>> it is so awesome to see so many young people out here with adults supporting them. i am the executive director of an organization called hip-hop congress. and i am here because i'm going to introduce a very special guest who is going to start off the day for us. start off this rally and get us super hyped, all right. he's a local from san francisco and he comes from the day before hip-hop in northern california. representing the hunters point community and phil more

district, he's an incredible dancer and he's an incredible cultural educator, and historian, and archivist, and he's going to be coming to this stage in just a second. but i want to talk a little bit about what some good news in terms of education to add on to why we're all here. so there's a movement that is starting in california and the first of its kind in the country and it's a hip-hop education and equity initiative, being supported by the california department of education. now hip-hop education, what is that? well, it's basically using the cultural arts to be a vehicle in schools to help all of us to become more literate, whether it's the most basic literacy [making musical sounds of hip-hop] right, or our most advanced critical and cultural

literacy, media literacy, all of that stuff, right? hip-hop encomp ass all of this encompasses all of thisand i'm e had me to look into dyslexia advocacy and i found out about this, and in my learning from people at the front line of this fight, i saw how much overlap there was with hip-hop education and literacy and the tools that teachers need to help support all of us, right, to become more literate. so right now i'm just killing time, because he's going to come to the stage. we've got -- for those of you who would like to know who is this mystery character, yes, he grew up suffering from dyslexia but like i see the cakes over there, he turned it into a super power and he became a master of

body language, he goes by the name of poptart in the hip-hop industry and he's been in over 28 music videos. he is a mentor to all of the san francisco rappers from fan quinn to rapping fote, and some of you know these names, right, j.t., all of these. he is a mentor and he's an incredible master teacher who didn't get the support when he was in school. it was before they even had a diagnosis for dyslexia but he turned that into his super power and he became the man that he is today. he was told by the o.g.s in the 1970s as an 11-year-old kid, you have to preserve the inner city black dance culture for future generations. and hearing that as an 11-year-old kid, he took that to heart and he's been on this mission for over 42 years and he's still tearing it up. [cheers and applause] he's a mentor of mine, a good friend.

lonnie green is his name. now you can learn more about him by going to the struttersroom.com. and he also hosts an international master camp, because he was the first person to leave san francisco and bring the dance culture to other cultures outside of the united states, canada, across asia and europe, and he has international students and brings them all to san francisco, the week leading up to juneteenth, and we have the california arts council funding to produce a play based off of his life as a child growing up. it's called "the frisco kids" and it's open to anybody, particularly between 11 and 19, because that's who the grant is for, but it's open to everybody. and if he's ready to get down i am ready to bring him up. y'all got to make some noise for him though. let's hear it for lonnie

"poptart" green, the philmore kid! (♪♪) [cheers and applause] y'all ready to do this? (♪♪) (♪♪) [music playing] (♪♪) (♪♪)

(♪♪) ready, set, go... [cheers and applause] (♪♪) (♪♪) (♪♪) (♪♪) [cheers and applause] >> let's go. (♪♪) (♪♪) >> one, two, three, four. drop. (♪♪) over and over and up. (♪♪) (♪♪) [cheers and applause] >> well, that was a small sample and i'm going to stick to the strip. it's not about me, it's about us. so, yeah, i will talk to y'all a

little later, but i love y'all and thank you for coming out today. [cheers and applause] all right, i can feel the energy now. all right, good morning everyone. i'm supervisor safai. let's give it up again for lonnie for bringing the energy. [applause] i'm thrilled to see so many kids, so many students, so many families and everyone here today to focus on those with learning differences. to me this is very personal. this is my son rumi who likes to shadow me often at events. [cheers and applause] but we have an all-star cast today that's going to speak from the heart, that's going to speak about an issue that has been ignored for too long and an

issue that in california with the riches that we have should not be treated the way that it is treated and that is dyslexia and those who have learning differences. so -- [cheers and applause] i'm just going to take a moment to just lay the framework of what -- what this is all about. dyslexia is a learning difference that affects almost 20% of the population. it is the most common learning difference in our society, and in the world. and as you see with some of the science today, some of most famous people in history have or have had dyslexia but also some of the most underprivileged and those who are the most discarded and mistreated in society also have dyslexia. my son personally our family -- he was not screened until the third grade. and i see a lot of nodding heads, a lot of families had the same experiences. you know, the senator has a bill

and it's one of the reasons that we're here, sb-237 that would require -- [cheers and applause] -- that would require screenings to begin in kindergarten. it would be mandatory. and we wouldn't be the first state in the country to do this but it's something that needs to happen and it needs to happen now. this is a social justice issue as well. because many families that have the means can find resources for their kids. but many children that don't have the means end up being discarded, pushed away from school. they hear the phrase just wait, they'll catch up. if only they try harder. just try harder, right? i see a lot of the parents shaking and nodding their head.

