services necessary to do so. i am preventing and reducing juvenile crime by working with the ymca to keep kids in school and on track to graduate. keeping kids in school is key to reducing overall crime. i'm proud to announce that for the fourth consecutive year, our efforts have kept more kids in school and on track to graduate by successfully reducing truancy rates in san francisco schools. i have raised public awareness and provide resources for victims and their advocacies. i've brought victim services -- victims services into neighborhoods and make it easier for most vulnerable systems, including victims of domestic violence and recent immigrants, to get services. i'm also working to protect hardworking san franciscans by prosecuting employers that do not play -- and not pay their employees' wages they are owned. i am proud to have earned the support of senator feinstein, gavin knew some and the san francisco police officers association. and hotel and restaurant employees local. i ask for your support on november 8th. >> election day is november 8th, 2011. that's the last date to vote in person and the last date for receipt of vote 5 -- vote by mail ballots. >> my name is david onek. i'm running for district attorney to make san francisco the safest and tourist district attorney in the country. our criminal dust -- criminal- justice system is completely broken. we're spending so much on our prison system that we have almost bankrupt and our state. seven of 10 people who come out of prison return within 10 years. we need to dramatically overhaul the system to make our communities safer. we need a d.a. who knows how to reform the system so works more fairly and effectively and that is exactly what i have been doing for the past 20 years. i started my career at walden house, counseling delinquent kids and helping them turn their lives around. i helped to write the book for the clinton justice department on alternatives to incarceration. after graduating from stanford law school, worked at legal services for children, providing free legal services to low-income kids. i worked to reduce racial disparities in the juvenile justice system. at the mayor's office of criminal justice and the san francisco please commission, helped bring national best practices to san francisco law enforcement. i thought of the berkeley center for criminal justice to bring law enforcement and community get rid build collaboration around pragmatic criminal justice reform. that's what my whole career has been about and that's what this whole campaign is about. i have been reforming the system from the outside for the past 20 years and now i want to keep reforming the system as your next district attorney. i will do that by focusing on what prevent crimes, intervening with you to keep them out of the criminal-justice system, never seeking the death penalty under any circumstances because data shows it does not make a safer. reforms -- reforming three strikes so it keeps offenders off the streets. i have been endorsed by over 2000 supporters, including their share of, former police chiefs, the california police chiefs association and over 30 current and former members of the san francisco police department. education leaders like united to cater leaders of san francisco and the vast majority of the school board. community near the -- community leaders from every neighborhood and a san francisco democratic party, the harvey milk club and many others. this the worst group has come together to support my campaign because they all know our criminal justice -- this diversified group has come together because they know my record of reform. i'm running for district attorney. please join us and learn more at my website. thank you. >> the league of women voters and sfgov.tv to have collaborated to bring you these statements. >> hello. i received my dress doctor from uc hastings here in san francisco where i live in the tenderloin. experienced the world series earthquake of 1989 and fell in love with this city and its values. i'm a state bar certified criminal law specialist and the current commissioner to the state bar of california criminal law advisory commission. i have spent the last 22 years working in the criminal justice system and i have vast experience and knowledge in the area of criminal law and the criminal element. the district attorney must concentrate on public safety, not politics. department of justice statistics show pouring more funds into the system to create a larger police force drives marginal benefits. innovative plans and policies must be put into motion. i believe children are inherently innocent and should be educated and enlightened about our constitutional values. the sick should be healed and those that are starving should be fed. my san francisco safety zone program will be a strategic collaborative effort between the district attorney's investigators trained in the lot and the people. the program will place an unmanned, high-definition video cameras are around our schools, hospitals, restaurants, high crime neighborhoods and heavily traveled public areas upon request and will be completely voluntary. a program of this nature will be highly effective in deterring criminal behavior, correctly identifying perpetrators and prosecuting them. i will also implement a new independent crime lab, headed by scientists, not law enforcement. the new crime lab will be independent from other criminal justice agencies, will be dedicated to forensic science and will be available to all members of the san francisco criminal justice system. the district attorney is the chief law-enforcement officer in the city and must have a clearly defined mission. we must demand the criminal justice system to maintain our safety and security. we must demand of a system to effectively deter crime and accurately identify and punish offenders. we must also demand it treat victims and