San Francisco Government SmartTranscripts:

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Commissioner Gupta? Here. Vice President Huling? Here. Commissioner Ray? Here. Commissioner Weissman-Ward? Here. And President Kim?

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Here. Accessibility information, translation services, and information to observe the meeting is available online. SFUSD will provide child care for regular board meetings and monitoring meetings on the 1st Floor of the Enrollment Center at 555 Franklin from 06:30 to 9PM or the close of the meeting, whichever comes first. Child care is for families who will be attending the regular and monitoring board meetings. Space is limited and will be provided on a first come first served basis for children's ages three to 10. Questions, please contact the board office at (415) 241-6427 or boardoffice@sfusd.edu. At this time, before the board goes into closed session, I call for any speakers to the closed session items listed in the agenda. There will be a total of five minutes for speakers. There any speakers for public comment?

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Not at this time.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: I now recess this meeting at 05:05PM.

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[Phil Kim, Board President]: Period lasts for one hour. Today, we'll stay until 07:45PM. We look forward to hearing from the public before we conduct board business. Bless you. Our goal is to conduct board business in an efficient, effective, and accessible manner during reasonable hours. We aim to respect staff, family, and community time by ensuring a move to board business as soon as possible. Each participant may speak for up to one minute. Staff will thank the participant at the one minute mark. At one minute and five seconds, I have asked mister Trujillo to please turn off the mic and transition to the next speaker. I ask members of the public to please respect the one minute limit so that we can hear from as many speakers as possible. I encourage speakers who are speaking on the same topic to collaborate and combine their comments so that the board can hear all viewpoints during our limited time. Please also note that the board accepts written public comments via email at boardoffice@sfusd.edu. We will hear first from students in person, the members of the general public in person, beginning with agenda items, then moving to non agenda items. Regardless of whether in person public comment is complete, we will save fifteen minutes for remote public comment at the end, taking commenters in the same order as in person. To members of the public, on your right, you'll see signs that outline expectations for public comment and meeting conduct. We ask that all members of the public model the kind of tone, language, and behavior that we hope to see from our young people, respecting different viewpoints and allowing for all members of the public to participate. As a remember as a reminder, board rules in California law do not allow us to respond to comments or attempt to answer questions during the public comment time. If appropriate, the superintendent will ask that staff follow-up with speakers. Mr. Trujillo?

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Sorry, we're fixing something with the Zoom for, sign language interpretation. One second. Thank you, President Kim. We have 41 adult speakers and 19 students. We'll start with students. As I call your name, please line up. Lara Matthews, Amelia Cook, Alejandra Romaldo, Neda, Joseline Tirado.

[Speaker 6.0]: My name is Amelia Cook.

[Speaker 7.0]: And I'm Cora Matthews, and we're seventh graders at James Denman Middle School. When I first heard about the budget cuts, I was sad. I was sad about how I might not have the opportunity to have both public speaking and computer science elective next year. Both electives that would help me learn skills that would aid me the rest of my life and taught by some of my favorite teachers. Personally, I don't like my academic opportunities being taken away and every student deserves a seventh period day. As I learned more about the cuts, I became more worried about my school and my experience in middle school. Cutting security means making school less safe,

[Speaker 8.0]: and as someone who has a lot

[Speaker 7.0]: of anxiety about that, the thought of Denman being even less safe makes me less encouraged to be at school. In addition, in eighth grade, there are tons of end of the year events such as the picnic and camping trip that make students last year of middle school the best. If these budget cuts happen, other students, me, and the students after us will be stripped of those opportunities. That for one makes me mad. I sincerely ask you to not pass the budget cuts so that others and I can finish our middle school experience feeling safe, happy, and fully educated.

[Speaker 6.0]: Don't stabilize the budget by destabilizing school communities.

[Speaker 9.0]: In my opinion, I feel like it's wrong taking away our teachers because since one of my schools in the list of taking away, out of 22, they're gonna leave 14 teachers and I don't feel like that's not that fair because we got newcomers. If they take off newcomers, that could affect a lot of us because we're a lot of immigrants in our middle school. And, as the vice president and soon canceled, I've started to feel worthy for my own community and school. So, I will try to help and attend more meetings. Thank you.

[Speaker 6.0]: Hi. My name is. I'm seventh grade in Middle East Asian Middle School. I'm part of the new program. I'm here to speaking my feeling about the rejection of my program. This program is important to me. In my LD class, I I learned how to read and write in English. I made friends in my program, and we practice in English together. My teachers my teacher are important to me because they are the one who teach us English. Please keep our program. Thank you for listening. My

[Speaker 8.0]: name is Jocelyn. I'm a I'm a seventh grader at Visitation Valley Middle School. I I am here because I disagree with the budget you gave to our school. At first, our newcomer program was taken away but thankfully, it was given back. However, the budget still cuts important teachers and support staff. Next year, we would only have one counselor, one social work social worker, two security staff, and no assistant principals. When students have problems at school, these adults help us so cutting them is not fair to students. Our assistant principals, Ms. G and Ms. Woods, help our principal, Ms. Baker, manage the school each day and support students. For example, Ms. G always checks on students by asking how we are doing and making sure we are good. Also, why are you still trying to push a six period date? I and many other students across the city spoke out against this last month. All students need electives regardless of the language they speak or if they can speak English correctly. Please keep our seventh period schedules and give our school the funds that we need to take care of every student and keep our teacher support staff. Thank you.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Please line up as I call your name. Delcy, Marie Tanguino, Romina Gomez, Jallia Mackey, Melanie Sabai.

[Speaker 10.0]: Hello, my name is Mary. I am in seventh grade.

[Lisa Weissman-Ward, Commissioner]: Oh. Can

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: we have the translator come up and interpret?

[Interpreter (Spanish-English)]: Thank you.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Yeah, okay. Go ahead.

[Speaker 10.0]: Hello, my name is Mary.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: No, hold on. Let him translate and then.

[SFGovTV Announcer]: I'm gonna

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: say what she said first.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Go ahead.

[Interpreter (Spanish-English)]: Thank you. Hello, everyone. My name is and I'm a seventh grader. And I'm here as part of the group of the new students or newcomers that have come to school, and I just want to advocate for you not to cut off the program. We, the newcomers, we benefit greatly from this program so we can learn English in a better way. And if you got the program in our side then will be subjected to move to another school and kinda like start over, getting to know other people and teachers, and that's not really beneficial for us. I'm just here to beg you to keep our program at our school that it benefits us all. Thank you.

[Speaker 10.0]: Hello. My name is Mary. I'm seventh grade in an attend visit Visitor Valley Middle School. I am a newcomer student. I'm here to explain my discovery of the school budget for new here because I love our newcomers so much. I learn English here, and I live so close to the school. I don't want to leave this valley. The budget is asking for our school to call teacher and reduce a newcomer program. My teacher helped me so much in every subject, and I don't want to lose them. My teacher helped me in everything. Even even if it's hard for me, they make it easier. I don't want you to take me away from my teacher and me away from them. Thank you for the same.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Go ahead, interpreter.

[Interpreter (Spanish-English)]: Thank you. Hello, everyone. My name is Romina Gomez, and I'm a seventh grader at East Valley. Please, I just want to beg you not to take away any other programs. As you know, I'm benefiting out of this program because I came from other country and I feel very comfortable in this program because I get all support and they made teachers and staff make me feel very comfortable and since when I arrived. The other thing I want to say is I also benefit out of practicing soccer. I practicing a sport makes me feel that I'm more responsible and I do have more discipline. And I wanna say that without my teachers and my coach, I cannot do any of this teamwork effort. And if you take away any of these programs, it will impact not only my future, but everybody's future. Thank you.

[Speaker 10.0]: Is it on? Is it on?

[Speaker 13.0]: Okay. Hi.

[Speaker 14.0]: My name is Jillian Mackie, and I'm a student at Visitation Bradley Middle School. I'm here to express my disapproval of the budget given to my school for the next school year. Currently, this budget will cut our support staff and our teachers from 21 to 14, which means losing seven teachers. This is a terrible idea because it will lead to much larger classes and less attention to people who need extra support. I would feel very sad and upset if I were to lose my favorite teacher to security guards because they know me and help me through my problems or if I'm having a hard day. This year and last year, made the girls soccer team and made so many friends, many of them who are newcomer students. I do not think it is fair for them to lose their elective next year because you have decided to change our schedule to a six period day. All students in SFUSD deserve an deserve to have an elective, and this is oh, I'm sorry. And this is especially true at my school because elective are both where both oh, I'm so sorry. Both where gen ed and newcomer students share a space and interact with each other. Electives are important because it allows us to build community across differences, be creative, and learn new fun things together. I urge the decision makers of this budget to do better and change this budget to oh, I'm so sorry. To save our teachers and staff and to truly support and serve all students. Thank you for listening.

