through. hopefully that clears up some. i want to make sure that's clear. i don't know if you want to add more. >> the only thing i would add is a clarification. from some of the public comment is the network of charter schools is not. they are doing an equity and inclusion work in spaces. they are talking about inclus n inclusion. this is one of the things we appreciated about them, there is a clear commitment to look at the organization who sits in high leadership positions that we thought that was aligned with our core values of being diversity driven.

>> i wanted to respond to that because i didn't think there was a conclusion of charter 54 being a chart er school association. even through the process, people weren't involved, families weren't involved, the union wasn't involved. it was district led. a many of our chiefs were involved. i do appreciate the prosperity in the entire process. it's very clear for us to understand how you went about it. i think we have a lot of power in our school district. making this decision in house without even working with an outside organization.

for me it's what the messaging is when we are connected, whether we want to admit it or not and whether that was the only option that we had come to us, what is the message if we do work with these organizations and really following the money. we know that within child supporter school associations that funding ends up hurting school systems. for me, i'm trying to be open of anything i support, whether it's through my funding or not, that i'm trying to help, and whether funding is part of that.

all of the language is filled in the charter language [indiscernible] doing any of th that. >> ms. cover we've engaged before and she's done a variety of training with staff. we are trying to [indiscernible] delivering a performance evaluation and we made that widely available.

that led to a group in h.r. that has been doing work in our department to make sure we have sound practices in hiring and sound initiatives in the department. so it was a strong engagement. >> board questions.

>> [indiscernible] makes them school leaders and they go around to empower parents to make charter schools. if you look at the financial documents, it's they're charter documents and about how we suck and charter schools are great and [indiscernible] i don't even know what they do. people use their money and move it around. it's like a crime syndicate or something if you really get into it. these folks are associated with those folks. i don't think we should be doing anything to do with them. they're working collectively to

take money out of the system. when you're paying money to a private organization and you're not developing capital, it is concerning to me that we have to hire somebody to do project management. we should be able to do that. i can't understand why we can't do that. i'll tell you why this is ridiculous. i used to be a consultant. i worked for west ed and i was tired -- i was given money by the gates organization to do work for oakland. i'm a well-meaning black woman who wants to do change. some things came out of it that weren't doing the work. i think in public education, we need to build our own capacity to engage our community and work with families and labor.

we have administrators who can't do project management, that's a concern for me. if we're going to spend $90,000 to do project management, we should have that capacity in our shop or we should be partnering and supporting -- people are saying, invest in black businesses. how are we building capacity for home many of grown and community-based businesses, if we're spending money on people funded by the walton family organization. they're working with the new schools for new orleans. new orleans has no more public schools. it's because of all these privatizers that are coming in. this organization is a part of that machine.

we ned to educate ourselves on that. it's complicated. i don't want to have anything to do with an organization that's working with these people. [indiscernible] -- it's a machine and it's a disaster. capitalism is another thing that's happening. we've got to find a better way to get our projects done than hiring organizations that are so closely aligned with the privatization industry. >> i don't know, vince, if you want to respond to the capacity issue. >> yeah, a couple of things. one of the things that as you

recall, we were thinking about the previously the $26 million, our request was to cut from central. out of that 26, remember 22 came from central, which reduces the capacity of central. we want to build ourselves up, but this is at a time when we pretty significantly cut from strant. this is a big part of stran stran central. that's why the request is right there, right now. we're not at a place where we would want to be coming out of or still in an epidemic and knowing that we significantly cut central.

>> the last thing i'll let you speak on, the grant that was provided for. can you talk a little bit about that. >> i'm going to call on ms. white, if she is here to talk about that. >> [indiscernible] -- i want to just clarify that we have received over $5 million in donations for our covid-19 response fund. that funding will support a number of things, and one of those things is the planning phase of this project. >> commissioner moligna. >> daniel, what would be the process of trying to find a different contractor? >> i can address that. so at this late date, we would

not start this process again. if that's the decision of the board, i totally understand that, but at this late date, we would not find another contractor. >> what would you go with? >> that i can't answer. i don't know. we have to make a decision within the next month, if not earlier. there's just not time. i'm not saying you don't have to do this, but i'm being honest and transparent with you. >> would you have to go back out because you had interviewed three and i'm hearing from dr. matthews that you're not recommending the other two to be considered? >> definitely all of the three,

there's a connection with traditional, public, and charter. we would end up back here. of all the three that have made the finalist, all have had a connection with some traditional public schools and charte. >> and i would say that has we move forward over time, there's going to be more and more principals or teachers or paraprofessionals that have connections with charter and traditional public schools. >> just two additional comments and questions. one is understood that the scope of this r.f.q. was really project managing. at the same time, i want to understand how this firm has a relationship on the ground being

