ago. so we believe that the district has able time to prepare for necessary funds.

don't tell me that six years is not enough time to secure funding hired for one teacher. (speaking foreign language). (please stand by).

>> my name is ivy. during the may 8th meeting, we were informed by a

representative from the district that our children can choose chinese as an electsive if they want to learn chinese in middle school. we met the principal immediately after the meeting to confirm that this is an option and is not in conflict with their bell schedule next school year. the principal of mlk is also in agreement with parents to start a chinese bilingual program and propose a follow-up meeting on may 15th regarding our request. pleas take immediate action and provide funding to mlk. we will continue to fight or our children, future, and take necessary actions to achieve our goals. >> good evening, everyone. [speaking foreign

language] >> my name is lisa. i'm a parent. please fulfill your promise now and provide funding to mlk to start a chinese bilingual program in august of 2019. if our demands are not met, we're going to take further action. we will not stop in our demands are met. thank you. >> good afternoon. [speaking foreign language] >> my son is going to mlk after summer. according to the principal, the funding in order to open chinese

classes, since they already planned six years ago, i don't see any excuse that they cannot open any time soon. also, i want my son to be like others. other schools are able to provide chinese classes. why mlk cannot provide? that's no excuse. also, they cannot find anymore money to mlk to open chinese classes in mlk, we come in here more often. >> good evening, board members. my name is anna. i'm a chinese bilingual student from er taylor elementary

school. i've been learning chinese for six years. i want to keep on learning chinese. i'm taking a test to go to a chinese bilingual school and pass. i was very disappointed and sad when i did not get into a chinese bilingual middle school. chinese is important to me because my family speaks chinese. i really hope that the middle school i'm going to can have a chinese class where me and my friends can continue to learn chinese. please start a chinese bilingual class at martin luther king middle school in august 2019. thank you. >> good evening, board members. i'm a chinese bilingual student in elementary school. i've worked hard to learn chinese. i don't want to give up because i have come such a long way and worked so hard. i'm a fifth grade student and will be going to middle school in august 2019. i really want to be able to

continue to learn chinese because it's very important to me and my family. i want to learn chinese so i can communicate with my family. please start a chinese bilingual program at er taylor martin luther king middle school in 2019. thank you. >> good evening, board members. i'm a chinese bilingual student. i have been learning chinese for many years, and i want to keep learning chinese. i have tried hard to make it in a chinese middle school but ended up in a middle school that doesn't teach chinese. i want a chance to attend a school with a chinese bilingual program so i can continue to learn chinese. it's important to me because my parents only speak chinese. please start a chinese bilingual program at martin luther king middle school in august 2019. thank you. >> good evening, board members. my name is ivana. i am a chinese bilingual fifth

grade student. i have worked really hard to learn chinese and would like to continue to learn chinese in middle school. i am ready sad that i cannot learn chinese in middle school. help me make my wish come true. please start a change he's bilingual program at martin luther king in august 2019. thank you. >> we've two more speakers on different items. sandra and julie. >> evening commissioners, superintendent. so two board resolutions are being discussed and circulated right now that directly impact art education? our district. before we have an opportunity to look at the arts education master plan refresh, come on, san francisni