Transcripts For SFGTV 20140114

Task force, that miss williams referred to, and she is on that and the pac, and then, the other members of the task force, including coldman advocate and it was determined that there were two modifications to the policy from the committee of the whole, and those modifications are one, that we would remove the clause about the seal of College Readiness and in addition to that, that we would only do option five which is option five, for a Continuation High Schools for the class of 2014 and the class of 2015 and then after, the students would go back to option one and so we will just delay it for two years for continuation of the high school students. Those were the only two changes from the committee of the whole. The original that was discussed and at committee of the whole, included, change of the requirements for county programs, the students that are governed by the county, of San Francisco, and we have brought out why, because you act as both the county board of education and as of a board of education for San Francisco, unified school district. So mr. San der son, i think that this is a good compromise, i have been able to go out and visit with the Learning Center and i have had a chance to speak to the principals of Downtown High school and also wells, and i have been out to log cabin and spoke to them. And also a conversation, a long conversation with the principal at the civic center and i also have a call in to gon sal les who is in charge of the city college. I think that this is recognizing that we did not have a plan of the class of 2015, and the class of 2014, 15, that we could implement it and you are seeing that great, financial crisis that we were under and so we did what we could and now that we have the clean data, and we are so close. And with the teachers and every student. And, i have to come mend the district for getting that close, without having a fiscal plan, without acting on the proposal. I agree that the county, we should modify, and they are in and out, and it is difficult, however, i do at the Committee Meeting of the whole, i did bring up my interest in implementing some Certificate Programs and especially at log cabin and at woodside Learning Center, that those Certificate Programs, such as the food Safety Certificate program, is a 16 hour course, but it is good for five years and so response graduation or a ged, that our students are able then to go out and perhaps, seek the employment if they should desire to. I also think that we should partner and expand, with the Early Morning ged program, and i had a chance to go out and visit that this week, it was quite impressive who i saw and i go to the graduation every year and as the commission murase, i know, they graduate, and incredible amount of students, with the ged and they have the great, Great Success there. And that program with liz, jackson, and simpson. And so, i would like, us also during the two years that we are looking at this and we are going to give this waiver, and i would also like to look at civic center and what is the purpose of it, i think at the curriculum Committee Meeting is what we heard is that the civic center is a hodge pogde of students and the Continuation Schools i think that the principals know that the students are low on credits and we have to get them up to speed and graduate. At the center it is a hoj poj of students of why they are there and not serving the students and quite frankly it is not serving our system either. And so, i think that this temporary solution is good, i think that it gives us time, to look at where our resources are, and so i urge the staff, and the superintendent to look at allocations and maybe additional allocations, to the Continuation Schools, and to have a real budget behind what we are going to do for the classes of 2016, 2017 and on ward, but, thank you for this proposal, i do think that it does reflect the deep and heated conversation that we had at the Committee Meeting of the whole. P miss way . Hi. And and i like the report about what happened to it. And and followed for the students that take the different options one. On the student information system, we actually have to identify which option or plan a student is using to graduate, so, we will be starting to track that information and we will have data on that information, annually, and we are going to change the name, because we had names in plan a, ef, but we will be changing that and we will be tracking that data annually in the new student information system. Thank you. Dr. Murase . I really want to thank all of the faculty and the county and the schools that came to the committee of the whole, we learned a great deal in that meeting. Want to express my concern of relaxing the requirements in math and world languages. I am glad to see that there is a sunset on this for two years, to see how it works, and i am very glad for that revision, to the plans but i still feel very strongly that math and language is really very important to all of our students, and i would like to explore ways to better support students, before they end up in continuation or county schools. So that these requirements will be less of an issue, finally i want to raise a point that i raised with the committee of the wholly dont like the ver badge of the option, you dont have a option one or two, you are assigned based on what category of student you fall into and so i would urge that can be changed to plan, one, 2, 3, 4, 5, because the students are on a plan based on whether they are, you know, the foster system or whether they are a foreign born. And so i just think that the option is very confusing and in our effort to make our work understandable to our families i would like to propose that change. Are you proposing an amendment . Yes. Second. Thank you. And so now we are going to discuss