welcome. we're glad you are here. this is the regular meeting of the board of education. the san francisco unified school district. today november 12th, 2019. this meeting is now called to order. roll call, please. [roll call] >> i'd like to start this meeting by frederick douglas who said power concedes nothing without a command. and it never

>> members of the public are reminded a individual can complete a speaker card prior to the item being called and present it to our executive

assistant. members of the public have two minutes to address the board and the time is set by the president. importantly according to board rules and pressures, speaker cards will not be accepted for an item already before the board. number two, superintendent's report. >> thank you. good evening, everyone. the san francisco unified school district is now providing childcare for the regular board meetings. [applause] it's beginning right now. [laughter] and space is limited and we'll be provided on a first-come-first serve basis for children age 3-10. childcare is provided from 6:00 to 9:00 in the educational placement center waiting room located here on the first floor right outside this door and down the hall. if you have any questions, you can contact ms. esther casco to

the board of education at (415)241-6493 and childcare is now provided. the second annual performing arts dance showcase is this nurse, november 15th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. it takes place at the auditorium 450 30th avenue between gary and clement. this event is sponsored by the san francisco unified school district visual and performing arts district and organized by their dedicated certificated dance teachers. our students will amaze you with their talent. the school's participating include washington high school, lowell high school, lincoln high school, ruth school of the arts high school, james lick middle school, brad enel elementary, and many more schools.

we recently had a presentation on the kindergarten to college program from our city treasurer. we heard him describe kindergarten to college bank days. i'd like to announce there are k-c bank days scheduled in december where families are encouraged to bring their children down to the bank and they can ask questions. they make a deposit, they'll get a k-c gift. this takes place at the following locations december 7tt the westportal city brink branch december 7th, 11:00 to 1:00 at the inner richmond city bank branch. and december 14th at the city bank branch and also on decembeo 1:00 at the china town city bank branch. inclusive schools week is december 2nd through 6th this year. join san francisco unified school district sites across the district in celebrating inclusive schools week.

by engaging in discussions about the importance of inclusion and by participating in exclusive schools week we can help to make all marginalized students and family feel included each one. it's one of the weeks during the school year when we can reflect on our charge to assist students to be the best version of themselves. this year's national inclusive schools week theme is charting the course for i for inclusion a requirement for achieving greater access, equitable opportunities and more authentic relationships. at the same time, most of us recognize that we can take more steps to reach our goal of fully inclusive schools. contact your school today to see what they're planning and how you can help. parent conferences are next week. the week of november 18th for elementary and middle schools. contact your sites to get

details for your student's school and information regarding the conference time. schools will be closed november 25th through the 29th for thanksgiving recess, however our offices will be open monday, tuesday and wednesday and closed on the 28th and the 29th. finally, i understand that many members of the community are asking for more information regarding the principle of bay view horseman. unfortunately -- i'm sorry. i apologize. buena vista. i apologize. buena vista horseman. unfortunately, the district condition share information about the reason for any employee's leave given its obligation to uphold confidentiality for students and staphylococcus we owe all employees and others involved the respect of privacy. there are a lot of rumors and assumptions about why the principal is on leave. it has nothing to do with facilities, political protests or the stay-over program.

that concludes my announcements for this evening, president cook. >> thank you, dr. matthews. our student delegates report. >> thank you. good evening, everyone. support our student peers who are in need. a donation of $20 for a shirt sale will help subsidize the cost of purchasing toys for the holidays, winter clothing, socks, toothbrushes, laundry detergent books and holiday needs to put a smile on our peer's faces. we like to thank you who supported our cause. thank you, very much. our student leaders are driven by advocating for our constituent student body. we strive for collaborating with our board members to we align on projects every year. our goal is to work together on resolutions that touch and contend student support services, we invite our board

members to our meetings to foster on going projects. we would like to thank commissioner collins for taking the time to meet with our student leaders and presenting two resolution to the student advisory council. thank you. >> um, the sfpd memorandum of

>> we invite all who are interested in bilingual learning. at our meeting, the one million project was presented and we would like to share this super cool program that aims to give free hotspots within an internet access for high school students in need of this resource at home. the sfuc is partners with the one million project and their goal is to provide students without internet access outside of school free hotspots and 10 dig agate of service. we would like to thank david landham and david malone from the department of technology for presenting this program. our next meeting will be november 18th, at 5:00 p.m. in

the board of ed room. the sac and anyone is welcome to attend our meetings. thank you. >> thank you. >> number four, recognition and resolutions of accommodation there's none tonight. number five, all valuable employees are rave awards. dr. matthews. >> thank you, president cook. tonight, our rave award, which is recognizing all valuable employees, our rave special service award goes to gray todd. he is a teacher at presidio middle school and this evening his principal, emma will be presenting his award. [applause]

