vice president yee: commissioner norton. commissioner norton: i just wanted to add that actually i'm bringing this to curriculum for the september meeting, that we're going to be talking about math instruction in the district and the curriculum we're using. so i just talked to mrs. desmond about it. i'm sure she'll get back to you about it. but people that want to hear more about this, we can do that in september. i appreciate that. commissioner fewer: i have one question. is it the very descriptive program because we've had that before with temporary results and were not able to sustain that. >> it is not really scripted, it is the approach. it teaches teachers how to teach. so that if the teachers are teaching the formula, there's some consistency in the way it's taught. there's still creative license to do some things but there's consistency so that all of the points that need to be touched so that the child has a complete understanding of it are used. >> just so the board -- i'm glad they're going to do a presentation on

commissioner norton: yes. commissioner wynns: aye. vice president yee: aye. that's six ayes. vice president yee: thank you. item s. board members' reports. any standing committees? organizational report is next. go ahead. >> thank you. i just wanted to report that i came back this weekend from the national school board association president's retreat where the presidents and presidents elect of all state associations were there. and we all had a lovely time. thank you very much. but also mainly i wanted to report on two things. we did have a one-day workshop provided by the interaction institute for social change. this was really good. and i think there may be some we want to talk to about the retreat and some of these things. i have the material here. we can go on the website. actually, if we could afford it, at some time we should bring this trainer out here not just for us but for -- he was fantastic. that's one thing. the second thing which is that we were able to have a -- by skype, actual interaction with dr. robert ballard who is the guy who found the titanic and has s

in print and has been optioned for major motion picture as has my book on billy the kid, another norton title. i'd be remised if i wouldn't share with you at least a spoon full from this rascal son, from charlie floyd who hated to be called pretty boy. this is a social history. where this bookends, the grapes of wrath begin. you go from fixes to non-fiction. if you read the grapes of wrath

martins, my old house, to norton. a great house, by the way, norton. and he brought "pretty boy" back. and it's important to me because it was the second of my three pulitzer prize nominations. it's a book that definitely needs to be back in print, and it has been optioned as, for a major motion picture as has my more recent biography of billy the kid. billy the kid: the endless ride, another norton title. so i'd be remiss if i wouldn't share with you at least a spoonful from this rascal son, from charlie floyd who hated to be called "pretty boy." this is really a social history. where this book ends, steinbeck's immortal "the grapes of wrath" begins. so you go from nonfiction to fiction. so if you've read "the grapes of wrath" which i assume you have at least once and are planning to reread, you know they talk about charlie floyd in the book because they came from salazar down in sequoia county, down in this little dixie in oklahoma where floyd resided. they also, of course, charlie was also the summit of a -- the subject of a wonderful song, "the bal

the great comedian jim norton. his greatest cd is called despicable, and he will be performing in salt lake city this friday and saturday at wise guys. and within his pages, the left deeply rages. it is our "new york times" cory spawn department, good to see you, pinch. >> according to the art section, the ancient art of street theater is alive and well. and appearing in a subway station near you. i would often perform my one paper show of hamlet on the 57th street stop. >> fantastic. >> you are like our own lawrence oliviier. >> yes, but i am alive. >>> should you be packing heat near a whisky meat? should you be armed with a 9 while siping wine? virginia passed a law asking them to bring their guns into bars and restaurants. lefty wails they they would turn the joint into a war zone. but they were wrong. you didn't see that coming, did you? yes, in the first year after the law passed, gun crimes and bars and eat res actually dropped by 5.2%. from 153 to 145 crimes. and this leads philip van cleeve, great name, to

i want to make the case which may be is different than what commissioner norton has said. the loss of summer school has a big impact on lots of people. i understand that. but i would like to hear from the staff what the plan is from the staff point of view. we have heard from the public many times about providing the necessary support for our kids to meet the increased graduation requirements that we have imposed on them and that we think are going to be good for them in the future, if we can get them there. for instance, i know that in the past when we have had summer school and instituted saturday school, those services were used not very much by people needing to meet rhetorician requirements, but for a purpose that i think is wonderful, which is in richmond or advancing themselves, people who are interested in that. i want to do that, but i want it to be part of our plan to get these requirements and provide the support people need. this year, to the generation of the city, we had summer school that was specific only to ninth graders who failed a-g classes. that was a

commissioner norton: so, thank you for the report. and i just -- i wanted to respond to commissioner maufas' suggestion and second that to say that it would be great to hear from you and from the other advisory committees, the board has a lot of advisory committees and the only one we hear from regularly is the pact. and the students. i would like to maybe request of the rules committee that we look at this or that the committee look at this and sort of see if there's a way to hear from all of our advisory -- advisory committees more frequently because they had also mentioned to me that they would like to talk to the board on a more regular basis than once a year. so maybe we could look at a review of that and come up with a way to hear from all of these volunteers who are spending so much time meeting and doing things at the school site that we really appreciate and that we want to hear what you're doing and what you're thinking. commissioner murase: i also want to thank all the members of your committee. i know it's a big time commi

