and sustain resources that can enhance our shared mission. we also consider these things with every investment. so what resources are necessary to have an impact? is the thing that we're going to be funding through private philanthropy something that will need to be sustained through public dollars? if so, have we really considered the impact of that? is the district ready to ensure successful implementation? is there a project plan? is there leadership? is there an evaluation plan? have all of the impacted departments, the staff, the schools, all agreed and signed on for their roles and responsibilities? so we know that private investment can really help us make great strides and that we also need to do it in a very responsible and transparent way. so these are just a few things. we know we have a long way to go. but we also know that if it's possible anywhere, to really realize the potential of

public-private partnership, it's possible in san francisco. we have a forward thinking community minded rule al and social impacted, driven community. we believe when public education is thriving in the city, it's good for families and community and for our future. that concludes our presentation. >> thank you so much. i don't have any speaker cards for this item. any comments or questions from the board? commissioner norton? >> thank you. thank you for the report. thank you for your service on the board of spark sf and to the staff. i am just looking for -- and it doesn't have to be right this second. i would love more detail about grants that were actually given for -- i mean, i see, you know, the summary in the presentation and annual report in aggregate. i would be interested in seeing

more detail of individual grants given for individual programs and particularly the breakdown of grants that are going directly to school sites versus grants that are funding central office initiatives because i think that's important for us to see philanthropic funding, you know, and where that's breaking down? is it going to schools, or is there central office activities being funded. i had another question, and now i don't remember what it was. so can i pass and then -- >> pass and come back. >> may i say one thing? >> i'm happy to provide a summary. i want to note that in the forwarded agenda, when we receive a grant, whether it's through spark that then gets passed into a school budget or a department budget, it has to go to the board actually for review. so that is -- we use a grant tracking system, and we can pull

the reports. >> i read them, but i don't remember them. >> i understand. yes. >> understand. it's one thing to get them as they come in and another to see a summary. we're happy to do that. >> i know what i was going to say. i just remembered what you were saying about -- and i think it's great to be exploring with the pac and pta about how parent fundraising can play a role in equitable fundraising across the district. there was, years ago, a program that the ed fund took over called ed match that was exactly that and was raising money to match pta fundraising and i don't know what the status of that program is. there may be somebody there that, you know, has ideas or thoughts about how to do that or maybe they're already -- they're still doing something like that. >> commissioner lam. >> thank you for the report and for the update. following on commissioner norton's request, i would love

to be able to have that be more of a practice of reporting back to the board to understand that summary about the initiatives getting funded at the school site level and then the central office. i think spark gives a summary of 2019. i would love to receive a multi-year projection where we've been over the last to to three -- two to three years and how we're looking ahead. i know we have ambitious visions for 135 arts project and really want to see kind of as we project out how are we getting towards our goal and then, again, that overcommunication that we need to -- we must conduct to our various stakeholders. so that's an example of 135 arts project. i'm curious to understand more about the -- where we've been with the investments and, again, thank you so much to sales force and the tremendous resources and other funders over the years.

my kids school is one of the first middle schools that got to have the 1:1 tablets. the investment that came not only for tablets them telephones buthemselves, butthe data made e as far as closing the homework app or home access. so that's just an example. again, where have we been? where do we want to go with that? i see -- i'm not quite sure under stem, computer science, i know we're funding it through some funding through i-lab and innovation. just from my perspective, i think you've heard me express wanting to see how that innovation and technology is hitting our school sites and actually into the classrooms. i think some of the case studies we've heard about what's happening at visitation valley middle school and the new maker space has been inspiring. that can also continue to understand that storytelling of

what that looks like and, perhaps, that's going to be integrated into the middle grades redesign. >> did you want to respond to any of the comments? okay. all right. commissioner lopez. >> i had a question about the accountability piece and the work that you do for sfusd. i'm wondering about how your board is chosen, the people who are on the board at spark. what's that process like? >> so i think -- i wasn't here three years ago when it was first initially formed. the bylaws were created with, i believe we have an number of usd members on the board as well as public volunteers who want to serve on this board. the way we want to ensure our board is serving our community

