to solve these issues, i would request we create a cave-eighth at daniel webster -- k-8 at daniel webster. thanks. >> good evening, commissioners. i am the parent of a pre- schooler. gooi came here tonight, becausei want to say i emphatically opposed to the feeder plan. i do not know what my kids will be like, but you made the point that as long as there are differences in the electives offered, there is a different quality. i love living in san francisco. the diversity and a and its population is one reason we stay here, and school choices are another advantage. school choice is a feature of the system. please do not remove my ability to choose what i think is best for my child. >> my name is vivian, and i have been up here several times to talk about student assignment, and i came to talk about what is going to be happening with high- school common region with high school, and what of the parents are saying -- with the parents are saying if there are quality schools people would not focus on moving. there is so much focus of how are you going to make some better. there are nine high sch

daniel webster was a senator in the nineteenth century so daniel -- she calls him the i am not daniel problem. some key dates of his life. he was born in west hartford which in 1758 wasn't west hartford yet. it was called the west division. west hartford doesn't become west hartford until after 1800. in the 1770s he have all these forest gump moments related to the founding. he goes to yale and his father today he and his father go on a horse and one of them walks and ride the horse. we don't know who does what. they go to yale and park the worse at the president's house and in his freshman year he has this forest gump moment. in june of 1775 george washington is in town and i write about this in the book. george washington is on route to cambridge where he is going to take command of a continental army and webster is part of the young militia that greets him. he is just tangentially connected to history but a decade later he will start to shape history. i am getting some kind of -- computer virus. a decade later he will start to shape history. in 1777 he has another forest gump momen

we are reminded of daniel webster was a great senator.he only story about daniel webster that comes to mind at this moment that i think is relevant who served in a distinguished way in the united states senate is when william henry harrison was elected our ninth president of united states in the early 1840's, he was preparing for an order of speech recalled in his good friend daniel webster to edit his speech from whatever number of words it was -- i heard was 3000 -- down to a more manageable number, william henry harrison delivered his inaugural speech and died 31 days later because he spoke too long and the weather was not so good. if we combine dead webster -- if we combine daniel webster, we feel his presence today with his contribution to history. that means you don't speak too long. the weather is fabulous here. i want to introduce my family. and here with my wife, mary kay, who is the finest human beings i have ever known. [applause] we have been married 28 years. we are here with two of our seven kids, elizabeth, raise your hand

and if we combine daniel webster and his presence, and for me in history that means you don't speak too long. although the weather is fabulous. i want to introduce my family, i am here with my wife, mary kay, the finest human being ever known. we are married for 28 years, and with two of our seven children. elizabeth, no raise your hand, and gracie. come here, i want to show you what good political work consists of here. gracie who wasn't much familiar with south new hampshire university was there yesterday as her dad gave the commentment speech. and she was celebrating her birthday. and as she was celebrating her 12th birthday -- right? yeah, and they give her a sweat shirt and she put it on rather gratuitously and as if she's a local. have you enjoyed it today? yeah, thank you, gracie. she's a wonderful girl that has had a most remarkable life. and when we come back and in the future and when we come back for a second, third and fourth engagement, when we get to that point. because we understand that is what it takes in new hampshire. and we hope you get a better appreciation for this

. >> i have a kindergartner at daniel webster. >> i went to the middle school and high-school. >> [unintelligible] >> thank you. >> first, a few appreciations to the people who made this happen. the parents for public schools and be advisory staff, our volunteers, the middle school planning team, middle school principals and their staffs common the translation and -- staffs, the translation department, all the people that participated in the forums, and the board for extending the time line for us. we are going to talk about what we did and why, who we heard from, findings from the community meetings, recommendations to the board and the district staff, and then we will conclude. first -- it is my job to do this. sorry. what we did and why. in march of 2010, the board of education adopted a student assignment policy without community input on this idea. last fall the community reacted negatively and delayed implementation. this spring, they work with district staff to organize and conduct a community forum to talk about middle school policy, proposed language pathways, and the goals were to let p

