Interpreter ] [applause] hello. My name is eucin portillo, and im in second grade at mec. While i think its that kids could come from other countries and feel uncomfortable because kids laugh at them because they dont know the language. When i first went to mec, i was afraid because i wouldnt have a lot of friends, but when i entered, i had a lot of kids talking to me. I also thought the teachers would not be kind or polite, but as the days went by, i saw they were very kind, and every day, when they came by my side, they would greet me, things that made me remember of my country, because when i was starting school, the teachers would always greet us at the entrance. Thats why i think this program is very good for the kids that are newly arrived because it prepares them for the other schools to learn english, and it can teach them for when they are older. And another part of this school also teaches the parents and gives them the space they need to also adapt themselves. My mother participates a lot. She comes to hear the conversations and the workshops and to learn, and that makes me feel very happy because some things that my mom learns in school, she teaches us, and we learn together. Please have that in consideration that this program is different, unique, and special. Thank you. [applause] [ speaking Spanish Language ] [ speaking through the interpreter ] [applause] hi. My name is merding. Im 11 years old, and im a fifth Grade Student at mec. I love that school because they talk to us in spanish and at the same time they teach us english. Im worried because all that ive been told next year they are planning to put another School Inside ours. Im worried when all those new kids from all overall these countries come to the United States, there will be no longer space for them and they will be taken to other schools where they will be sad because they will not understand english, and i want them to have the same opportunities that i had, to adapt to this country. I am worried that in other schools, these kids might not find the motivation to go to school. In emc, they teach us words, and they give us tools that are going to be useful for us to go to another school and be prepared. Here. We have a space that is adequate, and the classes are fun. Besides, if these kids would come, it might be that some of them will be subject, not all of them, might be subject to bullying amongst them. In this program this program is very special. I would like for all of the kids to have the same opportunity. Please, i would like you to listen to my petition, which is in the name on behalf of all the kids at mec because this is a unique, special program, with a structure and values that are very different. Plus, our teachers love us. They support us. They value us, and they understand us. Thank you. [ please stand by ]. Good evening, commissioners, and deputy superintendent lee. First, we want to thank you for your positive comments regarding black History Month. We also want to acknowledge that this is something we want taught 365 days in this school, and this is something that were going to continually ask for. We also acknowledge that there are many schools who are not celebrating black History Month at all, and this is something that deeply saddens us because our children need to fully understand their history, understand where they came from, in order to know where they came from. In 1926, negro history was commenced launched by the study of Negro Alliance and history. It was intended to encourage coordinated teaching of black history among Public School systems. In 1969, the black United States at Penn State University in ohio proposed expanding the celebration to a month. The university agreed to do so the following year. With support from president gerald ford, the president officially recognized black History Month, along with the bicentennial celebration. This is something that has been historically important, and it has not changed today, and so we ask that the board stand behind apaac and continue to support all of our school sites to celebrate black History Month. If we want to really get in and interrupt this system thats plaguing our children, where theyre not performing, let them celebrate where they came from and let them make the Great Strides that they continue to make. Let them see that they came from kings and queens, and not just slaves, and theyll begin to see the positive changes that they will continue to make. Thank you. Good evening. Board president , board commissioners, my name is Betty Robinson harris, and im the proud early educator in this district for over about 30 years. About 30 years. As we celebrate our programs 75th year this year, i can say that we have one of the best programs in the nation. Being president on state committees and nationwide committees, i can attest to that, but theres always room for improvement, and im here tonight wearing multiple hats. Im here wearing the hat of the Early Education committee that represents the students and parents and teachers and early educators. Im also here as a Child Development teacher, im living and im practicing working with Young Children every day. Im here today to share some concerns. Pooley park is being renovated as we speak. Im here speaking about the move that go he happening a move thats happening and the fact that we have been asked to move three different times. I currently recently moved out of the Main Building. Im being asked to move to a temporary site this summer and back into the Main Building again. Three separate moves. I was told by the project manager this week