is to make sure there's a diverse set of people serving on the board with the same passion and the same commitment that is part of our mission. so we do go through a recruiting process of finding people who can balance out our board and serve as representatives across our community. so we have people from different backgrounds, different disciplines, different genders, different age groups, and we're still working to derive more people who want to serve on this board on a volunteer basis. so it is a constant need to bring in new and active members. it is our duty to find and make sure we're servicing a diverse candidate pool. so i'm happy to give you a background on anyone who is serving on this board, but a few of them have come from foundational work they've done

with the district, who have been active with sfusd and now have been -- she's no longer an active member of the foundation, but she is definitely someone who is very passionate about early education. then we have a broad variety of different people from private to philanthropy to different community members, like myself. >> i would like to add also, in our -- we have an annual retreat for the spark board, and in the retreat, we talked about board recruitment. one of the things that is a responsibility of the board is to help bring resources to the district. this board, unlike maybe other nonprofit boards, is less of a board that's advising about programs because the programs that are getting funded are determined by the district leadership, and then the board is really helping to bring in the resources for those

programs. so if that makes sense, we're looking for people on the board who can help give and get resources for the district's initiatives that are defined by the superintendent. >> yeah. great point. i'll add to that, which is to say, our goal and mission is to be the connection between sfusd and our community. so we're looking for community leaders as well as people who have connections in our community to derive or make introductions for us to help evangel eyes the message and need to we can build a bench of funders for the long-term. >> yeah. i think i just wanted to know that there aren't families from the schools and the communities that you are serving. i was just wondering about the process because a lot of those people may not have the resources or the connections that you're looking for. but they definitely have input and can give valuable feedback.

>> any other comments? yes. go ahead. >> thank you so much for the presentation. so i just wanted to say that a lot of my peers are very great leaders, and they're doing very well in school, but, however, there are circumstances where their grades do not reflect welt their character and their grades kind of discourage them from applying for a certain scholarship, which is sad because the students have a lot of ability to get into college but it's very hard for them to find financial assistance. i was wondering, how are we going to be able to support students who do have disabilities but need physical support? >> so there's a lot of different scholarships that are available that have very different ideas.

some scholarships are for students who have a gpa of between 2.5 and 3.0. there's a scholarship specific to different kinds of, you know, first generation students, all different kinds of reasons why different organizations might do scholarships. spark is not specifically in the scholarship role, though there are two exceptions to that. one is the superintendent's 21st century award, which goes not -- we don't look at gpa when we look at the applications. the other award is, again, just this recent one that came to us. so because it's not one of our top priorities, we wouldn't be out there seeking it, but, again, if there's an organization or an individual who is looking for a way to get resources to our students, if it aligns with our vision, we will be happy to help them. yeah.

>> any other comments? okay. thank you so much for the presentation. section i, consent calendar items removed at previous meeting. therefor.there are none tonight. section j we did. section k, suspension of the rules. none tonight. section l, board members reports. there's going to be a report from recent committee meetings. the first one is budget and business services. commissioner collins. >> great. there was a lot of conversation in the budget and business services committee meeting. there were -- and i encourage folks -- we've uploaded a lot of documents there. there were several different action items, resolutions that were discussed. if community members are interested, they can go to the website and they can also listen

to the conversation, but i wanted to address -- there was a review of board commissioner questions and staff responses to date on the peace fund. we got more information from staff answering questions, and i wanted to just summarize over the past month, we've had several meetings in the budget committee meeting, and we've been getting information around the peace budget, a lot of members have been asking about information about how we're spending our money. there's still some questions where i think other aspects are clearer because maybe the social workers are on the list and we're paying for social workers. there are a lot of questions. i just wanted to share some of those questions, and i'm hoping that i can work with staff to kind of resolve some of them. we had questions around the website, which i talked about. we got information on that.