[Speaker 15.0]: My name is and I go to Visitation Valley Middle School. I am I'm here to speak against the budget cuts planned for my school next year. Even though the newcomer program was brought back, teachers and support staffs like assistant principals, counselors, and securities are still being cut. These adults help us keep us safe and supported. The budget would get reduced. Our budget would reduce our teachers from 21 to 14. This is not fair to us. We are teachers mean bigger classes and less help. When classes are crowded, it is harder for us to learn and succeed. I spoke last I spoke here last month against the proposed change of our scheduled to six period day. I am disappointed that this is still an issue. Elective classes are important, and all students deserve the chance to have an elective, especially our new our newcomer and ELD students. Please reconsider the budget and give our school the funding we need to support every student at UVMS.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Thank you. Please line up as I call your name. Andrea Sofia Benitez, Diane Guadames, Stacy Viera Mejia, Alejandra Rios, Fria. Interpreter, please go ahead.

[Interpreter (Spanish-English)]: Thank you. Hello everyone, my name is Sophia and I'm a student here at Visitation Valley. I'm in the new primary program and it was very important for me to assist this program because at the beginning of coming here, I didn't actually know how to speak English. And I've been learning how to speak English little by little. And when I when there were times when I was feeling lost, I had the support of my teachers and the staff to make me feel that I belong here. And they also tell me how to feel that I believe, that I can believe in me. And without the help of these teachers, if you've got the program, everything is gonna just be slow. It's gonna be very hard for me to learn English at the pace that I'm doing right now and also to have success. We need also the same opportunities than anybody else to keep having success in this program. If you cut off this program, it's going to be devastating for all of us. Thank you. Hello everyone, my name is Alessandra and I'm an eighth grade student at Vis Valley. Please do not take away any of my teachers. I have the best teachers that I ever had before. And they have picked me all the best and they know how to do their job. And their job is excellent. And I also want you not to take them away because I want this other students from the seventh, sixth and seventh grade to learn the way that I've been learning. And this is, and they know how to do their job and please don't take them away. And that would be taking away opportunities for not just me, for future students. Thank you.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Go ahead, introvert. Hello,

[Interpreter (Spanish-English)]: everyone. My name is Stacy, and I'm a VISP student. If you eliminate this program, the newcomer program, it's going be very hard for us, the English learner students. And we if you eliminate this, then our classes are going to become bigger, and it's going to be very hard for us to learn anything. And what we need, it's more quality education. If you eliminate this problem, the quality will, it won't be with good quality as we have it right now. And we have really good teachers that can teach us a lot of good things. Also, instead of eliminating programs like the newcomer program, you should consider to actually probably hire more people and actually make a stronger community and a stronger program for all of us. Thank you. Hello, my name is Diana and I'm an eighth grader at Dissertation Valley. If you eliminate the possible elimination of our program, the newcomer program, it will impact terribly all the students and actually not to help them. For example, for me, it was not to learn a new language, but it's also to learn different ways to learn a new culture. And this is very important for all the students. Please consider not to eliminate the newcomer program. Thank you.

[Speaker 13.0]: My name is and and I I go to SFC Community School.

[Speaker 16.0]: Schools

[Speaker 13.0]: are for learning, not for closing down and firing teachers.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Sorry, there's something going on with our timer. It's not working. Please line up as I call your name. Valeria Goykocher, Cheng Gao, Isaac Morayia, Amina Cherova Chertova, Manco David Martinez.

[Speaker 17.0]: Good evening board members. My name is Valeria. I'm in eleventh grade and I am from San Francisco International High School. Ever since I started studying SFI, I've noticed the dedication of SFI teachers and counselors is amazing by the way they support the students by making us feel confident that we're going to have a successful future in college. One of the most important virtues of the school is that you don't necessarily need to get support from your counselor, but actually any adult in the school is willing to help you with what you need. And, we get all the help we need as international students such as immigration status, emotional support, and other things. Overall, what I'm trying to say is we can go to school every morning knowing that if we have any issue or worry, there will be someone that will help us get through it. So please support the students and teachers of San Francisco International High School. Thank you.

[Speaker 18.0]: My name is Chang and I'm eleventh grade at San Francisco International High School. And I want to share some of my own experience. So on the first day that I come to the school in The US, everything that make me feel so overwhelming because I couldn't understand what they're saying, the class, and something else. And the teachers help me to find the article that's suitable for me for my English level and let me to use translate and understand and help me to understand individually. And that really helped me improve my English. And also, there are some the program that provide our school helped me a lot. And also, the last year, I feel so stressed because of my social and also industrial, like, around me. And so I talked with the school wellness. And my school wellness is very so they've helped me to find a therapy that who speak Chinese and talk with me every week, and that really helpful for me.

[Speaker 19.0]: So please support the students and the teacher of

[Speaker 18.0]: San Francisco International High School.

[Speaker 20.0]: Good evening, board members. My name is Isaac. I'm from Nicaragua. I'm a eleventh twelfth grader, sorry, from San Francisco International High School. As a newcomer, I get the support from counselor, teachers, and program after school to adjust to The US, which helped me to feel confident with people and avoid decreases in my home country. We're asking for one year pass to cut to secondary newcomers program while we figure out a plan to best support our newcomer population with the boys and expert expertize of our our family, staff teacher, and stop the tax of newcomer and newcomer education. Please support the students and teacher of San Francisco International High School. Thank you. Hi,

[Speaker 6.0]: board members. My name is Amina. I'm 12 grader in San Francisco International High School from Ukraine. As a newcomer, I had no idea about education system in The United States, but counselors, teachers, and other staff in my school, taught me every single detail about how to get and graduate, from high school and college. Now I know what to do, where to go, and what actions to take to be a successful student. Please support the students and teachers of of San Francisco International High School. Thank you.

[Interpreter (Spanish-English)]: Hello, everyone. My name is Marco, and I'm a seventh grader student seventh grade student at East Valley Middle School, and I am part of the newcomer program. Please, I'm here to ask you not to eliminate our program. And if you fire our if you fire the teachers, that they actually have a lot of experience, that they've been teaching for various years, for many years, and I've been learning a lot. When I first came to this country, I didn't know how to speak English. And then I've learned enough to more or less have an understanding of the language. And also if you also fire other teachers like our soccer coach, that he's been vital for us because we've been learning a lot.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: This is the last group of students. Please line up as I call your name. Dylan Rodriguez, Bella Guzman, Martinez, Alentejo, Kevalyn Martinez.

[Lauren Schwartz, Music Teacher (Visitation Valley Middle School)]: Name is

[Speaker 13.0]: Bella Guzman from from Guadalupe Elementary School. We need I Ready to Learn because we need to learn math and reading. If we don't learn more, we can't get smart. Thank you.

[Interpreter (Spanish-English)]: Thank you. Hello, everyone. My name is Dylan, and I'm a seventh grade student at Hispali. And I'm calling you I'm here to tell you please do not in the name of our school community, not to start firing teachers. If you find the teachers, then we will have a good future and having our teachers will have a better future for us. And our teachers, they do have a commitment to be with us and to help us to build a better future. Be with God. Thank you.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Interpreter, go ahead.

[Interpreter (Spanish-English)]: Thank you. Hello, everyone. My name is Kevin, and I am a seventh grade student. I'm part of the newcomer program. Believe, and we are not actually we're not finding amusing the fact that you guys caught the budget in our school, and that means that the program will be cut. And this program has helped me greatly. And now if you cut the program, then I have to commute. And the commute is, it will be about an hour from my house, which is also I feel that going across the city will be dangerous for me. Now I have to wake up at six in the morning in order for me to get ready to go to the newcomer program. I know that Bees Valley is a lot closer from my home. Please do not cut the program. Thank you.

[Speaker 19.0]: Is it possible for her to

[Speaker 6.0]: go first and then for me to talk? Good

[Speaker 19.0]: evening. My name is Alinello and I'm a senior at June Jordan School for Equity. Do you have a plan for my education and the education of the other 50,000 students in SFUSD if our teachers go on strike to fight for a fair contract. I was an eighth grader organizing at Aptos when the walkouts were happening to advocate for more mental health support for our students. Because of our efforts, we were able to get a new wellness center along with more mental health professionals. I was not afraid to fight then and I'm not afraid to fight now alongside my educators who deserve a fair contract. I'm also not afraid to fight with my peers at Vis Valley Middle School, SFI or every other school facing cuts to make sure that they keep their assistant principal and other staff that are being cut. This proposal is creating the conditions for not only under enrollment for you are creating the potential for future school closures. Listen to all our student voices here tonight. Our stories are important because we are the ones whose educations are on the line and we are afraid we are not afraid to step up and fight for what is right. I am upset that we are here yet again and that my peers have to spend our evening here, but I am so proud of every single one of my peers who is here tonight for for speaking up and advocating for themselves and their community. Thank you so much.

[Speaker 13.0]: Hi, my name is Luna. Please don't close the program. It's important for me and for my school, Guadalupe. Thank you. Good night.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Mr. President, that concludes student. We will now move to members of the public. As I call your name, please line up. Robin Kropp, Lauren Schwartz, Laura Simmons, Julie Lerner, Reverend Brown.