dr. Murases suggested amendment to the board policy, which will be to everywhere the word option appears under the various schemes of the requirements, and we will change that to plan. Is there any comment from the board . Yes, commissioner . Since the commissioner murase mentioned this suggestion, i know that there are a lot of suggestions made, and i am not suggesting of the ignoring of that idea. But could you tell us if the discussion if any that you had we could understand, what the issue is and what you think about it. We have looked at several policies from other districts that we tried to model and the option was a word that was consistently used and in the previous iteration where we had the plan a, e, f, and it became quite confusing. And the other thing that adds especially, in this particular district, when we say, plan a, or plan ahead, we are referring to a curriculum, and in the district that is named, plan a or plan ahead that is unique to San Francisco. And with all of that said, with all of that said, we decided that the best verbage was option, 1, 2, 3, based on option, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, based on what we were seeing in the other policies. If i may, i understand that that was the way that you got to this proposal in the first place, i am asking if after the committee of the whole, you considered commissioner murases suggestion or idea that you brought this then and by the way, i appreciate that, but i think that is, you know, administrator teacher talk that is not what the students dont use that plan a, plan ahead, verbage as far as i know and i have never heard it. Is that not correct . Is that a professional kind of discussion . Not a student, or a parent one . Commissioner wynns as our counselors and our teachers have worked with our students around the college and career readiness, and the verbage plan ahead has become much more of the lexicon in the conversation and i would just say that if it is the desire of the board to change the option to plan, that perfectly is okay. I dont see a problem with that. Okay. So there was a little bit of a snafu with the speaker cards, so it turns out that there are two public speak fores this item and so i am going to call you up now and i am going to mangle your names and i apologize in advance for that. Kristine that carniva and laura farr . You each have two minutes. P good evening, everyone, cristina, or canaveral, either way is fine, please exexcuse my super stylish wardrobe. I am here to talk about athrough g, and we are excited to see this move forward. And temporarily, we are glad this is not permanent, what is key is what happens after tonight . We know that in the past four years there was not a physical plan and so now we have the opportunity to develop that fiscal plan and we have the opportunity with a, through, g and with common core and with lcff and everything that is coming down the road, we have almost like, as bill puts it a perfect storm and an opportunity to really look at how we can reshape our children he education and so that we take advantage that have particularly in the next two years to make sure that the next class, 2016, 2017 and beyond, they are not getting reactive measure to catch up, but they are already there and graduating with honors and going on to college, thank you. Thank you, for picking us. And im the state wide Education Rights director for Public Counsel law center and we regularly represent the young people in the schools and Community Based schools and court schools. And the one thing that i would hope that i dont know, for certain is in the resolution is that there would be notification, that could be provided to the students that they are not receiving the a, through, g for this period and for some sort of mechanism to have access to it, because my concern is for the young people that dont get it for two years, it is very, very hard to catch up in our Community Colleges are filled and often begin the people that i serve and the formers who then go into the juvenile Justice System sometimes can never make it up and never get back in and never catch up and they dont get the opportunity to go to the 4year, university and so i am hopeful that there will be some mechanism that they can understand what rights that they are not getting and what it means that a, through, g is not provided and some sort of strategy that the district can take on to help to insure that the young people that do want to go to a 4 year school and the parents understand where they can go in the district to get that before they turn 18, and the district says that you are 18 now and we dont have a option for you. Thank you. Commissioner murase and then commissioner. Well, we are still discussing the amendment, arent we . We have not voted on the amendment and is your comment on the amendment . Okay is there any further comment or discussion on the amendment . Proposed by dr. Murase . Okay. So, could we have a roll call, please on the proposed amendment . We met with the option. And to plan, to the word. To the plan. Thank you. Okay, miss way, yes mr. Logan. Yes. Miss fewer . Yes. And mr. Haney, yes. Miss murase . Yes. Mis mendoza . Yes. Miss wines . Wao ins . Yes. And as amend and now we will go back to discussing the main motion and commissioner murase was next and then commissioner wynns. Luckily my comments were spoken about and i appreciate you coming forward and what i was going to say which is, pardon me for any students in the continuation system that fall under this category, as we have explained what is happening in their education, and as we discussed within their education plans to graduate and we let them know what they can get and what they are eligible get and where they are in the spectrum of graduation, i hope that if and when we hear from the students, well i want to