john o'connell high school, not an alternative. i am hoping when my son graduates, he has one more year to go, i am hoping that this school will change to john o'connell high school. i will tie it into my computer and said, high school, no more alternative, no more technology, we want a plane high school. thank you for your time. president mendoza: thank you. >> i am here to represent the teachers at john o'connell high school. i am a member of our leadership team. we voted unanimously in favor of the change it. the instructional literacy team also voted unanimously in favor of the change as did the entire staff. we firmly believe this is the right move and we hope you all agree with us. we are very committed to making it a place to be. thank you. president mendoza: it is good to see you, steven. he was one of our teacher of the month award recipients. [applause] we have excellent teachers at john o'connell. mr. kelly was not one of our teacher award recipients. >> i go back a while. it was a different award in those days. i would just like to point out that john o'connell is the leader of the labor council in san francisco throughout the mid-century. he is one of the people who was critically important in making sure that teachers and professionals saw and had a union in california at a time when that was not necessarily a going idea. we really appreciate maintaining the name of john o'connell. it has been a tremendous school over the years. we very much appreciate the presentation by the students, the parents, the teachers, the prince of paul, and the alumni. thank you very much. we look forward to the new name going forward. president mendoza: comments by the board? commissioner wynns: i want to thank everybody for coming tonight. i want to say, in san francisco, alternative referred to schools that did not have any attendance area. it has a legal definition on related to o'connell and unrelated to any alternative school in san francisco. the alternative school used to have it in the name -- rooftop, lakeshore, william paul. that was all that it meant. i think this is a really good idea. it clarified that we probably ought to do that. we ought to think about the principles of our names and those words that remain outdated, do not mean anything anymore, confuse people, or send a different message and what we want. i appreciate o'connell taking the lead on doing that. i want to say that my husband went to an apprentice school at the old o'connell and so did almost every other union construction worker in san francisco for many years. commissioner murase: i want to thank the community for the t- shirts that we received and just to report that at the november 28 meeting of the building and grounds committee, we heard a compelling argument about the reasons for the name change and the community made a positive recommendation area. commissioner fewer: congratulations and best of luck. commissioner norton: i want to thank dr. gomez for the shot in the arm, the energy. there has been a lot of good things going on at all, before you were there. your effort and trying to raise the profile of the school and making sure people know that there are some great things going on there, that leadership is really helpful. thank you for your energy. it has been great. president mendoza: i want to ditto what commissioner norton just said. you have come into a school where you have not been before and have in still pride. it is fantastic. i want to thank you for coming in full on and i want to acknowledge the ct announcement we made at your school this past week. tech education is back and you have been wonderful at opening that up at john o'connell. i almost said john o'connor. och -- i apologize for that. in a speech to the partnerships we are building in the community and what we are trying to do for our students, to give them as many options as possible. it is great having you in that leadership role, knowing that this place is a haven where many kids will be able to interact with our labor community and many of the progress that are going on and get internships out of it during the summer. it is fantastic. congratulations on coming in and kicking some butt. i was going to say something else, but you know what i am saying. thank you. >> it is very time-consuming but a lot easier when you have an excellent staff and an excellent student population that are there. all we do is go out there and publicize will we are currently doing at o'connell. they have been doing it the whole time. thank you. president mendoza: i know that janet schultz has been here also, the former principal. you guys have done a great job. we really want to thank you for that. let's remove all of the other school names that we have had on the school. roll call. commissioner fewer: yes. commissioner maufas: yes. commissioner murase: yes. president mendoza: yes. vice president yee: yes. commissioner norton: yes. president mendoza: great. welcome to john o'connell high school. item j is a request to speak regarding general matters. i have quite a few folks who are on our list. i am going to read off the names i called off earlier on the list and follow it up with cards that were submitted. jessica goyo, francisco hernandez, taraa lopez, start coming up to the podium, please. i apologize for fudging up people's names. and then i have quite a few others. tom, adam, anna, grenady, eveling, antoine, floridas, give me one second before you guys start. ok. so i have almost 40 people on this list. you are all speaking about the same item. i'm going to allow each of you to speak for one minute. and i'm going to remind you -- i know this is a sensitive issue, but i'm going to remind you here, as community members, to be mindful about names that you use and anything that may be slanderous to any staff member or any personnel that you may be considering talking about. if you could use that -- he very mindful about that. we would appreciate that. i will not have to stop you in the middle of your comments should that not be honored. , all -- come on up. >> [speaking spanish] >> good evening, my name is jessica. i have a child in the first grade. his name is joshua. >> [speaking spanish] >> i was one of the mothers that was not agreeing to the changes that were taking place at the school at the beginning. >> [speaking