but for many kids and for many people the story ends up they end up being pushed out of the schools. why i say that it's a social justice issue is because if 20% of the general population has dyslexia, and you all have heard of the school-to-prison pipeline, right? we believe without dramatic information and studies that we believe that almost 40% to 50% of the prison population have dyslexia. in federal prisons, you can access and get screening. but in our schools today you cannot. that's a travesty. that is an absolute travesty. and those that are represented in our prisons are disproportionately african-american and latino. so if you really want to embrace the social justice issue of the day, this is an issue to be supportive of and one that we

need to embrace fully. [applause] so we want to ensure that senator portatino's bill is heard, the assemblyman o'donnell needs to show this issue the respect that it deserves it. needs to be heard in the assembly. it needs to be given the voice and the hearing that it requires. one man should not be able to stop an issue that affects millions of californians. assemblyman o'donnell, shame on you for holding this bill up and we are not going to stop until this bill is heard in the california legislature. [applause]

on that note i'll hand it over to some of the other star-studded speakers today. and a friend, though we have just begun to work together over the last couple of months, someone that can speak from the heart and knows this issue better than most people and is dedicated to this issue, senator portantino. [cheers and applause] >> let's give it up for the supervisor safai. let's give it up and his son, isn't that adorable? we've got a group of young activists right here, don't we? [cheers and applause] thank you for bringing us all together because together we'll make a difference. and gary payton, the warriors. [cheers and applause] because

there's not just warriors on the basketball field but warriors on the policy, and there's superheros today, right? and decoding dyslexia and the naacp and the pta is here and the school board and all of the activists are here. [cheers and applause] coming together to make a difference. and thank you for parents bringing out your students. thank you for bringing out your young people, for this important conversation. i happen to be a dyslexic. [cheers and applause] and my widowed mother didn't find out until i was in the eighth grade i might actually tear up. and i remember getting special -- what we called extra gym to make it sound special. and i had to do it in front of the rest of the students. and that was difficult because

nobody knew. so thank you for being out here and for being advocates for the next generation. thank you. [applause] we're here to talk about dyslexia screening and the importance of it. and this is the importance of i sb-227 would require students in california, all students, all students, to be screened. dyslexia is the most common challenge our kids face. 15% of the general public -- think about that, 15% of 40 million people in california -- that touches a lot of us. so we've got to do better. we've got to identify, we've got to see that these promising people who are struggling to read at all levels get the help -- get identified and get the help. without this universal screening, students without resources aren't going to get the help as the supervisor said and those of us who are blessed

to know pediatricians who can get our kids help, get our kids help. but there's a lot of people out there who can't afford it and who don't know -- they don't know the challenges. and that's why this is so critical. students with dyslexia, believe it or not, faced this challenge their whole life. i'm 61 years old and the most traumatic thing for me is to be at a retreat and someone hand me a marker and say write on the board. i live in fear of that moment. i live in fear that someone will see how lousy my penmanship is and how i tranpose letters and how i translate things. because i didn't grow up with the love and care that our supervisors' kids and other kids are getting. we have to do better. we just have to. as it's been said, 50% to 70% of our inmate population struggle. could you imagine if they were identified in the first grade or in kindergarten and became readers? that is a huge social justice

issue. a huge social justice issue. [applause] and we know that early intervention makes a difference and it's easier to help a first grader than an eighth grader and it's cheaper to help a first grader than an eighth grader. we have to do this. so that's why i am so passionate about it. i lived it. i have staff members with dyslexic children and i have staff members who are dyslexic. 15% of us -- that's a lot of people. and so this bill passed the state senate 38-0, bipartisan -- in this time of the world bipartisan support. imagine that. [applause] and as the supervisor said, we can't get a hearing in the state assembly. we can't get a hearing.

it's not because of resources. if you read in the paper we have a $40 billion budget surplus, we can afford to do this now. we must do this now. and every class of student that we don't do it, we're failing. we're failing. we get the f, not the kids. because we're not doing our job and so thank you all for being out today. thank you for being here. thank you for being advocates. because each of us can touch somebody to make a difference in this fight. because it is a fight, believe it or not, it is a fight. when you can't even get a hearing on something this important, it's a fight. and i think back, you know, somebody said once, you know, one person can't make a difference. i disagree. each of us can make a difference. if you remember mother teresa what she said when they tell me that my efforts are but a drop in the ocean, i say, isn't the

ocean better off for that drop? because if each of us put a drop of ocean, we have a tidal wave. and i see superheros and i see an army of super power, and i see some villains out there -- ignorance and anger and lack of courage that we have to fight to get this bill on the governor's desk, signed into law, so we can make a difference for our children's future who deserve us making a difference. so thank you for being out here today. thank you, supervisor, for bringing us, and the pta and the naacp, and the decoding dyslexia, fighting this battle year in and year out and all of you, we'll put sb-237 on the governor's desk with your help. thank you very much and god bless. [cheers and applause] >> all right, thank you senator portantino for your leadership. i want to take a moment to recognize a few of the schools that are here and i want to thank charles armstrong for

being here. let's give it up for charles armstrong. [cheers and applause] and give it up for northbridge for being here. [cheers and applause] all right these are kids that are dealing with this on a daily basis and thank to their teachers and schools for being here and i want to recognize a couple of my colleagues for being here. supervisor mandelman was here and had to leave. also supervisor melgar, thank you for being here. supervisor melgar. [cheers and applause] and the president of our board and his baby granddaughter, supervisor walton. [cheers and applause] thank you for being here. next up, he needs no introduction. if there's a warrior in the house, that's leading us to the playoff, gary payton ii! [cheers and applause]