attain the Energy Course schedule and complete it before i graduate and we provide them with options and encourage them to do that and so we may have to restrategy and give them the opportunities be it at their Continuation School or as we develop, our own option, or other alternative option of accessing courses, and let them have those opportunities. And i know that you are shaking your head, mr. San der son, because i totally believe that we are of that mind, and we have that sort of caviot with these students that fall under this category. I would just like to clarify thanksgiving. There is no, we are not denying any students access to the a, to, g curriculum and even if the. So if we, i do think that we should notify students to say, that these are the requirements, and which we do already. And i mean, that we tell the freshman, this is what you are expected and what you need to do and we have meetings with them and we tell them that you are on track and you are not on track and we have been talking about this for years, but certainly this year, quite a lot. And the same thing is true, so i would presume that we are going to say to students, in the situations, that this is what, and these are your requirements for graduation and here is the a, g, requirements and this is what you dont have to do and here is but you have every opportunity to do that so we need to, and i personally, am opposed to us notifying students by saying, this is something that you are not getting. Because that is not our intention, we want to say, these are the opportunities that you have and what can we do to help you to reach those milestones, but we also are trying to make it possible for them to graduate. So, im hoping that our communication will be in that light and that we will in our rhetoric be clear, that what and in the fact that we have in the past, we have had a lot of schools, especially the small ones and they could meet the a, to, g requirement but it was hard and her it could still be true is not every class could be offered every semester and etc. Etc. And so i think that we and therefore the public, through us, need to be privy to all of those documents and whatever communication that we have with them and just to get a sense of how we are doing that. And so, i am sorry that i am preempting the executive director bill san der son, sorry bill, but i do think that this is actually a very good point to clarify in that what is being proposed is not the plan. And it is, and with all due respect to the amendment that has been adopted, it is an option that we to not deny the diploma and the plan is to make a full a, through, g course of study and i think that what is important to highlight is what is referenced earlier in the terms of the significant number of students that have actually risen to this higher standard and this higher bar, of which we are all very, very, excited about, and has been the result of some for mittable work that our counselors and our schools are doing and that our principal and assistant principal and quite honestly all of the teachers in the secondary and middle schools are the conversations that you are having with the students and their parents around with their plan of action is to meet these standards and so they are being marinated in this notion that there is a higher standard and there is a higher bar and that that is the standard for graduating from San Francisco unified with a diploma. These two years, though, gives us the option, if a student has not met that, to still be able to award a diploma and quite frankly, there was a plan developed for a, through, g implementation, the problem was that during that same time period, we cut 150 Million Dollars from our budget. Which des mated that plan and what i am so grateful to this board is that we have said with this twoyear, this two year, option, we are not going to have the students pay the price for that economic down turn, we are not going to make them pay for what was happening to all of our budgets at that time. So these two years, are actually going to be very much in line with what the comments have been from the Board Members and there is going to be a time for us to ramp up our robust systems of support for our students, including our most historically under served students, and we are going to be very, very mindful of how students are doing and, how they are progressing, but lets be really clear and i want the public to be very clear that the default, curriculum is aligned to a. Through, g for all of our students and this twoyear window just gives us the option so that students dont have to pay the price for the economic down turn as we ramp up the support to make sure that all of the students meet that bar. Vice president fewer . Yes, but i do, i do sort of disagree, that they have an opportunity to make the a, through, g at their school site if they are not offering it at the continuation, for example, Downtown High school does not offer world language. You know . So, i do think that we should tell our students that if they so choose, that these are the places where they can get or get the world language credit. Either, we do it online, and an option, or either it is a city college, course, or either it is an Evening School course, and so, you know, i think that just to say that we actually give all of the students, the opportunities, but, if they are actually at a Continuation School and they dont have a world language class and we we should tell them where they can get it, do you agree on that . We are talking about Going Forward for the nekd two years and in that two year period there is counseling that is happening with the counselors and teachers. And so all that have is being taken into consideration, as part of a plan moving forward. The two, year, window just gives us an opportunity, and not have to the kids