we spent -- we've spent quite a bit of money -- $42,000 on that over the years in light of those questions, they decided to eliminate that expense going forward. additionally, we asked about the art center development. the art director is retiring. i know commissioner sanchez asked if there was a way to reallocate funds to support sites. we are still -- i'm still awaiting an answer on that question. the district has proposed, i think, reallocating that money to tsa positions. there hasn't been a response to seeing how that might go directly to sites. there's questions around administration and central office. looking at central office, there's five administrative staff on the team. this is two and a half times larger than other departments. the math department has two full-time.

the humanities, english, that's two. the science department has one and social studies has none. i've been kind of asking to just get more information if that's correct and wanting to know what our plans are for next year around just staffing overall. there were questions around the budget in terms of arts curriculum articulation and development. the question is, is this a consulting fee? there were questions around parent outreach and assessment because there was budgeted $20,000 for that one. it's unclear as to how that connects to some of the itemized budgets that we've received. i think that is kind of an overall theme is that i've gotten reports that are itemized and then i've also gotten consultant kind of lists. some of them make sense. like if we're paying for a mary achy consultant and then it's on

the itemized list as mary achy program, that makes sense. but there are some that don't necessarily connect. there was one for $20,000 for administrative support for a consultant who has been paid $75,000 over the past five years. i haven't been able to determinn able to tell me how that relates to the itemized budgets that are submitted on the plan. so to see where do they fit in those itemized budgets. there was $50,000 that was budgeted for the arts and education master plan refresh evaluation activities. when questioned about costs, that department decided to discontinue this contract. so that's another one that has changed since we've approved our budget. we have website. we have director position for the art center.

we have the arts and education master plan refresh. so there's several items that were approved in april that are now, like, if we're redirecting the money, the open question is, what is that money going to be reallocated to? is the board or is there going to be any opportunity to weigh in or discuss how that money is reallocated? then finally, i guess there's this outstanding question of consultants. there was consulting fees. there was like $20,000. it was $24,000 for somebody to collect art and then redistribute it to students for the art festival, for folks consultants getting paid for taking photos for a website, which now we're not doing. so there's a lot of questions, specifically on this budget, and i would love to work with staff to figure out -- because there's

been so many changes, i'd say that i would love to work with staff and figure out how the department is planning to reallocate the funds and also the discrepancies between the itemized budget and the consultant budget and also questions around there were several items where we've budgeted $20,000 for a consultant and we're spending $6,000. so the open question, what do we do with the money we don't spend? where does that go? how does that get allocated. i just want to make sure there's transparency around our budgeting. we're fiscally responsible. it's a very valuable resource to our district, and i want to make sure that we are transparent about how we spend that money especially with questions around making sure that schools get the most impact of those dollars and just making sure also when we hear community members speaking

about broken instruments, which my children actually experiencee held a violin like this and i can't get it out of my mind. when teachers come and say i talked to my daughter's art teacher today and she spent $600 out of her own pocket to buy art supplies. they've already exhausted pto resources. so anyway, any extra money we can find, i want to make sure that we're using it to support the great work that's going on in schools. all of this information is available on the website if people want to see these budgets that i'm talking about. i look forward to working with staff to kind of continue to resolve questions. >> okay. thank you so much. report from the rule of policy and legislation committee. we've voted on tonight, i think, eight of the items that we've approved and sent to the full board. we had an action item also for resolution, redefining the roles

and responsibilities and troubling you are others of the community advisory committee for the enrichment fund. we had amendments proposed and adopted. president cook joined us for document reading and approved of the additions. that will be coming back to a second reading soon. report from the special meeting of the board which was last week, may 7th, commissioner cook is not here to report, but i think people know that we voted to renew the contract with revolution foods. still a lot of outstanding questions regarding the quality of the food that's provided within that contract. so this board is going to keep a close eye going forward with that contract, with that provider. report from the ad hoc committee on personnel, labor, and affordability. >> we had presentations that i encourage folks again to go to

