>> welcome, everybody. we are going to get started. it is june 11th, 2019. roll call, please. [roll call] >> thank you. section a, general information, accessibility information for the public and teleconference information, there is none tonight. be as opening items, approval of board meetings with a regular meeting. we need a motion and a second. >> so moved. >> seconded. >> thank you. any corrections, saying none, will call, please. >> thank you.

[roll call] >> thank you. spee. hard to regular agenda, if there's anything you need to wish to address the board of education, an individual can submit a speaker card prior to the item being called. and present it to the executive assistant, to my right, to your left. members of the public have two minutes to address the board or a time set by the president. according to the board rules, you may submit a speaker card. i don't two, is the superintendent's report. >> thank you, vice president sanchez. good evening, everyone. congratulations to the get -- graduates of the class of 2019. [applause]. [cheering]

nearly 3,500 san francisco unified school district graduating seniors put on their caps and gowns and accepted their diplomas, ready to pursue their dreams and their goals. i like to congratulate each and every one of them on this accomplishment. i'd also like to congratulate all of our elementary and middle school students who were promoted to the next grade level as well. [applause] >> the school year has come to a close, but there many ways learning can continue. it is essential that children keep learning through the summer months. most children will lose some of the skills they developed through the years if they don't continue to practice them. this is referred to as term -- summer learning loss. our district summer schools are offering a variety of ages and it is really critical for high schoolers who may need credits to graduate and prepare for college. council -- high school councilors have worked with students and families to register students for high school credit recovery courses

and four additional studies for college credit with the city college of san francisco. if students are not enrolled in summer school, and if you'd like to supplement their time at summer school, i also recommend taking your student out to a public library, museum or park. these can be learning tools. the department of children youth and families have created a list of fields related to the arts, recreation, stem and local history. the list can be found online. there are many great ones to choose from from this list. finally, this summer, june 1st through september 2nd, the mayor has announced that more than 15 museums and cultural institutions will be free to residents to receive public benefit including medi-cal.

please take advantage of this exciting opportunity. thank you, the ends my announcement. >> thank you, dr. matthews. >> item three is student delegate report, there are none tonight. four is recognitions and resolutions of commendations. there are none tonight. five, recognizing employees, there are none tonight. we will move onto public comment on nonagenda items. please note that public comment is an opportunity for the board to hear from the community on matters within the board's jurisdiction. we ask you refrain from using employees and student names. if you have a complaint about a district employee, you may submit it to the employer supervisor in accordance with district policy. as a reminder, board rules and california law do not allow us to respond to comments or attempt to answer questions during public comment time. the superintendent will ask the

staff follow up with the speakers. forgive me in advance if i mispronounce your name. when i call your name, please approach the pro -- the podium. you will have two minutes each. [calling names] there is more coming up. [indiscernible] >> thank you.

hold on one second. go for it. >> good evening to the board of education. my name is mark. next will follow my 23rd year of service for sfusd. the past 16 years, i have been in mission and it has been my professional home. is where i matured as a person and an educator and i care deeply about the community, my students, my colleagues and even my administrators. tonight, i just he is a member of the union but as the co- union rep for the 201718

academic year. one constant in my time has been the stagnant nature of our u.b.c. it has been the same small minority of colleagues who hold that position. as was the case this year, often elections do not have two competing candidates. the participation is an issue, and tonight we deal with the ramifications. what we have been dealing with as a staff is that we currently do not represent the majority view of the staff. the flurry of the most from colleagues protesting their approach to our hiring process stands as my evidence. i'm here to counter the narrative that the union is excluded from the hiring process for our principal next year. once the initial list is listed, the district conceded the two request from the u.b.c. a total of seven union members sat on the committee and that included two parents, a student and an administrator. the school community was well represented. i appreciate the opportunity to see my say my peace this evening

thank you. >> my name is andrew. i am the current co- building rep from mission high school and i am, like mark, i have been at mission for 20 years, and i'm very proud to work there, and i'm very proud of the work that all of a sudden done here, and i am going to speak to what was some exclusion of the building wraps or the certificated building representatives that have been requested to be on the board. when is first approached by this , when i first heard that our principal was going to be changing, i didn't expect to be on the principal selection committee, nor did i ask to be. i thought that the process was just going to happen and in

