commissioner wynns: i severed this as an example. i have had this discussion with all the deputy superintendents. i do not have a problem with this contract. however, i think i made reference to it at an earlier meeting. i started the practice of reviewing before the meeting all the administratively approved resolutions. we had questions about how in my work. this is only one example. there are others where in this agenda there was a contract on the board agenda for items for us to vote on. all those items are on the administratively approved list. my concern is that what we have got are things on the same agenda which cumulatively go above the threshold. when we talked about there being a cumulative threshold that would bar administrative of provo, we presume, all of us -- would bar administrative approval, we assumed, all of us , that they would be removed in time. we do not have a mechanism for doing this. there are items on the administrative late approved list which are not on the same agenda, which in a previous meeting we appr

[applause] commissioner wynns: ms. o'keefe, could you tell us how many people currently get one of their choices in the middle school process? the interim process we are proposing is likely to have the same kinds of results we have today. >> historically, for the last eight years, 90% of middle school students get one of their choices. >> i am the executive director of parents for public schools. i talked to almost 1000 parents. most were parents the district has the hardest time reaching. we heard the same things then as we heard this last month. parents are clamoring for quality schools. second, parents want to make informed choices, whether it is choosing their school or lending their voice to a conversation about student assignments. since the message is the same to us, we want to repeat the message we gave to you in the spring. we want the district to start to give the discussion about quality schools the same visibility, urgency, and consistent attention as we have been giving student assignment. we call on the b

commissioner wynns: any other comments or clarifying questions? we are going to try to do one minute and not say the things you said before. >> i am a parent in sunset. i am not in favor of the substitute motion, but in favor of the current program and would like it implemented immediately and so our fifth graders can't benefit from it. [applause] -- so our fifth graders can ben efit from it. i have 245 signatures in favor of the current feeder pattern. the mistake you might make is you are listening to the minority and putting them about the wishes of the majority, who are silent. there are people in the communities that are happy with this program. >> there are children in here. i think we ought to model what we expect them to be. [applause] >> anyway, i think you are doing a fabulous job. i know it is a lot of hard work. let us do it now. if we do not do it now, we will be in the same position next year that we are in next year. we can implement it now and fine-tune it along the way. thank you. [applause] >> as a fifth grade parent, distillate

commissioner wynns: there has to be regulatory language at the same time. there has to be something in the regulations. i do not think we need a new policy that says "here is the way." some departments somewhere along the line has to be identified in a regulatory way. it is not happening without that. >> we will do it in a two-step process. the finance to permit will come up with a policy and legal will draft the language -- the finance department will come up with a policy and legal will draft the language. commissioner norton: we have resolutions in process. i would like some backtrackicheg so we can make sure whatever is administratively approved before the next board meeting is not going to push us over. it is making sure we close this loophole, and to make sure until we get that language down that we are not approving more than the limit at a given point. i am not being very clear. >> we as staff are violating the policy the board approved if we are going aboave the threshold. you made that adopted. we just need to discuss with you the process that we

commissioner wynns: think you for the presentation. i was listening while doing something back there. i appreciate the work and the focus, which i think is important. i am entirely supportive of the idea that we needed to form these groups for schools that need extra help and support. this is an equity issue. things have not been equitable. there is an issue of federal government intervention. we have mixed feelings generally. what i wanted to do is ask if you can help us in an ongoing way for the board by setting up some way of communicating with us by e-mail, letting us know what is going on. i would particularly interested in those professional development opportunities, and some advice for when you think it might be helpful if we are available to show up to show support. i do not think it is appropriate for board farmers to be at all the meetings you have -- all board members to be at all the meetings you have. not only do i want to see how this is working and the potential implications, but also i think it is important for the peo