[Robin Krop, Community Member]: Is this on over here? Okay. Hi, my name is Robin Krop, a San Francisco resident. Thank you for everybody's testimony today. It's amazing. I'm here on behalf of thousands of people in San Francisco who are riders of the 49 bus who cannot get on the bus when kids are riding it to go to Galileo in the morning and coming back from Galileo in the afternoon. Nobody in a wheelchair, no seniors, no disabled, nobody can get on these buses, and everybody's being left on the platform so all these buses go by. I personally think the solution is a shuttle bus. And I don't think that should be too hard to arrange, whether it's done with the school board district or whether it's done with muni or a combination of both. And I definitely want to see a win win solution for everyone, where the students can transport to school and from school, and everybody in the public can access public transportation. I had a conversation with a bus driver this afternoon who said, it's terrible. He says, our people cannot get on the bus. And I'm saying, it must be a win win solution for everybody. My email is can I give my contact information? Can I give contact information? No? What? Just very quickly. Okay, sfrobinkaol dot com, if you would like to email me about this situation. Thank you.

[Lauren Schwartz, Music Teacher (Visitation Valley Middle School)]: Hi. My name is Lauren Schwartz. I've been the music teacher at the Viz Valley Middle School for the past fourteen years. Our core values at Big Viz are love, literacy, and liberation. The search for you, Doctor. Sue, afterwards. Last week, we the proposed cuts that you made to our school were devastating. If you actually came to our school and saw the amazing things that go on every day and met our students, staff, and admin, you would love us. Instead, you minimized and dismissed us and thought it would be a good idea to eliminate our newcomer pathway program and cut our teachers from 21 to 14. You eliminated our AP and gave us only one counselor. You also took away two of our security positions. What were you thinking? We are a school that serves the most vulnerable students and you cut us off at the knees. What kind of leadership is that? I will continue to go to work every day and give all the love I have to our students and community. It's hard to learn if you don't feel loved. It's hard to go to work when you feel like your superintendent doesn't care about you.

[Laura Simon, Art Teacher (Visitation Valley Middle School)]: My name is Laura Simon and I have been the art teacher at Visitation Valley Middle School for thirteen years. Tonight I would like to address Doctor. Sue and her cabinet because they are the ones that made these budget cuts even after the board voted against them. I want to address the blatant inequity in these cuts. The district loves to talk about equity and social justice but clearly it is all talk. These budget cuts target small schools and historically marginalized communities. My school serves some of the most vulnerable students in this district and yet we seem to have been hit harder by these cuts than any other middle school. You are taking away support, safety, and joy from students who are going through things that you can't even imagine. And then you tell us to get their math and reading scores up, like what? And we don't have a PTSA that can pay for elective teachers, counselors, and assistant principals like some schools. Once again, the students who need the most will lose the most. This is what systemic racism looks like. How dare you sit there and talk about equity and then pull this. Maybe you thought that marginalized and vulnerable communities wouldn't show up and call you out. Well, you sure were wrong. This showed up and we aren't going anywhere. Thank you.

[SFGovTV Announcer]: Mister president, madam superintendent, all the members of the board of this illustrious city Of Saint Francis, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Doctor. Amos Clonovus Brown, Sr. And I have the distinction and honor of being president emeritus of the San Francisco branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. And I'm also very humble and proud to have achieved half a century as pastor of the historic Third Baptist Church of San Francisco that has been in this town for a hundred and seventy three years. My friends, we've always made education as a top priority for all citizens.

[Rev. Amos C. Brown Sr., President Emeritus, SF NAACP]: And I'll always admit all. For whoever you have an ignorant, unlearned, untrained population, You better rest assured that's good ground for the development of fascists, dictators, and evil folks who marginalize the least of those. I thank god for these young people who came here and spoke so eloquently. They have given testimony to the fact that their parents love them, and they have pushed them. But when they get to the schoolhouse and to the board meeting, they should not have to plead for a quality of education. But how do we achieve that noble goal? First, opening our eyes to the fact that the enemy is not just in San Francisco. The enemy, at the highest point, exists in Washington, DC than man who's cutting programs and doesn't respect education for all people. I'm not being political. I'm just being prophetic. Thomas Jefferson said, education is the foundation of our freedom. So my friends, with all the strength that I have left Come on. In this frame Come on. At eighty and four and going on eighty five Come on. February 20 Come on. Come on. Come I'm on. Gonna stand with these families Come on. Until we send the message to Washington that your days are numbered for you have not supported education. You've cut science. You've cut equal of opportunity. But now is the time that we're gonna be liberating ourselves because we can think for ourselves. Doctor Benjamin Elijah Mays, the last of the great schoolmasters, and the spiritual and intellectual mentor of doctor Martin Luther King Junior. Doctor Kings. Birthday observers is just around the corner. My friends, many have not told the whole story. That Martin Luther King Tell him. Entered Morehouse College Come on. At the age of 15 in 1944, he was an early admission student. But the record of Morehouse admitting young black minds Come on. Who've been trained and pushed by parents and a white and fair community. For just this night, Thank God for technology. Mhmm. There's a young man, 13 years old, was just admitted to Morehouse College, and he broke doctor King's record. Yeah. Come on. Thank god. Come on. If your mind is staying on achievement, if the community is united and their parents are with us, we can break every record and make sure that no child will have to apologize for where he or she came from. But they will be learned Mhmm. Eloquent scholars, scientists, doctors, and lawyers Okay. And be able to say if I always said, I'm black and I'm proud. Come on. I'm brown and I'm sound. Come on. I'm yellow and I'm mellow. Come on. I'm red, but I ain't dead. Come on. I'm white and I'm alright. Come on. I'm a woman, but I'm wise. Come on. I'm gay, but I'm godly. Come on. I'm straight, but I'm cispical. Come on. I am an immigrant, but I'm industrious. Come on. Thank god tonight. Come on. Hang in there. There you go.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Thank you, everyone. Let's keep going. Please line up. More. Please line up as I call your name. Irana Kalica, Leticia Irving, Joe Drew, Sedaya Cassini, Christopher Pepper, and Cassandra Curiel.

[Speaker 23.0]: My name is Miss Saadia and I'm an English language development teacher at James Denman Middle School. I represent my multilingual learners from whom you are taking over $21,000 both of their ELD teachers and their favorite assistant principal. They are devastated that with a six period day, they will not get an elective. They are terrified of what will happen to their ELPAC progress if Denman's ELD department is gutted, and you say you care about test scores. They are upset that our assistant principal who goes above and beyond to support students both with behavior and reclassification will have to leave. This year, our ELD department is focused especially on supporting our students in both ELD and SPED. This work feels pointless if our kids can't have both ELD and study skills next year. It feels pointless if our ELD department will get gutted. And a core teacher teaching ELD as only one elective class will not be able to give our students the comprehensive support they deserve. President Kim, you are showing that you don't care about our most marginalized students by allowing the district to do this. As one of my sixth graders said, we don't appreciate you being so selfish.

[Speaker 24.0]: Hello. My name is Irina, and I'm a parent of two sixth graders at SFUSD. I urge the board and doctor Sue to reconsider making budget cuts to our school sites. These proposed cuts violate the board of education's guardrails for the superintendent and will lead families who can afford private schools to leave SFUSD, will result in a further decline in enrollment, thus exacerbating future budget shortfalls rather than solving them. My children graduated from SFUSD public elementary school, and I have seen firsthand how a thriving neighborhood school can decline when it does not have enough resources to solve issues, when families who can afford to do so start to leave, creating a downward spiral of school under enrollment in a dwindling number of classes and teachers. I urge Doctor. Su to reconsider. Please do not defund our public schools. Thank you. Good

[Christopher Pepper, Teacher on Special Assignment (Health Education)]: evening. I'm Christopher Pepper. I'm a teacher on special assignment and I support our amazing health education program. I'm coming to you, I'm coming to speak to you tonight about our, about the proposed cuts to middle school health education. After a full decade of growth, we have steadily where we've moved steadily closer to our goal of having health classes in every middle school. Our teachers last week started sending me emails. They said I got the chop, my positions being eliminated from next year. My principal said I need to start looking for a new job. This is a huge mistake. We need to keep health education in our middle schools. I don't know if you intended to cut middle school health education but that is the message that's going out to schools and if that's not what you intended I need you to be very clear with schools that you want them to keep health education in middle school and have a clear plan for how to do it. Health education should be a rite of passage for all students. Instead of cutting health education I recommend making this class a required class for all seventh graders. Please save middle school health education.

[Leticia Irving, Executive Director, African American Achievement & Leadership Initiative]: Good evening. I am honored to stand with before you with the African American Achievement and Leadership Initiative team and proud to serve as the African American Achievement and Leadership executive director. Today, or this month, we celebrate a decade of service to SFUSD. You'll hear a little bit more later on today. But I wanted to make sure we begin by honoring our founding director, Landon Dickey. I want to honor his vision, his courage, the groundwork that he laid to ensure that our students were seen, that they were named, and that they were centered in this district. I also want to extend deep gratitude to the former Ali directors, members of the board of education, the San Francisco NAACP, the San Francisco Alliance of Black School Educators, and the many champions who believe in this work and who helped to sustain it. To our families and educators, thank you for trusting us with your children and for partnering with us in love, care, and accountability. And at a time when equity has become a dirty word in SFUSD, and when we're talking about difficult budget decisions impacting our district, I remain proud to work for a school system that continues to name equity as a core value and to fight for each and every student to succeed and graduate career and college ready. Thank you for ten years of support and service and we look forward to supporting and serving you all further.

