president yee riley: 80. next item. clerk: commissioners, we are now on the president's report, which allows the president to report on the small business activities. president yee riley: well, i attended a meeting on community development, and there was a great presentation from the mayor's office of economic and work force development on their goals, objectives, and the funding strategy, which was very educational for me. legislation and policies, and commissioner dooley already reported it, and august 3, that was the day we had the new commissioner, commissioner kasselman, sworn in, and commissioner o'brien also gets sworn in. so that is it. thank you. clerk: commissioners, items number 13, vice president's report. vice president clyde: i would like to begin my report by recognizing a woman who gave extraordinary service to the small business community and to the san francisco community, joanie chang, who passed away a few weeks ago at age 41. she was a compliance officer with standards enforcement. she was charged w

president yee riley: thank you. next item, please. clerk: commissioners, item number 10, the permit a committee report, which allows the jered report and recent committee activities and make announcements. -- which allows the chair to report. >> i will have that next month. president yee riley: thank you. next item, please. clerk: item number 11, the outreach committee report, allowing the chair to report on recent committee activities and make announcements. >> the status of the vacancy report, do we have an update on vacancies? -- vice president clyde: clerk: we do not have an update, commissioner clyd

president yee riley: excuse me. since korea presenters for item number six, item speaking is that ok with you, commissioners? clerk: commissioners, then we are now on item number six, presentation and discussion of wthe doyle drive bde/sbe utilization program. this is a discussion item. president yee riley: welcomed. >> thank you. i know the gallery quite well. when i was present -- president, they were always stepping up to the plate when they're needed to be support, so congratulations to the commission for understanding how incredible the gallery is. so my name is -- and thank you very much for the opportunity to be with you today. this replacement project which is just over $1 billion in value, has been growing robustly over the past several years, and more importantly, in the past year since nancy pelosi was able to secure the final funding for that project, what we are here to talk about is the business program, and we want to be brief and to the poinsettia bowl and understand what we are doing, who is doing i

commissioner yee? commissioner yee: thanks for the report. i'm just -- i'm just curious. can you go back to when you have your next meeting to see if you'd be willing to have a discussion around lunch periods , because what's been interesting is that last year when i went around the schools, there were very few schools that actually had a lunch period where they allowed the students to go out and play first and then they would eat at the end of the lunch period, and so i thought there were a couple creative principals out there. and yesterday i went to four elementary schools and all four of them actually were doing that, where they were allowing the kids to play first and eat at the end of the period, and many of the teachers said they really like it because they're actually seeing results of where the students are actually eating the food rather than chopping on one bite and running out and playing basketball or whatever. so i'd like to hear from the parents to see what kind of reactions you're getting and whether or not you think it would be a good policy for us to pur

president yee riley: commissioner clyde has a question. vice president clyde: are tracking this could >> -- are you trucking this? >> they do not have hiring goals on this, but for the first time ever, caltrans and the mayor's office, they have budgeted and approved a work force devoted program. so rhonda simmons and her folks over there will be working in tandem to get more local hires on the same. we know there is a natural synergy between work force development and small business, so it is kind of three legs of a store, stool, -- haute three legs of a small -- three legs of a stool. the mechanism is there. they are working with the union and so forth. there is a good flow. >> that information would be very helpful, i believe, to us and also to the general public, as well -- vice president clyde: >> .we look forward to working with you to create more jobs. >> thank you. thank you, regina. really awesome. thank you. president yee riley: and just a note, in terms of our monthly e- bulletin, we have a highlight of the workshops. in monitori

. >> now we have a reading by commissioner yee. commissioner yee: to finance a student missing 10 or more days of school, regardless of whether they are excused or unexcused contributes to lower achievement starting in kindergarten. there is lower for four months for all children. among poor children, chronic absence predicted for achievement. this is a time they are more likely to have challenges the lead to chronic absences in subsequent years. students do not have equal opportunity to learn when they are chronically absent from school, and while it is often overlooked because most often reaching most tracks unexcused absence, both can mask children. good while chronic absence is higher in secondary schools, it is crucial to start addressing among the youngest children. whereas in san francisco, many students are missing 10% of the school days, at least 16 of the elementary schools have a chronic absentees didn't rate of 16% or higher. whereas many utilize a variety of strategies to reduce chronic absentees, whereas a careful ana

