Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20171201

Who rapped for us. So so you know, i want you all to know that we that i do listen, and i think its a very different thing to try to close an existing school and then open a new one. That is fu fundamentally different to me. Students in the high school, youre getting an up front view on how your local government work, and i invite you if you dont like the way we make the choices, to also run to be up here. That future is as available to you as it was to me. That was instilled to me in thurgood maernrshall on the same side of the city. I want you to feel you have not aagency for improving schools in your community, for those reasons, i plan to support the staffs recommendation to approve the charter. President Walton Commissioner sanchez, then Vice President mendozamcdonnell. Commissioner sanchez thank you, president. Thank you, Kipp High School college prep. Youre awesome. For the similar reason, im going to vote to approve the charter renewal. Commissioner cook, it is fundamentally different to close a school than to open a school. Opening a school, a new Charter School, i think for the reasons i put forward earlier and what other commissioners said is a whole different situation, but to close a school which is a community center, a hub, a beacon is the wrong thing to do in my book right now for the school. Also, it had a positive staff recommendation for renewal as well. This school board, in earlier inkarnation approved the original charter. Do i do want to reiterate there are problems with Charter Schools. Whether you want to phrase it as pushing out students. Students do leave Charter Schools. They dont get pushed out to another charter, they get pushed out to another Public School, and we gladly take them, but if i push as a principal at my school, cleveland elementary school, and i pushed out a student, theyre not going to go to a Charter School, theyre going to go to another school. Theres no reciprocity, and that has to change. If Charter Schools can cancel out and have students leave for one reason or another thats not going to make it, its not fair that nonCharter Schools cant do the same. I think thats lost on a lot of people but that is fundamentally different thing, and it needs to change, but i will support this renewal. President walton Vice President mendozamcdonnell. Thank you. I want to thank all the people that came out. I think the most powerful testimony we have comes from our young people, and i appreciate your honesty and ability to share the challenges that youve been faced with and what the school has done to support you in your efforts. I will full disclosure, my goddaughter is a senior at Kipp High School, and im really proud of who she has become and what shes been doing. She actually went to a Parochial School and didnt do well, and kipp accepted her with very open arms, and shell be graduating and going onto college, and im really excited to see who shes grown into during some very, very challenging family times. I have supported kipp, as ive said in the past, when we talked about the high school, we had a lot of questions and i appreciate all the efforts that have been put in. These are the these are the chances that we take, and its always wonderful when we see the outcomes that youve been able to put into this and so i know just from stories from other young people that have either worked in my office or that hangout on my street or my own goddaughter, that the quality of teaching at at kipp is high school is top notch, and the support that many of our young people receive there has been incredibly supportive, and for that, i will be supporting the renewal of kipp this evening, and im really looking forward to the continued outcomes that kipp has been able to produce, and i want to thank the principal for being passionate and taking care of your school and your children and being the role model that i think we all, as women of color in particular, want to see. Thank you. President Walton Commission commissioner merase . Commissioner merase i think we heard examples of demonstrated success, and i too was moved deeply by the testimony i heard. One of the concerns ive heard about the Charter School Movement Nationally is working conditions and compensation of teachers. Generally, the Charter Schools are pretty hostile to our labor unions. We have a couple of Charter Schools in our district that are unionized, Creative Arts Charter School and the five key school, and ive suggested at some of the meetings ive had with kipp leadership that they might consider a different approach to unionization, but i have not received complaints about working conditions at this particular kipp school, and i know that there are very limited reasons for denying a charter, and the staff analysis has concluded that the charter petition has met district requirements, so i will be supporting this petition. President walton student delegate . Id like to thank the young people today who came out to speak on behalf of kipp. I sit here representing student voices of Public School students, and when i hear your testimony, i feel like our goal to provide a suitable education for students and prepare them well for college also speaks in your words and i feel that closing down a school that has as the other commissioners put it, is a community hub, and to show that it can provide for its students, that also feels like thats going to be something thats going to be taken away from our city, and because of that, ill be voting to support it. President Walton Commissioner haney . Commissioner haney i just really quickly want to say