august was when we would really have to talk about a new principal and let them know that we are unionized place, and here is how it runs. as time went on, more and more members came up to me. i agree that i am not speaking for all the members at our sight , but there were definitely a segment of people, a vocal segment who came up to me and said, who is on the committee? and i didn't have answers to those questions. they more attractive find answers, the harder, the more i got concerned, initially it wasn't really clear who was on the committee, it wasn't clear how they got appointed or selected, and when making a simple request of a representative, of a building representative, a u.b.c. member, they were okay with everyone except for our building wraps, and we went back and reported that and at a meeting of 15 people at our sight on the

second day before the end of school, and an emergency meeting not even called by us, that group basically said, the building wraps need to get off that thing. we are really concerned about this process. that is the process we saw through, i agree with mark that there are, in fact, there are differences of opinion within our sight but it is our job to bring that forward, and i feel like by excluding us this time, those people will feel excluded, and i think that was a mistake. it is something the new principal does not need to be hamper with or exist under that kind of cloud. thank you. >> hello, my name is allison white, i am an english teacher and coach at mission high school i have been a teacher at mission high for five years, and i pursued a teaching position and career at mission high from the beginning of my teaching career

because of mission's explicit antiracist teaching focus that i eagerly wanted to be part of. in my time i have found that working with teachers who have antiracism as their central focus has been a nurturing and growth promoting experience for both my teaching and experience in the world as a white woman and educator. it has been and will be the real work of my teaching career. i was glad that the u.b.c. was critical of the panel to ensure that it was fair, and i was also happy when the committee honored our request for a more extensive panel. i agree that our u.b.c. wraps could not be unbiased and should not have been on the panel. it is unfortunate that our reps could not a neutral, so i believe that the right response was to not welcome them onto the panel. thank you for letting me speak today.

>> hello, everyone. my name is nadia, i am a newer teacher that chose to work at mission because of its commitment to antiracist teaching. my three years, i have been supportive of ever -- other colleagues that are similarly dedicated to this work. i felt completely represented by the panel who indicated -- interviewed the new candidates. i did not feel that the u.b.c. wraps were unnecessary -- were necessary on the panel so i completely understand the choice that was made to keep them off the panel. i trust and feel represented that if parents and students that did choose a new principal, and i trust in whoever they choose. thank you. >> good evening, my name is cat. i am a teacher at mission high school as well. i'm here tonight because i wanted to add my voice on the hiring process for the new principal at mission high.

while our reps believe the process is not fair and that it did not represent the majority of our school, i want to say that i believe it did. there were teachers that are union members, parents, deans, students, and parent liaisons present for these interviews. i can say i felt confident that these individuals would be fair and she's candidates that would best fit the needs of mission high. as a union member myself, i'm proud to be part of the union and i see nothing wrong with union reps being part of the hiring process for new administration, however, i feel the union rep that wanted to partake in the interviews did not represent me. thank you for allowing me to speak. >> good evening, school board. i have been a proud union member and have been teaching at mission high school for the past 12 years where i started my career as a student teacher. i strongly believe that we should support the administration and the teaching focus, but yet another teacher

was fished out by the demands of teaching. thankfully, that was not the case and i'm still here today. recently we created a panel in search of a new principal. the fully -- i believe the panel represented me at mission high school. i support the choice to not include the building wraps. i did not believe they can make an unbiased decision during the selection process. thank you. >> hello, my name is robert and i have been a teacher in the san francisco unified school district for the past 31 years and i have been at mission high for the past ten. during that time, i have been a u.b.c. wrap at two schools, and of course, like the others here, i am a proud union member. while i was not part of the hiring committee for the new principal, i do feel represented by it, like many members of our staff admission, i did not want to be represented by a current

u.b.c. wrap who has burned bridges with many of us through a pattern of divisive attacks, not only on administrators, but also on other colleagues, and most importantly, on the antiracist work i was school has been committed to for well over a decade. this work has led to a vibrant ethnic studies program, a reflective faculty determined to meet the needs of african-american and latino students. it also has led to the first arabic language classes in the san francisco unified school district school district. we want that to grow, to get better, and to continue. i hope you respect the input of the teachers, paraprofessionals, parents, community members who put in long hours to try and find us a new principal who will sustain the work that has made us so proud to be mission teachers. thank you.