the board documents and look at them. our staff is doing great work. one of the topics we discussed was human capital and budget management. i know it doesn't sound exciting, but it actually was. we learned about -- we have an antiquated technology and that affects our ability to do personnel, hr, and also just communicate efficiently across the district. and also budgeting. so we have folks working on a long-term plan to upgrade all of our technology systems. i'm really excited about it it. it's a partnership with human resources, personnel, and it department. it's going to -- i'm letting everyone know, i want to make sure the board knows it's coming. i want us to do everything we can to support staff in making those changes. it's really a lot to move from one technology system to another. so that's amazing work. then additionally, personnel was talking about staff retention, and the only item i wanted to

re-enforce which is not news, but it sounds like when teachers do leave the district, they're not necessarily -- they're not necessarily -- their number one for leaving is affordability. it it's not because they're not happy with teaching. it's not because they're not doing meaningful work. teachers are saying they're really doing meanful work. the main reason that they are leaving is they're moving out of the city. they're moving out of the state or because they need to get jobs. the work that we're doing in helping to raise teacher salaries and support staff with the work that we've done with prop g, it's hitting, you know, the most needed area of keeping our amazing teachers in our schools. >> thank you. report from the ad hoc committee on student assignment? it commissioner norton. >> so the committee met last night, commissioner cook was traveling so not able to join us, but commissioner sanchez and i were there. we heard a series of reports on

african-american student recruitment. there have been some efforts that epc has been doing that have improved both the number of african-american families that are returning enrollment applications on time for round one and also returning their school registrations on time, which anyone that has gone through the enrollment process knows those are good ways to maximize ought comes. that's a need for us that african-american families don't, in smaller numbers, turn in their paperwork on time. so those outreach efforts have been successful. so that's really positive. we also heard from the principals at a couple schools about their efforts to recruit african-american students with some, what i would classify as mixed results. but it was very interesting

to -- oh, and also some general support for schools, high potential schools, marketing themselves. so we've got some support from epc to those schools. so it's not just on the backs of principals to market their own schools. we had a discussion -- a kind of interesting discussion about the enrollment fair and whether that is something that we need to rethink a little bit. it's 8,000 families or so go a year, but is it reaching the families that most need the information? is it is it the most efficient way to get that information out? is it the right way to let high school and middle school students know or rising sixth graders and eighth graders know what their options are? is it more of an elementary school focusing? i think there is more discussion that could be had about how to move that into the future.

we had a really interesting report on general ed transportation services, which is shockingly expensive. $30 million for special ed, and the cost drivers there primarily are -- one is just expensive, and the costs are rising, but also in a choice-based assignment system, because we're obligated to provide to families with ieps that need that transportation, we're obligated to provide door to door transportation, and if we're allowing families to have the option to choose their programs as general ed families do, which i support, then we also are busing students all over the place to all over the place. it's astoundingly expensive. although that, as we heard last night is not the primary cost driver. we are busing students out of

the district to non-public schools. we actually had a consent calendar resolution on that tonight showing you how many non-public programs we are sending students to. that's interesting. we also discussed the policy development time line. i really want to appreciate staff for hearing the direction from the committee at past meetings. that's been tightened up a fair amount. so the time line that we're working on now is that we would vote on a new student assignment process sometime in the middle of 2020. so that will require us to shorten some of the community engagement time lines and other things. but we feel like it's do-able. i want to really encourage the rest of the board, you're always welcome to come to student assignment meetings. i want to encourage you to attend those meetings. we're having -- we haven't made