spanish] >> because of that, i have been involved in a lot of the meetings and participating. now we have a person who is an intermediary and is helping us to resolve a lot of our doubts and differences. >> [speaking spanish] >> i respect all of the parents that have said that the case has been mistreated, but i cannot witness -- i cannot say that i have seen what has happened. because i have never seen anything. all i have hat -- all i've heard is their complaints. >> [speaking spanish] >> at the same time, i am asking each one of those parents to please get involved in the meetings and to participate. there is much to learn. there are programs that have talked us to measure so that we with more clarity some of the points we have been ignoring. >> [speaking spanish] >> please, i want to call everybody to stop this now. we are adults. we can resolve our differences in different ways. i notice has turned into almost a personal thing between the parents and the principle. >> [speaking spanish] >> any person that may come around, whoever he is, is going to be the same. there are always going to be rules and discipline. discipline starts at home. president mendoza: thank you. your time is up. thank you. >> [speaking spanish] >> good evening. my name is francisco. i have two children. they have been in paul revere for four years. several years ago, someone called me to affirm that i had problems at paul revere. i do not know how this started or how he got my phone number. >> [speaking spanish] >> i come here to talk about paul revere. i have had a good experience. i have seen no problems. i have heard the comments of some parents. but i personally have had no problems. >> [speaking spanish] >> i am asking the members of the board of the san francisco unified school district, i know we have an intermediary, but we would like to have another mediator that will help us deal with these issues. i know it is hard. i know that a teacher should love what they do and if they do, they do it with passion. >> [speaking spanish] >> thank you very much a. i am here to support the staff of paul revere. [applause] president mendoza: thank you. >> i have a current member of the building bridges team in response to concerns raised at recent meetings korea i am concerned that every student will suffer irreparable harm if the board removes the principle. parents need to know if this is a serious decision that the board is considering so we can make a decision about their educational future. i like the board to publicly respond to this request. i want to know if the board and district are investigating the allegations that have been spurred by a political action group that knows little about the educational history of paul revere. i attended these meetings and when i attended to challenge innuendo and rumors or to request approval about statements made, i was shut down by the facilitator. i was excluded >> to meeting. they ask the attendees to divulge personal contact information to them to they could provided their viewpoint to paul revere parents. what can the board and district to curb the harassment and public intimidation of parents, staff and others. this disrupt length for all children and provide a hostile work environment for all employees. president mendoza: thank you. [applause] >> [speaking in spanish] >> my name is florida morales. i'm a mother at paul revere. i have a 7-year-old child in second grade. he has been there for three years. i have been a volunteer in the center. i have witnessed the enormous changes that paul revere has gone through. >> [speaking in spanish] >> the methodology that has been used for kids' advancement and i don't like the violence that is coming to the institution. >> [speaking in spanish] >> so each parent knows that a kid, if he is not relaxed and he is not eased while learning, they cannot learn. i have seen that it is happening in the school. kids are relaxed. they are in peace and they learn a great amount when they were like that. >> [speaking in spanish] >> i see there is a lot of changes for the principal. they are for the good. they are to help our children. president mendoza: thank you. [applause] >> good evening, my name is carol lopez. i have worked at paul revere for 25 years with at least 11 administrators. after retiring from the classroom last year, i am now working part-time as a reading intervention teacher. i'm also the president of the p.t.a. i support sheila and her highly dedicated staff and families. under her guidance, i believe that i became a better teacher because i applied what she taught us in our professional development. we never had a uniform behavior management policy with clear consequences. this school opened in the most calm manner i have ever seen. i see the behavior issues diminishing and children happy and proud of themselves for both their behavior and academic accomplishments. i know and speak with many parents who are happy that their children are safe from classroom disruptions and bullies and that their learning time has been maximized. to move her in this the middle of this transition would be devastating to the progress we are making and to the emotional well-being of our community. i hope that you will let us continue to work through our problems and you will value the thoughts of so many other parents and staff from our community. we are on our way to being the best we can and have ever been. please don't derail our efforts. [applause] president mendoza: thank you. >> good evening. i'm jamaica taylor. i'm the parent of a kindergartener at paul revere and this is my first year being a parent there. i have been on both sides. i have been one of those parents that have had problems in the past and things that i wanted to be heard, i wanted to get my point across, so i have been one of those parents that has been on the, you know, out protesting and doing all of that. i think that there is a better way to get what we want as parents across to paul revere and the school officials and one of those things is i don't feel like being cutthroat, you know, saying that certain people need to be fired and things like that in a large group is the way. i would prefer that my point get across and basically ensure that and i feel like the building bridges council at paul revere is one of