>> thank you, supervisor safai. i appreciate it. and thanks to the kids for decoding dyslexia to be out here and for everybody to come out and to support. on behalf of gary payton, and the golden state warriors, thank you for coming out and supporting. this is big and huge and i wish i had this type of support growing up. with my story and dealing with my dyslexia. so i want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you, guys, everybody, for being here. thank you. thank you. [cheers and applause] and, yeah, this is my story on it -- i was about around 10, 11 years old and didn't know that i had this disability in reading and writing and whatnot. and my mom is really the one who

identified it. and brought it to light. and got me help -- the help that i needed, you know, to be successful and to learn how to get past this and to be bigger than it. so i think of my mother, monique james so much for helping me out. thank you, monique, thank you, monique. yes. and why it is so important to get early screening. so kids can learn at an early age and don't have to grow up without it too long, you know, and get ahead of it. and to learn the right way, know, that we all learn differently. so to learn the right way and to learn the way that you need to learn, i think that it is huge, and it makes you feel comfortable to understand something in your own way. so i think that it's very important. and thank you. [applause] and, guys, be not afraid to ask for help at a young age. i didn't learn that at a young

age to ask for help and i was kind of shy and embarrassed about it. but there's nothing to be embarrassed of, and everybody learns different ways and different types and you guys all have each other right here to help each other to get through this. so you guys stick together as a team and it's going to be easier and it's going to be nice and you guys will get through it together. so thank you guys for being here. [cheers and applause] >> thank you so much, gary and thank you so much for sharing that story. i know that it's not easy to share those personal stories, so it means a lot for you to take time to be here out of your busy schedule. and all jokes aside, the playoff does begin, so we really appreciate you making the time and the warriors for making the time to be here. [cheers and applause] to be part of this. next up, we have meighen

potente, with decoding dyslexia, a grassroots movement made up of parents and educators and other professionals. she has 20 years of experience and has a son with dyslexia and is dedicated every day to make a difference. thank you so much, meighen, for being here. [applause] >> hello, it's so great to see so many familiar faces out there. and thank you all for taking the time to be with us and thank you. this is really a great moment. as has been said, about 15% of kids will have characteristics of dyslexia and in california schools that means approximately 900,000 children will struggle to read because of dyslexia.

so the california department of education recognizes that one of the greatest contributing factors to lower reading is the lack of early identification of students with dyslexia. i have a 13-year-old son who has dyslexia and i also have a brother with dyslexia. and their ages span 37 years, and yet their experiences in schools were near identical. they both were not identified early. and they both were denied access to the evidence-based instruction they needed to learn to read. and they both could have been

supported early in their school years. in the general education classroom and this would have addressed their difficulties and spared them years of struggle that they experienced that was academic, emotional, social impacts. my brother's experience made sense and the scientific evidence was not clear then, but the science is clear now -- the fact that my 13-year-old son's experience was virtually the same as his 50-year-old brother or uncle, rather, is unexcusable. we now know that the early risk indicators that are highly predictive of dyslexia.

and it can be screened easily using brief and cost-effective screening tools. [applause] every teacher enters the classroom with the desire to see the children in their class reach literacy. yet many school districts do not provide appropriate screening tools or training. with universal screening that is culturally, developmentally and linguistically appropriate, the teachers gain critical information about the students that help to address the experiences that the kids are having in the general ed classroom before they fall behind. [applause] when i was a first-grade teacher

i would have welcomed these tools. they would have made my job of helping kids to reach literacy easier. [applause] so ensuring that all kids in k-2 are screened for risk of dyslexia is just good policy. look at the rest of the nation where the majority of states already have universal screening laws. [applause] the evidence on dyslexia keeps growing and yet the wait to fail model continues. in california, we screen for vision and hearing, but not for risk of dyslexia and this needs to change. with early education and evidence-based intervention, we can reduce the number of students needing special education by up to 50%. i'm sorry, 70%.

70%. [cheers and applause] as a state we must embrace a model of prevention, not a model of failure. so requiring k-2 universal screening for risk of dyslexia is a critical step towards ensuring all kids have access to their right to literacy. thank you so much. i see everyone -- i see so many people wearing their stickers with the qr code. please scan that qr code and make sure that you have signed the petition and share that with your loved ones, friends and neighbors, because we need our voices to be heard. thank you so much. [cheers and applause] for coming out. >> thank you, meighen, for all of your tremendous work in decoding dyslexia for your leadership on the state-wide level. next we're going to bring it back home here to san francisco

a little bit, make it a little bit more local. we're very happy and honored to have the president of our school board here today, jenny lam, jenny is the daughter of chinese immigrants and she's devoted her career to public service. she has led and been a part of the change and trying to bring us out of a very difficult time in our school district. and she's doing everything she can on a daily basis. i'm proud to call her a colleague and a friend. i know that she's dedicated to this issue. jenny lam. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. thank you so much for being here this morning. thank you, supervisor safai, for hosting this important event, raising awareness about an issue that deeply affects our children and our students. thank you to senator portantino for your leadership in sacramento. [applause] and thank you to the parents and

the family for your tireless work for fighting every day. [applause] i am here to express my support as an english learner and daughter of immigrants, the first two years of elementary school and kindergarten and first grade was a critical time i was fortunate enough to have a teacher that led with innovative practices that instilled in me a love of reading and learning. even when things got difficult. i was pulled out to attend speech classes. and often times i wanted to give up, but my teachers and my educators didn't, and this is why i'm here today. many years later as i was advancing in math, numbers would just get jumbled and i didn't really ever have a strong foundation for my math skills. and senator portantino, and you

brought up one of your fears and my fear was reading out loud in front of peers because i feared stumbling around words and not able to articulate what i was reading. as we continue to recover from this pandemic, we have an opportunity to examine deeply about what's working, what wasn't working at its best, and what we're going to do systemically to change course for our public schools. our students bring me inspiration and the motivation to keep advancing for which change and for this work every day. truly, you all are that inspiration to all of us. [applause] our students and our families need to be heard and addressed and attended now. you have heard today from people who live with dyslexia. it creates enormous challenges for our children as they try to