>> hi, my name is jordan, i am a student at mission high school. today i am here because, i'm sorry, today i am here because they just recently told us that we are not going to be having our african-american heritage course at mission high school anymore. and i just came here to say that this class has helped me through a lot of things. i like that it is taught by black women and made by black women to teach me about myself and that is going to be taken away. not only just me as a female, but there is a male teacher that has been taken away from us. it has allowed me to be myself and be classy and just appreciate who i am. it is not like we don't do anything and class because we do

a lot more than other classes. and the only reason i am here is because i really care and i don't mean to be emotional, but this class means a lot to me. you brought girls together that were never going to be friends, it is making a difference. and the fact that it is being taken away is overbearing for me thank you. >> can you please remind us your name? >> my name is jordan nicholson. >> i don't think we have a speaker card for you. okay. i had two other names would apparently they're not coming up , so the next is from malcolm x. [calling names] i can't really

read the last name. [calling names] >> hello. i want to say thank you to the board for all the support that you have given us and malcolm x in the past. i hope that you got a packet of letters because even though there's this many people here, there are many more people who

wanted to come tonight and who wrote letters. you were supposed to get them. we have a long time school secretary, april harrison, who, she can tell you more about the story, but as a result of protocols that she didn't follow , because she didn't follow because she wasn't getting the e-mails, she is now losing her job. she has been at our school for nine years. she knows the ends and outs of the business and the administrative tasks of them are schools like nobody else, and we have, currently, we are in our third year and getting a new administrator in three years, and so we need her. we have been through so much. we have huge turnover this year. and we really, really need her. we all know that there is an

agreement between sciu and the school district, i don't fully understand it all, but i understand that we have to follow the protocols, and yet there's got to be some way we can work around this to keep. i'm asking for all of us to put our heads together and figure this out. it would just be really devastating for us to lose her. thank you. i am deirdre, i am the librarian at malcolm x academy. >> good evening. my name is sandra smith francis. i'm a proud grandmother of three daughters, one just completed fifth grade at malcolm x academy i have one that is going into pre-k and one who will go be -- will be going to malcolm x eventually, but i am here in support of april smith harrison.

i am here because this harrison is the glue that holds malcolm x academy together. she has skills more skills than anyone can learn through college , their courses through other people, but her soft skills, her skills dealing with people, dealing with the job, dealing with the community, dealing with the families, the children, and her friends and staff and coworkers, is irreplaceable. you will never find another staff like mist april smith harrison. i have known her for two years now, since my granddaughter, asia, enrolled into the schools. asia had a very difficult

transitioning transition period and malcolm x academy, but fortunately, mist april volunteered miss april volunteered to be her mentor and she has made asia feel comfortable with trusting an adult that she can go to and talk to when she is having issues at the school, or even issues at home, whatever, she know she can go to miss april. she can trust her, she can talk to her. so i am asking that this board overturn whoever made the dreadful mistake of discharging miss april, because miss april his there for the students, and it would be just a great injustice to the students at malcolm x academy, to her coworkers, and workers, families , and everyone else if she is not there to support that

school and do her job. thank you very much for your time. >> hello, my name is, and i my school district nurse. i presently work at malcolm x academy. i have been, it is my 12 year now with the district. i have always embraced the motto that san francisco unified told me, which was even one caring relationship can change a child 's life. miss harrison is a senior clerk at michael -- malcolm x academy and she embodies this motto daily with her kind, professional interactions with families. >> do you have a speaker card? >> i am barbara. >> okay. >> yes. >> sorry. for 2018 and 2019, i have been at malcolm x academy. i direct and daily communication with her and i must say that she is vital in her role as senior