[Assante McAllister, Student (Mission High School)]: Hello, everyone. My name is Assante McAllister. I am a student at Mission High School, and I just came here to talk about my experience with Ali and the BSR program. So OLLI BSR program is fostering an educational advancement mindset that pushes students to thrive with the support of adults who have faced similar experiences and situations that students like me have and will eventually encounter. I've been in a part of the Black Star Rising for three years and it has helped me to cherish my academic abilities and to strive for success. It allows me to resonate with the staff and feel encouraged to push hard for my education and academic success. Thank you.

[Cassandra Curiel, President, United Educators of San Francisco]: Good evening. Cassandra Curiel, president of United Educators of San Francisco. Amongst the myriad of issues that exist for our entire membership in our school communities beyond budget cut issues that now are forcing school communities to have debates with which important limb to remove from what is a living ecosystem. A school system of ours this large requires fully functioning, fully staffed schools at every single grade level. For folks to get a budget allocation based on estimations for which we have spent years describing the enrollment system as problematic in the funding and defunding, particularly of various schools. For estimations in the coming year to look lower despite the fact that the district will be enrolling in a new school is problematic at best, let alone the staffing for a new school while other schools are sitting to debate which teacher is unnecessary, is neither appropriate at this time, but also students are still coming to school. I have yet to hear one very deeply involved family member say that they would like more students in their child's class, that their kid doesn't have enough classmates. This this is not the forward going best practices, let alone scientific, on what instructional needs are necessary in order to raise minimum expectations for math and literacy standards at any grade level. And that's just what schools are facing at this moment. Overall, we spent the last ten months in this ten months in a stalemate of negotiations for which we could have been having productive conversations that shape the vision of this district. Because the members of our bargaining team have a vision for a fully staffed, fully funded, robust schools our students and educators deserve. We have a vision for what's supposed to be happening. There's more growth that's needed, and I believe, actually, that we all share a common goal here that the fourth largest economy in this country, world globe, if you will, should be funding public education at a far greater extent than it actually does. I think we can all agree on that. And those efforts don't stop because we have a conflict that's still necessary. Because despite any political alignments, our entirely majority democratic state government has yet to fully fund public education in various forms. Special education continues to be an ongoing concern and retaining special educators at schools, asking them to do far more with far less. And they're not the only, I just want to be really clear, special educators, The teachers that you have in your IEP meetings who you've met conducting schools and classrooms where special education services are provided, that's every educator in here. Every single educator at a school understands that. So there's no lever here where one is less important than the other, because it's a whole child that comes to school, not part of a kid. And when that student articulates that they need more, we have support staff in the ideal situation to help them in that scenario, to get them back into class feeling like they can learn. And it is all of those positions surrounding that, everyone from the paraeducator on the bus in the mornings with our students to ensure they get there safely, all the way to the t 10, who is making sure that our campuses are secure. Every teacher, no matter which subject they're teaching, is doing so because that has been determined for a schedule that is inclusive of every single student, no matter if they came to our district monolingual, non English speaking, or if they desire to take an extra elective in high schools because so many of our amazing students are achievers in that way. Right? There's a whole broad spectrum here that we're trying to serve, and continuing to have delays in negotiations only furthers our issues with solving so many of the other problems we've got in front of us. We are at a stalemate in these negotiations, and the clock is ticking. We are an hour to midnight, and everybody knows it. So we need to see movement. We need to see action. We need to see not just conversations, not virtue signaling, not any performance. The homework is due. And no late assignments are accepted. Right? If we've got to go back and put the grades in later, there's going to be a problem. And we won't be the only ones issuing the grades because community comes out. Everyone in here wants the schools our students deserve. That's And what we're trying to fight for and negotiate for. So we need to see some real fire on. Thank you.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Mr. Trio, let's allow for a full fifteen minutes of virtual comment. Thank you.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Thank you. We will now hear from students who wish to speak on Zoom. If you are a student and wish to comment, please raise your hand. If you are a student and on Zoom, please raise your hand. Translation. Chinese? Okay we'll begin with Alec Holly. Alec Huling, go ahead. Alec, we'll come back to you. Let's go to Manu.

[SFGovTV Announcer]: Sorry, I'm here.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Go ahead, Alec.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Sorry. Talula, you want to speak? I have my daughter Talula here.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Yeah, this is student time.

[Talula Holly, Student (Roosevelt Middle School)]: Hello, my name is Talula Holly. I am from Roosevelt Middle School. I am seriously afraid that with bigger class sizes, it will be too hard for our teachers to help us, and my classes are already very chaotic as is right now. I also know that many kids at my school love our teachers, and we don't wanna lose them. I love my teachers and classes obviously, but I also love my clubs. I am the head of a writer's workshop that helps kids express themselves through writing and my electives like band and art. They help me and my fellow classmates extend our learning and become more well rounded students and future leaders. Without my teachers, counselors, clubs, and electives, I know some families, including my own, will struggle and most likely leave our city. This will drop enrollment more and further damage our schools and communities you have sworn to help and protect.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Thank you for your comment. That concludes your time.

[Interpreter (Spanish-English)]: Thank you.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Mania please go ahead.

[Speaker 6.0]: I'm a student at FMS. I'm in eighth grade. My name is Munia. And so one of my biggest concerns from my middle school is the teachers getting cut off and, the security and and because and, like, staff staff because without security or, an assistant principal or or any of our teachers being, like, cutting off, it's not gonna help our community. It's just you guys are just cutting off teachers, which makes it worse for their students. And not only that, I want them it these teachers mostly guide students. So when you really do think about it, think about it. It. Think about it. Teachers helping like students. If you were to come at FMS, you would see teachers helping students. Thank you.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Thank you. We'll now go to Stephanie. Stephanie's iPhone.

[Speaker 30.0]: Hi, my name is and I am from Denman Middle School. I'm in sixth grade. And I hate the fact that one of my electives are going to be taken away. I love learning about different things and my electives are my favorite parts of the day. One of my friends have autism and I want them to get as much support as they can. A lot of kids at my school speak different languages and they need support to learn English And I just feel so bad for them because, why can't you just take budget cuts, take from somewhere else? Like, why do you have to do it from the schools? Thank you.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: We will now hear from Laura P. Laura, you're a student.

[Speaker 13.0]: What happens?

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Laura? I'm

[Speaker 19.0]: not a student, sorry, not

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: a Okay, thank you. Okay, that concludes student comment. We'll now go to members of the public. If you would like to speak on agenda items, please raise your hand. Okay, we'll begin with Laura. Laura, go ahead.

[Laura Padilla, Parent]: Hello, board. Hello, community. My name is Laura Padilla. Public school parent. My kiddos go to, Dola de Huerta and Hoover Elementary. Grateful for the time, and so amazed that all the voices are in the room today. Thank you for everybody who is there present, in person. I asked the board to please be transparent about what formulas they are using for focal student population, what formulas they're using for multilingual learners. I am seeing no consistency across the board. I'd like to have a better understanding of what it means for one school to have a certain number. Again, just what what formula what where just just let us know, I think, for a better understanding. We under I I understand. I was speaking for some myself. I understand that cuts will need to happen. We're seeing this statewide. But just clarity on how it we're producing these numbers. It really frustrates me when we get statements that say, oh, we found the money. Where is this money being found? And how our

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Thank you for your comment that concludes your time. We'll now hear from Star Child. Star Child? Starchild?

[Starchild, Chair, Libertarian Party of San Francisco]: Hello. Go ahead. Hello. It keeps telling me the host has muted me. Nobody was answering the questions in the Q and A on Zoom. There's no instructions on how to give public comment or when people will be able to give public comment. The process needs fixing. And also, I wanted to know how to post an image during my comment. There's no information on that. My name is Star Child. I'm chair of Libertarian Party of San Francisco, lpsf.org. We need to rethink public education. It should be funded voluntarily, not with money taken from taxpayers without their consent under threat of state violence. Public does not need to mean government run. Most independent schools are public, not private. Like public restaurants, shopping centers, and other facilities and services open to the public, they are serving members of the public. One out of every three school aged children in San Francisco has opted out of the government school system even though their families may still have to pay extra and are still being taxed to pay for SFUSD schools they aren't using. Consequently, the SFUSD has too many schools for its declining number of students. These underutilized school campuses should be made available to independent schools and homeschooling that are educating the public without stealing from taxpayers. Independent schools and homeschooling parents are achieving better education results on average than the government schools at a lower cost per student.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Thank you for your comment. That concludes your time. We'll now hear from MCK. MCK, please go ahead and unmute.