any decisions obviously. there's no proposals, but we're having a lot of discussions and giving a lot of direction to staff about things that we want to see, and so i just want to make sure that we don't get too far ahead of the rest of the board on this because this is obviously -- i said last night, this is a thing that in all of my time on the board that i get asked about the most from our community and people are watching closely. so we all want to be on the same page and moving along together. so the next meeting is september 16th. we're going to give staff the summer to kind of do a lot of of the work that we've asked them to do. one of the first things that will come back to us are the definitions that are spelled out in the policy for what do we mean by what a quality school is? so ski concepts, but we'll adopt those definitions and those will guide the policy development. this is all obviously really important and high profile work that is moving along. so please, if you can, come to

the meetings and share your voice. thank you. >> thank you. report from the joint city school district city college select committee, which was friday, may 10. i think that was at inaugural meeting. >> i can speak to that since president cook isn't here. it was a really powerful meeting. we talked about city college and the budget. they're dealing with some budget issues and having to make cuts as somebody who -- i'm glad i didn't have to make any of those decisions because it was, you know, mostly hearing from city college folks and then there was a lot of testimony from the public. what was really apparent is that city college is a community college. it's not just a junior college. while we want -- as a city, we want to make sure that their goal is transferring students to

other colleges and graduating students, there is also -- it's such a wide range of folks who go to city college. there's young people who are seen as like a bridge to -- they talked about it as a bridge. i really like that. a bridge to four-year college, but also older folks are taking it as ways to just continue to be in school and be in community and for people to do art. then there's also a sense of community that's there and a lot of folks spoke to that as a meeting space in doing the arts or lgbtq community, the classes are an important way for students to actually connect with folks. so it just reminded me that our schools are communities, and there was just a lot of love for city college, and i just, in whatever way we can, there was a request to the city to see if there might be ways for the city to support city college with

bond measures or with, you know, extra funding to supplement the gap because just as we are undes much money as we should for education at k12, they're in a similar kind of budget constraint. >> thank you. item 2 under section l, board delegates to membership organizations. any reports? seeing none, three, all other reports by board members. four, calendar of committee meetings. curriculum and program will be monday, may 20th, at 6:00 p.m. buildings grounds at monday, may 27th, 6:00 p.m. rules policy and legislation, monday, june 3rd, 5:00 p.m. yes. let me just complete. budget and business services, wednesday, june 5th at 6:00

p.m. ad hoc committee labor relations and affordability, there's no -- we're giving them a break to hire great teachers. >> thanks. ad hoc committee on student assignment will be in september. joint city school district and city college select committee, friday june 28th at 10:00 a.m. commissioner lopez. >> i was just wondering about the buildings and grounds committee in may. >> whether -- the right day or whether it's meeting. >> it's not meeting. >> okay. okay. now we know. okay. thanks. section m, other informational items. there are none tonight. i'm sorry? >> thank you, president sanchez. actually, commissioner collins, could i ask for clarification recording the date of the next budget and business services committee? there had been some discussion

about moving that meeting from june 5th to may 29th, i believe it was. so i just wanted to flag that and see if that was -- >> that was mostly -- we were asking staff if they would do that. if they can, we would like to do that. >> i think that will work for key staff. >> excellent. thanks. swe're moving it up to have more runway for approving budgets in june. >> excellent. >> section n, memorial adjournment. we don't have any public comment right now that i know of for closed session. have you gotten any cards? thank you. section 0, closed session. the board will go into closed session. many i call a recess of the regular meeting.

>> this is a rambunctious crew.

>> we are reconvening to open session for the readout of the closed session. number 1, we're voting on the matters. i move approval to the recommendation to expel one high school student. from the district of the remainder of the semester. the suspension will be enforced for the fall with conditions. can i have a second? >> second. >> roll call. [roll call]

>> that is six aye. >> i move approval of the recommendation to expel one high school student, number 15. the duration of the 2018, 2019 school year and the 2019, twenties 20 school year. >> second. >> roll call. >> thank you. [roll call] >> that is six aye. >> i move approval of a stipulated expulsion agreement between the general -- the middle school student where the party has waived the expulsion of one matter. number 16. they will be expelled.