administrative clerk, not only to the principal teachers and staff and my wellness team, but more importantly, she's a professional, safe and calm and reassuring presence and an efficient and capable front-line contact for families of the bayview hunter's point where families primarily lift. she is a direct impact upon enrolment and intent -- attendance for students and she's integral to our staff in meeting the racial equity goals that san francisco unified has so rightly demanded. for the school year of 2019, 2020, we will have our third principle in three years. along with this, we're losing half of our teachers, children and families need to have some kind of consistency of staff in their community schools during these critical education years. so what happened? in my research and interviewing her, apparently the clerks are all temporary one they are hired , was she has been temporary for 19 years. the union in charge of protecting the staff, they tried

to then make everyone permanent, but this is something that has just happened in the past year, and unfortunately, after series of circumstances, she now finds herself with a separation of employment notice and without a job. i call this service -- >> thank you. >> good evening,, superintendent -- superintendent and school board. my name is april smith harrison, i have been a clerk at malcolm x for over seven years and with the district for over 19 years. i'm a proud malcolm x staff member. the families and malcolm x are my family. i received a separation letter last month. this has been very difficult for me.

i have been through three principals at malcolm x and that is my family there. i had opportunities and many principals have called me to come to their schools. i am dedicated to malcolm x. i will not leave malcolm x. so to receive a separation letter has been a separation in my heart. i have, i didn't want to tell the families or the students that i was being separated. i was going to walk away in june and just leave. going out as a normally do, and walk away, but i prayed on it, and i thought, i need to let them know. i cannot walk away, and in august, the kids come back, and i am going to be there. the families depend on me.

i depend on them to make my day better. it was a mistake. i missed a text, i do apologize for that. i would love to be able to have the opportunity to take the test again. i know that i can pass the test. i am here for my family and my students. they mean everything to me. i thank you for the opportunity to speak. [applause] >> before the next speaker, we realize that other people want to speak on this item, we have 15 people with speaker cards, but we see that other people are here as well. we don't accept speaker cards when we are already hearing the item. i apologize for that. >> hello, i am a parent at malcolm x academy and i am here

also on behalf of miss april. she has been dedicated to malcolm x for the longest time. she is all i have known. i have had my 13-year-old who also went to malcolm x, and she is one of the reasons that i decided to enrolled my youngest children into malcolm x. with her not being here, i don't think i want my kids to be there , i'm just being honest. she helps make alchemy ask -- malcolm x feel like home. i know if i am having problems outside of my regular life, i can come to miss april and she will council me. so to not have her there and have some new person, some new entity, we already have a new principal that is coming in, and that is too much. it is too much of a shell shock. it is a lot of parents that are willing to leave if she is not here. we already have low numbers anyway. what are we going to do when half of our students leave

because they don't feel like it is home anymore? it was a mistake that happened. things happen. i ask that you guys all look into yourselves and really reconsider her separation. it is crazy to think that she won't be there in august. if she is not there in august, i am pulling. i am just being honest. if this was you guys, what would you guys want? if this was your position, you guys would all think about the same things that we are thinking about. that is all i have to say. >> good evening. i'm just making sure you guys are all listening.

my name is mark anthony robison. this was my first year at malcolm x academy, and miss april has been the person to onboard. she is the mother of malcolm x academy. she is the glue, she is the foundation, not only was i knew this year, waiver principle that is new this year. she also on boarded them even in the midst of chaos of having somebody new and learning the environment, this person was still there to onboard all people, including me and the rest of the community. i wrote something thinking i was going to speak on this, but i can only speak from my heart. everybody who is here with malcolm x, can you please stand real quick? if you are here on behalf of malcolm x?

i know the superintendent, mr. matthews, i know you like to wear your warriors jersey and rock the paraphernalia or clothing, memorabilia, i should say. strength in numbers. it is not just a motto, it is a reality for us. we are just a representation of the power that she has. we had a petition of over 100 people. i'm pretty sure you have received it. if not, we'll make sure you get that, but this is a person who is very important to our community. we all separated from whatever we're doing in our daily lives to come up here and express this and we pray and we hope that you will take this into consideration and find a way to make this possible for malcolm x , by any means necessary. [applause]