commissioner norton: yes. commissioner wynns: aye. vice president yee: aye. that's five ayes. vice president yee: ok. so on the resolution itself, comments? commissioner maufas: major, i had a couple of questions, just as we saw yesterday about how there is a commission's officers and enlisted personnel at each site, is that correct? one of each? and that's in compliance? >> the program is designed to have an officer, commissioned officer, generally someone who would have already done it and then an n.c.o., a lower ranking individual as an assistant. and the requirements over the years have never been for the n.c.o. to qualify for the program through the government, to get the government credential, to have a college degree. that's slowly changing as the army and military changes their requirements. so that's the way it was set up. we don't all have that in every place because we've lost some folks, general powell left, we lost lieutenant colonel over at washington through retirement, etc., etc. so we haven't been able to replace people. so we're having -- some of these progra

is she on some type of a spanish committee it's not that she's actually her name's eleanor norton and she's the congresswoman for d.c. . did you vote for barack obama and now this lady. that is a black lady. it's a black we with a mustache and i like that blazer to do with sex that you know that's not his mom now. she's a congresswoman yes. he definitely got me on i don't. need an answer plus he now i do not know who that is that is congress and they're saying. they're saying that. house show a little birth celie of the homes north they go into congresswoman of want watch to see you happy thoughts about ron paul no but i heard he is going to run for like a bigger party instead of being an independent i don't know if that's true i can't any of us feel like i'm better really know much about it now like or dislike him ok sounds like a nice guy that only you think of rubble i hear he's bad i think that's why why is he running i don't know i just heard his name use with the word bad. now i know the name please tell me again who ron paul certainly is. kind of a unique thinker he thinks outs

two districts in my area, the norton district and the poke street, that we only allow the permit to continue to 10 clock. this is something like that. i think the legislation is good, and i look forward to supporting it. >> the motion has been made to amend the item. is there a second? can we take that amendment without objection? that will be the order. supervisor mirkarimi. >> i will defer to supervisor farrell. i will speak after him. [inaudible] >> thank you again to supervisor mirkarimi for the legislation. i have heard from a number of small businesses and residents on how excited they are about it. not to belabor the point, but to echo what president chiu was saying, you have heard and we have heard from groups from two specific areas in particular on union street and chestnut, wanting to do something exactly similar to what president chiu is suggesting, limiting the auto extent to 11:00. i am going to propose an amendment in the same form to ensure that the time limit stays at 10:00 p.m. for those two commercial corridors. >> if i could just for drafting clarity suggest that the lang

fremont police arrested james reese norton. detectives say the retired teacher sexually assault add high school student between 2006 and 2009. she says it took place in fremont and livermore in homes where norton lived at the time. officers are trying to determine if there are other victims. >> this morning san leandro police are looking into a string of robberies that appear related. five people have been robbed in the past three weeks. location of the robberies you see on the screen. in each instance they were walking alone when a group of two to four african-american men they say -- a long time summer tradition is coming under scrutiny. music in the park has drawn people downtown for 23 years but in the past couple years police say he have seen a spike in the number of vandalism after the concert. san jose downtown association says it's unfair to link the relatively peaceful music in the park with crimes that happen once the event ends. >> people being associated with music in the park again, hours after the event and up to

commissioner norton: i just want to ask what the record is. have we received no complaints? we are currently contracted with them now? we are not. who are we contrasting with now? flags in the interim, we were using our -- >> in the interim, we were using our primary contract. commissioner maufas: do you recall why the other metro was non compliant bowman -- other trans metro was non compliant? >> we did not have five years overall experience, no references. one reference with a maximum of eight passengers. the type of services they provided did not fall into what we have. one reference they gave us, which had a large number of students to a large number of passengers, was transporting students to the university of california to the bart station in hayward. that is providing the type of service we are doing. >> any other comments or questions? seeing non -- >> i have one question. i understood it used to say -- i understand you to say it is asian owned. is that accurate? >> they are asian owned. i do not know. i saw that my cell. -- myself. >> should we have roll call for th

vice president yee and commissioner norton? >> president mendoza started off where i wanted to make a statement, which basically, i felt like i understood where the money is going, but it is true it is not well-articulated, and i think it would be helpful, no. 2 on the bottom, is that a wrong figure? if you put another thing down there the says the flex money would be allocated to a weighted formula, i think but i would be sufficient in terms of where i see the money flowing tunio to e up for the drugs we have received -- of the cuts we have received. writing about is what it is used for. -- i think that is what it is used for. the question is wis that is adequate. that is what i recommend. >> i would like to ask what is the reason why we are flexing so much less of these funds than other districts, what is the russian now, richard rational -- rationale and what are the tradeoffs? by most of its -- >> most of it is really 3/4 or more of the total $58 million associated with the program, and in our district, we have a long histo