[laughter] roll call. [roll call] >> six aye. >> i am move the approval of the stipulated expulsion agreement where the parties agree to waive the expulsion hearing of one middle school student. number 17 from the district of the remainder of the school semester for the false muster in school year 2019, 2020. can i have a second? there we go. [laughter] >> thank you. [roll call]

>> that is six aye. >> thank you. i move the stipulation to -- from the district. for the remainder of the spring semester, 2019, and fall the fall semester of 2019. can i have a second? >> second. >> roll call. [roll call] >> that is six aye. >> number 2 is report from closed session. to approve the contract for five principles by the vote of six aye and one absent. and approve the contract of one interim person. approve the contract of two assistant principals. by the board of six -- by the vote of six aye. the board by a vote of six aye approved a nonreelection of 12

certificated employees. in the matter of 16-55042, the board gives the authority of the district to pay up to the stipulated amount. for the other matter, the board by a vote of six aye gives the authority of the district to pay up to the stipulated amount. the matters provided direction to general counsel. in one matter of anticipation, the board authorized the general counsel to initiate litigation. that concludes our meeting. thank you.

[♪] >> i am the supervisor of district one. i am sandra lee fewer. [♪] >> i moved to the richmond district in 1950 mine. i was two years old. i moved from chinatown and we were one of the first asian families to move out here.

[♪] >> when my mother decided to buy that house, nobody knew where it was. it seems so far away. for a long time, we were the only chinese family there but we started to see the areas of growth to serve a larger chinese population. the stress was storage of the birthplace of that. my father would have to go to chinatown for dim sum and i remember one day he came home and said, there is one here now. it just started to grow very organically. it is the same thing with the russian population, which is another very large ethnic group in the richmond district. as russia started to move in, we saw more russian stores. so parts of the richmond is very concentrated with the russian community and immigrant russian community, and also a chinese immigrant community. [♪]

>> i think as living here in the richmond, we really appreciate the fact that we are surrounded three natural barriers. they are beautiful barriers. the presidio which gives us so many trails to walk through, ocean beach, for families to just go to the beach and be in the pacific ocean. we also also have a national park service. we boarded the golden gate national recreation area so there is a lot of activity to do in the summer time you see people with bonfires. but really families enjoying the beach and the pacific ocean during the rest of the time of year. [♪] >> and golden gate park where we have so many of our treasures here. we have the tea garden, the museum and the academy of sciences. not to mention the wonderful playgrounds that we have here in richmond. this is why i say the richmond

is a great place for families. the theatre is a treasure in our neighborhood. it has been around for a very long time. is one of our two neighborhood theatres that we have here. i moved here when i was 1959 when i was two years old. we would always go here. i love these neighborhood theatres. it is one of the places that has not only a landmark in the richmond district, but also in san francisco. small theatres showing one or two films. a unique -- they are unique also to the neighborhood and san francisco. >> where we are today is the heart of the richmond district. with what is unique is that it is also small businesses. there is a different retail here it is mom and pop opening up businesses. and providing for the neighborhood. this is what we love about the

streets. the cora door starts on clement street and goes all the way down to the end of clement where you will see small businesses even towards 32nd. at the core of it is right here between here and 20 -- tenth avenue. when we see this variety of stores offered here, it is very unique then of the -- any other part of san francisco. there is traditional irish music which you don't get hardly anywhere in san francisco. some places have this long legacy of serving ice cream and being a hangout for families to have a sunday afternoon ice cream. and then also, we see grocery stores. and also these restaurants that are just new here, but also thriving. [♪] >> we are seeing restaurants being switched over by hand, new owners, but what we are seeing

is a vibrancy of clement street still being recaptured within new businesses that are coming in. that is a really great thing to see. i don't know when i started to shop here, but it was probably a very, very long time ago. i like to cook a lot but i like to cook chinese food. the market is the place i like to come to once a year. once i like about the market as it is very affordable. it has fresh produce and fresh meat. also, seafood. but they also offer a large selection of condiments and sauces and noodles. a variety of rice that they have is tremendous. i don't thank you can find a variety like that anywhere else. >> hi. i am kevin wong. i am the manager. in 1989 we move from chinatown to richmond district. we have opened for a bit, over 29 years.