how impressive the young people were who came up and spoke, especially the young man who came up and told us to put or phones away. That is bold, that is bold. That is bold. Commissioner haney and i have ive seen that just a few times, but maybe the First Student whod come up and done that, so thank you for holding us to a high standard, as well. We should all be held to that standard. And also to the young woman who said she moved here from el salvador in 2015. Wow, that was really impressive and just showed a lot of courage. So we appreciate you all being here, and the way that you showed up tonight, and ill also be supporting this petition. President walton thank you, colleagues. One thing i do want to say, of course, is im very excited about the young people here. The passion you have for your school, and the way you feel about your school, and you will be up here one day, you will actually be in certain positions and conducting meetings, etcetera. Always excited about young People Holding us accountable, but there are also things that do happen in realtime that we have to respond to, which is actually supportive of running a meeting. I would never want to disrespect none of our young people. I have children, and in high schools here, and well, graduated high school and middle school here now, but the point that im trying to make is its always a pleasure to have young folks among us and coming to speak. Just two points i want to make so that we talk about this bayview talk, and folks saying bay view, bay view. I just want to give you a little lesson about Kipp High School. When i first got elected to the board, i had a conversation with the leadership of Kipp High School, and they were trying very, very, very, very hard not to be placed at the gloria r. Davis site. They are working very hard to not be placed at the gloria r. Davis site in bay view, and my conversation with kipp at the time is if this school is so great, our parents, our families, and the communities will embrace the school because of what youre providing for our young people, so i want to give you a history less an so as you continue to push forward, as you keep the pride in your school, i want you to understand that that was not the first choice. I have to be honest and up front about that as we continue to have this conversation about people using bay view when its the buzz word, and when its the time to use bay view, but i want to be clear about what i know and what has actually happened and what took place. Second thing, second thing i want to say is our young people are amazing, but i do want you to know and understand this there are a lot of people that have graduated from sfusd that are doing a tremendous job for the city and doing very, very well. Members of the board of supervisors, members of this board of education, members lawyers, doctors, judges. I want you to understand that the top job in this School District is occupied by a graduate of San Francisco unified School District, so just the narrative about not being not being able to be successful, you might want to try something else, because we have very successful people daytoday that continue to come through our Public Schools. With that said, i am going to support this school because one, ive had conversations with school personnel, ive met students, met young people, and were not about tearing apart things that are working, that exist, and people that have developed the school community, but lets all Work Together to change that narrative about whats really happening and focus on the positive aspects of what we all can do as we Work Together. Roll call vote please, miss casco. Clerk thank you, on 1710 sp 2, renewal of the contract for kipp sf Charter School. [ roll call. ] clerk thats all for unanimous. President walton thank you. And please try to please try to leave the room quietly if you are leaving. We still have more business to attend to this evening. Item 171024 sp 1, revisions to board policy 5101, Student Assignment, moved and seconded on october 24th, 2017, heard at the committee of the whole meeting on november 7th, a positive recommendation was given to this policy by general consent of the board. Superintendent please, may we have a designee for a representation of reading it into the record. Good evening, superintendent, and commissioners. The recommended action is that the board adopt revisions to board policy p5101, Student Assignment number 71024 st 1. President walton thank you so much. There are no public speakers signed up, are there any comments from the board . Commissioner norton . Commissioner norton im going to support the special order of business, but i want to renew a request that was made i cant remember where we made it, actually, if it was curriculum oh, it was the committee of the whole, and i would like to to explore perhaps an up coming Student Assignment Committee Meeting, dr. Merase, or expanded form to some of our selected high schools, so how we could expand this preference to school of the arts and low ell. I know thats not the recommendation thats before us tonight, but i think that we should explore it. President Walton Commissioner sanchez. Commissioner sanchez yes, and its been some kind of a preference for willie brown. So thank you. So i support this policy, as well, and i support commissioner nortons suggestion that we in our Student Assignment, Ad Hoc Committee that we explore this option of having it include lowell, and just explore that option. And also, i think president walton had mentioned in some other forum the the notion of exploring having certain Elementary Schools having a preference, as well, for