>> my name is -- [speaking spanish] >> good evening, everybody. my name is marie. i have one boy at brian elementary in fourth grade. everything we do as parents, we do it for our children. >> [speaking spanish] >> i came to talk about in particular one of my worries, which in the past, you have not taken us in consideration. brian is going through a difficult situation and the decisions that have been taking place have been done by a group of parents that do not represent the minority of us. >> [speaking spanish] >> and lately the administration, what they have created is a hostile climate. teachers, parents, also our students. this is not a healthy environment for them to go to. >> [speaking spanish] >> so therefore right now, we suggest that immediately the administration should be removed. everybody within the administration should be removed. >> [speaking spanish] >> and we would like to request a process for teachers and staff and us parents so when the moment comes to make the decision of a new hiring for principal of schools, we are all included. >> [speaking spanish] >> we need transparency in the allocation or the -- of the money so we can be -- in the implementation and development. we want a transparent plan for our school. >> [speaking spanish] >> so last but not least, do not take our support. our teachers know our children. they know us, and we are committed as parents to support you to pull that school out and bring it into better situations. >> [speaking spanish] >> i'm sorry. i need to have you wrap up. >> we would appreciate a written confirmation within a week. thanks. [applause] >> [speaking spanish] >> good evening. i come from bryant elementary. >> [speaking spanish] >> there has been a week that we requested a meeting with the board of education and we are still waiting. we have some documented that we wanted to discuss with you but i'm going to take this moment to talk to you about something. >> [speaking spanish] >> we know that we are in a crisis. an economical crisis and that we need to improve the educational system but making cuts where they are not appropriate, it is hurting -- -- making cuts in inappropriate places is not going to help us go forward. >> [speaking spanish] >> we need qualified people who knows what is best and not about numbers only. about people. we called our children clients, but they are not clients, they are learners. >> [speaking spanish] gracias. >> this is -- what we have now is like a pyramid. everything stays at the top and it is hard to get there so we need to cut that top. we need to reach the part that we need to reach. we as parents -- finally parents are the ones that are sustaining the system. thank you. [applause] thank you. >> before the next speaker, i did not have cards for the last two speakers so i want to just make sure that the others have cards. the only ones that i have left from bryant are maria garcia, joshua herrera and laura. if there are any others that are not listed, i just need to get a card from you, please. so harvey, you're with bryant? ok. and then is there a michael rogers? so no michael rogers? ok. thank you. >> speaking spanish] >> good evening, everybody. my name is maria garcia. i also come from bryant. i came to advocate for the leadership team. i found that she is doing a great job. she is never sitting. she is always doing something. she is always active. >> [speaking spanish] >> after the second year that she has been there, i can see that the school has improved with their academic achievement and i find it unfair that she is being attacked. >> [speaking spanish] >> i'm part of the p.t.o. there is not many parents that will commit to be leaders. so people like me have to be in every one of these committees representing the parents. and that's all i wanted to say. thank you very much. >> thank you, maria. >> [speaking spanish] >> good evening, everybody. i also come from bryant elementary. >> [speaking spanish] >> the reason why i'm here is also to support our principal. i know that we all have different opinions. >> [speaking spanish] >> for us, it is the first year that we have been in that school and for us, the support has been immense. we have received a lot of support from her. >> [speaking spanish] >> my son in particular has a problem with his teeth and the principal committed to find a doctor that put him actually in the treatment, orthodontic treatment as we speak. >> [speaking spanish] >> so for many that might not be a problem, but my son was having a hard time. they were laughing at him. the teacher was another person that helped us with this problem. thank you very much. i don't want to take more of your time. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> good evening. my name is harvey cunningham. i'm a parent of a studented a bryant almostry. i just want to tell you -- elementary. i want to tell you i'm very impressed with bryant elementary and the help that i've received from them. i don't know what is going on between the other parents and the principal, but i'm here to say that she has done right by me. my kid has attention deficit disorder and since i've been at bryant elementary, they have helped him immensely. i'm a single parent. i have to work from 7:30 to 5:00. they have sent me in every direction to get me help and i have taken it and i have gotten it. he is in an i.p. program. he was at the boys and girls club. they now have an afterschool program which he is excelling in and doing very well. i am very proud that my son is attending bryant elementary and that he is getting a good education. thank you. >> thank you, mr. cunningham. >> good evening. just briefly i just want to give you the perspective of our data. when two years ago, bryant elementary was 29 proficient in english language arts and 71% of our students were below proficient levels, that was quite staggering and alarming at that time. i'm happy to announce that last year we increased our language arts scores and our math scores in double diplomats. at the end of last year, we -- double digits. at the ent end of last year we made an effort to look at staffing and put a lot of effort into modeling, coaching and you know, just really focusing on moving those kids where we know that's the slump and we want to increase our numbers. i'm happy to announce that third, fourth and fifth grade, all of them, we have model coached and just modeling and all of our students are reading in literature circles and our students are moving in that direction because of the vision who believes in this. she does not use me as an administrative assistant of any kinet. my job is to work in coaching and modeling 100%. all of those students are our students. she is committed to their academic achievement. we are working through maps. we do quarterly analysis of the data. we look at second through fifth grade at the last p.d., we took part of our p.d. time and we did backwards mapping with the power standards. we set a 10-week plan. we set objectives. i have those copies if we need them. we have those for kindergarten and first grade who are not generally tested and i just wanted to give you the perspective from the academic success of our students. thank you for your time. >> thank you, ms. torres. next speaker? >> hi, my name is lee anne and teach at buena