>> do i need to -- ok. let's try again. good evening. it is my great pleasure and honor as the principal of presidio middle school to announce this month's rave distinguished service award recipient gray todd. gray is an outstanding teacher who goes above and beyond to build school communities for students and adults. mr. todd is a problem solver, innovator, clear communicator, teacher, leader and unites our school across programs. he supports everyone in the building with their tech questions. he opens the building on the weekends so teachers can come in and work. he developed a daily news program for our students and has trained a student media core to update it every morning before school. he runs an after school robotics club through our beacon program and worked closely with sales force volunteers on projects to support access to supplies for teachers and access to

technology and coding for all students. gray todd is a force for good in our building. gray, congratulations and thank you for all you do for the students of our district. [applause] >> very few thank you dr. matthews and ms. dunbar and everyone for acknowledging me for doing a job that is the best thing i've ever done in any life and i wouldn't do anything else. it seems a shame that i'm the only one in a month to get it when there are thousands of teachers and care professional and support staff who all go

above and beyond. [applause] they told me when i was a kid i used to use a expression do what you love and the money will follow. [laughter] i'll leave you with that. [laughter] [applause]

>> congratulations and good-bye. section c. public comment. number one protocol for public comment. please note that public comment is an opportunity for the board to hear from the community on matters within the board's jurisdiction and we ask you refrain from using employee's names. if you have a complaint about a district employee submit it to the employer supervisor in accordance with district policy. as a reminder board rules and california law do not allow us to ask questions during the public comment time. if appropriate the superintendent will ask the staff follow-up with speakers. so, i have a number of cards from our folks at the buena vista community. thank you for organizing your cards and i'm going to call the names. when you hear your name, just start to lineup at the podium. and you will all have two minutes to speak.

i apologize in advance about miss pronouncing the name. loraracon and if you can hold your applause until i call out all the names. i'm going to call out several names. maria nunez, xavier, isla perez-alacrone. maria louisa saurez, adrian rosenbaum. this doesn't have a name.

it's a program. bonita low presiden lopes. paloma lopes. bernice casey. maria vega. rafael picasso and meghan adams. start now. just press the button when you are ready. >> good evening. my name is lordes and i'm here to ask the resolution of our principal. i have a child with special needs. i needed an i.e.p. and i

approached two principle and none of them gave me a response, only claudia gave me a response right away and i have a child with special needs and she gave me an iep and she opened her computer and gave me an appointment. i think she goes beyond and after a fundraising i'm working at the school and we're leaving at 9:00 p.m. and she's still answering her e-mails. she's like -- she's the first person for that position. she's always professional. she responds in a professional manner. and i cannot -- i cannot believe she's a patients. you sun suspend and don't give you answers. not that she is touched goes

beyond her duties and she is an example for our children. our children are going to trauma right now because we have an immigrant community. and what the district is doing is enhancing that trauma because the children ask everyday for her to when is claudia coming back in? i tell them i'm going to fight until she's back and reinstated and i also wanted to ask the solidarity or the leaders, especially the african american leaders that are see in this room.

>> speaking spanish. >> our principal has been working side by side with us. we need to combat so we can continue working. we need her back. [speaking spanish]. >> please put your hand in your heart and think about our community. our community needs to be treated with dignity and respect. [speaking spanish].

>> we're pleading with you to bring our principal back. thank you and have a good evening. [ applause ] [speaking spanish]. >> good evening. my name is maria nunez. i am the president of the school council and i have a child in the first grade.

i'm very happy to be here advocating for our community and our leader, our principal. she's a tireless worker. she works night and day. i'm asking you a favor not to forget that she does this work with her heart, for our children, because she wants and

we want a better education for them. so don't forget what she's doing. we need her back. [speaking spanish]. >> please, this is an opportunity for you to use your own restorative practices that you have sent to our school to work with children. use that to help us bring our principal.

whatever feelings you may have, balance that out and see what is more important. please think about our children. this is in your hands. >> good afternoon. [speaking spanish]. >> good evening. think with our heart. [ applause ]. >> greetings to all. i'm an eighth-grade student. i am here to plead for the return of our principal.