learn. and i cannot stand by while students at this state of california have gone undiagnosed for dyslexia. their stories are painful. they are difficult. and yet also preventible. and you've also heard today that there is a way to screen for early in their education and i am ready to support this by collaborating with the city and other partnerships, including our renowned institutions like ucff right here in our backyard [cheers and applause] and it's not that difficult for me to support this. but living with undiagnosed dyslexia is. and i want to thank the parents and the families, the educators and the administrators who continue to fight and to advocate, not only to shine light on a long-standing issue, but offer real solutions. at the school board, we will be formally moving ahead with the

introduction of a policy resolution examining the district's beginning reading instruction assessments. and core classroom instruction in kindergarten through third grade. particularly for our focal students. i want to thank our family advocates in the audience today because they have been leading this work. [cheers and applause] we must improve the outcomes of our students, particularly our focal students. students in special education, with learning differences, our english learners and our african-american, pacific islander and latinx and american indian students. we also note that we can't do this alone. we must provide the supports and resources to our educators from professional training, coaching, and development. and sfsud is going to make process monitoring that data and screening instruments to track that progress. and so in closing, thank you

again for having me and i'm here today to support and to lead the effort establishing a state-wide policy of universal screening of k-2 students for the risk of dyslexia. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> thank you so much, jenny lam, commissioner lam, for all of your great work at the board of education here. and it means a lot for you to be here in support today. also i want to take a moment to recognize another one of my colleagues, supervisor matt haney, thank you for being here supervisor haney. [applause] supervisor haney -- might very well be a new assembly member. and we might ask him to take a lead on dyslexia in the california assembly. [cheers and applause] all right, hey, you heard that. you got his commitment in front of children and families. so we're going to hold you to that soon-to-be assemblyman.

next up today we have corne weaver, a member of the naacp, and is an award-winning teacher and administrator in oakland, california, as well as from columbia, south carolina. he did his undergraduate degree at morehouse college and in clinical psychology at the university of south carolina. he's a staunch advocate for children and families and this is also very personal for him, for families with learning differences. thank you so much, corine weaver for being here today. [cheers and applause] >> hi, everybody. hello, everybody. all right. a couple things first. i'm going to ask my man right there with the gp2 shirt, can you come on up. the young man in the instead

wait to fail sign, come on up. and the bright pink sign about screening for -- come on, come on, come on. she gave it to somebody else. come on. come on. so you just stand right up here turn your sign that way. you got your sign? man, go get your sign. [laughter] so let me cut to the chase. first of all, it's good to see everybody today. man, this is a good reason to get together. glad that the weather held up. so i'm here, i mean, supervisor, the things that i'm associated with but i'm here as a dad and a husband and just a community advocate, as a black man who wants to see right thing done for kids. there's a few things they want to leave you with. in addition to saying good job for coming out here, i want to start with what gary said --

when he talked about his mom and how she found out what was going on and got him the help that he needed. every young person needs a champion. i cannot emphasize this enough. everybody, every kid up here, everybody needs somebody who will go to the max for them no matter what. if you don't have that, you don't know what you are missing young people need that. this legislation is kind of standing in proxy for that, saying that you may or may not have somebody, but we'll stand in the breach for you as a state and we're going to say that we'll get you what you need. so senator portantino, thank you, thank you. [cheers and applause] so i just happen to see these signs in the audience and i'm going to go through these signs and that's my whole speech is going through these signs. the first one -- where is he fat? not that one, the other one. the other one.

yeah, the other one is a good sign, isn't it? now, you know, in politics people talk about what we can and can't do and this and that and the other and they get you talking, talking, talking. but sometimes common sense has to reign. look, you see all of these blue states, those are the ones that already do it. they already do it. so don't let somebody tell you that we can't do this or this or that and look at all of those states that already do this. we call ourselves californians like to think of ourselves as being ahead of the curve. the curve ain't looking too good right now. and there's some legitimate debates that have to happen, and i was talking with somebody a couple days ago and we want to make sure that the kids are not overidentified as going to special ed. this was a concern. and then i talked to a friend of mine from texas and she is like, we been screening.

and we have a test, i think that it is called [speaking spanish] and we don't overidentify and it works, what are y'all talking about. and i am like i'll ask them. and so there were all kinds of issues that people have to work out, reasonable minds can agree, discuss and debate and all of that, but sometimes, you know, a picture is worth a thousand words. we can't -- we can't be the last one to jump in and prioritize our children. we can't. thank you, young man. [applause] the second sign, what is your name, young man? mason. come on up, mason. instead of wait to fail, screen all for risk. that's a good sign. [applause] so when he says wait to fail -- i'm going to assume -- i know what you mean, if i'm wrong you

let me know. so in california, i'll put it this way, i think that the senator actually said this -- nationally, we actually have a law on the books right now that was signed in 2018. if -- if you go to the federal penitentiary -- federal -- not state -- not county -- federal -- and you catch a federal case by law, we'll now screen you for dyslexia and give you the support that you need. they don't argue about all of the stuff that we argue about. they just screen you because they know if -- the question is why should we wait for people to fail? if we have the science. we have the research and we understand that our kids need help. why don't we start at the beginning of the road, giving them the skills and the tools that they need? that's all that is. [applause] don't wait to fail. and one more thing about mason's sign. you know, i have a cousin, like