>> i called some other names. please approach the podium. >> hi, my name is breanna. i am here to talk about miss april. we need her to be here because she is part of the community. she helped my family out a lot. without her, we would be very sad and heartbroken. thank you. [applause] >> hello, my name is ezekiel. i have five kids that go to malcolm x and all i have to say is that for miss april not to be working here anymore, i would pull my kids out. she has been like a driving

force on and off work. after work, she's still sitting here in case anyone needs help with things, with my daughter, she had leukemia, and it was a hard transition. she helped out a lot. she is like a mentor to my daughter who is not here right now, but i just feel like the hunter's view community would be losing so much, you know, and i just wanted to come and support her. [applause] >> hello, my name is evan a scott. my daughter goes to malcolm x. miss april wasn't integral part of our community and at school. we have lost so much in the past year. we have lost a lot. we have lost other staff members , we lost half hour virus school, you know. when will it stopped? she should be allowed to take the test. there was a lot of things going on in hours for, i don't have it

, but we all know because we are also part of that and that's cool. my daughter has been there since kindergarten, and i don't know if i would feel right with my child going there without miss april. she is a force to be reckoned with. she belongs there there's no way possible that that should have ever happened to her she should have been given the opportunity to take that test. if he missed it, she should have been given the opportunity. when is it going to stop? i know small for a rural area, and a lot of year for five way we are always forgotten, we always the last to get somewhere always forgotten this and forget about. miss april puts her time, her money, her everything into that school. she needs to take that test and she needs to stay at malcolm x. thank you. [applause]

>> my name is barbara and i am from malcolm x. i really didn't want to get it. because i don't want to say the wrong thing, you know, but april , they don't understand. april is the heart of this school. understand i am trying to tell you. if april were to leave malcolm x , you can rest assured that them parents are going to take their kids out of malcolm x. in april is the mother of that school. april has been there 19, i don't even know. she has been there 19 years. nineteen years, and you guys. [indiscernible]

>> that is heartbreaking, man. i am broken. [indiscernible] >> the parents will end of leaving malcolm x. the parents will take the kids out of the school. we will lose malcolm x. people, parents, and other staff have worked hard to keep malcolm x on its feet. i am just telling you, april is part of that. april is part of that. please, please i'm asking all y'all, 19 years! give april a break. give her a break, please. our school will.

[indiscernible]. >> give us a break. give her a break. >> thank you. [applause] >> hi, my name is amy, i am a teacher at malcolm x. a lot of you know we had a rough year last year, and we are really terrified about next year , there's a lot going on, a lot of change, we had a lot of hits that were unavoidable, this one is totally avoidable. we have somebody who wants to work at our school, and enough people have told you we need her i don't need to say more about that, but we are scared and we have a chance to have a really important tool, somebody who has seen our school through 19 years , to help us through this, and i e-mailed h.r. and got a

response and they said, there is nothing we can do. i just want to know, why? give me a good reason why there is nothing we can do, and i will take it, but i don't see how this test is really that big a thing that we have to lose someone we need. [applause] >> [calling names] >> hello, my name is paul. you may have missed it, but governor newsom made a very important announcement at the democratic convention democratic convention that is going to impact the san francisco school district tremendously, it will impact black communities in this city tremendously. what he said was, i am a parent, i have four kids, i do know what -- i do not want to bureaucrat

in sacramento telling me i have to vaccinate my kids. governor newsom has come out for parents' choice, just like a woman has a right to choice to get an abortion, parents like me with an artistic -- autistic daughter, have a right to say no to vaccines. the governor has set this, robert f. kennedy junior has said this, thousands and thousands, in fact, 100% of the parents with autistic kids in the united states say, vaccinations cause autism. we have to stop it. he goes on, how many people read this in the newspaper? the governor made this statement did anybody see this? no, because the media is totally owned by big pharma in this country. we are in an epidemic of autism that is now one in 37 children

in the united states, mainly boys, have autism. the epidemic is getting worse every year. we need to do something. we need to stop. the governor said we need to pause and re-examine the vaccination policy. i hope he vetoes to 76. i think he will. we have to have a evaluation, comparison of unvaccinated children to vaccinated children in order to see why it is four times as many black students are getting autism as white students this is damaging the black community and nobody is saying why, even though you issue a report every year saying you don't know why. thank you. >> thank you. that closes public comment on those agenda items. >> my name is aisha jordan and i