we don't know the reason behind her being removed from her duties, but what we are certain of, it wasn't worth her being taken away from us and our school. i think everyone would agree with me that we need our principal, fierce leader, glue, to be returned to us immediately. she knew how to lead everyone through thick and thin, and in turn she created a safe and equal community around our school. without her, there is chaos. with kayious, we cannot work well on a daily basis. she is a seeker for social justice which is at the very heart and soul of our school. we as students, as teachers, as parents, as family will always

follow the path for justice and will fight for her return. we ask that it not get to that point and she be allowed to come home to where she belongs. we thank you for your time. [ applause ]. >> hi, i am a sixth grader student at this school. i feel sad that the principal is gone. each day she saluted me with a bright spirit. she's always in a good mood. i feel like we need her back and we need our principal back. >> good evening, i am an eighth grader at this school. and our principal is overall a

great principal. she has a very encouraging, brave, very encouraging attitude, yeah. she has rectified many of our problems in our school. overall she does way more than what she works for. she has taught me something very important, there should be no boundaries to human endeavor. [ applause ]. >> hi. i am an eighth grader at this

school. claudia has been a great principal. in 2016 w, when president trump got elected, i was in elementary school. in 2017 when someone got shot, we had a protest advocating gun control which was led by the principal. i hate to say itch to say an a school and i can't remember which of the schools it was. this year we walked out against climate change and claudia turned a blind eye and made like she didn't see it. [ indiscernible ] -- >> i and apparently the district disagree.

some might say you should be less political, but all of the protest [ indiscernible ] -- the only reason kids are held in cages and separated from their parents [ indiscernible ] -- and the only reason that a [ indiscernible ] pathological liar can be elected is that [ indiscernible ] -- if it isn't clear by now, these things are also political. my family and i are proud to be involved in a school that cares about social justice. last week our teachers took

[ indiscernible ] as a strike to support claudia. [ indiscernible ] -- [ applause ]. >> thank you. >> good day -- >> before you get started, people speaking after, when you go to the mic [ indiscernible ] -- give yourself some distance from the mic. >> fair enough. i am the program manager for a stable program at this school. i am here to advocate for claudia. she gave many a place to stay. i have some families with me to say something about. >> my name is baltimore and i'm one of the many children that stay at the stay over program.

i was saying that i really wish claudia would come back because she is a kind and nice person. she is the reason that the stay over program is still open. you will hear from me and my family and many of my friends. that's why i think claudia should get her job back. >> hi, myself and i have five kids, three of which are students. i was asked to leave from where i used to live, and thanks to claudia, she was able to do a speedy process to we were able to get in as soon as possible.

it kept us from staying on the streets. if it wasn't for her, then where would we have been that night. [ applause ]. >> hi, my child is a kindergartner in this school and this is my first time going to any school for any of my kids. my job has a lot of transitioning issues. she lashed out. she lashed out at children and teachers. instead of having cps called or my child 5150-ed, claudia stood up and said let's find as many

resources as we can for you and your family. i said, let's do this, i'm tired of my kid lashing out. she would take my kid out of school within bring her around, give her high-fives, and send her back to class so she would have more of being close to somebody. i think my child felt alone there and didn't know anybody. i think the teachers and ms. claudia made my child feel comfortable. we are getting an i.e.p. for her. we need claudia. she's our leader. she went over backwards for my family. she is family to this school. god forbid, if one of your

family members were out of trouble, you would stand up and try to get them out of trouble or whatever is going on with her. we need claudia back, please. my child is doing so much better with behavior modification. please, bring her back. >> good evening. am i speaking loud enough? i am a teacher with my second year teaching here, but i have began with claudia several years ago. i have been looking up to her ever since. claudia has been a key figure in the implementation in the safe and supported schools implementation.

her role allowed her to coach and coordinate climate initiatives at ten elementary schools. claudia intensively coached staff and had intensive conversations between staff, parents, and students. she was entrusted with this delegate role, because she always brings her roles in ways that are respectful and inclusive. these retoive practices are used district-wide because of claudia. we have faith that every single person in this room and in this district cares about our community and wants to find the best solution that will help the most people, and we already know what that is. the district has said when a student makes a mistake or a bad decision, we should use

restorative practices when individuals are being isolated. what is true for our students should certainly be true for a highly regarded leader who has not harmed any of us and who has devoted ourself to teaching these principles that you and i embrace. we have a moment to demonstrate that we are serious about these principles. >> thank you, that was your time. >> [ indiscernible ] -- >> thank you. [ applause ].