able to work with our student and family population. maybe you can speak to that interviewing process. it also worked with a lot of consultants in my time in the consultant sector. folks will say that they have relationships and then the agency or the public institution and then once you get into it, they don't understand the ecosystem and it requires just as much work from the hiring entity that ends up doing the work itself. i'll pause there and if maybe the doctor or the staff can answer that question and understanding the san francisco ecosystem. >> i can take a stab at that and i would invite our colleagues to join in. our position is not that we're

trying to leverage our relationship with our staff and stakeholders. what we're going to be doing is putting these positions together to make recommendations to the board in an incredibly difficult timeline. developing the formats for that information. the questions we're going to be asking. how there is a project plan and making sure we're thorough. we own those relationships and we'll be the face of that. >> will 54 be outward facing? >> that will be an ongoing discussion. we're not looking for an outside organization to be the face of

this. i think we will have a staff facilitator. we are intent of being the face of this effort and engagement. >> dr. matthews, i know that this is a tremendous lift during this pandemic to really look at what the plans are. given the california c.d.c. guidelines that have been released as well as the california department of ed, there have been tons of inquiries for parents and feeling anxious and anxiety of feeling like what's the plan and the deal. how does this impact the schedule if this firm was not to be forwarded tonight? >> the biggest impact goes back to the question of basically what if -- what's plan b.?

the impact would be we would have to stop. if we hit the ground running tonight and started setting up meetings tomorrow, if that were to happen and we had to go back into a planning phase figuring out what would happen and how will we try to piece together -- it's a critical decision is that we're trying to make with our community with what will learning look like august 17. the impact would be we would have to go back into planning. i can't tell you what that would be. we have to. the impact would be a body blow. we're pretty -- as president

solomon said, we're pretty far down the road at this point. >> i wanted to articulate a principle here. i don't like a lot of the people these people have worked with. i also want to say too, this has been an unprecedented year. this strain and stress and how hard our staff from the superintendent all the way down have been working is unimaginable, really. our job as the board is to hold him accountable for doing the job. he is telling us that they came

from a process that was clear and transparent, involved key stakeholders in the district to select a consultant to do this work, whether we should or shouldn't have the capacity internally, we don't have the capacity internally to do this work in an unprecedented time. i just think we're losing site of the real important underlying issue here, which is we need to have the best and really challenging [indiscernible] in uncertain conditions. we need to have the best opening we can and engage our staff around that because this is an incredib incredibly difficult time. i don't see why making it more difficult and the process more compressed and adding on

difficulty to the staff makes it better for our families and students. again, i don't love who they've worked with either. to me, that's less important than supporting our superintendent and making sure he gets this right, because that is the most important thing. >> i appreciate the comments that have been expressed. when we're talking about making this difficult, i want this to be authentic. when we keep hiring consultants to do meetings for us, what ends up happening is because they don't have those relationships with community members, they end up on relying on folks to give outreach and to inform them. they're recreating white

supremacy. we're getting black and brown people and low-income immigrants to do the work with no pay. i wasn't okay with that. we need to pay the people who are actually in the communities doing the work. what we went up doing is having these things and we say we gather feedback and do surveys online. communities not online can't participate or communities that do participate, we offer them lotteries, it's not authentic. it's the network that makes it authentic. the populations we want to reach are not going to be reached by a

consulta consultant. they're going to do the work and black and brown are going to do the work. we need to stop doing it. we have parents who work for free. we have $90,000 and you're telling me some of this money couldn't pay the black and brown parents and the p.a.c. parents that do work for free. they do work for free. why aren't we paying them? i want to shift the way we do things. there is work in project management, but most of the work is outreach. we're perpetuating white supremacy and saying a firm will pay them approximate and the honest feedback is done by people who don't get paid or

recognized and they are often unheard. we need to do it differently. now might be a good time to do that. since the beginning of covid, we need to do things differently with community. i know it. i've been that consultant and been that person and it doesn't work. we need to shift staff mindset. this is as good a time to do it as any. if it's not based on input and co-created with partnership and trust, i don't care about a plan. anyway, i appreciate the time. >> i just want to say, i do care about a plan, commissioner collins. i heard daniel say -- and please

clarify for me if i've gotten this wrong -- that the consultant was putting together a plan that we would do the outreach and we would be engaging with our families. i [indiscernible] -- >> [all talking at once] -- >> do not interrupt me. that's very rude. i understand you're passionate about it. let me talk. my understanding is this consultant would make the plan for us that we would be the ones to do this with our families and parents.

if we can learn how to do this better, then i think that's a good thing, but my main concern is why are we making this so much more difficult on the staff when we're in unprecedented times? i think it is not the time to layer it on. we want them to get this right. i want our families to go on the first day of school and had a well-planned year of opening ready for them when that happens. [please stand by]