that they would only reimburse us for seven hours. They indicated that that was negotiated. They also said that they had no idea what was going on in terms of why the pay wasnt paid. I personally packed 100 boxes out of my classroom, and im not finished. Im going to make it quick cause im not sure about my two minutes or not. Sk thats it. It is . Yes. Okay. Thank you. Im going to call up virginia marshall, melissa nufuly, jessica quansinots, monica choi, and monica oversight. [ please stand by ] i couldnt help from commenting following the testimony from the parents and the few students from m. E. C. , we are living in a time attack that comes right about education is their bottom line so on the one hand we have a president who is still pursuing his racist plans to build walls and keep out our immigrant students and their families and m. E. C. Is one of the schools that has a unique history and the comments here tonight spoke to that. If there is a dip in enrollment, i cant help think its not a connection to national policy, which we are, which the district itself has taken a strong stand into and protecting our values here. And to move in a child to this special space is unacceptable. There has to be another solution. Theres nothing more immigrant theres vulnerable students. There has to be a better way. Thank you, very much, and well be following up. My name is Julie Roberts and i would press appreciation for the African American families at our School Across the district who have been encouraging our schools to teach African American History Month this month. They will survey schools to understand the baseline. My children are asian and white. Its important they understand and learn black history. Black history is american history. When we fail to teach black and other histories that is a key building block. I appreciate the work that families are doing. It also has started important conversations at our schools where its open to conversations about race and what histories we are teaching. One of the things that we realised is theres an interest in making sure that were teaching all of the history of the diverse students in our schools. The reality is we have a policy of inclusive and ethnic studies within our district. But we havent actually, in my opinion, resourced it and created the structure to make sure that thats actually happening in classrooms. So in the same way we provide professional development and planning time for classes its urgent we provide the same support for teachers and the school staff to be able to do that work and carry out these policies into the classroom. The reality is that very few of us were taught anything other than a white washed version of history in our own schooling so its unrealistic to think without additional preparation, anything different than that would continue in our classrooms. As we think of planning and budgeting i would love to us to see how we can fully resource that. So again, i appreciate black families that are doing this work. I hope the district will also take on the support of implementing it and i want to support the families from m. A. C. And point out the Charter School being asked to work with them service less english language learners and is displacing 100 english language learners so i would like to ask we not do that. Thank you. Hi, good evening. My name is melissa. And i am a parent from rooftop elementary. My daughter is 7yearsold. She suffers from a form of epilepsies. She had brain surgery for this little over a year ago. She was at rooftop. She has a pair professional and im here tonight to speak with concerns over her professional consolidation and the allocation process with the district. My daughters professional is amazing. If it werent for sure, there are days when i feel that my daughter wouldnt even be able to stay in the classroom. Theres cognitive issues but also trauma as a result of all the medical intervention shes had. Shes just terrified. Im very concerned to have lost pair professionals from roof tops. This academic year. Im concerned about the policy of allocation based on just a number and not on the number of children who have i. E. P. S and even though thats a federally protected status for our students to have equal access to education. I am just expressing my concern about that and asking you to reconsider that decisionmaking Going Forward. Thank you. Hi, im also from rooftop. You will hear more stories about this as well but i think i have two simple asks. One is to reexamine the formula that was put together for how you staff pairs. I look at r. S. P. Staffing. And really the impact of this is that pair and r. R. S. S are two distinct support services and school sites, not just rooftop, are struggling to provide varying levels of pair support. Theyre linking the number in every pair side to the number of r. S. P. Based on peoples i. S. P. S. I think since s. F. U. Is a driven district i ask the board request an official state of inclusion report that includes aggregate school sites. That includes special academic instruction hours, pair hours, number of r. S. P. And school sites and cohorts. As well as the percent of staff with emergency credentials. These are hard positions to fill and there are a number of first year people in there with emergency credentials and boy thats a hard job. They do their best but its clear that retention of people especially is really important. They can make a huge difference in educational access for kids with special needs. And ideally we can make this information public and something thats updated quarterly or by yearly so