we carry products from thailand, japan, indonesia, vietnam, singapore and india. we try to keep everything fresh daily. so a customer can get the best out a bit. >> normally during crab season in november, this is the first place i hit. because they have really just really fresh crab. this is something my family really likes for me to make. also, from my traditional chinese food, i love to make a kale soup. they cut it to the size they really want. i am probably here once a week. i'm very familiar with the aisles and they know everyone who is a cashier -- cashier here i know when people come into a market such as this, it looks like an asian supermarkets, which it is and sometimes it can be intimidating. we don't speak the language and many of the labels are in chinese, you may not know what to buy or if it is the proper

ingredients for the recipe are trying to make. i do see a lot of people here with a recipe card or sometimes with a magazine and they are looking for specific items. the staff here is very helpful. i speak very little chinese here myself. thinks that i'm not sure about, i asked the clerk his and i say is this what i need? is this what i should be making? and they actually really helped me. they will bring me to the aisle and say this is battery. they are very knowledgeable. very friendly. i think they are here to serve not only the asian community but to serve all communities in the richmond district and in san francisco. [♪] >> what is wonderful about living here is that even though our july is a very foggy and overcast, best neighborhood, the sleepy part outside on the west side is so rich with history, but also with all the amenities that are offered.

[♪] >> growing up in san francisco has been way safer than growing up other places we we have that bubble, and it's still that bubble that it's okay to be whatever you want to. you can let your free flag fry he -- fly here. as an adult with autism, i'm here to challenge people's idea of what autism is. my journey is not everyone's journey because every autistic child is different, but there's

hope. my background has heavy roots in the bay area. i was born in san diego and adopted out to san francisco when i was about 17 years old. i bounced around a little bit here in high school, but i've always been here in the bay. we are an inclusive preschool, which means that we cater to emp. we don't turn anyone away. we take every child regardless of race, creed, religious or ability. the most common thing i hear in my adult life is oh, you don't seem like you have autism. you seem so normal. yeah. that's 26 years of really, really, really hard work and i think thises that i still do. i was one of the first open adoptions for an lgbt couple. they split up when i was about four. one of them is partnered, and one of them is not, and then my biological mother, who is also

a lesbian. very queer family. growing up in the 90's with a queer family was odd, i had the bubble to protect me, and here, i felt safe. i was bullied relatively infrequently. but i never really felt isolated or alone. i have known for virtually my entire life i was not suspended, but kindly asked to not ever bring it up again in first grade, my desire to have a sex change. the school that i went to really had no idea how to handle one. one of my parents is a little bit gender nonconforming, so they know what it's about, but my parents wanted my life to be safe. when i have all the neurological issues to manage, that was just one more to add to it. i was a weird kid.

i had my core group of, like, very tight, like, three friends. when we look at autism, we characterize it by, like, lack of eye contact, what i do now is when i'm looking away from the camera, it's for my own comfort. faces are confusing. it's a lack of mirror neurons in your brain working properly to allow you to experience empathy, to realize where somebody is coming from, or to realize that body language means that. at its core, autism is a social disorder, it's a neurological disorder that people are born with, and it's a big, big spectrum. it wasn't until i was a teenager that i heard autism in relation to myself, and i rejected it. i was very loud, i took up a lot of space, and it was because mostly taking up space let everybody else know where i existed in the world.