>> good evening. i am one of the least-qualified people to speak on claudia's behalf. i would like to offer what little i can in her support. as my perspective who worked at a school that was not hard to staff on the west side of the city that has easy access to the resources and easy access to the attention sp experience that the students needed. it was a place i felt attracted to work in large part because of claudia care and her leadership. i want to offer just this one fact. in the entire nine-year history

of these schools as being combined, we have been taken off the hard-to-staff list. our teachers and staff want to work there. they want to work with and under claudia. we do this because she does what it takes to make this a safe and supportive school. this action under whatever reason, under whatever circumstances, that are not revealed to us, are undoing all the work she is doing. i ask this board who is making these decisions, factor in the idea that claudia is trusted and has earned her place in our community, hearts, and thank you very much. with the balance of my time, i wonder if i could submit to

whoever is in charge of this a petition on behalf of claudia, signed by most of the staff -- >> yeah, that is your time. next speaker, please. >> good evening, honorable board. i am the president of sciu 1021. i'm not here for union stuff. i'm here as a community member of the union district and advocate for claudia, who i knew very little about until recently, how strong she is and most of the things i learned about claudia i learned earlier today. these people i heard that claudia helped them. the teachers that spoke that say they want to work there and want to be there teaching the

children of that community. claudia has done a lot for the community from what i'm understanding. one of the biggest things she's done is support the shelter of horseman. the people who stay there get a lot of respect from the people who are working there. that's way better than any of those navigation centers there. i have to give it to claudia, the leadership roles that she's played in our community, don't take that from us. we need more stronger leaders to stand up for people like claudia. whatever reasons she's being removed on administrative leave, is it really worth losing everything she's built for the community and for the school?

please, if you can find it within the powers that be, let them know, is it really removing her when you're going to lose a lot of positive things she's done? i doubt anyone you put there can fill her shoes and find the love of the community for her. let's do the right thing and bring claudia back. thank you. [ applause ]. >> good evening, commissioners and superintendent. so my name is megan adams. i'm a san francisco school bus driver. i know that other members of mine have been speaking on the other issues that we are facing and our upcoming contract we have with the school district, but that's not why we showed up. before we argued about the safety of our drivers and we are

wanting to ensure the safety of the community, staff at this school. so we are here tonight standing with the staff, families, and the community, to ask for the reinstatement of the beloved principal. she fights to make the school the best and helps root the school in the community. we hope you have listened to all the comments made by the school, community, parents, teachers, and the community that we consider ourselves a part of to demand that the students have the best education in the safe and stable schools of san francisco. thank you. [ applause ]. >> good evening. i am with the james town community center. our executive director asked me

to speak today and read the letter that we have in front of reinstating the principal as the principal. as community partners with a long and deep history working with this community, we were deeply distressed to linear of the news that the principal was placed on administrative leave this last week. we ask you to reconsider this decision and see how she has unified this community. her support and leadership has led to the key alignment of key partners. the families we just heard who are using the many programs are a testament to the service

offered by this school. the meetings are well attended and parents are engaged and resolved. these movements have been a direct result of claudia determination to create an includive community school that creates opportunities for all students and their family members. this school embraces the goals that are actualized because of claudia strongly. this is a community that has gone through a significant number of leadership changes that has been challenged that are hard to heal from. thus, making the decision to -- >> thank you, kevin.

also, kevin, you didn't have a speaker card. i'm going to move on to the climate change folks after this. >> i am a.j. and i am a parent of three children who graduated from this school. i am also a community member. i'm also one of the organizers that put together the safe to september. many parents and children and

students support our action. we work with the parents and children at this school. as you all know, we had a tremendous turnout. we were very successful and it was important for us to educate our children about what's going on at the border. at that time there were shootings in el paso. as you know, over 22 people were shot. we have had a bulls eyeon our back and we've had to endure many things that targeted us. there was no cause of action for claudia's dismissal. what's bothering us is on the one hand when school districts ask parents to get involved, you

get it. what do we get in return? nothing. the school district continually says they're going to be accountable, transparent. i see "transparency" in a lot of your literature. where is the transparency now? we don't know why claudia is being released. we understand there are personnel issues and relative humidity fi casings, but the injury is not just for claudia, but to the community. we have waited for a principal there that brings up how many of our people relate, and yet we get nothing. reinstate here. that's what we want. we want community control. >> thank you. [ applause ]. >> y'all have to turn the mic

back on. >> i am a parent at buena vista. i have children that were being rowdy, so they were escorted out. when we had a rally with the community to engage everyone, both parents, the community members that have spoken, and the teachers, if you look around here right now, there are about 34 staff from buena vista here supporting their leader. that's what parents are looking for. we're looking to you as our leaders, elected officials, to do what we need as a community to be accountable to us and our children, most important to our children. this is the first time either of my kids have been to this building and i tried to explain what you do here.