[Hannah Hazelet, District Coordinator, LGBTQ Student Services]: Good evening. My name is Hannah Hazelet. I'm the district coordinator for LGBTQ student services. I was really shocked and dismayed when I looked at the school site council meeting list and under the focal students that were supposed to be focused on, the different focal populations, LGBTQ students were not included. If you are saying that you care about our population, if you say that you are making sure that our students, one fifth of the total SFUSD student population identifies as LGBTQ, are being seen and centered and should feel safe on a day where literally their variability to just play a game was being debated at the highest level, then you are not fulfilling your duty to all of our students and are not upholding our vision, values, goals, and grad rails. Thank you so much.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Thank you. We'll now hear from Courtney Helen. Courtney Helen, go ahead and unmute.

[Speaker 34.0]: Hello there. My name is Courtney Helen. I have three students in SFUSD. I just wanted to quickly say to Doctor. Sue, what the heck? In the December BOE meeting, you said with a straight face that the, at the time, potential budget cuts and staffing model were only a worst case scenario and that we were nowhere near worst case scenario. You basically told everyone in the room to calm down. Don't worry. And then two weeks later, you gutted our schools. Somehow, we went from nowhere near worst case scenario to absolute worst case in just two weeks. I know we need to balance the budget, but these cuts to staff and to critical funding at our schools are completely unacceptable, and you know that. This will drive parents away from our district when we desperately need to be attracting them back to public education. Please reconsider these cuts.

[SFGovTV Announcer]: Thank you.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Thank you. We'll now hear from Kelly. Havah?

[Havah (Haba) Kelly, Community Member]: Sorry, it didn't let me unmute right away. My name is Haba Kelly and yes, I'm calling for clarity, transparency and community engagement, especially with the LCAP committee and all advisories on the fiscal stabilization plan as well as the budget. We are hearing reports of 20% cuts to Title I funding without explanation. We are hearing a variety of different information on focal groups. We need community engagement. We need information. This is not how it should be unfolding. It's problematic. Please respond like yesterday, starting with the LTAC committee. Thank you.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Thank you. We'll now hear from Galen. Galen?

[Galen, Parent (San Francisco Community School)]: Hi there. Galen here. I'm a parent at San Francisco Community School. I want to echo the last few commenters. We saw on Saturday that, I guess, the superintendent has made the call that focal funding groups no longer duplicates. So if somebody is both needs an IEP and is an English language learner and needs some other kind of support, we are only getting that one allocation for that student. So we have to provide that student with three levels of support, but you're only giving us funding for one. That is insane. Unacceptable. This is continuing a pattern of divestment. San Francisco Community School is our only t k eight with no assistant principal paid for by the district, and we're the only one with no community health worker at Chow. And, Sophia Stee has continually cut from our school every year that my daughter has been there. There were 16 teachers when we started four years ago, and you're telling us that next year we have to run on 12 when

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Thank you for your comment. That concludes your time. We'll now hear from Rhianda Batiste. Rhianda?

[Rhianda Batiste, APAC Parent Leader]: Good evening Board Commissioners and Superintendent Hsu. I wanted to call for two reasons, and I'm gonna try and get out as quickly as I can. I wanna give a huge shout out to the Ali team and for their love and support of the African American students and their undying determination and unyielding determination to African American students in their achievement. Huge shout out to and everybody who was there. As one of the founding members, I am very, very proud of Ali and all of their achievement coming from an APAC parent. And, also, tonight, I'm really concerned because I have a little one who'll be starting kindergarten after having three alumnis, and I have no idea where I'm gonna be starting my baby in the fall. I need you guys to do better, and and I shouldn't, as a parent, now be afraid of where to enroll my child because I don't know if this school's gonna continue to exist. I had concerns about this new school and how it was gonna be impacting other schools, and you all swore from the board from their beginning up until now that it wasn't gonna have an impact. But it's amazing to me that a new school is coming, and yet other schools are gonna be closed. That's not equitable.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Thank you for your comment. That concludes your time.

[Rhianda Batiste, APAC Parent Leader]: Thank you.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: We'll now hear from Yvette Nelson. Yvette Nelson? Go ahead Yvette.

[Speaker 16.0]: Hi. My name is Yvette Nelson Hernandez. I am a paraprofessional at James MN Middle School. I've been at the school for seventeen years. I also help with our athletics.

[Yvette Nelson Hernandez, Paraprofessional (Denman Middle School)]: Us parents do need that extra income. That's why I help with athletics for the extra income from where we come from. But I'm mainly here to talk about, at our site, you guys are cutting five teachers, a t 10, which is a security guard, two of our counselors, plus both of our student advisers and an assistant principal. That's not right. We have a large amount of students in our school. We have over 800 students that need that support. They depend on our student advisers, and they also depend on our Teak 10s, And they look for their counters when they need help. We are all here to support them. Please do not cut them. And then what happened to that $140,000,000 that you guys deposited into a savings? Why can't you use that money to help our schools? Thank you.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Thank you. We'll now hear from Carita. Carita, go ahead and unmute. Carita, are you there? Okay, we'll move on to Deb. Deb, go ahead and unmute.

[Speaker 38.0]: Hi, I'm a Denman middle school parent who's deeply alarmed by the staffing and budget allocations. These across the board cuts will hit high need, title one schools like Denman the hardest that directly contradicts the district's commit commitments to equity, safety, and student success. At Denman, as Yvette said, staff cuts translate to real harm. One fewer AP means daily operations, safety, and testing will all suffer. Cutting security from three to two means one of our three floors won't have immediate coverage, making staff and students feel less safe. With four and a half fewer teachers, a seven period day becomes impossible. That means fewer electives, hitting English learners and students with IEPs the hardest since one elective is used for targeted support, leaving them with no enrichments. Cutting our counseling staff in half would leave a school of 800 students with just two counselors, not even one per grade. That's devastating for a community with such high social, emotional, and academic needs. The funding cuts are just as troubling with a total loss of $21 for multilingual learning and total one funding that was supposed to drop by 20%, yet it was cut by 38%, almost doubled. I urge you to revisit how these cuts are being distributed. Don't balance the budget on the backs of students who already need the most at

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: the end Thank you for your comment. That concludes your time. We'll now hear from Brie Pickford. Brie?

[Speaker 39.0]: Hi, my name is Avery Pickford and I'm a parent of two students at Buena Vista Horace Mann and I'm just deeply worried by the budget proposal sent to our principal this week. This proposal included deep cuts including cuts based on a lower anticipated enrollment even though we were promised that that wouldn't we wouldn't be punished for being displaced from our home campus on Valencia for a three year renovation. I urge the board to work with superintendent Sue in fully funding all of our public schools, but also urge SFUSD to work with local and state politicians to find a way to fully fund our schools. We live in one of the wealthiest cities and one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and anything less than fully funded robust public schools is just simply unacceptable. Thank you.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: President Kim, we have reached the

[Lauren Schwartz, Music Teacher (Visitation Valley Middle School)]: Is it butter?

[Talula Holly, Student (Roosevelt Middle School)]: You almost burned it? I think I burnt it.

[Speaker 16.0]: It looks a little burned, I don't know. Like, last time we burned it, it didn't taste burnt in the cookie.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Thank you. We we have to move on. So thank you so much for being here. And thank you to members of the public, especially our students, for joining us tonight to share your experiences and perspectives. We appreciate you taking the time to be with us here in person and person and virtually. We have to move on, but thank you so much for being here.

[Speaker 40.0]: This just shows how

[Speaker 19.0]: you're treating us. You're putting us to the side.

[Speaker 40.0]: Truly, is this what you want to show us? I'm a student here. I'm supposed to be taking priority here. But no, you're gonna shove us, like, to the side, like, every single time I try to look at you in the eye, tell you what I need, but no, you will shove me to the side.

[Speaker 19.0]: I honestly do not know if you are going here for your money or if you're

[Phil Kim, Board President]: killing Thank you.

[Speaker 19.0]: Hello, I'm Missyia Flores Colleen, an eighth grader from EBHM. Did you not hear our cries the first time? What makes you think this is a good idea? My community is being ripped apart. This isn't a budget cut. It's ripping apart communities, taking away resources from our students, taking away creativity. Do you truly think this represents SFUSD? Because my parents didn't sign me up just so I could be shoved to the side. They signed me up here because they saw an opportunity for me to learn English. I am a Spanish speaker. Spanish is my first language. If it hadn't been for all of that money that you invested into the ELPAC it had I wouldn't have learned English. I would still be learning Spanish and had no idea how to speak in English. But still, you're here. I am have to fight for my own rights. Do I truly need to fight for you to even look at me in the eye? Do I truly need to do that? Do I did I have to fight for what? Twenty years? Did my teachers fight for renovation of our school? Yeah we did and we won. So give us our building. Give us the education we deserve. And to be honest we deserve much more. So do my teachers. So does my community. Thank you for your time.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: The superintendent and her team are tasked with providing a draft of each agenda twelve days in advance for board members to review. Once that draft is made public on our website, board members have made a commitment to submit clarifying and tactical questions and staff have made a commitment to respond to those questions in advance of each board meeting. This Q and A doc is linked into each board agenda on board docs today listed in item E2. We invite the public to review those questions and answers alongside our discussion today. Item D, report from closed session. In one matter of anticipated litigation concerning GG, the board by a vote of seven ayes and zero nays gives direction to the general counsel. In the matter of San Francisco Superior Court case number CGC-twenty four-six 119,887, the Board by a vote of seven ayes, zero nays, the Board gives direction to the general counsel. In the matter of San Francisco Superior Court case number CGC-twenty2Dash602608. The board by a vote of six ayes with commissioner Gupta voting nay, the board gives direction to the general counsel. The SFUSC Board of Education is committed effective school board governance that centers student learning. Based on community input, we have adopted our vision, values, goals, guardrails. And in order to increase the portion of board meeting time we spend on student outcomes, every other meeting is a monitoring workshop. Our board calls our approach calls to governance also calls on the board to empower the superintendent to take full ownership of the strategies used to reach those goals within the guardrail set by the board. As we implement our governance framework, the board will continue to adopt new systems, routines, and policies aimed at improving student outcomes. We encourage the public to follow this work on our website at sfusd.edu/governance as we commit to finding new and improved ways to more meaningfully engage with staff, students, and families. Item E, opening items, land acknowledgment. We, the San Francisco Board of Education, acknowledge that we are the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramatushaloni, who are the original inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula. As indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their traditions, the Ramatushaloni have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. As guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. We wish to pay our respects by acknowledging their ancestors, elders, and relatives of the Ramatush community and by affirming their sovereign rights as First Peoples. Next item, student delegate report. I call on student delegates Cruz and Mon to share a report, if you have one.