president yee riley: thank you. next item, please. clerk: next item, commissioner 14, commissioner reports. vice president clyde: i have been trying to keep the small business public more informed about the proposed congestion pricing that is being proposed by cta, which is creating a very large corridor in our city that would be charging a fee of entry and exit, morning hours and afternoon hours, perhaps in each direction, and the possible impact that might have on our small businesses. i attempted. attended a workshop cta last month and brought up some of the concerns of the small business community which i attended a workshop. -- i attended a workshop. also, phil did a report on this for channel 5 news, and it was also mentioned in the column, so i just want to continue to keep putting this in front of the public as much as possible so we can get some feedback and have folks be aware about what the potential costs might be in the business community. president yee riley: thank you. anymore reports from the commission? seeing none, n

commissioner yee: could i follow up on my question about the cross pollination? >> we absolutely decided to do that back in june. we have not started to do it yet. right now, we are using our tsas that our experts for doing professional development and not counting on teachers within the zone to do it. >> another important way we communicate our efforts across the district -- the deputy affords us opportunities to meet regularly with our colleagues assistant superintendents and teams so we can share practice there. president kim: just one more thing about student assignments. i suggested this earlier, but it would be great to have parent leaders. they understand each other's frustrations and can communicate with one another around the process. i think we really need to have zones dedicated to those families. i know that is additional work. i think our reach is so important. >> last night at the meeting, chablis was there. she and emily are going door to door along with someone from jump. president kim: seeing no more comments, thank you so much. moving on to item

is that a clarifying comments, commission yee? commissioner fewer: does this reflect an additional cut on top of the redesign? >> well, right now, he can correct me if i am wrong. i think 44 general education classes, and that is what is in the current year's budget for fiscal year 200011. we certainly expect to have a need to cut expenditures generally within the district over the next two years. at least, we still do not know what is going to happen with the state budget, etc., but we are operating in the framework that we need to cut expenses. have we identified a specific cut in transportation, per se, in the answer is no, but that is one of our policy questions. we have an interest in reducing the size of our fleet. commissioner fewer: that may be clear fine. commissioner: any other testimony? we're going to try to be out of here in another 35 minutes. there are really only two of you. go ahead. >> debut. my name is deborah. i am a parent of a kindergartner and an elementary school and also of a two-year old, and i lived in g

commissioner yee? commissioner yee: thanks for the report. we may not have the answer for this.ontrary to policy. i am speaking of the bungalows. then, when i went around to some of the schools, have the new bungalows, it seems that for the last two years, it seems like we are doing that anyway. what capacity are you looking at? if you did do that, i think that is a mistake. is it ok to have half of the yard filled with bungalows? it meets the capacity of the yard and meeting the capacity of the school. i do not know if you have an answer for that. commissioner: in terms of the capacity, we ask them to let them know how many classrooms they have, this is multiplied by the number of classrooms and taking into account at the elementary level, the fire code, and all of that was taken into consideration. the numbers that we have do include bungalows in the event that that is considered. commissioner: we're going to have to refer that to other committees. i know this is very hard, but if we are going to try to do this, that is what we are going to have to try to do. actually, identif

commissioner yee: there were some questions that were asked, so i guess i will answer those. i was expecting more answers and questions. -- van questions. -- than questions. rather than looking at the rest of the questions you have, i would think in terms of having a reduction so it does not impact back. -- that. if we have stops in one neighborhood, which could reduce that number of stops. it does not totally eliminate it. i think the sentiment has been that they reduce the cost of transportation, so i think by reducing matt, how do you say it, compatible? i would love to see a reduction. does the board went to provide transportation after school? i think commissioner wynns mentioned this. if there is a critical mass, do we really consider that? if it is for private after- school programs, i would say that unless they're willing to pay for it, they are eliminated. i also have a question about the cdp's. child development programs. these programs are serving some of the lowest income families, and so for me, i am not in support of that service for instance, for after-school,

commissioner yee: thanks for the report. i have been anxious to hear about these for a while now. a couple of things that would be helpful for me -- i would like to get an update of the organizational chart. i know you have given some organizational charts before, but it would be nice when i am walking to the schools that i see that. also, this thing between mthe zones -- that would be really helpful. a comment about your professional development and york cluster meetings you are having -- your cluster meetings you are having. i think they are great. the question in my mind is if indeed these were not successful and were meeting with each other to find out, are they hearing other ideas? do you have any plans to cross pollinate into other zones or possibly there are ideas that can use? i am not hearing that. you might take that into consideration. one of the things i have seen on the ground, more so this year than in previous years -- executive directors. i have seen several of them meeting with principleals. generally, when i am visiting, the principal would drop everything. in se

