Transcripts For SFGTV 20120916

so, i am going to be moving in a very rapid pace, because several of the commissioners will have to leave a little bit earlier today because of other things that they have to take care of. so, item a, approval of the board minutes for the regular minutes of august 8th? >> is there a motion? >> any corrections? >> roll call, please. >> mendoza. >> yes. >> norton? >> wyny. >> aye. >> 6 aye. >> item b. presentation to the board of education superintendent report. really superintendent's thoughts for the evening. superintendent richard a. carranza. >> thank you president yee and good evening to all of our parents and community. the year is in full swing. and i would like to come mend and congratulate all of our schools for continuing to provide enhanced academic experiences for our students. there are a couple of updates regarding our school district that i would like to inform our community about. first of all, i would like to give you an update for the initial plan for grad modification at international studies academy. (inaudible) isa this means that we will not recommend a change for the grade spans for the school year, we will take the next several months to review the long range demographic projections and the variety of other factors including enrollment patterns and academic performance and other use of our building, this will allow us to come back to the board of education for spring that could result in changes for the 2014-15 school year, we welcome the communication with the ongoing change and keep you informed of all available meetings and informational sessions that will take place concerning this matter. i would also like to share some media regarding the recent media reports concerning the california state teachers retirement system report that was presented by the state controller. and speculation in that report that tensions spiking may have taken place within the san francisco unified school district. the report cited two retirees whose salaries were increased in close proximity to their retirement it is important for the community to understand that the two employees in question had the unique positions where they took on positions that were vacant at times of leadership transition in our school district in both of these cases, the district needed these veteran employees to assume critical management roles while the district conducted a hiring process that would determine the permanent employees that would serve in these roles. the district does not con tone tension spiking. we have a salary schedule and procedures that are specifically aimed at standardizing salaries for unreported managers which creates a consistent and fair process for documenting salaries. on a musical note this past thursday i was very honored to join over 300 of my school district administrators, teachers and their family members as we were hosted by the opera. it was a wonderful opportunity to experience the thief of live opera in one of the most fabulous houses in the world right here in san francisco. what is more special is that our children have an opportunity to experience writing and performing their own productions under the expert guidance of the san francisco opera and their wonderful director of education ruth knots and her staff. my thank you to her and the opera general director and to our department for assisting with the organization and plans for the event. in the san francisco unified school districts, we truly believe that the arts are an essential part of life and are a critical component to a well-rounded education. i was particularly moved to hear so many of our adult staff members say that as long life san franciscoans this was the first time that they had attended the opera, so we are changing life by the day. so i am pleased to announce that sfusd has been selected as the host district for the nation alanty bully summit. it will open with approximately 3,000 of our district 6 to 12th grade students attending a viewing of the movie bully at various theatres throughout the city on thursday, on friday a local state and national leaders will be meeting here in san francisco to shine a spot light on the anti-bullying effort and to raise awareness and increase participation for stop bullying now. we are very proud to show case the great work that the school district is doing around this topic and we look forward to sharing with the board the highlights from the summit. lately, 11 years ago today on september 11th, 2001 our sense of security, our freedom and even our way of life under attack as our nation suffered from a act of terrorism on that day. as today is the nais national day of remembrance of our fellow brother and sisters that were lost on this day, i ask you all to join me in a moment of silence in their memory. thank you very much. >> thank you, superintendent richard a. carranza. so, let's move on to item c, recognition and resolutions of come men daysing, none tonight. we will go to item d. student delegates report. and of course, everybody knows megan long who has been the delegate for a few months now. and she is going to introduce our new student delegate today so last night we had our student advisory council meeting and there we elected our committees and also our cabinet members and our new student delegate is cindy lee. >> hello i'm wendy lee, i am a senior at the academy of arts and sciences high school. i am really excited to have this opportunity to serve as the student delegate this year to represents the students and to voice out the opinions of my peers. i look forward to working with the board this year and make some positive changes to sfusd, thank you. >> commissioner wants to mention that student delegate wendy lee was also the student representative on the peace committee. >> a student with experience. >> so tonight, we would like to start off the report for the evening. yesterday we met last night for our fac meeting and we talked about finalizing our committees. we have five committees, the health, budget, curriculum and public relations committee and also a joint youth commission with a cc committee. >> and as a said we also announced our new cabinet members, wendy, being our student delegate and our president is richard lee, he is from mission high school. our vice press is carry sang. and secretary maria portio from the academy of arts and sciences and our public relations officer (inaudible) and historian is jaeden brassil. >> thank you very much and welcome, wendy. >> let's move on to item e, parent advisory council report. the pac representative? good evening, commissioners. superintendent richard a. carranza and student delegates my name is john odonell, i have daughter who started middle school and i have advocated for her and joined. my first action was to represent our group