[Student Delegate (Cruz or Munn)]: Hi. So recently, we were invited by the Supryia Ray Gupta and to the AIDHawk meeting, and that was amazing. It was really fun and engaging for the SAC representatives that came, which were President, Links and Montgomery, me over here, delegate, myself as well as one of our representatives, Nelly. It was a really good experience. I felt like as for myself, speaking for myself, I felt really connected, and I I was part of the best team, by

[Galen, Parent (San Francisco Community School)]: the way.

[Student Delegate (Cruz or Munn)]: Not gonna say. I will keep on saying that. But it was really engaging. I felt like it gave me a bit, like, a deeper insight of what a lot of parents felt like and some things that I wasn't aware of as well. So just kind of me more of a different perspective I didn't have before. And it also kind of backed up context I already felt and kind of felt connected with a lot of parents and got a lot of ideas and was able to brainstorm. We did present this at SAC, our meeting that we had yesterday. And we are advocating for more students to come. So we will be keeping you guys updated. Keep inviting us, and we will be there.

[Student Delegate (Cruz or Munn)]: Oh my god. Yeah. Thank you so much

[Speaker 6.0]: for the update. It was

[Student Delegate (Cruz or Munn)]: an amazing meeting. I'm looking forward to the next one. For a more like SAC focused update, we had our first meeting of the year yesterday, right there. And we first had a presentation from the district's communications department. So thank you so much to the communications director, Laura, and media relations coordinator, Katrina, for providing like a little short training on, like, a communications one on one, how to, like, professionally respond to emails and, like, text and, like, stuff like that. And we're also trained a little on, like, media interaction as well as, like, social media don'ts and dos and don'ts. So thank you so much to Laura and Katrina for the training. And then we're starting to plan for our youth summit, which is we're planning for in April. We're looking at the calendar, choosing a couple dates, asking representatives from our schools to see if there's, like, any conflicting issues with their school's schedules so it doesn't conflict. We're also workshopping themes and then, like, workshopping ideas for workshops. And we'll bring them back to our next meeting on January 26. So thank you.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Thank you very much. Superintendent's report.

[Superintendent Hsu]: Thank you, President Kim. And thank you again to all of our students and family members who came and shared their feedback and comments. As I shared earlier, I want to continue to engage with our community throughout this budget development process, obviously of course throughout the entire school year. Can we have my slides up please? Slides. Okay, so as we get my slides up I just want to thank everyone who participated in their school planning summit this Saturday. As many families have referenced, we did kick off our school planning summit this Saturday and I know that many school communities have started diving deep into their school data, into the budget information, the budget allocation. And school communities are going to engage in this process for the next several weeks. I am deeply grateful for each site leader, family member, and students for the work that you are doing to stay aligned with the district's priorities and to understand our current budget landscape. These factors are critical in shaping thoughtful, realistic school plans. Sites all received their allocations last week and they are deep in the process of understanding it. The budget context really matters here because budget is not, they're not just numbers. It really represents the vision of the school community in alignment with the board's vision for our vision, values, goals, guardrails. However, in response, to board and community input, my team and I reviewed each school allocation line by line to ensure that the proposed allocation did not undermine our school's ability to deliver on high quality instruction as well as continue to serve our students. We have posted these school allocations on our website so anyone is free to go on and see what your allocations are so that we can continue to promote transparency. There's really nothing to hide. As of from December to where we are now, I have made some adjustments to the December staffing model allocation. We have restored our school social worker allocation. We have made sure that targeted reductions to our security guards were not taken. There are no school community at this moment in time that will be experiencing complete elimination of their security guards. We have increased site discretionary funding for our focal students. And we are viewing site by site, we're doing site by site review of all programs to make sure that appropriate staffing levels are provided according to current school enrollment and site program needs. We are trying to balance the nationwide trend of declining enrollment. Which then, of course, impacts the amount of money that we get. I want to clarify that the broader context for these budget decisions and reductions are really hard. The district is facing a structural deficit. And, if we don't do anything about it, we will continue to fall deeper and deeper into disarray. And, we will not be able to set the district up for future success. However, this staffing allocation is not about reducing our commitment to equity nor our commitment to our students. It is about making that, making sure that the allocation that we are providing meets the needs of our students and the number of students that we will have. I also recognize the challenges that come with change. And it is hard to make reductions. That is why I have joined large urban school districts and superintendents across the state to advocate at, in Sacramento for our students. We are advocating our, at the state level, to help change the way they calculate funding for us. We are making sure that our state officials, our state leaders know that our budget should be allocated based on enrollment. Not on average daily attendance, is the current way they are calculating our budget. That our state officials need to understand that poverty levels within large urban school districts look different from poverty levels across the country. So we should use a different calculation. By doing that, it allows us to recoup additional resources. We are also asking the state to fully fund the cost to serve our students in special education because they deserve it. As we review the governor's budget with a fine tooth comb, we will have to continue the budget development process here locally. We are going to continue to revise our budget allocations and in March you will hear a revised update of our current budget. I commit to our community to continue to stay engaged. I want to read all of your plans, all your school site summit plans. I want to continue to engage with our community as we develop a budget that meets the needs of our students and that will continue to prioritize our fiscal solvency. For those who are interested, please go on our website to learn more about the School Planning Summit twenty twenty six. And you can of course always talk to your school leader to learn more. I don't think I went through any of the slides there. Marin, can you? Oh, are behind me. Okay. So I also want to encourage everyone who is in the process of applying to SFUSD to please apply to SFUSD. The deadline is fast approaching. We are only two and a half weeks away from the deadline of January 30. And if your child is entering transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, middle school or high school next year, they will need to apply for a new school. With us eliminating all of the multiple rounds of application, we believe that we're gonna streamline and simplify the application process for families. Again, if you are in the process of applying to us, please complete your application by the January. Next slide please. As you heard earlier from our amazing director of the ALI program, Leticia Irving, this month we are honored to mark the ten year anniversary of the African American Achievement and Leadership Initiative, also known as ALI. A decade of intentional district wide action to improve the experiences and the outcomes of our African American students. Since its launch in January 2015, ALLE has grown into a comprehensive pre K 12 system of support grounded in culturally responsive practice, strong family partnership, and high expectations. This work reflects our belief as a school district that black excellence is inherent and that when African American students are known, affirmed, challenged, and supported, they thrive. Over the past decade, Ali has strengthened student engagement, academic progress, and sense of belonging while also driving system wide change in how we partner with families, support our educators, and use data for accountability. And as we enter ALI's next decade, SFUSD remains deeply committed to building learning environments where our black student brilliance is shining. And it's fully, fully recognized in their most beautiful form. Next slide please. I am proud to share a new step our schools are taking towards a more sustainable lunch. One driven by student voice. Across 95 of SFUSD schools, Student Nutrition Services has begun a compostable lunch tray pilot in partnership with our meal provider. By replacing plastic trays with compostable trays made from a sugarcane byproduct, SFUSD will produce, will reduce up to 3,000 pounds of plastic waste each month. This effort was inspired in large part by student advocacy. Earlier this school year, our elementary school students, from across the district wrote thoughtful letters calling for less plastic in our school meals and more care for our environment. And we are so proud that we were able to respond and be able to institute this pilot. And then in closing, I want to, remind everyone that Doctor. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is on Monday, January 19. And thank you so much to Reverend Brown for reminding us the importance of staying committed and honoring our history. School sites and offices will be closed in honor of Doctor. King's memory. So, thank you very much, President Kim, that concludes my remarks.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Thank you, Doctor. Sue. I want to take a moment to, during this board leadership report, to acknowledge a tragic and deeply troubling event that has affected people across the country and right here in San Francisco. Last week in Minnesota, Renee Nicole Good, a 37 year old mother, writer, and member of her community was shot and killed by ICE during a federal law enforcement operation. Her life is not the first taken by ICE. Among many, her death has sparked pain, protests, and calls for accountability and justice. Renee was a US citizen, a mother of three, and someone whose matter whose life mattered to her family, friends, and community. Her death has raised grief, fear, and serious concerns and questions, particularly for immigrant families and communities. Please join me for a moment of silence. As a school district, we serve students and families who are directly affected by tragedies like this. Tonight, we hold space for those who are grieving, those who are afraid, and those who seek safety and belonging, and we recommit ourselves to leading with care, dignity, and humanity in our work. Last week, I asked Vice President Huling to partner with Commissioners Weissman-Ward and Commissioner Alexander to explore ways that we as a board, through policy or resolution, can continue to build safe and inclusive spaces, especially for immigrant and undocumented students and families. There's more to come on this soon. We are proud to be a sanctuary district. We want all families, especially our immigrant neighbors to know that school remains a safe and welcoming place for them. We will continue to protect our students and this board stands firm in our commitment to serving each and every young person who walks through our doors. Thank you. Moving to item f, annual organization meeting. As we begin this new term, we have an important procedural first step to complete as required by board policy 9100. The first item on our agenda today is the adoption of the official board rules and procedures, for the upcoming year. By adopting these rules, we reaffirm our commitment to governing effectively and transparently consistent with state law and our own policies. Can I have a motion and a second?