many of you may have this situation, i don't know, but i interviewed my cousin who had been -- one of my favorite cousins, i have a big family, one of my favorite cousins, incarcerated for 23 years. 23 years. and we have the same birthday and we played together and we -- we chase little girls together and did all of the things that cousin does. but i went right and he went left and he ended up incarcerated. and i interviewed him about a year ago. and i said, bo, i'm doing this thing about reading and everything, and he said, cuz, did you know -- did you know that the average incarcerated person has a little less than a fourth grade reading level. did you know that? now, i acted like i didn't know because i was ashamed at knowing something like that and not

doing something about it. and so i was quiet and i let him talk and he said, man, i have him in there and i'll be teaching people to read and we're playing chess and checkers and, cuz, they can't read, they can't read. and, you know, the reality is that when you have a wait to fail model and when you don't screen early and when you chase it early and you don't have a champion, and the only thing that a lot of people do is to bury their head and act like they don't know. but part of what this rally is about today is that everybody needed to know. we have a commitment to our children. we're going to prioritize them over politics and personality. we're going to do what they need to have done on the front end instead of waiting for them to go to the federal penitentiary. did you know -- yeah, we know, that's why we're here today. thank you, mason. thank you, young man. [cheers and applause] come on up. last sign.

so as the supervisor said i have been teaching for a long time and a principal and all of that stuff. and, lord have mercy, we have so many tests and screening and this and that. what is it to say, vision screening, mr. weaver -- please, send your students down to the auditorium for vision screening mr. weaver, please send all students to the cafeteria for hearing screening. but i never heard this -- mr. weaver, it's time to give that 10 to 15 minute screening of risk tests. i never heard that, because -- mr. weaver, we don't have a wait to fail model. we want to find out on the front end what your kids need so that you can serve them in an appropriate way. please, send your kids -- i never got that message -- never and the issue that we have here today and why i wanted to bring her up is that it's not hard. it is not hard. people have been doing this for 30 years and screening for risk of dyslexia. 30 years and you go look it up

right now. and over half of them with dyslexia. we have had 15 minutes tests in the early 1990s and now how long does it take? five or 10 minutes. our kids can't afford to have games played on this. it's not something that we don't know how to do. believe me, we know how to make rules and regulations. whether it's for vision, whether it's for hearing -- those are important -- those are important, and how much more important to find out if our kids -- need certain things to learn how to read. need it taught a certain way. so thank you very much for that i appreciate it. and one last thing. i heard somebody say it was sb-237, that's a terrible name. terrible, terrible name. if i could wave a magic wand, i

would rename that bill. i would call that bill -- and there's a lot -- i have a lot of different ideas and i think about this. i might call it keep our kids out of jail bill. i might call it stop playing with our kids bill. and give every kid a chance bill. and it doesn't matter how much money you make bill. we value you bill. we love you bill. kids over politics bill. [cheers and applause] so, listen, on behalf of my 17-year-old daughter who is my champion and she's disliks i dyslexic, shejust found out a cs ago. and i want to say thank you senator, and supervisor safai and all of the young people here

for all of the energy that you bring today and all of the signs, it's wonderful. but we have to make sure that people don't give us bogus excuses about overidentification, because we know about that. don't tell us that we can't screen, because we screen for everything else and don't tell us that we have to have a wait to fail model. don't play games with our kids. the last thing they could say is if i could name it anything -- anything -- it would be kids first bill. [cheers and applause] thank you >> all right, well, thank you so much, corine. that was truly from the heart and it was from a perspective that people need to hear more about. thank you. the next person that we'll call up started the show off dancing and showing some of his skills

but i think that he wants to speak from the heart from his own personal experience. lonnie "poptart" green, come on up and say a few brief words, please. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> all right, i might start crying. and first of all, for me in elementary in 1978, i was born in 1967 in bayview hunters point. and it was really a total black culture -- a lot of people don't get to see the survival skills in a community like that is not your average conversation. it's a deeper one. i'm a product of all of the school, their standards and all

of the different things. i'm a product of juvenile hall which they used to call you got caught ygc. i'm part of the 850 bryant situation. the drug program. and everything that we have, i am a san francisco born child. from 1967, in a city black dance culture. my family is from louisiana. and i learned a lot from my family before we get to talking about schools because that's where the boundaries came. i was the smartest and the best at home with my family, but when i got to school i was segregated and i was put to the side because i couldn't focus like everybody else. i got sent home and my teachers that didn't want to tolerate me. and i got whoopings and

everything else. so i moved to the philmore district in 1978. and i ran into this dance called strutting. what you saw me do just now, that's called strutting, y'all. so i took that and i grabbed it because nobody could take that from me. and i always wanted to speak like malcolm x, martin luther king, those are my idols. not because basically what they were saying but because of the power they had, the strength they had to stand there and to talk to masses of people about what they really had on their hearts and minds. so those are my leaders as far as structure without school books. but now when i get to school i am the smartest thing, as long as i am doing anything, but as

long as i sit down and have to be the one to read a book or to do any of that, that same attention is not there. it is like, lonnie, lonnie, you're the greatest -- and i can play basketball and i'm the fastest -- i do everything -- but when it's time to do what i've got to do to be recognized as a student, some teachers just really did me bad. and so i said, you know what, i'm going to get them back by being smarter than them. i got smarter because i got into my dance. and my dance opened me up in a way where i ended up passing all of the tests that i never thought they would pass. yeah, i passed all of my tests in the ninth grade. when i got to high school, straight out of juvenile, but i left there and i never went back to juvenile. i said i'm going to show everybody. didn't have nothing to do with the reading and the writing, it had to do with the attention that i can get.