we can track and see how this is going through the district. With that ill bow out. Thanks. To commissioner cook, Vice President , someone said the Public Education is best when we see our students sitting here at roundtable. To all the other board commissioners, to dr. Vincent matthews, student delegates, lydia blank and susan all the members at uesf. To our beloved esther, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, im ver require marshall Vice President of the San Francisco of black school educators. What is the news. I have some good news to share. Where should we all be one week from today. Its called call and response. We should be where . Saint marys cathedral for our African American honour roll celebration. We have 1200 students. Well celebrate 1400 students of African American dissent. I got you to ring the belfour that. Who have earned a 3. 0g. P. A. Or higher from grades 312 and our elementary, middle and schools. We want to thank this board for rearranging your schedules. We normally have this on a wednesday or thursday but could not get the facility as we have done in the past. We thank you in advance for coming out to support your students, our students. We know that one day, theyll be some sitting in the seats where you are now. And we also always want to thank dr. Morisi for helping us with sponsors and we ask you to look in your little black books or your ipads and iphones, and help us with sponsors. We must raise more than 15,000 to put fourth these events and so were working hard for that. We cannot ever forget the district for your support. On particularly the third floor and kevin and his staff and don of publishing and reproduction. I want to say thank you, have a booklet. This is last years booklet. Its a masterpiece done by a retired business teacher. So again were working on this now as we speak. Please come. Bring your families and friends. And we need donations if you ar. If you want to give a donation, ill take your taxdeductible checks made out the San Francisco lions black educators. Thank you all. What was your name . Good evening, board of education. Commissioners and superintendent. My name is erik is choi and im a parent with the rooftop. Im here with rooftop parents because theres a shortage of pair professionals supporting our special education students. We need you to address this urgently. The special education students are being consolidated into classes and we feel that this is the segregation and it is illegal and its a violation of this individual or the individual disability act. This practice is shocking. Questions terring the students with disabilities is wrong. I have a child at rooftop that had a 504 floor plan. This is close to me. I urge you to please use your leadership to help our school to get at least one more pair professional at our school. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes Public Comments on general. What was your name. Ta harry reynolds. I call taharry renalds. Jessica. If you are here please make your way to the front. Go ahead. My name is taharry renalds and im with San Francisco kids versus big tobacco, which say coalition of doctors, parents, Health Organizations and Community Groups working to protect our children and youth from the addictions of candyflavored tobacco. On the june 18th ballot, the residents of San Francisco will vote to up hold the trail blazing an unanimous decision of the board of supervisors to restrict the sales of candy flavored Tobacco Products in the city. The research and evidence is clear flavored Tobacco Products have a adverse impact on publichealth. Money is power and the Tobacco Industry has a lot of it. We are asking all bay area elected officials to stand with us and reject tobacco money. On february 20th at 10 00 a. M. On city hall steps, we will be having a press conference where we will share the list of bay area officials who have come together to reject money from big tobacco. Put San Francisco kids health above Tobacco Company profits and join the american heart association, San Francisco marin medical society, the San Francisco parent pack, Supervisor Malia Cohen and many, many more. Thank you to those who have already voiced your support and i look forward to the support of others. Ill be following up via email. Thank you so much. My name is ken orcharder, im a parent at rooftop. My son has epilepsies. When he was little, he had 2,500 sees. He has fought back to do work at rooftop. But he has an i. P. And he needs pair professional support. We faced discrimination all over the city of San Francisco. Weve had our registration money returned to us by multiple summer camps and after school programmes. This is the first time weve learned of discrimination in sfusd against students with disabilities. I dont come to yall lightly. What happened was last semester, we had a pair cut bringing us down to five. We did a petition. The petition got no reply. A couple of us went to a kak meeting to ask the deputy for special he had. Five pairs, 24 classrooms. Kids at each grade level who need support. How can that be enough. We were told we misunderstood the formula and she would email it to us. She did and its right there. Its a 128 ratio. It has nothing to do. Its not what is in the i. E. P. S. So we replied saying this is a ratio. How this can be enough. And her replay was, apparently you are not intentionally grouping students with disabilities in classrooms to maximize pair professional support. Those are the words the deputy superintendent used. Intentionally grouping. So what this means is that other kids work dont have