[SFGovTV Announcer]: So moved. I move to readopt the Board of Education rules and procedures.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Second. It has been properly moved and seconded that the board approve this item readopt for the readoption of the Board of Education rules and procedures. Are there any questions or comments from the board? Commissioner Ray?

[Supryia Ray, Commissioner]: Thank you, President Kim. I just have a quick comment. I will be voting to readopt our board rules and procedures, but wanted to make a quick comment. Given that over the past several months, I've repeatedly expressed concern about the lack of transparency regarding the superintendent's proposed hires for high level positions and asked for this issue to be brought to the board for discussion and vote. I understand that board leadership will agendize this issue in the near future before the superintendent brings another candidate to the board. I just wanted to say that I appreciate that that will be coming before us. Thank you.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Any other comments or questions? Debate is now closed on the motion to approve the readoption of the Board of Education Rules and Procedures. Roll call vote, please, Ms. Leno. Ms. Munn?

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Ms. Cruz? Commissioner Alexander?

[Matt Alexander, Commissioner]: Yes.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Ms. Fisher? Yes. Ms. Commissioner Gupta?

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: Yes.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Ms. Vice President Huling? Ms. Ms. Ray? Yes. Commissioner Weissman-Ward?

[Lisa Weissman-Ward, Commissioner]: Yes.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: And President Kim? Yes. That's seven ayes.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Moving to item two, nomination and election of officers for 2026 in the board on the Board of Education. So we will we will adhere to the following procedures. Any commissioner may nominate another commissioner or themselves. If a commissioner is nominated by a colleague, the commissioner must accept or reject their nomination. Nominations do not require a second and a commissioner may vote for themselves. Once all nominations are received and accepted, commissioners will have up to two minutes to make a statement about the nominees if they wish to do so. Pursuant to the board's rules and procedures, the nominees will be considered for election to the respective board office. If no commissioner receives a super majority or five votes, the board will hold a second organizational meeting on January 27. I now declare nominations are open for the position of president of the board of education for the year 2026. Are there any nominations? Commissioner Weissman-Ward.

[Lisa Weissman-Ward, Commissioner]: I would like to nominate you, President Kim, to serve a second term as President. I have like a sentence or two, but should I save it for after the

[Phil Kim, Board President]: You can just save it.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Okay. Okay. Yes,

[Lisa Weissman-Ward, Commissioner]: we don't need a second. So I would like to nominate you to serve a second term as president of the San Francisco Board of Education. Over this last term, you have proven to be a steady hand to this board. We've all seen that you are a skilled and adept facilitator. You don't just lead meetings, you work to build consensus. And I, for one, really appreciate that. And perhaps most importantly, I found that you lead with a rare combination of communication and kindness. And you listen genuinely. And you're not afraid to keep an open mind, even when that involves changing your mind sometimes. And I believe that your continued leadership and the continuity of your leadership is exactly what our district needs at this point.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Are there any other nominations or comments? Two minutes. Make a statement?

[SFGovTV Announcer]: I would actually like to appreciate Commissioner Weissman-Ward for nominating President Kim again. And I would like to say, I've gotten comments from the public about, oh my gosh, and President Kim, man, you guys like snipe at each other up there. And I would actually like to use this opportunity to just thank you for I feel like some of our, what may seem overly familiar, coming from a place of respect and camaraderie and almost like sibling natured type of comments. And so I just I would just like to appreciate you for your leadership and your camaraderie over the past year.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: That's fifteen years building up right there. Spilling out into public eye. Vice President Huling?

[Jaime Huling, Vice President]: I'd also like to appreciate Commissioner Weissman-Ward for her nomination of President Kim and just say that it's really been an honor and an enjoyable experience serving as your Vice President. And I see so much work that you put in behind the scenes for students in our schools every day. And that while you may be a board member by appointment, you are

[SFGovTV Announcer]: an

[Jaime Huling, Vice President]: educator through and through and through. And I just appreciate this as the you're just born to be an educator. And you bring that educator's approach to facilitating our meetings, to listening to people, to making sure that everyone has an opportunity to be heard. And I agree that you are exactly what the district needs at this moment.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Any other comments? Okay, just piling on the

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: So, I will keep this brief because I know we have to keep the meeting moving, but I appreciate Commissioner Weissman-Ward's nomination of you, President Kim. Very similar sentiments. I appreciate that you allow space for all of us to speak. At times, I'm sure that must be a lot. But that's absolutely necessary. And I appreciate that both you and Vice President Huling signed up for this, knowing full well the gravity of the situation that we are in and have thrown yourself in fully into this and are continuing to do and will hopefully continue to do so this year. I realize you have not yet accepted the nomination. So I will shut up now before I say anything else.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: I suppose I should formally accept the nomination. Thank you. I will accept your nomination, Commissioner, Viceman Ward. Any other comments? Okay. I now declare nominations, if there are no further nominations for the office of the president, I declare nominations closed. The nominations are for me, Phil Kim. And roll call vote, please, on that nomination, please, Ms. Lenoff.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: For President of the Board. Ms. Munn. Ms. Cruz. Ms. Yes. Alexander.

[Chris Mumpinidis, Deputy Superintendent of Business Services]: Yes.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Commissioner Fisher?

[SFGovTV Announcer]: Yes.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Lisa Weissman-Ward: Weissman-Ward: And President Kim?

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Yes.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: You. With seven ayes.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Thank you. Thank you. I declare nominations are now open for Vice President of the Board of Education for year 2026. Are there any nominations? Commissioner Gupta? Sorry. Hey. Nice to meet you. I

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: would like to nominate Commissioner Huling or Vice President Huling right now, and I hope continuing Vice President Huling. I have had the real pleasure of seeing Commissioner President let's say Vice President Huling work diligently for about a year now. And and her tremendous ability, her tremendous tenacity, I am incredibly grateful for her stepping up, to serve as vice president, even, meaning that she had left her her day job, to to be able to dedicate herself quite fully to this position, which, just to be clear, does not pay anything. Small, small, small stipend. So I really appreciate that. And I am incredibly impressed with how much you have been able to absorb, be a sponge, and then just naturally fit into this position to be able to lead during an incredibly difficult time for this school district alongside President Kim. And I remain very confident that though we have dark days that we will emerge from this and it is due in much part to your leadership alongside President Kim, alongside Superintendent Hsu. So thank you.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Technically, she needs to accept and then we'll open up for discussion. So, sorry, we were out of order last time. Are there any other nominations? If there are no further nominations for the office of vice president, anti clear nominations closed. Vice president Huling has been renominated. Is there now comments from the board?

[Matt Alexander, Commissioner]: Accept. Oh,

[Phil Kim, Board President]: I mean, she doesn't have a choice. Would you like to accept?

[Jaime Huling, Vice President]: Thank you, commissioner Gupta. I accept.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: I'll be briefing my comments. It may be no surprise that, an educator and a lawyer sometimes, go back and forth in what she calls sparring. I will say, I think that, that dynamic and your expertise and background helped to bring our work forward in the best way best possible way. So I thank you for your partnership and leadership, vice president Huling, and I look forward to working with you in 2026. Any other comments? Okay. If there are no other comments or discussion, Ms. Lenoff, roll call please.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Ms. Munn? Yes. Ms. Cruz? Yes. Commissioner Alexander? Yes. Commissioner Fisher? Yes. Commissioner Gupta?

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: Yes.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Vice President Huling? Yes. Commissioner Ray? Yes. Commissioner Weissman-Ward? Yes. And President Kim?

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Yes.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: That's unanimous.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Thank you.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Congratulations.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Okay. Commissioner Alexander just said not congratulations, it's a thank you. Item g, approval of board meeting minutes. The next item on the agenda is the approval of board meeting minutes for regular meetings of 12/16/2025. Can I have a motion and a second please?

