a plane high school. thank you for your time. president mendoza: thank you. >> i am here to represent the teachers at john o'connell high school. i am a member of our leadership team. we voted unanimously in favor of the change it. the instructional literacy team also voted unanimously in favor of the change as did the entire staff. we firmly believe this is the right move and we hope you all agree with us. we are very committed to making it a place to be. thank you. president mendoza: it is good to see you, steven. he was one of our teacher of the month award recipients. [applause] we have excellent teachers at john o'connell. mr. kelly was not one of our teacher award recipients. >> i go back a while. it was a different award in those days. i would just like to point out that john o'connell is the leader of the labor council in san francisco throughout the mid-century. he is one of the people who was critically important in making sure that teachers and professionals saw and had a union in california at

it is about just to give a capsule summary, a high school in brooklyn called international high school which specializes in the education of immigrants. brooke spent much time at the school chronicleing the life of teens. she will do a reading of a portion later but i wanted to ask some introductory questions. the first of which is you are an experienced journalist. you have written a lot about hollywood. this is a subject matter far afield from that. how did you come to the stop it? >> the person who led me to the international school is in the audience. his name is ronny. we went to college together and he was working at the international committee which is an agency that helps settle refugees across the country. at the time his girlfriend loren was interested in doing volunteer work with some of the students at bronx international high school. i heard about the school and became interested in this idea of a high school which has come from 70 countries and speaks 7 languages. i don't want to say we're trying to become american because not all the kids are but they are adapting to the

or is it just a high school? it is called by a lot of names, as dr. gomez said. it is quite confusing, actually. it would actually be good for the school to drop the alternative, in case people are turned away from the general name. thank you. president mendoza: thank you. what grade are you and? >> 11th. president mendoza: good. thank you. >> good evening. i am a teacher at o'connell, but tonight i come to you as an alumni. i graduated in -- i went to school in 1969 and it was called john o'connell alternative technological school. my family said i was not for going there. the reason i went there is because they had vocational programs that got people employed. my goal coming out of junior high school was to become a very employable architect and i thought, looking at all the schools in san francisco, that o'connell would serve me the best. i went to san francisco state and came back as a teacher, thinking i was going to be an architect. i came back and talk trade drafting and worked as a civil engineering design draftsman for years before i came back the second

it is an exciting day to join our high school kids, our high school, here at john o'connor. principal gomez, our deputy superintendent, our school board president, and our building trade, thank you for being here. the director of the joint power trended authority. we have the sfpuc, the school alliance, school district personnel. we are all here because we are excited about this wonderful announcement. we are here in a very green, multipurpose use building that has just been opened. this is going to be representing something that i am quite familiar with. i know mike and others closer to my age, we had a wood shop. we had metal shop in middle school. we had exposure to how to deal with graphs. more importantly, you are talking to somebody who used to spend five years at the department of public works, as the director. we're having to pay attention to our infrastructure, one of the most important things any city can do. when we are trying to grow a new economy -- and as you know, i have gone around the city selling this idea about how the economy is about tech jobs, but we als

>> how was -- >> international high school compare, you know, to the sort of standard stereotype high school that we would think of your? >> well, that's what i was so drawn to the school is because even though the kids to have really, some of them really amazing stories of how they got here and perilous journeys and different backgrounds, they are still teenagers and i could relate to them very easily because, because i think we can all relate to going to high school in america. and even though it's an international high school it's not that different. they still, their prom is different than my prom. but they have to deal with sats and regions and prom and what is it in the cafeteria, and they are always on facebook. so i think the pictures, they are not so different at all. but their background certainly are different. >> word their cliques like we be accustomed to? jocks? that sort of thing? >> i was always looking for the cliques and i spent a lot of time in the cafeteria. i was looking for the mean girls, looking for the jocks and looking for all these groups that make for good

this is a video that the high school is going to be doing. in the explanation on the video, the first sentence says the school found it necessary to have a campaign to attract eighth grade students to to the fact that the design has been postponed by the board of education for one year. i wanted to be clear that the board of education did not postpone any student assignment redesign. i wanted to get that on the record. roll-call. commissioner fewer: yes. commissioner maufas: yes. commissioner murase: yes. commissioner norton: yes. commissioner wynns: yes. commissioner yee: yes. president mendoza: no. >> proposal for a forced reading. this is item 111 in support of a permanent name change for the high school to john o'connell high school. i need a motion and a second. thank you. this item is going to be referred to buildings and grounds. item r, none. item s, board members report on the school district select committee. commissioner fewer or norton? >> we heard a report about the summer program at the candlestick shipyard benefit agreement. it

front of the school and it rates -- and it reads john o'connell high school. i am hoping you see fit to make the name change. i am very proud of the school. because of going to john o'connell in the 1960's and 1970's, i eat, sleep, and brief blue, white, and gold. so thank you for your time. [applause] president mendoza: that looks great. thank you very much. >> good evening. my kid is aaron and he is a 10th grader. he is a comedian. i want to tell you that i have a volunteer of the ptsa. i do my volunteer what every friday. i just come along the school a lot to see how things are going. one day, a couple of parents came up to me and wanted to see what john o'connell was like. they ask me if it is not an alternative school. i said no, it is a high school. i decided, this is not -- when i was talking to this apparent, a couple of parents had come up to me already and that is the time of was volunteering. i did not like the way alternative meant for the school. it is not a continual school. it is just a high school. children are brought in to learn and the teache