am a parent of a ninth grader who is going into tenth grade at mission high school. mission high school has african-american history courses for males and females that are not taught anywhere in the nation, and we are blessed to have that here in san francisco. as a young person, i never learned in high school about the contributions that african-americans have made here in america and it is very vital that we keep that program, because as we all know, when you learn about your contributions of your ancestors and you go forward, then you are able to give so much more. you can look at statistics on the students from arizona, and see how all of them graduated from school and became very active in their community. we can do the same thing right here in san francisco. i am asking you if you can please to continue to keep those courses that the african-american students need. and also, other students who are not african-american can also learn that history as well. just like we learn all types of american history because we are

all americans. thank you and have a great day. [applause] >> we have a report from the parent advisory council. please come up. >> good evening. >> excuse me, did i call your name? what is your name? we are moving on to familial reports. we heard the malcolm x on this issue. thank you so much. parent advisory council? thank you. >> good evening, superintendent and commissioners. i have a third grader at tenderloin. i am a board member.

>> good evening, commissioners. i have a fourth grader at waterloo bay elementary school. tonight's report provides a summary of our work during the 2018 to 2019 school year and includes considerations for the next year. the pact held his final meeting for the school year last week. the members have the opportunity to reflect on what is working, areas for improvement and ideas for moving forward. overall this year, we focused on strengthening our cooperation with other districts, and community and district partners, food, joint products, community engagement campaigns. this at first helped us to expand our reach on issues

important to sfusd families and students. this year, we have three major outreach campaigns to engage families and communities. the first one was for the sfusd local control and accountability that we reported about next month. in addition this year we reported the sfusd attendance work group. we reached our goal with pap partners who worked with families to ensure their voice informs the development of a districtwide attendance plan. as a work group workgroup, we heard from nearly 700 participants and solutions generated with stakeholder engagement. this feedback will help shape

the final recommendation to address attendance in sfusd. finally, we partnered with the district pda leaders to explore family fundraising across the district. to gather we initiated with stakeholder engagement campaigns in late may to gather input from school communities on this topic to date, we have three school communities and several participants attending the second district officer training on students. because these campaigns start is so late in the school year, will continue this engagement campaign next year. in addition, throughout the year , we met with individual commissioners and district -- [indiscernible]

for example, dr. matthews, at the start of the school year, introduced -- introduced new members and learned about priorities for the year. michelle from the office of family planning and assessment to provide feedback on drafts on the families going to the reading assignment. jennifer fong from the curriculum and instruction office and mary richards, and jennifer fong from the office of counciling at the hope centre to discuss the distribution of college and career opportunities across the sfusd.

[indiscernible] disability of the program will affect schools at the secondary level. [indiscernible] >> finally we met with commissioners to discuss our project and the resolution about schools in san francisco. in addition, we responded to participation in stakeholder groups and work to address

specific issues impacting family engagement and student outcomes. for example, for the second year , we collaborated with the african-american parent advisory council, the community advisory committee for special education, the district english learning advisory council, the early education department, the office of family partnership and empowerment, and an lgbt queue support services to convene the second sfusd advisory alignment summit. we participated on a panel for the san francisco teacher residency program with ideas to create successful partnerships with families. we shared feedback on the district enrolment process through an online survey and focus the survey on the website to extend reach. we provided feedback on the design and user-friendliness of

the our children, our family resource website. we represented an overview of the sfusd as it relates to the arts education master plan for the advisory committee. is made up of volunteer members. we rely on the recruitment and retention of staff members to carry out our mission, meet our goals, and ensure the sustainability of our council over time. this evening, under the agenda item special order of business, we are requesting the board to appoint eight new members starting july 1st and six of the nine members have one year remaining before their terms expire. this year, it will overlap between returning and new staff members and it is vital for the continuity of our work in the sustainability of our council as an organization. we hope you will approve the