what i can do with that attention. they couldn't stop me then. so i created the only three dvds in the world on this art form called boogaloin, and representing the day before hip-hop hit northern california the strutters room, where i used to be in punishment at and i worked on my funky moves, you understand? so for the kids that get in trouble this is for you, when you are on punishment, go into this room and do this. and you will be able to do routines and all kind of stuff. so this dance is a way out and a way up. now i'm a teacher myself. i am teaching all over the world. i never thought that i'd get on an airplane and go anywhere. i wanted to work here and i actually did work at city hall,

i was a janitor around the corner. i came through the program and i wanted to be in every program because i wanted information to give back to y'all, someday, one day, some kind of way and i did it. yeah, i was at this situation before with willie brown, and carlos santana, you know what i say. and i performed at the bill graham theater with the furious five. i performed around the corner at the symphony hall for the first ever ballet and breakdancing and hip-hop collaboration. i performed over there. and then in this same building is one of my true friends from my project, mayor london breed. [cheers and applause] so coming out of the projects, we know that we can do things but it is always the system -- the system so i'm going to just leave it at that. and i'm going to ask all of the kids before i go, can y'all

please stand up. everybody, i want to see y'all facing me. and i want to see y'all go, one, one, hands up. let's go. let's get it. let's get it. let's turn and back. and front and back. turn and back. [cheers and applause] hey, i love y'all! go to my website www.thestruttersroom.com. and, look, i learned that. hey, my son-in-law and my daughter here, that means so much to me, y'all. i've got 13 kids. and they all are grown and they are all successful. none of them ever been to jail. none of them on drugs. yeah, i have like nine grandchildren already. so, yeah, just dance and do work.

so i love y'all, i love every single one of y'all. here's my boy right here, and me and him have been communicating like -- got to find one in the audience with you and your personal feelings. i'll see all of y'all in my workshop, right? we're going to do this, okay. hey, i'm not good with names, i got ya. thank you y'all. [cheers and applause] >> well, i knew that it would get emotional but that was truly from the heart. thank you so much, lonnie, for sharing that personal -- personal story. next up we're going to bring to the stage carol cosovar, the former president of the california state pta, she's worked as an attorney and a journalist and ombudsperson and is the parent of two children who graduated from san francisco

public schools and an editorial contributor to ededitor.org and i appreciate her being here for this important cause. thank you, carol. come on up. >> as a member of the pta and as a parent, i have done a lot of advocacy, and i have spoken to a lot of elected public officials because when the pta goes in and they talk to someone, we go in and we talk to someone about a piece of legislation that we think that improves the lives of children. and i have never, ever, heard an elected official say that i don't want to improve the lives of children. every elected official says that's high, that's top on my agenda. education is top on my agenda. i will do what i can to make

sure that our children are successful. so pretend that there are all of the legislators out there behind you. and i'm talking to them. i want to make sure that every single senator and every single member of the assembly votes yes on sb-237. [applause] what i would say to them would echo some of what you have heard today. we all know that we have a reading crisis. about 50% of the kids in california are not proficient at reading. it is scary. we have to do something about it. we know that the kids who are not good readers, unfortunately, and to the heartbreak of too many parents, end up in the juvenile justice system where if

you're in that juvenile justice system, a huge, huge majority of those children struggle with reading. with the senator and the assembly member, what i if told you -- told that you there was one simple short inexpensive screening that within 15 minutes you could take a first grader or a second grader or a third grader and figure out where that child is struggling. wouldn't you like to do that so that the teachers have the information that they need to be able to put in the right strategies? teachers shouldn't be guessing as to what the child is dealing with. teachers should know whether the child recognizes and hears sounds, whether the child can decode, whether the child can put all of those sounds

together. what is that specific issue that our children are struggling with. and so for practically nothing and i say practically nothing in terms of a huge state budget, senator and assembly members, you could change the lives of millions of children. [applause] you could make sure that we know why they're struggling, and we know how to help them, and from kindergarten to 3 they are learning to read and from 3 on they are learning more. and so if we haven't captured that we have kids still struggling and not able to do the math and the science and the social studies because they have not had the opportunity to have that simple 15-minute very inexpensive screening to help

them. and so, senator and so assembly member, keep your promise. keep your promise. you value children, you value education, please support sb-237. [cheers and applause] >> thank you so much, carol. on that note, i'm going to bring it back here to our city librarian, michael lambert. from the city and county of san francisco. during his tenure the san francisco public libraries was named in 2018 national library of the year by library journal. michael lambert is champion and increased equitable access to libraries all over san francisco, with extended hours and a wonderful world-class library system. he's here to talk about some of the support that the library will do here in the city and

county of san francisco for this just cause. thank you, michael. [applause] >> hey, everybody, i'm michael lambert and i'm your city librarian and i'm so proud to serve the city and county of san francisco. i want to thank ronnie for sharing his personal story and you have inspired me with this hip-hop education. i'm looking at all of these young people and it's taking me back to the day that i grew up from columbia, south carolina south carolina. that's my home theme. i melted microphones instead of cones of ice cream. yeah, y'all remember that. eric b and rock kim? we got gp2 in the house, let's give it up for the warriors. [cheers and applause] you know, that brings me back too. i remember cool mod. because basketball is my favorite sport.