her friend when she got stabbed by a student, police believe from kennedy high school. all of the schools are within a few miles of each other. the teen was stabbed several times in the lower back or stomach. she's expected to survive. >> i'm not exactly -- it is really sad. >> reporter: dream county schools spokesperson says they have counselors who will talk with students today and say they're upset any time students make bad choices and saddened any time a student gets hurt. >>> many say it is unfortunate that some young people have to resort to violence to solve their differences. especially after a game that was supposed to be fun to watch between two rival high schools, that ended with one girl in the hospital. in silver spring, i'm surae chinn, 9news now. >>> we have breaking news from new york. a county district attorney is declining to prosecute sex abuse allegations against former syracuse assistant basketball coach bernie fine. inez ferry is in upstate new york with more details. >> reporter: former syracuse university assistant coach bernie fine will not face

the birchen high-school drum corps. the young people music theater company. the george washington high school marching band. the brunos. press, circus -- presscot circus. i also want to thank our co-host for the evening, the newly formed parks alliance. the parks department cannot do it alone. the alliance has really become our best friend. i want to recognize their board chair. our executive director matt o'grady will come up to say a few words. >> thank you so much. the parks alliance is the new kid on the block. a brand-new organization, and yet, a very familiar organization, because we come from the san francisco parks trust and from the neighborhood council. these two organizations got together and realize they can do so much more by combining forces to make this park system the best open space system in the world for san francisco. i wanted to give you a couple of samples of some of the great partnerships we have built to make these parks so fabulous and gray in san francisco. the first partnership is with none other than the parks and recreation depart

i currently in 10 lowell high school in san francisco as a senior. i wrote that before us -- taking health class at school, i would not have been able to describe what hiv and aids are. i would not have had the slightest clue that hiv and aids can be transferred through sharing needles. this shows that people can be really clueless about how hiv and aids are contracted in transmitted without proper information. i remember reading "and the band played on" for school. it focuses on communities that were hit hardest by hiv and aids. they began begging the government to fund research and to provide social services for those dying of aids. this a book many realize how serious hiv and aids czar. and relates to those struggling with hiv and aids. health class is at my school made me aware of the potential dangers and the means of preventing transmission. i would like to thank the national aids memorial grove for helping to achieve my dream of attending college. since those are also an immigrant from el salvador, i do not qualify for federal or state aid. thi

washington high school. and it was a 12-7 victory. mission high school's first victory since 1954. so all but three students came out. the thing that i'm proud about that, that's worth noting, is the mission high school football team almost had to dismantle two years ago because they didn't have enough kids that have grades supporting their participation on the football team and joel monahues, their football coach, came in and has kicked some butt and the kids, all of the boys, are doing over 2.0. most of them are actually 3.0 or above. and they are outstanding students and they all came out and we had a great visit from dwight clark, dennis brown and guy macintyre from the 49ers and they all gave the boys football caps -- 49er caps and they took photos with them and it was just a really special moment for the mission high football team so congratulations to mr. o'bano and his 2011 aaa championship football team at mission high. commissioner murase? commissioner murase: . i want to thank president mendoza fo

that if her mother had finished but there was no high school and if her grandmother had finished high school and there was no high school for her grandmother to finish. one of the famous is to actually find out all of the effort the black people have made for the years during slavery and reconstruction and afterwards really to get the education. that is one thing. so on the question of what is going on now, a few people the civil-rights movement open doors so few people were able to walk through those doors and the country decided they would make room for people to walk through the doors of was talking to somebody from princeton who is a very prestigious black professor on assignment cited was complaining that princeton has not produced one black ph.d. in physics since the 1970's. he did not have an answer answer, why a that was happening. but somehow he felt there is something wrong with this picture. so what is true is that the doors that were open and allowed a few people to go through but the people who pushed against the doors were not the middle class of mississippi. when we we'

our major of the month is some third marshall academic high school. [applause] janet is a special education counselor and a teacher and works with the community access training, teaching severely impaired 18 from 22-year-old students to become independent -- in and attended skills and job training. when her students are in the community doing these activities, jet and her staff will take them to art museums, fitness centers, special events, theater, and anything wonderful that the theater has to offer. this helps them learn how to access the city, find out places that they can go once they leave sfusd, and find places they can go out with their friends once they're on their on. she has also been the primary " soccer, basketball, and track and field tenements when her students participate in the special olympics. please congratulate janet from thurgood marshall. [applause] >> i did not know quite how to start this, but i want to thank my staff, my paraprofessionals because without them, i would not be here, and my husband who put up with is all these y

was accused of having sexual relations with 3 glen burnie high school students, both on and off campus. lowell melser has been following the student -- following this story. >> there is a lot of shock out here at glen burnie high school and this evening. sears was an english teacher and was coach of the jv boys' basketball coach. he had been teaching for about five years. a fellow coach went to the principal and told her that he thought sears was having some sort of sexual relationship with one of his students. >> i think that number teachers should not be in high schools. . have always thought that' it is appalling. >> parents and guardians of students at glen burnie high school and react to the arrest of 29-year-old jeffrey robert sears, an english teacher and coach of the boys' basketball team there. >> i could not believe it. i have a daughter that is on cheerleading, and i receive e- mail from a lot of her teachers every day. to hear about a teacher would do this, it just blew my mind. >> teachers and parents expressed their shock and disdain over the situation. >> i have spent my