for the kindergartner it was a little more challenging, but the sixth grader got it. i as a parent feel hike you have failed our students taking claudia away. we feel like we won the lottery that our kids are educated by claudia. when you removed her, you injured my kindergartner. my sixth grader has gotten more lip by being educated by these people. he understands what you do and don't do as elected officials and appointed people. he's looking to you to make a decision so that our community

can be a whole. we can't have additional leaders. there's been so many different principals at this school. thank you for your time. [ applause ]. [ chanting ]

[ chanting ] [ chanting ] [ chanting ]

. >> i'd like to thank everyone for their patience. i have a number of names i'm going to call up related to the climate change. if you hear your name called, make your way to the podium. you have two minute. megan kalzua. han hanna astrada. ruan francis tailor. maya picadly.

also claudia dee. >> i'm not speaking on climate change, but you called my name. should i not speak? >> is it a general public matter? >> it is. >> go ahead. >> just checking. >> thank you. hi, i am a behavioral analyst with the district. i'm also formerly a teacher with the sore program. although it's not on the agenda tonight, we are going to be creating a five-year plan for special education. it's been bumped quite a few months, but it's a long time in coming, as many of you may know. even though it's not on the agenda tonight, i did want to speak to keep it in everyone's mind that we actually need to think about resourcing our mo

most-needy programs, in that when we serve students who need a lot of resources, we need to provide a lot of resources to the staff that serve them. i actually got a phone call from one of my students that i taught in second and third grade that's going to be needing to go into high school. i'm looking to those in high schools who have any ideaing. it brought me back to when i thought my students, they're smaller classrooms and i got to know my students really well. it was a magnificent moment in my life. my clam was in the former p.e. closet. i had no desks, no curriculum, and no staff on the first day of school. i'm just going to let you know that it hasn't got much for for

our teachers and professionals. this is after five years. we need to do better for our students and programs. our five-year plan as it comes to you eventually hopefully soon needs to include resources for these programs. thank you. [ applause ]. >> good evening. miy name is nadia and i'm a junior at the school of the arts. i'm here to talk to you about student activism and student participation in climate strikes. i organize the climate strikes in march and septembered. i'm here to encourage you to

encourage the strikes. at some schools, students were physically stopped from leaving campus. at some schools students were told that their names would be reported to the districts. we need to tell students that missing schools for a strike is a justifiable personal reason which in the handbook is an excusable absence. at some schools administrators were not supportive. this is not fair. as i'm sure you all are aware of, immediate climate action is needed. at school we're taught often to

prepare for the future to get good grades and get into college, but for us when we look into the future, we see this impending disaster. teacher teachers cannot help students in this area. climate change is a huge part of our future, and fighting for climate justice is also a way that we're fighting for our future, the same way as getting good grades is a way of fighting for our futures. >> hello, my name is rowan francis tailor and i'm a junior at george washington high school. i'm here to discuss how sf bec could support us. during this past strike,

students were discouraged to participate. staff members often referred to the sfusc handbook to assert their authority about walking out. yet, according to the handbook, students are excused for being absent for justifiable reasons including to processes that could be interpreted to be a climate strike. we want the board to recognize that a climate strike is a justifiable reason. we also want it to be easier for students to promote and share information about upcoming strooims about class announcements or flyers and

assemblies. in my case i was told to put up flyers in the bathrooms because i couldn't do it in any other way. so we want the climate crisis and everything to be educated more and have the district behind that. thank you. >> it is by not allowing the students here to participate that they are allowing corporations to get away with using these areas as dumps grounds. these issues are affecting them

now. they're not just fighting for their future but also their present. a lot of youths don't have clean air and shelter. it's not a coincidence by big corporations and these corporations get away with this. you can't not let our youth get away with this. it's affecting their lives. sometimes i forget to breathe. [ laughter ]. >> there are a lot of youths that want to be a part of this and benefit their communities. be not allowing them to take this chance in their classroom, you're doing a disadvantage to them. a lot of these youth might decide to be something different and they're not sg