commissioner norton. >> thank you for the report, and i am so glad we finally got his committee to gatherlittle late, but better late than never. i am a little curious about the discussion or reading through the lines. did you review the expenditures prior to the formation of the committee? you did not look at those? >> before the committee was formed? are you asking if the committee members of the expenditures before the committee was formed to? >> we had been getting revenues before, and you refer to the agreement as part of the budget deficit, the budget shortfall we had in 2009-2010, but i also think it is important for the committee to review the way the district spend those funds and the time the committee was not actually formed, so i am curious. will we be getting our report on that? >> there was a lot of discussion on that. there were some concerns brought up about how funds were to be senpent, and that is when we brought in the staff. we have had the staff to come to ask questions. what we agreed upon a search committee was to acknowledge those concerns. we do feel it is really

norton. ms. wynns. here. mr. yee. >> here, he's here. >> ms. mendoza. president mendoza: here. and ms. tom. here. >> join me for the pledge of allegiance. item a, approval of the board minutes, we have none. item be, presentations to the board of education by the superintendent. superintendent, welcome back. >> for those of us who -- superintendent garcia: for those of us who stayed around -- no, that's not true. i was gone, but we got a lot done. starting the school year today, last week, we've been looking at a lot of training, professional development going on in the schools, it's fabulous. it's great to see the entire district talking about special education, talking about how kids learn to read, how kids do math, how we can improve in those areas. i don't know, i kind of feel like a kid going back to their first day of school all over again. it's exciting time. so i want to thank all our administrators, teachers, staff, everybody who works in this wonderful school district. i welcome you back. i know the teachers start technically on friday. we'll have a lot of different t

norton? >> yes. ms. wynns? >> aye on august 16, and abstain on july 19 and august 2. >> thank you. mr. yee? >> aye. >> ms. mendoza. ms. fan and ms. tom aren't in the room. ok. thank you. >> so let's move on to item b, which is the presentations to the board of education superintendent's report. superintendent garcia? >> good evening. it's really exciting to start another school year, a rip roaring opening of the school year again. i want to congratulate all the administrators, teachers, staff, and parents of all our great schools for a smooth opening of schools last week. i also want to thank our facilities department for ensuring that our schools's moves that took place during the summer were really efficient and also what a great job they did in cleaning up our schools and getting them ready to open up for a brand-new school year. on the first day of school, i had the privilege of visiting several schools and i have to say, wow, what a difference our facilities bonds have made. that the public here in san francisco has passed in 2003 and 2006. if you look at our facilities, reall

>> there was a similar job fair in washington that eleanor holmes norton had that was -- that had lines that were similarly long. the president has had to show where he wants to take the country and the question of jobs and how he is going to get us there. the last to go around we had with congress before the recession was a disaster for him as a leader of the congress. he came across as impotent. he has got to be able to put something on the table that is concrete and that shows that he is willing to fight for. >> i saw a figure during the first 10 days of this month. americans pulled over $23 billion in cash from their 401k 's bit individuals and corporations are sitting on a pile of cash. how much of this is psychological? >> confidence is everything. deep down, we are a strong country with enormous economic resources, but we are un confident right now. the way to deal with confidence is national leadership, not a little tinkering here or the speech he is going to give. he needs to do something really big. there are really big things he can do not go the biggest single thing he can d

norton. ms. wynns. those in favor say aye. ms. mendoza. those in favor say aye. >> six ayes. president mendoza: item i, board member's proposals, none tonight. item j a request to speak regarding general matters. i have a list of folks who wanted to speak. come on up as your name is called. r.t. choice. jerry, we're going to hold you. pam rah rouse, elaine meriwether, sharon kennedy, elizabeth conley, chantae rogers, betty robinson harris, and alyssa, do you want to speak at this point? ok, come up. >> my name is archie choice. i live here in san francisco for about 50 years and i've been having a problem with you -- your lottery system for placing kids in schools from junior high, elementary, and it just seems like it's not a fair system and doesn't seem like it's really effective, relying on somebody to wait on a lottery system. it's like going to the store and buying a ticket to see if you're going to win some money for your kid to get an education. i filled out a form and it had six different schools for my kid to pick to go to. i filled out three. you didn't give him any

and once again eleanor holmes norton. to me, all these people and quests create a mural of an ongoing progression of americans. why they did what they did and when and where they did it turns that mural when you step away from it into a portrait of who we are today. and that's what this book of mine is all about. thank you very much. [applause] >> we have time for some questions. >> [inaudible] [laughter] >> yeah. i wasn't speaking to the blurb. the blurb connects to new hampshire, ethan allen. and a lot of people go, ethan allen, that's vermont. green mountain boys. the green mountain boys came into existence because at the time there was no vermont. new hampshire always believed that the land west of, well, what is today vermont was part of new hampshire. but the king of england gave it in 1763, i believe, to new york. well, by that time new hampshire had already sold land in be what is today -- in what is today vermont and deeded it in new hampshire. then new york started selling in some cases the same land and deeding