i like the way they dribble up and down the court. [cheers and applause] [laughter] all right, well -- i'm here all day, folks. so i really want to thank supervisor safai for his leadership in bringing us all together for this call to action. let's give him a round of applause. you know, as a children's librarian and as a father, i know how critically important it is that children are entering kindergarten and ready to read, ready to learn, because when they reach that all too important milestone of third grade, they have to shift from learning to read to being proficient in reading to learning other subjects. as we are hearing today, too many children in our community have challenges with dyslexia which affects their skills involved in reading, spelling and writing. and that's why the san francisco public library right across the street invests heavily in early

literacy programs. our library system was the first major urban library in the country to have a dedicated full-time learning differences librarian on staff. yes. we have pioneered the award-winner fog readers program that allows on the orton gillingham curriculum to help struggling readers in grades one through four with their reading and the coming year we're going to partner with supervisor safai's office to boost our team of learning differences librarians and scale our fog readers program into the neighborhood libraries. [applause] i want to thank all of the residents of san francisco for your strong support for our library system that allows us to meet the needs of our community and ultimately help our youth and families to live their best lives and thrive. and before i leave, i just want to ask all of the young people, do you know what this is?

what is this? >> a library card. >> that's right. do you know how much this costs? it's free. it's free. and all of you by virtue of being in the san francisco unified school district, you already have a scholar card. all you have to do is to go to the library and activate it and, guess what, we have the only golden state warriors library card in the whole world. because you have the best public library in the whole universe. so thank you all for coming and i want everybody over here to say read. and i want everybody here say to achieve. let's do it again. read -- to achieve. >> read to achieve. >> read to achieve. all right, give yourselves a hand. thank you for coming. >> watch out rumi.

i told you that we had a star-studded lineup today and i think that everyone that came up spoke from the heart and everybody spoke from their own personal experiences but today for it to be meaningful, you know, you heard it in the beginning, this passed unanimously in the state senate and for it to be meaningful we need to keep the pressure on in the state assembly. i will give an opportunity, senator wiener, state senator wiener from san francisco is a co-sponsor with senator portantino and he has an aide that wants to come to say a few words real quick. >> thank you so much. i'm so honored to be here, quite a lot of tough acts to follow, if i do say so myself. i am here to support sb-237. thank you. thank you to senator portantino

and supervisor safai for your leadership and your powerful remarks and thank you to other educators and students for being here. and senator wiener wishes that he could have formed today but he's stuck in a hearing at the capitol or he would have loved to be here. and this is an important bill across the state. by establishing universal screening for dyslexia, california schools can ensure that these children are receiving the appropriate instruction and the support to achieve their educational potential. senator weaner is a proud co-author and stands in full support of this bill and thank you so much for having me here. [applause] >> all right, folks, so we're going to wrap this up and ask everyone to come up on the stairs so we can take a big, big group photo. but before you do that, hold on one second. stay seated. stay seated. because we're going to end with

energy. as i said today was not just about having a rally. today was not just about throwing flowers. today was about bringing awareness. assemblyman o'donnell needs to be contacted. are you all ready to fight? are you ready to fight. [cheers and applause] are you ready to win? [cheers and applause] are you ready to bring universal screening to california? [cheers and applause] join the other 42 states in the united states to screen people. [cheers and applause] we are going to win this. contact assemblyman o'donnell and tell him that the children of deserve to not be played with in politics. thank you, everyone, for coming here today. [cheers and applause] come on up, everyone. thank you to decoding dyslexia california, thank you to senator portantino, and gary payton ii,

and thank you to everyone for being a part of this. all right, thank you, everyone. >> by the time the last show

came, i was like whoa, whoa, whoa. i came in kicking and screaming and left out dancing. [♪♪♪] >> hello, friends. i'm the deputy superintendent of instruction at san francisco unified school district, but you can call me miss vickie. what you see over the next hour has been created and planned by our san francisco teachers for our students. >> our premise came about for san francisco families that didn't have access to technology, and that's primarily children preschool to second grade.

>> when we started doing this distance learning, everything was geared for third grade and up, and we work with the little once, and it's like how were they still processing the information? how were they supposed to keep learning? >> i thought about reaching the student who didn't have internet, who didn't have computers, and i wanted them to be able to see me on the t.v. and at least get some connection with my kids that way. >> thank you, friends. see you next time. >> hi, friend. >> today's tuesday, april 28, 2020. it's me, teacher sharon, and i'm back again. >> i got an e-mail saying that i had an opportunity to be on a show. i'm, like, what? >> i actually got an e-mail

from the early education department, saying they were saying of doing a t.v. show, and i was selected to be one of the people on it, if i was interested. i was scared, nervous. i don't like public speaking and all the above. but it worked out. >> talk into a camera, waiting for a response, pretending that oh, yeah, i hear you, it's so very weird. i'm used to having a classroom with 17 students sitting in front of me, where they're all moving around and having to have them, like, oh, sit down, oh, can you hear them? let's listen. >> hi guys. >> i kind of have stage flight when i'm on t.v. because i'm

normally quiet? >> she's never quiet. >> no, i'm not quiet. >> my sister was, like, i saw you on t.v. my teacher was, i saw you on youtube. it was exciting, how the community started watching. >> it was a lot of fun. it also pushed me outside of my comfort zone, having to make my own visuals and lesson plans so quickly that ended up being a lot of fun. >> i want to end today with a thank you. thank you for spending time with us. it was a great pleasure, and see you all in the fall. >> i'm so happy to see you today. today is the last day of the school year, yea! >> it really helped me in my teaching. i'm excited to go back teaching

my kids, yeah. >> we received a lot of amazing feedback from kiddos, who have seen their own personal teacher on television. >> when we would watch as a family, my younger son, kai, especially during the filipino episodes, like, wow, like, i'm proud to be a filipino. >> being able to connect with someone they know on television has been really, really powerful for them. and as a mom, i can tell you that's so important. the social confidence development of our early learners.