disabilities, when teachers get together over the summer, they place them based on whats the best combination to promote their learning. Not kids with disabilities in many schools. They are placed in the classrooms not based on learning but cutting pair professional costs. My son can be in asfusd classroom, where he is not given equal access to the curriculum because he is being intentionally placed in a classroom with more kids with disabilities than kids who lack disabilities. It is discrimination and a violation. This is a type of things that leads o to o. C. R. Investigationing and i ask you to pass a policy rebuking this guidance from sfusdw. We also have one parent who submitted a card an hour ago and she has been waiting patiently. Can she please testify. Im sorry but feel free to end emails to us and well make sure it gets to the appropriate person. We have section g, thats all the speaker cards i had in front of me. Jessica. She didnt come up when i called her name. I did, i came up. Thank you. I didnt speak. Thank you. Thats not how it works. Sorry. So my name is jake, i retired in june of 2017. I want to talk about is actually, i want to educate you many of the process of becoming a sub in this School District. By the way, i did not want to be a sub in this School District. George washington high school, the a. P. Called me. Councilor was seriously ill and left and she asked me to come and be a sub. Because i know the councilor really well and the other four councilors that work with them i decided to do that. I didnt do it for the money. I dont need t i did it because they needed help. Here is the process that i had to go through. If you think this is ok, its unbelievable and its probably been this way for 30 years. Ok, so i go down there and im supposed to write a letter. A letter because i was retired, i didnt have to do an application. I i wrote a letter. Five or six days go by i hear nothing. I call up, oh the person wont be back until january 29th. Oh january 29th. Ok, no one else can do anything. Everything is on hold. Ok. January 30th they call and saying well you cant be a sub, you dont have a teaching credential. Well i want to sub as a councilor. Theres a job there. Remember this is not about me. This is the process im talking about. You need subs. You have people teaching in your classrooms that dont have subs but you need a teaching credential to be a sub. I have teaching credentials anyway. Ok, so then you need finger prints. And then you need t. B. Tests. Fingers prints and t. B. Test. My t. B. Test is good but theres a break of employment six months. You have to get a t. B. Test test. If i was on sabbatical for a year i wont need a t. B. Test when i. The empathy factor, the kindness makes a lot thats very important for a child to blossom and ive seen a lot of kids when they have a special teacher with them, they interaction and the confidence of what these teachers em part is priceless and i think interaction with other students also is required because they really blossom with the interaction and the exchange of ideas and just being together. Thank you. [applause] thank you. Actually i didnt call your name. Maybe i just miss pronounced it. You didnt hear it. Thank you. So section g. Special order of business. We had a motion to second on the initial proposal from sfusd through united administrators of San Francisco presented on january 23rd. Mr. Lee, do you have a des i guess knee to read the recommendation to the record . Yes, i do. This is chief of labour relations carmelo scarleto. Good evening, commissioners and staff and students. So tonight id like to read into the record the initial proposal from San Francisco Unified School District to the united administrators of San Francisco to initiate our bargaining with them. Well require your action on the matter. Ok. I dont see any Public Comment on this item. Or is it mr. Any comments from commissioners . Seeing none. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Mr. Cook. Yes. Thank you mr. Haney. Yes. Dr. Morisi. Ms. Norton. Mr. Sanchez. Yes. Mr. Wallton. We now present the initial proposal for united administrators of San Francisco at sfusd. Mr. Lee, do you have anything . Yes, still chief of labour relations carmelo scarletto. I would like to read the initial proposal from the united administrators of San Francisco to the San Francisco Unified School District. The sunshining article. We have Public Comment on this item. Richard mcgee, you have two minutes. Well, happy fat tuesday everybody. Im sure you want to finish this meeting so you can go celebrate before the ashes come early tomorrow morning. I want to remember our brothers and sisters in new orleans and our labour partners there who are still going through a lot of katrina issues. Just like them, we are a laboringization and we want to bargain in good faith. We submitted our proposal as required by the policy of the School District. Were looking forward to negotiating a fair wage settlement and working conditions and i was a little put upon by some of the suggested dates, which include spring break, so while all of you are vacationing in maui, well be struggling to try and get a good contract, a better contract. We have a solid contract and so i want to acknowledge that. Improve our contract for our hardworking side and Central Office administrators. Thank you. Thank you. Can i have a motion to second on the San Francisco united School District audit report for the yearended june 30th, 2017. Moved. Second. Mr. Lee, do you have a des i guess knee to read the recommendation into the record . I do. I believe its