commissioner wynns: -- >> this is high on our radar as well. one of the things we have discovered as well is that in the school system there is not a centralized method for accounting for textbooks. it is literally going book by book, classroom by classroom, and counting your books. you add into that process the turnover rates you have had in not only teachers but administrators, and you also add the number of books that have walked out of the school with students that have either transferred from the school or moved out of the school system -- this has been a perfect storm this year. i think the staff have done a yeoman's job of trying to get their arms around these numbers this year. we are working very closely with the area teams from the high school area to establish a system that is more centralized, that we will be able to track books and a sign books to students. when students leave a school, we would be able to track that book to where it goes and provide us an opportunity to move supplies of textbooks from schools that are decreasing i

commissioner wynns: this is going to be the last speaker. thank you. >> [speaking chinese] [applause] >> my name is jenny. i am living in the mission district area. from my personal experience, my child is learning in the area schools over there. i find the level is not [unintelligible] something important is my child wants to go on in higher level school. and because we live in the district, we would like to move to other schools for the better level in the feeders. also, i hope that all the schools will be based on california, for those students who would like to go to one school they think is ideal for them. [applause] commissioner wynns: i want to thank everybody for your testimony. if anybody has any further testimony they would like to submit, you can e-mail us. the proposal is that we take this in phrases, -- in phases, which will give us more opportunities to get input from you in a more comprehensive way. i am going to start with commissioner mendoza. vice president mendoza: could you tell me -- commissioner wynns: it is difficult t

commissioner wynns and i had conversation prior to this. i want to make sure. what you are asking, and i will take this to the academic professional development executive team. you are asking what funds do we have left for professional development, and how do we deploy those funds, and what will they be used for, and how does it address our district goals? i think what i hear you saying is that you would like something very simple that basically outlines those things in that way, and i believe that can be prepared, and i'm more than prepared to take that to the executive team and request that. >> support garcia? >> i do want you to know that this summer i attended one of the training sessions. all these schools mentioned here came up to me and basically begged us to do whatever we could to bring this back for their schools. this was a voluntary thing. they no longer had to keep up with it. they felt it has made such a huge impact. just about every single staff person was there. they made a commitment to come in not because they had to, but because it was someth

miss wynns? mr. yee? miss kim? thank you. >> if you would like, please join us up in the pledge of allegiance. thank you, i see that we have a larger audience tonight. we will be having public comment under item j. i will try to move it up if we can so we can accommodate all of the families. our first item is the approval of board minutes for september 14, 2010. any corrections? seeing none, roll call, please. >> miss fewer? miss maufas? miss mendoza? miss norton? miss wynns? mr. yee? miss kim? >> next, superintendent garcia. superintendent garcia: this last weekend, we had a retreat. i want to thank the staff for making this one of the most successful retreat's we have ever had. one of the main goals was to identify the top priorities of the district and in times of economic times, identifying three or four things that we must do it to do them right, to make this district one of the top in the country. we will be focusing this year -- the priorities will be the core curriculum and assessment, the special-education

commissioner wynns: i would like to postpone discussion. we are not up to that yet. vice president mendoza: i have a couple of clarifying questions. part of the delay is really focusing on building the program in wanted to make sure the programs are in place prior to families going to the school. to the program placement process, when will you be able to share that with families? >> we are working on developing what that plan might look like, but as i mentioned earlier there are some major pieces we have not even had any understanding of, not least of which is one of the philosophical points that we alluded to. this is based on instruction having to do with our special education program. we have not had the report presented to us, with the recommendations in the report. we have not had the

commissioner wynns: i would like to postpone discussion. we are not up to that yet. vice president mendoza: i have a couple of clarifying questions. part of the delay is really focusing on building the program in wanted to make sure the programs are in place prior to families going to the school. to the program placement process, when will you be able to share that with families? >>