pay the price, but are be absolutely right. Commissioner haney, i appreciate the comments and the superintendent and i also want to echo it and everything who was involved in the compromise, i know that we had concerns about the committee of the whole and i think that this reflects a fair compromise and the involvement of all of the important stake holders. And i will, would want to reiterate two important points that i think that have been made and i want to reiterate them and we want to make sure that we have one graduation requirement and that we get back on track to the a, through, g policy and that the board really supports that and we will be looking at the superintendent said as to how we not just give back to that and what we do over the next two years to insure the success to the students and with that, that we prioritize the schools and the students and we believe in equity and that has to mean that we support the students with the greatest needs and so the students who are in the continuation of the schools and many of us have been to the schools and talked to the principals and we want to make sure that they have what they need. And we will be able to have the further conversations about those schools, that did come out. And also the conversations that we have and the Curriculum Committee last thing and that this is a question that we were trying to get out of th committee of the whole and i want to follow up on quickly which is did you have a sense of for the class of 2014, how many students in the Continuation Schools are going to be affected by this change . And so, students who because we are making this change, are going to, or look like they will be able to meet the graduation requirements that would not otherwise . I think that we are talking about the relatively smaller number of students and we are completing the graduation requirements and it is good to know how many students we are talking about for the Continuation Schools. Thank you. The impact will all of the students that are in the county programs because of that option but a Continuation Schools and we reran the data on the december third and it looks like there is potential that either 30 students could be impacted at those particular schools and there are some of those studentses that i want to add that we do believe that those students can meet the option one, graduation requirement s and we want to provide every single opportunity for that to happen and through the office of extended learning that is one of the thinks that we are using to do that, but potentially, 30 students is a board number, but we do believe that it will be less than that because we do believe that many of the students will be able to complete option one. Commissioner wynns . I had a discussion of the at the committee of the whole meeting but i think that this we are going to pursue, this is a big israelsue issue, and again, one of the disincentives to encourage the students to stay for a 5th year taken care of through the waiver work and that is it will be different and, it will be a different part of our district accountabilities system. I understand that that is not why we did it, but it made Everything Else harder, i mean the state and all kinds of things were really making it practically impossible to have fifth year plans for students, but, so that issue about, if we could say to the kids, now what we say to them, here is your option and it is Continuation High School because it is the only way to get those credits in there so that you can graduate on time and if we could do better about suggesting you will be far more likely to be able to reach the a, to g, requirements and including getting cs in those course and repeating them if you want to and you could go to csu and i think that it would sort of change the dynamic of the discussion with our students and what support means and i hope that we will start on that right away, i know that we have started on it but i hope that we will actually make that a real part of our discussion and our planning in the very near future, thank you. Okay, any other comments from Board Members . No. Okay. Roll call, please . On the amended motion. As amended. Miss wei . Yes. Mr. Logan, yes. Fewer. Yes. Haney. Yes. Murase. Yes. Mendoza. Yes. Dr. Murase. Yes. Miss wynns . Yes. And miss norton, yes. I wanted to recognize director bill san der son for the long leadership in this area and being so attentative to all of the feedback and to our deputy superintendent as well. And to our Graduation Task force for sticking with us, so thank you all. Thank you. I just wanted to add to the appreciation and this was possible because of a lot of internal collaboration not just from the support office and the high School Support team and i think that you saw our administrators are fully on board with making sure that we realize the potential here and our counselors, who really worked hard to give us a much more accurate sense of the student by student, about what some of those factors are and i think that all of that information is going to be very helpful, and put as we design a support strategy moving forward. Okay. Thank you, very much. We will now move on to item i. Board members proposals. There are none. This evening. And item j. Request to speak regarding general matters. We already took our one speaker advisory committees or reports are there any appointments . Yes. Would i like to reappoint my bcc member, jackson. Thank you. Seeing none,p could i have a motion and a second on the review of the annual and five year report related to the collection and expenditure of developer fees . So moved. Second. May we have a reading of it. Yes, i would like to ask the chief officer david golden to do the read. Thank you. It is the most exciting time of the year again, where we bring the annual report for the collection of