vista elementary school. every year we have unique challenges. this year our challenge has been getting through a retro fitting construction project. there are some teachers at our school have who have moved three times during the course of this year to accommodate the builders. i think we have done a great job keeping our morale up. knowing that in the end we will have a beautiful school. we received a special offer. the district was offering us the intent of becominging the first spanish emergent school in san francisco. we were told we had to decide if we wanted this before the winter break and if we decided not to go through with it it would go to another school. we had an emergency meeting and the majority of the staff gave a thumb's up. when word of the plan got out to the majority of our community, everyone seemed quite excited although there were many unanswered questions. some people went to take a look at the campus and introduced themselves to mark sanchez and said they knew nothing of this plan and that the staff had been asked to write a proposal for next year and then having them be the first spanish emergent plan in san francisco was not one of their plans. this was my first inkling of the lack of communication that has been rampant throughout this process. she scame to a meeting and stated after taking into consideration that the new plan will not take effect until the 2012-2013 school year, the powers decided it would be much more prudent to wait a year. she assured us that yes, the move was going to happen but in a year but then a couple of weeks later, you, superintendent garcia came to our school. you had important news for us. the plan had changed. the move was to take mebt in the fall. it was going to become an emergent program. just who was to be in charge of what was not mentioned. the three people involved in running two two schools would be the leadership team for the school. >> i'm sorry, lee anne. can you wrap up, please? >> i need you to know that our community feels betrayed. we have been told several things that are not true. some of us have come to the point where we're not interested in the situation anymore and that we really need to know who our leadership is going to be by the end of march so that we can plan accordingly if we choose not to go with the new plan and hope that you carefully consider any further decisions you make for an already disspirited school community. thank you. >> hello, my name is betsy sagara. i'm a fifth grade parent at buena vista. i drafted a letter that was signed by 45 parents in one day about this supposed k.a. continuation versus merger with horseman. i amended by application to the district to attend this buena vista horseman model that the district described based on the meetings with veronica chavez and now we were told recently by hydra who attended a meeting that it is not really a continuation. it is a merger. it is a marriage. while the marriage, we didn't know until we got to the altar and we have made our decision and we didn't know who we were marrying and i find it really, really disdain -- that the communication could have been this bad. we at this meeting that hydra attended, a majority of the parents there suddenly became aware that oh, well, we're going to delay it. we're going to save 22 general ed seats for horseman. and which meant basically we're not continuing your emersion for three for years and that this isn't really a continuation of buena vista. a k.a. in the mission, which was how it was touted is really a merger. a lot have said that the parents are accusing buena vista parents of trying to gentryify their school. i don't know what that is. is it rich people trying to move out poor people? if that is the case, buena vista is 50% or more on free lunch programs so that is not the case. or is it white people trying to displace people of color? buena vista is 25% white. that's not the case. one last issue i would like to bring up is the leadership. the fact that he was stated unanimously to be the principal and that is not the case at the moment. >> thank you. [applause] >> good evening. my name is roberto vargas and i am a parent of a third grader at buena vista and a fifth grader. i anticipate my third grader will be -- i'm not sure yet about my fifth grader. depending on how things go in the next couple of months. my father, my aunt and my sisters went to horace man. i've done a lot of work there. at that point, as some of my colleagues have mentioned, promises have been made. we commit to the process and then decisions are changed. so at this point our trust is damaged. as a -- resident and a long-time advocate for educational equity, several know i have come to you about advocating on behalf of bayview kids in the past. i am concerned in about general educational options. however i'm not convinced that by keeping a quarter of the student population, general ed and the rest, i'm not convinced that that is equity. i'm concerned that might be further alienation. we need to be more -- we need to have more representation at the table making decisions in this process so i would like to recommend that you increase the parent representation on the panel that is making decisions in order to try to recapture the trust of both of our school communities. so in order to try and reengage parents, try to rebuild trust, i would like you all to consider increasing the parent representation from both schools on this panel making decisions about this process as we move forward. thank you. >> thank you. >> good evening. my name is judy diaz. i'm the school secretariat and a parent of a -- secretary and a parent of a sixth grader and a second grader at another school now. i am concerned that there has been mistrust by our families because of the lack of communication and because we were told one thing and now we're being told something else, and as staff member and as a parent, i beg you that you please help us regain the trust. i really don't want to start a school year with our communities being divided. thank you. >> thank you. >> [speaking spanish] >> good evening. my name is -- hernandez and i am the president of -- at -- >> [speaking spanish] >> i just wanted to ask for two things that are very important for us as parents at buena vista. >> [speaking spanish] >> the first thing i want to ask is for you to leave our principal with us. when the proposal was made, that was one of the main things we asked that we get to keep our principal. when the move wugs was taken. that we all move together. i'm sorry. >> [speaking spanish] >> because our principal is part of our family. through the years, we have, you know, had a -- we like -- we care for him immensely because he cares for us as well. and everything that goes on. >> [speaking spanish] >> i find unfair that he is not going with us and that we are, you know, on the air without answer for this. >> [speaking spanish] >> so again, that our principal should go with us. it was one of the requests with the superintendent's visit that we all go together as a group. >> [speaking spanish] >> and then well, the last thing is that our emersion program really continues. >> [speaking spanish] >> so it will be a great achievement for the mission for us to get a k.a. that is fully emersion. >> [speaking spanish]