i didn't like to talk to people really, and then, when i did, i overshared. i was very difficult to be around. but the friends that i have are very close. i click with our atypical kiddos than other people do. in experience, i remember when i was five years old and not wanting people to touch me because it hurt. i remember throwing chairs because i could not regulate my own emotions, and it did not mean that i was a bad kid, it meant that i couldn't cope. i grew up in a family of behavioral psychologists, and i got development cal -- developmental psychology from all sides. i recognize that my experience is just a very small picture of that, and not everybody's in a position to have a family that's as supportive, but there's also a community that's

incredible helpful and wonderful and open and there for you in your moments of need. it was like two or three years of conversations before i was like you know what? i'm just going to do this, and i went out and got my prescription for hormones and started transitioning medically, even though i had already been living as a male. i have a two-year-old. the person who i'm now married to is my husband for about two years, and then started gaining weight and wasn't sure, so i we went and talked with the doctor at my clinic, and he said well, testosterone is basically birth control, so there's no way you can be pregnant. i found out i was pregnant at 6.5 months. my whole mission is to kind of normalize adults like me. i think i've finally found my calling in early intervention, which is here, kind of what we do. i think the access to

irrelevant care for parents is intentionally confusing. when i did the procespective search for autism for my own child, it was confusing. we have a place where children can be children, but it's very confusing. i always out myself as an adult with autism. i think it's helpful when you know where can your child go. how i'm choosing to help is to give children that would normally not be allowed to have children in the same respect, kids that have three times as much work to do as their peers or kids who do odd things, like, beach therapy. how do -- speech therapy. how do you explain that to the rest of their class? i want that to be a normal experience. i was working on a certificate

and kind of getting think early childhood credits brefore i started working here, and we did a section on transgender inclusion, inclusion, which is a big issue here in san francisco because we attract lots of queer families, and the teacher approached me and said i don't really feel comfortable or qualified to talk about this from, like, a cisgendered straight person's perspective, would you mind talking a little bit with your own experience, and i'm like absolutely. so i'm now one of the guest speakers in that particular class at city college. i love growing up here. i love what san francisco represents. the idea of leaving has never occurred to me. but it's a place that i need to fight for to bring it back to what it used to be, to allow all of those little kids that come from really unsafe environments to move somewhere safe. what i've done with my life is work to make all of those situations better, to bring a

little bit of light to all those kind of issues that we're still having, hoping to expand into a little bit more of a resource center, and this resource center would be more those new parents who have gotten that diagnosis, and we want to be this one centralized place that allows parents to breathe for a second. i would love to empower from the bottom up, from the kid level, and from the top down, from the teacher level. so many things that i would love to do that are all about changing people's minds about certain chunts, like the transgender community or the autistic community. i would like my daughter to know there's no wrong way to go through life. everybody experiences pain and grief and sadness, and that all of those things are temporary. i'm nicole and lindsey, i

like the fresh air. when we sign up, it's always so gratifying. we want to be here. so i'm very excite ied to be here today. >> your volunteerism is appreciated most definitely. >> last year we were able to do 6,000 hours volunteering. without that we can't survive. volunteering is really important because we can't do this. it's important to understand and a concept of

learning how to take care of this park. we have almost a 160 acres in the district 10 area. >> it's fun to come out here. >> we have a park. it's better to take some of the stuff off the fences so people can look at the park. >> the street, every time, our friends. >> i think everybody should give back. we are very fortunate. we are successful with the company and it's time to give back. it's a great place for us. the weather is nice. no rain. beautiful san

francisco. >> it's a great way to be able to have fun and give back and walk away with a great feeling. for more opportunities we have volunteering every single day of the week. get in touch with the parks and recreation center so come

this is the san francisco recreation and park meeting. will the clerk please call the roll? just as a quick reminder, we request that you turn off sound-producing devices. and that you take any secondary conversations outside. if you would like to speak on an item today, we request, but do not require you complete a blue card. commissioner, how many minutes? >> three minutes. >> clerk: each person has three minutes per public comment on each item. if there is an item of interest to you