with several other pac members and ruth gabrowski in a workship in early august. now to break the school to prison pipeline. we took this opportunity to inform the parents about the group and to select information through an ongoing survey that we have about communicating. pac at its first meeting of the year two weeks ago and various school districts. >> continue to work on is the practices. and to continue strengthens the information of our story of practices and the number of members have joined the pac because of this and so we are very excited to have more members involved in the project. and as we are seeing the bill for the approach across the district. we have already been contacted by several schools to continue working with the communities and the first event will be at visitation valley elementary school late they are month and we will keep you posted about that. and over the past few weeks is very exciting we have a member who worked to develop an essay about her experience and her story was recorded by kqed who was broadcasting this part of their program and we are proud of amy and heidi for bringing this idea to life. and about the potential work for doing more work with both traditional and newer media and you will be able to hear and see that piece, it is very exciting. and we will be able to reach more and different communities and audiences by doing so. and lastly, we are having a meeting next week, and we will be missing the committee of the whole meeting and you will be presenting the data, but we will be looking at it and commenting on that as well. and looking forward to many conversations with everybody, thank you. >> thank you, for your report. >> we look forward to seeing you again, next week. >> okay. let's move on to item f, public comment on consent items. i don't have any cards or speakers for that. >> item g, content calendar, the following summary pages, okay, is there a motion and a second for it? >> move, second. >> any items withdrawal or corrected by the superintendent? >> none. >> any items removed for first reading by the board? >> any items severed by the board or superintendent for discussion for tonight? >> seeing none, since i am to jump right over to the vote for the consent item here. and go to 0. vote on the consent calendar has been moved under section f, so roll call? >> lee? >> yes. >> wo ng. >> yes. >> fewe r. >> yes. >> mendoza. yes. >> merosy. >> aye. >> and wynn. >> aye. >> i am going to go ahead and i am just do a p, also, consent calendar for board and discussions in the media action, there were none, so p is done. >> i am going back to h, now. >> this is a superintendent proposals, held for speakers cards and action, none tonight. item i, board members proposal. speaker cards and action, none tonight. >> requests to speak regarding general matters. i have 8 speakers here, i don't know if we have any more? i think that this is a group and i will give this each speaker a minute and a half. joanna hag? josh verm it. jeniffer bishop, michael george, sherry beesley, gilian phillip, amy hagen, christen balmgardner. so you have a minute and a half. and i have one more speaker after that which is unrelated to this and i will call you up when they are finished. >> okay. let me get adjusted here. don't count the minute now because i thought that i had two minutes. hello, my name is johanna hagg and my daughter is in fourth grade. she started actually her fifth year and started in kindergarten and has been having a wonderful time attending ever since. and ever since we started at new traditions it has always been a very caring, collaborative school full of joyful learners. i have served myself on the sse board for two years there on the pta for three and last year as the president. and i can tell you a new traditions like all schools has faced challenges. i have also seen how well the school has worked together. with our fabulous wonderful principle. the teachers, the wonderful staff and the wonderful community of parents and children that we have. recently, at the school, a new teacher came to new traditions to teach the 3/4 split. >> excuse me for a second and i will not take away from your minute and a half. >> i should do this all of the time. if i knew it was a particular staff member, >> yes. >> we don't mention names. >> that is correct. >> that is why i said teacher >> i appreciate it. i want to make sure that we are clear. >> thank you for reminding. >> yes, a new teacher, came to our school to teach the 3/4 split at new traditions, since then we have seen our children go from joyful learners to being bored, unengaged, angry, shamed and even afraid. when my own daughter when i was driving her to school burst into tears and i pull the car over and said what is wrong? and she said i am not learning anything and i am afraid that i am going to flunk fourth grade and i am really afraid. this is unacceptable and we are here because we want to take action. and my fellow parents and my community are here to share their experiences as well. many of us have observed the classroom and all of the information that we are going to give you comes directly from experiences that we are hearing from our children. >> my name is crist tin bomgardner my daughter is also in the 3/4 split at new traditions she is also a very enthuse as stick learner and she is a gate student for the first time this year. and i just wanted to say that i kept in with the teacher as school began, new teacher and a parent checking to make sure there is anything to do to help my husband and i helped to set up parts of the classroom and every time that i would check in, any questions about curriculum or what the students were learning was quickly pushed aside and there was much talk about how the children are coming along so well. and sitting still and keeping their desks straight. so i asked my daughter who had not brought home any homework after two and a half weeks of fourth grade. no homework. what are you learning? what is going on? and she said, it is... i hate it. it is horrible, it is chaotic and there is no learning going on, it is just a lot of sitting around and waiting for everyone to settle down. so i am here... i did apply for to switch my daughter to another school. all of us have spoken to the principal and provided letters and we are here out of great respect for unified school district and we have had nothing but good experiences for our family, we have had nothing but good experiences. so, we are hoping that you can listen to our concerns, thank you. >> hi, there, josh, and my son is in the same class. i warked hord to get my son in the new traditions his brother has been there for the last three years and i see it to be an involved community with caring and talented children it was a 2012 california distinguished school and i am