middle schools, so that certain vastly under enrolled Elementary Schools that almost yearly come up for discussion about being closed, if we can look at those Elementary Schools and give them up coming kindergarten schools, for example, if they go through the entire school through 5th grade, and go to middle schools, that their options are expanded, that they have a priority to go to a high preference middle school, as well. President Walton Commissioner merase . Commissioner merase i just wanted to note that the next Ad Hoc Committee meeting is set fore December December 7th, and we can see if at that time if we can accommodate commissioner nortons request. If not, the next meeting would be february 8th. President walton seeing no other comment, call the role, miss casco. Clerk [ roll call. ] thats six ayes. Thank you, miss casco. Board policy 6461. 6, identification and education under section 504, moved and seconded on september 12th, 2017, report from the rules Committee Meeting of october 30th, commissioner sanchez . Commissioner sanchez part of the positive recommendation to the full board. President walton thank you so much. Superintendent, designee to introduce the recommendation into the record. Thisll be introduced into the record by our general counsel, miss houck. The recommended action this evening is is that you approve board policy 6146, identification and education under section 504. President walton thank you. No public speakers signed up. Any comments . Questions from the board. Seeing none, roll call vote please, miss casco. Clerk yes. [ roll call. ] thats six ayes. President walton thank you. Miss casco, board policy 3260, fees and charges, moved and seconded november 12th. As well, this board policy was approved by the committee and forwarded to the full board. President walton thank you, commissioner sanchez. Superintendent please have somebody read this into the record. Once again this will be read into the record by general koungs miss houck. The recommended action this evening is that the board approval policy 3260, fees and charges. President walton thank you. There is no Public Comment signed up for this item. Any comments, questions, statements from colleagues . Student delegate . Seeing none, roll call please, miss casco. Clerk [ roll call. ] that thats five ayes. President walton thank you. [ inaudible ] commissioner sanchez report from rules. Commissioner sanchez it was forwarded to the full board with a positive recommendation, that this is the only policy that i think merits some conversation, so maybe counsel can illuminate a little bit of this policy houck houck sure, so this policy is being recommended for revision in order to address our appeals process for student expulsion, so under the education code, the county board of education is typically responsible for hearing an appeal from a district decision to expel a student, but of course, we are a single district County School board, and so we are recommending that we amend this policy so that if the district expels a student, the student would have an opportunity to appeal to a neutral body cde through our uniform complaint process. Commissioner sanchez because the appeal would just normally go back to the full board houck houck our recommendation is we offer students a meaningful opportunity to be heard by a separate body and so cde is our recommendation here. Commissioner sanchez thank you. President walton thank you for the clarification. Any other questions or statements from colleagues . Commissioner cook . Commissioner cook yeah, im in favor of the suggested change, and i just wanted to mention overall, i think that we have to do a more thorough examination of our own expulsion policy. We have far too many African American latino students being expelled. I just wanted to put that on the record that i want to see expulsions reduced overall, but having another opportunity to debate it, i think, is a great idea. President walton seeing no other comment, roll call vote please, miss casco. Clerk thank you. [ roll call. ] thats seven ayes. Thank you, miss casco. Board item 9323. 2, moved and seconded on october 26th, 2017, report and rules kmitiy commissioner sanchez. Commissioner sanchez this was for the recorded by the committee with a full by the commission with a full recommendation to the committee. President walton thank you, miss houck. Any questions, statements from colleagues, or. Hearing none, roll call vote please, miss casco. Clerk thank you. [ roll call. ] thats seven ayes. President walton thank you so much miss casco. Once again, i want to thank everyone for being here tonight. I know its already been a long meeting. Believe me, it is for us, as well. I want to apologize for the time that its taken, but we did have to get through certain items of business. As you all can see, there are a lot of people here this evening, so we are going to continue to try to move as fast as possible. With that said, we are going to move item h up before section f, and part of the reason were doing that is because this is the superintendents report out from his 90 day assessment, and so we want, of course, to have our our families and the public represented as you hear about what the plans are and what superintendent sees, so we are going to ask the superintendent now to give his that is around the africanamerican students and then the next step. So why the plan . The purpose of the plan as you can see, these were the all of the purposes. It was t to ensure a smooth transition of leadership, to develop the clear relationship with the commissioners, to create opportunities for me to listen to the stakehol