those mediums to get our points across. i have no problem being the unofficial liasson between those parents that have had problems or are going through problems at paul revere and to get the point or at least get it on the agenda at the building bridges meetings and because, again, i have been on both sides, you know, not only am i a parent, but i am on the board at the particular moment, so i think that when it's a more condensed group that the point gets across 100% better. president mendoza: you need to wrap up. >> i'll wrap up, i'm sorry. i can assure parents that are here that in the building bridges council that a lot of different groups are represented, so don't feel like it's one specific group. we are working to get things, you know, to get the ball rolling and to correct some of the things that you guys and myself have issues with. i would like to say thank you, you know to paul revere for even making that available for us. president mendoza: thank you. [applause] >> good evening. my name is erika emson and i'm the proud parent of of the spanish emergent kindergartener at paul revere where my daughter is doing phenomenally. i chose revere for my sassy and spirited kiddo because it has all of the kids to success assembled and everything we were looking for in a school to be fully immersed in a second language and a appropriately challenged curriculum, a diverse city population that is reflective of the city that we love and the leadership of the school principal, administration team, teachers, and p.t.a. if you're here tonight to represent paul revere, would you stand up and show that support to the board. thank you. [applause] >> and thanks to tough choices made by our principal and staff during mandated school reform. it is fulfilling its mission statement and on its way to meet all of the goals on the front of the agenda. i'm a member of the building bridges team and witnessed the innovative leadership team in action. it was so moving to see what this passionate team of mentors is doing for our kids. to keep our principal and keep down this path, our school is going to become a powerhouse. another district success story that will give thousands of kids education opportunities they deserve. if you remove our principal in year two of reform, that is the equivalent of shutting down our school. please don't put our kids' education in jeopardy. thank you. president mendoza: thank you. [applause] >> hello, i'm a parent of a third grader at paul revere. we went through the whole transformation. we learned the hard way that paul revere was one of the poorest performance schools in the state, that something had to happen. we lost our principal that was dearly beloved. we all got together, we have to start working improving the school, the fact our kids are not reading, that are not learning math, that's just something that is in trouble. we have to do something about it. so we have had a very active community involved in that process. we have had parents involved in trying to look what principal would be a good fit for our school and cause the transformation that we needed. we had parents involved in to finding the secret and what do we need for paul revere to make the improvements that are needed. we have parents involved in implementing the grant to make sure that things are happening. i'm going to say i have been very impressed with sheila. she has the experience of turning schools around. she is trying to have success as was recognized by superintendent. we are making progress. this is what we have to do for our kids. i wanted to bring to focus that that's what we really need to do. every kid deserves the right to a good education. i think sometimes in all of the emotions, that gets lost. i'm hoping that we can continue with the progress that we're making and i really urge you to not -- we need to do that with sheila. she has been really critical. president mendoza: thank you. >> thank you for your attention. president mendoza: i want to remind you each have a minute. i want to honor the time, thank you. >> no pressure on me. hi, my name is joslin corbett. i'm the letter si coach at paul revere. i'm here to show support for paul revere staff and our principal. i'm also here to express my concern over the way that our principal and school has been portrayed by some people in recent times. i'm very concerned because we need at paul revere consistent leadership. that is leadership that sheila provides us. losing our principal in the middle of a three-year reform means starting all over again from scratch and potentially losing two years' worth of hard work, effort, and progress on the parts of our parents, teachers, staff members and students. i refuse to dignify the outlandish claims that have been made by the few parents that spoke at this meeting a while ago because they're simply not true and without merit. i have listened to the minority speaker and they want to replace her. but i don't believe they're in an opposition to sheila. i believe this comes from misinformation to the changes that have taken place since she has become principal. these changes were needed and reforms, these changes and reforms were desperately needed in order to promote student achievement and success. president mendoza: thank you. is the other clock not working? ok. we can do the two-minute, so that you can see your time, if that's helpful, but otherwise we're just going to stick with the beep, beep, beep. >> i'll be really brief. i'll be a minute or less. good evening, superintendent garcia, deputy and board members. i am sheila, the principal of paul revere. [applause] >> i was compelled to seek employment in san francisco schools primarily because of superintendent garcia's identification of the achievement gap being the civil rights issue of our times. his mission to challenge and to confront that, this was deeply compelling to me. i actually began my career as a teacher 28 years ago as horaceman, a special ed teacher. i was keenly aware of the predictive power of demographics. i had a special education classroom disproportionately full of young men of color and i spent the next 20 years in the classroom trying to advance my teaching practice and become the kind of teacher that can make a true difference. i won't say anything more other than to tell you tt