excited to be a part of it. this is the fourth week of school and this is our experience, no homework and little indication of what is dot. i seen infrequent work sheets that are not corrected. reports about the ininstruction in class include mention of drugs, blood, death, bullets a gun, and the rich verses the poor. he has told me that the teacher has sometimes said that parents go away and don't come back. i find that to be inappropriate. back to school night, we asked the teacher about our concerns, the next day in class she told the students that they should not tell bad things to the parents because it makes him feel bad. i feel telling my son or a child not to tell something to their parents is a breach of trust there has to be i can't even think of it. >> the teacher told the students that their room is filthy and has rodent droppings in it. whether or not that is true, that is something that the children should not be involved in, it is inappropriate. and several times he has made the children clean their own desks and he had to hold his breath. and he can't do his work because the teacher and confusing and speaks too much about the rules. the incomplete work sheets support this and confusion. he reports there is a good, bad list and students are scared in the classroom. the teacher walked by him after school one day and told him not to kick him. disturbances that everybody has to stop. a classroom run by fear and confusion where there is no leadership and to be blunt i am concerned about my son's safety and happiness. and this teacher has been only with us for three weeks, yet we have seen so many inappropriate choices, there is no (inaudible) that the teacher remains in the classroom. we would like him to be removed. >> hi, sherry beesley and i have two children at new traditions elementary school. like my fellow parents i am intimately involved in the classroom. my children have always enjoyed school and with the addition of this teacher my daughter does not want to go to school. she is asking to be staying home, she is bored and unchallenged and she is told that she is often to ask fourth grader works while the third graders learn to control their bodys. the social, emotional issues that are happening in the classroom. she feels hum mill ated by the list of good and bad. when she is not on the good list, she has asked the teacher what has she done wrong and he gives for guidance and no explanation, so she is feeling very unmotivated. he asked the students one day who has a problem with me and what is the problem? as they raised their hands he became defensive and angry and shut the conversation down, the next day he told the students that if they said bad things to their parents he would say bad things about them. so my daughter fears retribution in the classroom if she speaks to her parents, i really believe that the irreversible damage has been done to my child. he has broken the trust with me as the parent and lost the respect of my daughter and the best solution at this point is for him to be removed. it is inrek son silable. >> good evening, julian phillip a proud parent of a third grader in the same class. i echo the same sentiments that my friends and colleagues have mentioned. i am very concerned for my son, he is a very bois ter yus and happy student and he has described the class as boring, scary, violent, upsetting, and he is very nervous about going to school. he has cried about going to school which has never been the case. he is not a kid that is scared of anything but he is afraid of the classroom. two examples where he has talked about at home is the bad list and the good list. the first day of school he was asked to stand up as an example of a good student. and his name is put on the board in the good list. two weeks later he was put on the very bad list. he was asked to stand up and he was pointed as an example as a very bad student. so when i asked him, why was he put down as a very bad student he could not give any description of why. and i asked him again, why was he give an example of a good student and he was clearly and equally confused of why he was as a good student. i noticed back to school night that the teacher had put the curriculum up on the board and it was in how i presieved it as work on one side of the board and work that was kind of incomplete on the other so, again, the same thing with the good and the bad it was separating the students out into the good and bad students which is very concerning to me and the other thing that he has talked about is the homework assignments are very confusing and we have homework packet back a couple of days ago and i will stop there. >> thank you. >> my daughter is in the same class, the main thing that i want you to know is that i am concerned for my daughter's safety while being in the presence of her teacher. i arrived last wednesday to pick up my daughter at 3:30 at the pick up time to find that she was nowhere with the class and when i approached the teacher to ask where she was, he shrugged his shoulder and said that he did not know. i spent ten minutes after school looking for my daughter with no assistance from him and when i came after she was located by another student, i actually had to enlist the help of office administration to locate her and when i brought her back and said this is a problem for me and i am concerned that the fact that you did not know where my child was and that you did nothing to help find her. he said, she should have stayed with the group. and i found that to be inexcusable and scared for her safety. i don't want my child out on a field trip anywhere with this teacher with this attitude. and so i just wanted... that is basically my main point and thank you for your time. >> my name is michael gorgus and my daughter and my son also go to the same school. my daughter is in the 3/4th class. she has always been a very excellent student. she has exceled at school and enjoys the homework and enjoys school and loves going to school and could not wait for summer to get over to go to school. for three weeks she has become increasingly sad, she started to cry. she does not want to go to school any more. she is disengaged from the classroom and does not want to learn any more. at her back to school night, we asked the teacher what the curriculum was he was unable to explain his plan for the curriculum. he was unclear on how to implement the new curriculum with his old curriculum. he said that he had not taught this class before and it is very apparent. it appears very ruterless and my daughter is not learning anything any more and does not want to go to school. >> we feel his teacher methods are extremely inappropriate. on the first day of school, my daughter was asked to write a list of worri

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