their families with compassion and provide justice and safety for all san franciscans. i have the well-being of all people in my heart and truly believe in justice. i humbly ask for your support and would be deeply honored to have your vote. >> election day is november 8th, 2011. that is the last day to vote in person and the last four receipt of a vote by mail ballots. for more information, go to our the regular meeting of the board of education. roll call, please? >> thank you. [roll call] >> if you would like, please join us for the pledge of allegiance. [pledge of allegiance] >> the approval of the board minutes of the regular board meeting from september 27. thank you. any corrections? roll-call. >> [roll call vote] >> presentation of the superintendent's report. >> that was quick. good evening. i guess i will make it quick. i wanted to share some good news with the public. the good news is that we ended the last year, we closed the budget and ended up with $8 million, a little bit higher than we anticipated, which is really great news for us. not that we want to spend it right away, by 2013, this district will be at a deficit of about $58 million. any money we can save and start putting against that will save a lot of jobs and hopefully keep our district cold. we are excited that it turned out that way. we were trying to save every nickel and dime because we know how bad the situation may get. as most of you already know, the governor and the legislature said that if it reaches $1 billion, below $1 billion in the budget, they do the trigger, which means they cut more to public education. that number in three months is up to $700 million. if that number gets $300 million more, which it may appear to look like it will get there, that trigger will be pulled. we have to cut even more. what we saved last year will be helpful, and it will certainly not get us through everything. so that when we do face those cuts, we can absorb them. he second sang i want to mention, just a reminder that october 18, there is a committee as a whole meeting here. i want to make sure that everybody gets the chance, and we will be talking about the work that is being done, the priorities and talking about a lot of different things that have an impact on next year's budget. for parents, a friendly reminder that parent teacher conferences are going to be taking place next week, and that is for elementary and middle school students. parents, please get involved in your kids' lives. it is important to know how they are doing. i do want to make an announcement that on this friday, october 14 from 10:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m., we are having more than 60 colleges and universities that will be putting on a demonstration to recruit thousands of our seniors to go there and learn about their options for college and careers. that is an important thing for everybody to be involved in. it is a coordinated effort with the san francisco promised in the city and county and state, everybody working together to make sure the kids have options ahead of them and they get a chance to plan ahead and look at what is available out there. encourage your seniors to attend that. >> recognitions and resolutions of commendations, we have done this evening. but i do want to make an announcement. i am pleased to announce the superintendent will be recognized by the mayor on thursday for his leadership and vision in the field of education. he is being honored as the heritage month award recipient. there will be a celebration and awards ceremony on october 13 at 5:00 p.m. in city hall. the leaders are either firmly established or in their communities for in valuable economic, social, and cultural developments to their communities. congratulations for that. student delegates reports. >> last week, last monday, our cabinet got together to create the resolution we will be reading later on tonight in support of free muni for youth living in san francisco. we had a meeting where there were presentations from the bicycle coalition. that was about it. >> to the parent advisory council report. do we have members here tonight? >> good evening, my name is george williams, i am a parent of two children, to fifth graders. and i am a graduate myself of san francisco unified school district. >> i have two children in the san francisco unified school district. one is that sheridan elementary and the other one is at a hoover junior high. excuse me, herbert hoover middle school. i went there when it was a junior high school. >> we will talk about deepening our understanding of student achievement. and ongoing concerns about the quality of middle schools as well as the process that we are taking right now for the goals for this year. and on behalf, i like to thank the deputy superintendent and the assistant superintendent for taking the time to meet with us. we organized a special meeting in which we had members from the district and liaisons' present. and community leadership from the revisory for special education and graduates that were there to gain a better understanding of how the district interprets student achievement and to answer our questions are around the house student achievement is look at and answer our own questions as well as to discuss what strategy for the district is used to accelerate closing the achievement gap. also, i want to take the opportunity to thank commissioner fewer and commissioner mendoza for stopping by and encouraging us to hold the board accountable for the things that you spoke to. and i want to say, thank you for acknowledging that our work is valuable and important. >> we appreciate the staff posting of the information that was on the district website. we also want to acknowledge the work of high achieving students. i am sorry. should i start over? first, we want to acknowledge -- thank you all for coming today. we want to acknowledge you for posting