>> good evening, i am a parent of a kindergartner at daniel webster. i am presenting on behalf of parents for public schools. >> can you move the microphone a little bit closer to you? >> is that better? >> later on tonight, we will be reading proposals to modify the assignment policy including the pattern for assigning students to middle schools. we're going to address this proposal. our annual report tonight, we have been partnering and conducting this report on community forums. >> we remain a partner in the process to develop and present recommendations and about strengthening middle schools across the city. >> we have been hearing some board members are concerned because they believe our recommendations are only reflecting the views of certain parents. they don't represent the student population. i want to address this issue directly because i think this is getting in a way of the hearing what we're trying to say. it reflects the demographics of the district, so we also went to elementary schools in the mission, the bayview, to conduct focus group

massachusetts i do a lot of my research i boston a&m and the first thing you see is a big portion of daniel webster and that is part of the problem. a lot of americans think you know what the dictionary, particularly in massachusetts. so i want to tell you about webster's incredible shrinking reputation after his death in 1843. when he died, he is considered a national treasure. one historian says he is up there in america's trinity of fame along with columbus in washington. in 1850, jefferson davis who is then senator from mississippi says the following. we have a unity of language which no other people possess and rarely above all to noah webster's spelling book. today noah webster is not confuse that daniel is best known for the dictionary. but in his lifetime he was best known for his valor. it comes out in 1783. and that was the harry potter of his day. they had 3 million in 1783 and its first year the book sold 5000 copies. over the next century that book would sell 100 million copies. and that looked outside generations of americans how to read including jefferson davis and with his valor, h

and webster, daniel webster served here. yeah, webster. john f. kennedy and all of these people. i guess i'm blowing him off. he elbows me and said you ought to be ashamed of yourself. look at you. you used to be a bartender on the sunset trip. he said, i used to drive a meat truck on the sunset strip. here, members of congress. looking around. and he said, did you ever -- did you ever just stop and wonder how we ever got here? by this time, i'd have enough chattering. i looked at him and said, sonny, i look around every day and i wonder how you got here. [laughter] i know how i got here. i went to law school. i'm still trying to figure you out. anyway. a few months after i had that congress with chairman hyde, 1998, sonny was killed in a skiing accident. i tell you these dates for a reason to tell you how fate works. on january 9th, i went to palm springs for the funeral. they had all of us sitting in the side chapel, i'm in there were sher and former president ford. who comes and sits next to me? chairman hyde. he loves sonny. henry was a big irish, very emotional, sentimental

daniel webster is on the right, and all the characters portrayed there are from actual studies of faces that he did at the time. so it is an accurate historic document. he has also put a few people in there who were not present when webster delivered his great speech because he wanted to include them. it was painted in paris. it cost him almost two years of his work, of his life, his professional life. much like morse, he got scarcely what he hoped he would be recommend penced for it. it was something that didn't matter because he felt he had recorded something and made a contribution not just to the art of portraiture but for the history of this country. >> how long did it take you to write this? >> four years. >> where did you to the writing? >> i did a lot of the writing in martha's writing, and some in maine where we spend a good part of the year. i did some of it when we were traveling. i spent a great deal of time in washington, boston, new york, looking at paintings, looking at architecture, and of course doing research with original documents, original letters and diaries. >> th

the united states senate wisely advised then-secretary of the treasury daniel webster to seek and/or report on any discussions that he might have had that could have led to guaranteeing state debt. it was the senate's express resolution that prevented treasury secretary webster from bailing out the states then. the crisis at the time was even reflected in charles dickens' famous book "a christmas carol" in which scrooge was described as someone who was less than wealthy because he overinvested in what were called united states sovereigns. the phrase in "a crystal carol is" not worth a united states sovereign "because of the spendthrift policies of many state governments at the time. the u.s. senate at that time took the correct action to prevent the spendthrift actions of several states from contaminating and ruining the credit rating of the united states itself. our credit rating is already under stress, with reports especially by standard and poor's that we may face a loss in the aaa credit rating invented to symbolize the strength of the united states if we don't change a spending

we are in franklin and we are reminded of daniel webster, a great senator. the only story about daniel webster that comes to mind that i think is truly relevant, who served in a distinguished way is that when william henry harrison was elected our ninth president of the united states in the early 1840's, he was preparing for an inaugural speech and he called deadly his good friend daniel webster. what ever number of words was, i heard it was a 3000, down to a more manageable number. he died at 31 days later. the weather was not so good. if we combined daniel webster and his presence here today, with his contribution and history, i guess that means although the weather is fabulous, you don't speak too long. i want to introduce my family here who is the finest human being i know. we have been married 28 years and we are here with two of our seven kids. raise your hand, elizabeth. i want to show you what good political work consists of here. she was not familiar with south new hampshire university was there as her dad gave the commencement speech and she was ce