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 redesign, and also quality and middle school pathways. we kind of put that off to make a decision this coming year. we had an opportunity to look at how to better communicate these things. throughout the year, we will be reporting about progress in these areas. there are basically ones that we are doing simultaneously. only focusing on these things can we make social justice a reality. i want to remind everybody, i know that we're finally feeling what the fiscal crisis is about in california. th

commissioner yee: i want us to explore what it would cost. it is hard to ask them to do more buses, but would it make any sense for us to purchase extra time for two hours, and how much would that cost? if you compare that to the average cost of the school bus, we'd be saving money? if we could do an analysis, that would help me. commissioner: i just want to say this. the issue of the frequency of bus lines around school start times, we have three or four new directors, in what i think is that the timeline is too short. planning for the budget crisis, whenever, and their high level discussions about long-term planning. i would tell you that this would be framed in the context of transit first. if you want people to choose their schools, taking kids to school by car and maximizing public transportation, they're going to have to be planning years and years out to change generally all of the bus routes or only some. to change the frequency. because changing the frequency of buses, this is what i mean. they have built in a lot of very frequent bu

commissioner yee: i am a little shocked with the numbers of atoms in. it seems like in recent years when these reports have come to us, the numbers were to the point where we could complement our efforts. what happened? how can a site not know that our short 50% of their bookstacks i could accept the excuse we had 10 more students, but we are talking large numbers. i could be wrong. i think we had better numbers in the past. if that is true, what happened? it is almost like a system breakdown. it is not just one school. it is a lot of schools here. what happened in that central office? who is doing what? this is not acceptable. 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 wal

president yee riley: 50 p.m. welcomed. next item, please.rk: this allows members of the public to vote mentioned things. general public comment. but they can suggest new agenda items for the commission's future consideration. president yee riley: any public comment? seeing none, next item, please. clerk: item number four, a presentation of the small business commission said in its of honor recognizing a local small business as part of the small business recognition program. commissioner: commissioners, it is my distinct privilege and honor to give the small business recognition to the gallery and the owners, jeffrey frankel. this is a 30-year business that showcases photography and has been a pioneer for this effort. they have worked with many people, well recognized and pioneering cryptographers, but i have to say that this gallery came to my attention through

commissioner yee? >> sure. basically we had one discussion which would be consider an informational item. the discussion really was to come back around to what we had discussed earlier in the year when we were going through our budget development. there were a lot of -- many of the commissioners wanted us to look at our priority areas or programs in a way that is more comprehensive. a lot of times when we look at budget line items, it is just one item. for example, parent engagement, there are many sources of funding which support that effort. yet when we have the discussion, we generally focus on one particular source of funding rather than looking at it more conferencively. -- conferencively. >> we may the decision that every budget committee meeting we would take on a topic for exre hencive discussion efments >> if we have time, if it is not a packed agenda, and it looks like it is not packed, then we will also discuss the resources of our federal programs. then in october we decided to take on or discuss th

yee? >> aye. >> ms. kim? >> seven ayes. president kim: the presentation to the board of education, the superintendent's report. >> that's a little tough to follow after that, but i have to tell you, though, and i think both those people who were true educators would be proud to know that we had a great opening day of the school year. this last week was a fabulous week for all our children and parents and i really want to congratulate the leadership, the faculties, the teacher, the staff the custodians, maintenance workers, landscaping people, everybody who came together and with one week left, usually they have a longer summer to try to put everything together so that when school starts, it's show time and it's a magical place for kids so it takes all these people who went out and cleaned our schools in a short time, made sure that if you're like me and had a chance to go visit our schools, they were spotless. so i really want to thank all the folks that it took to open up the school year and i know that everybody put in a