rita, our chief financial officer. I see her making her way up to the staff table. Sorry about that. Good evening, commissioners and deputy, superintendent. Im here to present the resolution to accept our annual audit for the year 20162017. And as i think we have in past years, we have on hand our c. P. A. From our Accounting Firm v. T. D. In case we have any questions from either the board or the public. Should i read the resolution first . Ok. So the resolution is that the board of education accept the San Francisco Unified School Districts audit report for the yearend of june 30th, 2017. I might also add that we did a little preview of our audit at the Budget Business Services Committee Last week. Our audit is posted on the districts website and we have copies for the board and we have copies out in the lobby for anyone to read it. Ill just give you very quick, time is limited. You have a lot of stuff on the agenda. Just very quickly. My name is nathan, im the independent external financial auditor for the School District. So what you have are the financials and our audit report for that fiscal yearending jun. I want to quickly go over a couple of things. The scope of the audit is to validate the Financial Statements. To validate the revenues throughout the year. To validate the expenditures to assure they are appropriately accounted for and made available through the Financial Report for users of the Financial Statements. One thing that we do not do as part of the audit, nothing in the audit talks about management or does the board or does anybody do a good job with using the districts money. The Financial Statement opinions states that the audit record is what we call a clean report. Which means the Financial Statements are fairly stated. Theres no doubt about that. It means the Information Available to the users are there and the information is appropriate. Its really up to management and up to the members of the board and members of the public to read the Financial Statements and understand them and make decisions based on those. So, the summary of the audit of opinion is basically that it is a clean report. There are some findings and im happy to go into them in detail. None of the findings should be looked at as any indication of the Financial Statements other than barely stated. The Financial Statements are correct. Thats basically the bottom line of the audit. But that said, im happy to answer any questions. I can go into this in more detail. Its really whatever would please the group. No Public Comment on this item. Yeah, i wanted to just ask about the findings related to instructional minutes and also attendance. I understand i dont know if its related to and maybe you can answer this question, i understand the state sent us half our schools a letter saying they thought our attendance data was faulty. I just read this on ed source. Assist related to the findings for attendance in the audit. If there was a letter that was sent to schools, that im not aware of. Thats something unrelated to this. I havent seen myself. Ok. Well then, since were at the audit is on the agenda and that issue is not, could i get some more information about that issue please. Yes, we will followup with you and report back to the board. Can you explain the issue with attendance that you did find . Ok, yes. The issue with attendance is something, one of the requirements for recording attendance and the way that the lcff funding formula works is a substantial portion of School District funding is based on average daily attendance. Kids going to school. Every day a kid is not in school is less money for the School District. To support that, the district has to have certain documentation in place. For the most part they do. Theres a process that the district has, its been refined over many years and its working. There was an issue we identified in doing the attendance of it that involved substitute teachers ensuring that that attendance they recorded on pieces of paper were translated into the electronic attendance sips tom. Thats where there was a breakdown. There were documentations that we had asked for to support attendance in the audit that was simply not available to us. It doesnt mean that the attendance was wrong it just means that the district couldnt support all of the attendance. Its a relatively small number of the over all total attendance for the School District. Over all, the attend hans been work worked through the process and its fine. Its a relatively small portion of the over all thing and it is also something that was identified about this time last year and things have been additional procedures have been put in place subsequently to hopefully ensure that that finding does not happen again for fiscal year 2018. And then the other question was just about was only one school was found to have a charge of instructional minutes, is that correct if. Yes. So one of the things we look in the audit are state and federal compliance. Instructional minutes is also a compliance issues. The particular thing here, there was one school that decided to do something, they had the best intentions. But the end result was that the number of instructional minutes and theres kind of a definition of of what is an instructional minute versus just having the doors open at the school, the number of minutes wept below the state required minimum for that one school and that was something that was identified by the School District and they brought it to my attention and said hey, you looked at this whole thing and we pick samples of schools to recalculate and this particular