the information on the district website, acknowledging the high achieving students. our concern is still around having equitable access to programs. it is important for all parents and students, and as it pertains to high achievement, and actually all students. we still want to see the plan. to strengthen building quality middle schools. parents and students are concerned about where that stands. if you can give us a time line of where you are at with that, it will be fantastic. >> one of the things we did, we also look at data. to inform -- the work as subcommittee, it is one of the things we did in the last meeting was with that student achievement data. we have things around restorative practices, working with parents as well as district staff. reestablished we are going to be meeting with a coordinator around practices to discuss where the district is at around that, and what we can do to organize parents and inform parents. also, we are going to be meeting with the director of family engagement. >> the achievement for restorative practices is for students to feel safe when they go to school. when they achieve their going to school, they don't feel safe. that is an issue that deserves a lot of attention. it comes with my experience of working within the community, being at the schools a lot. my job lets me do that so i get to see a lot of the operational aspects that some parents may not be able to see. this is an important issue in the restorative practice process and deserves much attention. >> we had nearly 30 participants at the meeting on october 3, 90 minutes wasn't nearly enough time to answer, so the deputy superintendent was gracious enough to offer his time. how was it collected and interpreted. that is related to the restorative practices as well as suspension rates. and what isn't collected, collecting such data to inform prospective and appropriate strategy. that is the report. >> thank you for your time and for listening. and your continued efforts toward -- bless you. and the continued efforts toward creating this paradigm that is very necessary. we look forward to meeting with the board of education commissioners to discuss the issues in more depth at a later date. commissioner fewer: thank you for the report. a very informative. thanks for holding the meeting, i think it's great that you held it with other groups so they can get the information and the street from the district. i just want to say a bit about the restorative practices. i am so glad that they decided to prioritize this. some of the things i would like for you to look at, thank you so much for bringing up safety. if the students don't feel safe, they can't learn. our purpose and our goal is that every student to be ready for college and the twenty first century. how do restorative practices work towards making students feel safe? our the practices related to student achievement. the data might be very interesting, they got on explanations -- and data on expeditions -- data on expulsions. and those students that have been suspended three aforetime is. and to track if they are still in the system or if they have dropped out. in order to look at restorative practices, you have to look at that picture of it. as we change the culture from punishment to discipline and a feeling that we all make mistakes and we should learn from mistakes, and also forgiveness, these things are very much related to its. when you are looking at those restorative practices, we can see in a different framework that if we add this to what we are looking at, he will get a much broader picture. >> you brought up some of the same questions that have been in some of the discussions we have already had. the other one is around the district traffic schools where there are police reports filed on students, and that would be something to look at. and if the district is tracking that data, where are the plans to all at the data? i know we don't want to be criminalizing our students. >> i think by law, we have to. maybe we can get the information to you. commissioner wynns: i just want to say, i know that i have the ability to phone somebody and ask them, but it turned out that i had a conflict. i was planning to try to come and i noticed on the web site that it wasn't on there. >> it was. >> it wasn't. if we can check or be more careful about that, i would appreciate it. i appreciate hearing about the meeting, it is very important for us to have organized district supported ways for people to go more in depth into the data. for instruction and achievement issues, i appreciate you coming here and reporting to us regularly. it is really great. >> i read through the report, thank you for coming. i just want to commend them for reaching out to other organizations. it doesn't take a lot, but the representation is key because even though there are other parent bodies, they don't disseminate that information. it may be different how the public school says it or how others do it, but they were at the table so that they can do it. and that is what is so important. i commend you all for taking a leadership role and i encourage you to continue, and have sort of an open door policy. you probably do anyway, but i am seeing its evident here, it is a wonderful thing. >> i want to thank you for bringing that out, because the key is going to be partnering throughout the city and hopefully, possibly creating a template that other cities can follow. >> congratulations. >> there is no other comment, we appreciate your report. public comment on consent items, i have one speaker on consent items. >> good evening, superintendent, commissioners, ladies and gentlemen. a lot of us are dealing with some kind of cold these days. i have put several items, resolutions that i would like to look after. 1110, 11k4 on page 2. this is professional development for early education department teaching staff. i would like to know how