recommended candidates later this evening. we take this commission seriously to represent parent voices. we are proud of our accomplishments over the past year while we reflect on ways to build our capacity and strengthen our work. we know the next school year will be doing many opportunities to represent what we have heard from families and to reach out to engage more parents and important issues affecting your children's education. as this year comes to a close, we look for to working together next year to support an exceptional educational experience for each and every student in the san francisco unified school district. thank you. >> thank you. we have one speaker card for this item. >> good evening, superintendent and commissioners. thank you for having us here today. it is greatly appreciated. on behalf of the community advisory committee for special education, i would like to thank the parent advisory committee

and a representatives tonight for the report. i would like to thank george or williams for her work and particularly for the recent work in the joint advisory committee responses. without her work in the work of the pack, we would not have been able to present the report we presented to you at the beginning of last month. georgia, thank you so much. we are always honored to collaborate. thank you very much. i know this is not the appropriate time to respond to it, as the chair the community advisory committee and someone who represents students who have many disabilities, i find it offensive for public comment to include things about autism and all families believing that autism causes vaccines be -- autism is caused by vaccines. we have many students within sfusd, because of the disabilities, they cannot be vaccinated, and therefore,

choosing not to vaccinate a child puts others at risk. thank you very much. >> thank you. commissioners, comments or questions? okay. don't leave just yet, i wanted to say thank you very much. i know it is voluntary work. you had a full year and a lot has been accomplished. we look forward to many more years of great work. thank you. >> thank you. this is my last school year. but i will continue to work with my efforts to improve the district. >> i have two more years. >> great. thank you so much. [please stand by]

>> so moved. >> second. >> all right. so we do have public comment on one of the items, which is board policy 6170.1, transitional kindergarten. you have two minutes each.

go ahead. >> hi. my name is laurie baker-flynn. i've been at transitional kindergarten for the last five years, and for 20 years before that, i've been a kindergarten teacher. i believe in pt.k., and i believe for the kids that can experience it makes the transition easier. however because of the large class side and lack of support for special needs students, the t.k. classroom is often not a developmentally appropriate place for special needs

students. one teacher cannot possibly meet the needs of so many students at the same time. the district confirms this by allowing 114 hours of parasupport at the beginning of the school. that is woefully inadequate and only lasts for about the first month of school, and then, a t.k. teacher is left without any help at all. this year, half my class didn't turn 5 until november. that means there were 4-year-olds in the first month of school. our schools have students arriving from preschool and students who have never attended school. we have students who ran out of the classroom, students that can't transition from the classroom to the yard and back

without help. we have students that miss their families, and we all know that if one children cries, pretty soon, 3 or 4 students are going to start crying. we also have children with severe trauma and lack the coping skills and who just need someone to hold their hand. so really, what we're asking is that you look at the proposal and make an amendment to put paraprofessionals in each of the t.k. classrooms. [applause] >> hi. my name is sarah hudson. like laurie, i've been with the district for almost 30 years? i taught kindergarten for most of my career, and i switched to transitional kindergarten because i thought it would be amazing to focus on the younger children and focus on the

social and emotional skills that they need before they go to kindergarten as well as the foundational skills. it is a shock to try to teach 22 4-year-old children in the room with no other adult. the parents are shocked when they learn that i am the only adult in that class, and honestly, i do not think it is safe for their children, and i am the teacher. we have children, as laurie said, running out of the classrooms, having melt downs, and many of us don't have bathrooms in our classrooms, which means we have to send kids to use the bathroom in an elementary school, and this is extremely unsafe and shocking for the parents when they learn this is the system, but there's no adult to help them. and children that young cannot go on a schedule. also, many classrooms are given children with i.e.p.s without

support, so all of us have the experience of having one or two children with autism. i've had, you know, adhd, oppositional defiant behavior, occupational speech issues, and very little support. maybe 1 or 2 hours a week from the speech teacher or i.e.p. we have one teacher for 22 children with all of these different needs, and a lot of the children cannot handle the noise and chaos, and there's no way for them to take a break. so we beg you to put a parain every t.k. classroom for the entire year. we really need it. thank you. [applause] >> katey shiro. this is shaped by m