school was not part of our sample. It was identified and corrected by the School District and as a part of their own internal reviews. Its not a system. It is one school and its been addressed for that school. For 2018. Yes, interest, as a result of the minutes dropping below the statement. Theres a pinnality that is associated with it and theres a formula to calculate that. Its noted in the report. Its 138,000. So do we owe that money back to the state of california . Yes. I mean, at some point the report gets submitted to the department of education to the state controllers office, they followup on all the audit findings and i imagine they will send a letter to the School District saying hey, we want to make sure its fixed and give us back the money. Its misleading to look at only the penalty because the result of it impacted a couple other things too. So there was an actual increase in funding on another side and the penalty so it is 90,000 or Something Like that. Thank you. Commissioner. Thank you. When the state sends that bill, can we send the bill back to them for all the state lottery funds and everything they owe to the district . Yeah, i mean, hey. Whatever the School District does, you know, hey. I dont think we need an audit to send that letter, we can do that. Commissioner. So at the Budget Committee we heard this item as well. That is the audit that is opened. What happened and id like some more information because it was a high school, from what i understand, had three fewer days of instruction essentially because of what they did. I dont understand what they did. But i was appalled because i cant imagine how that could happen. Because we monitor minutes every year and principals submit their minutes for the subsequent year after year and so i dont understand how that could have happened. Especially at a large high school. Id like some further information about it. We can followup with staff and report back to the board about what happened and how were preventing that moving forward. I am not a member of the Budget Committee, could i get a hard copy of the audit . Its attached as well as something that looks like this was placed in your mailbox. You have that . No other comments . Roll call vote. Thank you, commissioner. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Mr. Cook. Yes. Mr. Haney. Yes. Yes. Ms. Norton. Yes. There sanchez. Yes. Mr. Wattson and that is six ayes. Thank you, section h, discussion of other educational issues. Superintendent. Yes, commissioners, this is the annual report regarding the Radio Station 91. 7fm and we have our general manager of the station matt martin here to make a presentation. Thank you. Thank you commissioners. Im a radio person. I dont have any visuals this year, i can talk so this will not go on longer than 10 minutes. But i do want to let you know this is going to be the last state of the station report theyll be making to the board. In october, i announced i would be leaving the general manager position at kalw and we are searching for the next leader of the station. I will talk briefly about my departure later but in these remarks ive been asked to specifically address how kalw is serving the Educational Mission of the School District. I am very glad to make that the focus this evening first, because it made me sit down with the educational work that we are doing at kalw to appreciate what weve grown and in particular working with district students. And second, because it gives me the opportunity to talk to you about the need to think strategically about the relationship between kalw and sfusd and a community as set held by the district. So ill begin with a couple of straightforward ways that kalw serves the mission. First we broadcast these meetings. And that serves the parents and staff and the whole range of people who care about Public Education in San Francisco. And because its broadcast on the radio, at the same time we broadcast, the people who would not seek out the broadcast of a Public Meeting end up hearing this democratic process in motion on unfittered. I think thats really important. Second, we use our air waves to promote district programmes and initiatives. If you were listening to klaw a couple of years ago, you would have heard about concerts which we publicist through our station, social media and our email. If you would tune in this week, you will hear promotions for the sfusd path Ways Programme that helps bilingual educators get their teaching credentials and the approaching deadline for applications for that programme. Later this week, as we kickoff our campaign encouraging businesses and non profits to host summer interns. Weve done those announcements for the last five years and weve seen them result in summer opportunities for students. And yeah, we broadcast the school lunch menu. Listeners love it. We have also grown consistent in highquality opportunities for district students to be exposed to audio journalism and do it themselves. We have expanded our Summer Internship Programme at the station for students in the media arts academies. In 2016 we had three students, last summer four and were committed to six this upcoming summer. I want to emphasize these are real educational opportunities. We hire journalists to giving students a course and work with them to produce original stories that are broadcast on our news magazine. This school year, for the First Time Since ive been at this station, were taking our audio education curriculum into district classrooms. In november, two of our producers did sessions with students at gala laio teaching them about