♪ >> it is unclenate's creativity time. welcome to uncle nate. we are are going to draw bubble letters. you need supplies. you need a pencil, markers, something to color with and a few pieces of paper. gather up supplies and meet me back right here. all right. let's go. got all supplies out. draw your name lightly in the center of your page. give yourself room. give each letter a little room. all right. now, i want you to draw around each letter like you are driving a car around each letter.

next, let's erase the center. take away the original outline and then we will be left just with the bubble letter. make sure you get the center part out of there. okay. we will touch it up. time for color. i chose yellow, orange, and red. yellow at the top, then the orange in the center, and i am making a stripe right through the center all the way across. last, my red, which makes a cool fade. time for the outline. unclenate's creative time. figure it out. now we are going to do a drop

shadow. a shadow underneath each letter and to the side. it is really going to give it a 3-d look. wow! great job. i bet you didn't think you could draw that. now you can draw bubble letters you can use it to draw things for your friends, cards. it is really useful. i hope you had a good time. i will see you next time on uncle nate's creativity time. ♪ women's network for a sustainable future . or a >> san francisco streets and

puffs make up 25 percent of cities e city's land area more than all the parks combined they're far two wide and have large flight area the pavement to parks is to test the variants by ininexpensive changing did new open spaces the city made up of streets in you think about the potential of having this space for a purpose it is demands for the best for bikes and families to gather. >> through a collaborative effort with the department we the public works and the municipal transportation agency pavement to parks is bringing initiative ideas to our streets. >> so the face of the street is the core of our program we have

in the public right-of-way meaning streets that can have areas perpetrated for something else. >> i'm here with john francis pavement to parks manager and this parklet on van ness street first of all, what is a parklet and part of pavement to parks program basically an expense of the walk in a public realm for people to hang anti nor a urban acceptable space for people to use. >> parklets sponsors have to apply to be considered for the program but they come to us you know saying we want to do this and create a new space on our street it is a community driven program. >> the program goes beyond just parklets vacant lots and other spaces are converted we're here at playland on 43 this is place

is cool with loots things to do and plenty of space to play so we came up with that idea to revitalizations this underutilized yard by going to the community and what they said want to see here we saw that everybody wants to see everything to we want this to be a space for everyone. >> yeah. >> we partnered with the pavement to parks program and so we had the contract for building 236 blot community garden it start with a lot of jacuzzi hammers and bulldozer and now the point we're planting trees and flowers we have basketball courts there is so much to do here. >> there's a very full program

that they simply joy that and meet the community and friends and about be about the lighter side of city people are more engaged not just the customers. >> with the help of community pavement to parks is reimagining the potential of our student streets if you want more information visit them as the pavement to parks or contact pavement to parks at sfgovtv.or.

>> i just feel like this is what i was born to do when i was a little kid i would make up performances and daydream it was always performing and doing something i feel if i can't do that than i can't be me. >> i just get excited and my nickname is x usher my mom calls

me i stuck out like a sore thumb for sure hey everybody i'm susan kitten on the keys from there, i working in vintage clothing and chris in the 30's and fosz and aesthetic. >> i think part of the what i did i could have put on my poa he focus on a lot of different musical eras. >> shirley temple is created as ahsha safai the nation with happens and light heartenness shirley temple my biggest influence i love david boo and el john and may i west coast their flamboyant and show people (singing)

can't be unhappy as a dr. murase and it is so fun it is a joyful instrument i learned more about music by playing the piano it was interesting the way i was brought up the youth taught me about music he picked up the a correspond that was so hard my first performing experience happened as 3-year-old an age i did executive services and also thanks to the lord and sank in youth groups people will be powering grave over their turk i'll be playing better and better back la i worked as places where men make more money than me i was in bands i was treated as other the next thing

i know i'm in grants performing for a huge protection with a few of my friends berry elect and new berry elect and can be ray was then and we kept getting invited back you are shows got better we made it to paris in 2005 a famous arc we ended up getting a months residencey other than an island and he came to our show and started writing a script based on our troop of 6 american burr elect performs in france we were woman of all this angels and shapes and sizes and it was very exciting to be part of the a few lettering elect scene at the

time he here he was bay area born and breed braces and with glossaries all of a sudden walking 9 red carpet in i walgreens pedestrian care. >> land for best director that was backpack in 2010 the french love this music i come back here and because of film was not released in the united states nobody gave a rats ass let's say the music and berry elect and performing doesn't pay very much i definitely feel into a huge depression especially, when it ended i didn't feel kemgd to france anymore he definitely didn't feel connected to the scene i almost feel like i have to beg for tips i hey i'm from

the bay area and an artist you don't make a living it changed my represent tar to appeal and the folks that are coming into the wars these days people are not listening they love the idea of having a live musician but don't really nurture it like having a potted plant if you don't warrant it it dizzy sort of feel like a potted plant (laughter) i'm going to give san francisco one more year i've been here since 1981 born and raised in the bay area i know that is not for me i'll keep on trying and if the struggle becomes too hard i'll have to move on i don't know where that will be but i love here so so much i used to

dab he will in substances i don't do that i'm sober and part of the being is an and sober and happy to be able to play music and perform and express myself if i make. >> few people happy of all ages i've gone my job so i have so stay is an i feel like the piano and music in general with my voice together i feel really powerful and strong