commissioner wynns? >> thank you. could you give us a little background on the emergency nature of this and what has happened there? >> good evening, commissioners. i am the chief facilities officer. all of you know that on the opening day of school, we opened a new program, pre-k and i think k-1-2 at the former newcomer high school in pacific heights. the emergency came to pass when one week prior to the opening of school, as a condition of the pre-k state licensing, the inspector arrived with the local fire marshall in toe -- tow, and their list of requirements for combike pre-k and elementary school children was beyond any ability to construct in a couple of days. so the thrust was to france itally try to accommodate a -- frantically try to accommodate a different kind of fire alarm system and special exits. it turned out in the friendsy to do it, that that work was not able to be completed before the start of school. the pre-k kids are housed at their former site at cobb. we are desperately and as qu

commissioner wynns. commissioner wynns: i'd like to sever 88, k 14 on page 101 and k-16 on page 105. president kim: i'm sorry, eight, 13, 14 and 16. ok. any others? seeing none, a roll call will take place under section o. item eight, superintendent proposals, and item i, board member proposals, there are none tonight. item j. request to speak before general matters. we are doing this before 7:00. and we have two speakers. miss plat and mr. bruni. >> good evening members of the board, superintendent, ladies and gentlemen. my name is linda plaque. i'm the executive vice president of the united educators of san francisco. and i wanted to speak to you tonight about the issue of the pera retirement system. uesf has high expectations that we will rapidly conclude the process of revamping the paraprofessional retirement plan. it's really not a retirement plan, it's a very, very bad system that provides very little in the way of compensation for our long-term paraprofessional employees, our lowest-paid employee

k1 has been polled by commissioner wynns. we had a discussion about this on our last meeting at the 14th. i do not know if there are different questions tonight. you free to ask them. -- feel free to ask them. plan. what i got actually was a spread sheet that lists a small number of straightively approved contracts only, which total $116,150. i don't think that is our professional development resources, nor is there anything that refers to any strategy related to this. this is inadequate as best, and i am still unprepared for support -- unprepared to support this for the same reasons as two weeks ago. >> i want to echo commissioner wynns comes and make an additional comment. we are paying for half of this with unrestricted funds. we had someone here begging for $46,000 to restore their literacy program. i really question whether we are doing -- whether we are implementing this contract in any kind of strategic way. my understanding is that we kind of went to schools and offered this to them last year, that there wasn't any so

vicky wynn is live in san bruno to explain. >> reporter: pg&e says the cost of insurance has become too high for it to bear alone, so pg&e has part nerd with the utility companies in southern california and together, they are asking the state for permission to pass along some of those costs to the customer. so, that means after any sort of

president kim: commissioner wynns? commissioner wynns: i don't mean this to be facetious, superintendent garcia, since we and you and the district were involved in doing the race to the top grant and advocating for, or at least by implication, supporting the changes the state made to qualify, i'm wondering if we're going to be advocating for taking back our better standards than the ones that the state board of ed adopted in order to try to get the federal government's money. so i'm hoping that in -- i'm presuming there will be further discussions among the members of the committee to put it together, including you, and i'm asking you to bring up that as a suggestion. >> second. president kim: thank you. item c, missions and resolutions of accommodation and this is when we do our rave review awords and i'm going to turn it over to superintendent garcia. >> this is the fun part of the meeting because we get a chance to recognize some of the outstanding unsung heroes that are out in our school district, always doing grea

as commissioner wynns said, it may be so draconian that i would not vote for it. we cannot be cavalier about that. >> i am going to direct staff to do an analysis on these. as much as i like a lot of these items, the reality is, here we are in september, and we do not even have a budget for the state of california. i hate to be the party crasher here, but we do not know where we're going to end up yet, and we know that for next year, after making $113 million worth of cuts, we're still going to have to make more cuts, so i think it would behoove us to have a breakdown of what these different items would yield, because it is better to have that. it is good to already have that information clearly identified. yes, after-school programs are great, and especially, i agree with commissioner yee, if people cannot financially afford that, that is one thing to consider, but if they cannot afford it, i think they should afforded, because we are not out of this crisis, and i wish that i could say that we are, but we do not know. we know that next year is going to be a reall