interviewing, editing, mixing, how to get good audio and april we will have the same courses with students in doug singers class at burton high. Each of the students in these classes will produce a piece we call my mix tape. A regular feature on the station where we ask people to talk about a song thats important in their lives. The best work will end up on klaw and i heard about one im excited about. A student who is a native arabic steaker and talks about a song that helped him learn english. That to me is fund mental and by the broad audience. We partnered with scores bay area on the radio. The poems are lovely and the voices of the kids are bold, funny and beautiful and vulnerable and im proud we can bring them on to our air. I want to make sure you understand the commitment of leadership at the station to the educational component of our work. Recently, it was time to start working on our next grand proposal to support work with district students. It was me, our development directour, our news directour, and the managing editor of kalw news. These are kalws leaders. He was wagelling over the specifics with the work of students. And thinking about how we can productively fit our work with students into our Broader Public Service mission. Educating students is not our only concern but its something we put energy and thought in week in and week out. The station is committed to education that goes beyond work with district students with the specific purpose of diversifying the voices heard in our media. Thats why five years ago, we began our Audio Academy and nine months tuition Free Training Programme for adults in audio journalism. Fellows from that academy have done awardwinning reporting at kalw and the graduates can be found in jobs throughout public and commercial media diversifying the voices in public media and the staff at kalw. Its become a model for journalism education in public radio and im glad to say that its going to be continuing and the Application Window for next years class will open in march. And it is also because of this commitment to education that we partnered with oakland voices. Which is a programme from the journalism education on sights and sounds of east oak man. Where we help train Community Based reporters to use audio to tell the stories of their communities. Its also why we collaborated with a group of prisoners, men incarcerated to launch the san quinton prison report where the men tell the stories of prison life and the lives of prisoners. Some of the participants had done journalism before. An quinton has the oldest prison newspaper in the country. But none of them had done audio reporting before this. So for the past few years, our reporters and editors have been teaching and giving feedback and in 2017 with support from the cdcr we can formalize that training and expand it to work at a prison in vaberville. The stories the men at san quinton have reported and produced are amazing. They have response from our listeners and this past year they won the award for Community Journalism from the society of professional journalists from northern california. We have made the educational component of our work. Because we love sharing this knowledge and empowering Diverse Communities to tell their stories and because we know that with that empowerment they can do great and important work. In audio journalism and Public Interest journalism many of i think that is the perspective that we need to bring to kalws educational efforts Going Forward and as we think about kalws future and developing strategic relationships between the station and the district. Everything that we do needs to feedback into the core mission kalw has as a Community Broadcast service, informing the community and letting us hear one another and engaging as citizens and human beings. I think if we start with the question, what is kalw doing for the sfusd, we will be missing a huge opportunity. And if the station editorial independence is called into question, we risk the trust and good will of listeners that is essential to its survival. But if instead we ask how does kalw support the Mission Vision and values of sfsud, i have no doubt this partnership can go further and do much, much more. If kalw is seen as what it has been for the 16 years ive been fortunate enough to be part of it, which is unique and valuable community as set, held by sfusd as part of the broad Educational Mission, i know we can do great things. My passion, what has driven my efforts at kalw is the desire to demonstrate the Creative Potential of Community Based non commercial media. At the end of last year, i participated in a brainstorming conversation about the planning for the new sfusd arts centre. Saying in that room there was excitement about the potential of kalw being part of the project. I was ex sighted about that. My mind starts racing when i think about creative collaboration in a space like that. Opportunities that could serve students, and the listening public. As excited as i am by those prospects, i am stepping down as general manager. Ive come to the conclusion at this point klaw needs more than a station manager, it needs an executive who can lead it as a Critical Community institution. And after a lot of reflection i came to the conclusion i am not that leader. In my packet of materials that we handed out to you i have the Fall Programme guide where i explain my decision and an essay where i talked about the job of being kalws g. M. And what i see ahead for the station. It will give you a good idea of where im coming
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