[SFGovTV Announcer]: I move to approve the minutes from the 12/16/2025 meeting.

[Superintendent Hsu]: Second.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Are there any comments or questions from the board? Seeing none, debate is now closed on the motion to approve this item. Roll call vote, please, Ms. Lenoff.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Ms. Smith. Mr.

[Speaker 6.0]: Peterson.

[Student Delegate (Cruz or Munn)]: Ms.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Cruz. Ms. Yes. Ms. Commissioner Alexander.

[Christopher Pepper, Teacher on Special Assignment (Health Education)]: Yes.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Ms. Yes. Ms. Commissioner Gupta.

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: Yes.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Ms. President Huling. Yes. Commissioner Ray? Yes. Commissioner Weissman-Ward? Yes. And President Kim?

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Do you want to switch it? Yes.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: That's seven I's.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Okay. We'll just, hello. We will switch up items. We can go to fiscal and operational health update h two first. This is a discussion item. No action will be taken on this item tonight. I call on Doctor. Sue to bring this item forward.

[Superintendent Hsu]: Thank you, President Kim, and thank you for switching the order here. It's okay. They're very anxious to tell you all the analysis that we're doing. I just want to take this opportunity to share that, again, we are working, well, we, we, the team, are working every single day to identify additional funding sources, particularly restricted sources, so that we can continue to provide all the add backs or the augments to the original budget allocation. And as I shared, we are working diligently to advocate at the state level as well to make sure that San Francisco in particular, but we're partnering with large school districts up and down the state. But particularly in San Francisco, we want to make sure that we get the appropriate allocation that meets the needs of our school, that meets the needs of our students, and that meets the needs of our school community. So that is something that we are working together on. And today, I've just asked the team to give us a very quick snapshot and update on where we are with our finances, particularly with the recent release of the governor's budget. So I'm going to hand it over to our Deputy Superintendent of Business Services, Chris Mumpinidis.

[Chris Mumpinidis, Deputy Superintendent of Business Services]: Thank you, Doctor. Sue. Good evening, commissioners and public. Yes, we weren't actually originally going to do the update, except I thought it might be helpful to share some insights into the governor's January budget announcement. The commissioners have all received a summary from capital advisors, but I will make that summary a bit more explicitly clear as to potential impacts on the district. But a couple of other updates before we get started. Typically, by this time this year, you would have already received the audit report for last year. We will be doing the audit at the final meeting in January. It was delayed because of the federal government shutdown. Something that we call the federal supplemental guidelines could not be released because they were due to be released during the shutdown. They were not released until after, which caused all school districts in the state to have to move their final audits. We are going through final audit findings right now. I'm used to a lot fewer findings, but we are working through them. There are findings that will come to the commissioners that do have a financial impact in fines and penalties to the district. And we will go into detail with those with the auditor at the second meeting in January. Position control update, sitting to my right. Most of you have met to my left, Niru, our CFO. To my right this evening is Daniel Munoz, our director of position control. Both positions were called out by both FICMAT and Department of Education as positions that are essential and needed to be filled for the district. So we're pleased to say both of those positions are filled. The only one that's remaining that's required is an internal auditor. We have been recruiting a long time for the internal auditor and still to date have zero qualified applicants. And so we are reposting again later this month, trying to change the job description and trying to up the pay a little bit. That is the final position that is being required for us to source. However, position control is important because we are going to, at the end of this budget process, at the January, do our first district wide reconciliation of all positions. What does that mean? That means that we have to go through and line by line be able to associate a position control number with every single individual that works here, no matter how little or how much they work or in what capacity. And it's pretty amazing that San Francisco actually has been able to get by for so long without that reconciliation. This is a key important point for a school district or any business or operation to operate efficiently, which is why it was called out as a high need for the district. So we will finally have that reconciliation done at the February. And in the interim time, the board will be receiving first readings of board policies and administrative regulations to implement position control fully for the system. Mr. Munoz is also writing a handbook so that everybody can understand the rules associated with position control that will accompany that board policy and administrative regulation. It will be coming to you for first read in the next couple of meetings. So lots to come in the development of the systems that we were asked to develop. And then, of course, March 10 is our second interim. Second interim covers all financial transactions through the February every year. And we clearly have a very short turnaround to get that to you by March 10. That's only a couple of business days between the close of February and getting you an updated report. And with that, I'm going to transition into the January budget proposal presented by the governor. Just as an introductory note, I do meet actually both for legislative advocacy as well as for shared understanding with a lot of CBOs and CFOs around the state. Have a nice network. And we've talked about this thoroughly. It's really interesting. This was a very unusual January budget proposal. It was unusual in that it was couched in the context of the entire period of time which the current governor has served in his office, which is why there are so many references of 2017 to present and a lot of credit being taken and broadcast for the amount that per pupil funding has gone up in that time. That is largely a function of the fact that the entire state has declined in enrollment so much, but yet the Prop 98 guarantee continues to guarantee us 40% of state revenues. And so that's really the function. We are not still getting a larger portion than Prop 98 guarantees, 40%. But the amount that equates to per student has increased dramatically, and so much so that they've been able to add an additional grade to public education in California, which is a huge achievement. The addition of TK, if this governor were staying, I would actually propose to you that he might have been adding a pre TK at some point, because that seems to be where the trend is going. But I also want to make a note on COLAs. There was a lot of information in COLAs. And COLAs are really misunderstood in public education. So just for the commissioners for a little bit of understanding, cost of living allowances in the state of California are really, really an odd duck. We are not given cost of living allowances based on COLA or CPI increases in the state of California. We are given an an actual average of all the federal services COLA increases for the nation, which is why the cost of living allowance in the upcoming budget has been shifted downward to 2.4%. If we were given COLAs based on California CPI, our average COLAs would be between 68%. And if we were given regional COLAs in San Francisco, they would be double digits. So COLAs are given to us based on a nationally referenced index. And people ask all the time, what does it mean? It's the amount that they increase our LCFF base to accommodate for costs that go up year after year that we don't have control over. Our current costs in San Francisco Unified go up between 68% a year. So a 2% or a 2.4% COLA means that we are only trying to make up for between four and five percent in the whole. So a COLA does not actually provide for our average increase in costs year over year. And in a declining enrollment environment, it compounds the issue. So one of the things that I continue to advocate for and I'm probably yelling in an empty house, enrollment is one of them but that we actually get a regional COLA. Just like the state is broken up into regions, those regions are very clear, and each one does have a different CPI annually. That would better cover the costs for those districts, particularly those like us that are in expensive urban areas, rather than a 2.4% COLA when our costs go up between 68% a year. Of course, the largest drivers of those costs are annual increases in insurance, annual increases in benefits such as retirement, our contribution to retirement, our purchasing of insurances, as well as even things like annual increases to costs and utility bills. Because school district, yes, we pay utility bills, our costs go up the same percentage and the same amount that yours do at home annually because we are a public utility consumer. So that goes into the beginning of the governor's budget announcement, which was that the 2627 COLA has been decreased from 3.02, which was the projection provided last year. It is now down to 2.41. What does that mean in dollars for San Francisco Unified? If that continues, that is a $3,700,000 reduction in what we had been told, and that is an every year reduction. So that's $3,700,000 per year. The other thing that was hidden in the governor's announcement was that for fiscal year twenty seven, twenty eight, the year after that, the COLA is being reduced from 3.42 to 3.06, And that means that the total combination of those two year over year means that we will have a $9,800,000 annual loss in revenue that we had anticipated, which was included both in your budget adoption as well as your first interim. So we have to adjust future revenues downward by that amount. So that is the loss when you reduce COLA. There was some good news in special education funding equalization statewide. However, what does that mean for San Francisco? That means that we will be getting $2,400,000 more. That is before they set local SELPA rates, but that is the amount. So the numbers always sound really exciting and really good, then you see what we get. Not to make it all about what we get, but that is my job. What do we get? What do we have to spend? How do we cover our expenses? So it's only a $2,400,000 projected increase for special education funding. I will take it, but it's not nearly enough. The additional $2,800,000,000 statewide that was part of the governor's announcement, This is for discretionary block grant for school districts. That will be $9,200,000 for San Francisco, and it is one time funding. It is not ongoing. The additional one time funds to support the Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant, We estimate it being about $6,300,000 So just to recap here, dollars 9,800,000.0 year over year loss in ongoing funding, with a $2,400,000 addition to special education ongoing and then one time funding totaling about $15,500,000 So net net in a budget of $1,400,000,000 the big announcement was essentially that we are getting the same as we were given last year. So it was a great deal of celebration. The announcements that came out after the budget are very important to pay attention to. This is being referred to as a workhorse or workforce focused budget. All that means is that they don't have enough data to make the prediction any more accurate than currently is. And that's basically telling us to wait for May, they'll tighten the numbers up. But that's the local impact. That's what the local impact would be for San Francisco Unified. Upcoming items to look forward to next year that are very operationally oriented. We are moving forward and plan on having in place for next year a real time credit card based procurement system for use by all managers and principals throughout the district. This will make procurement as well as on demand delivery to school sites much more up to date with the real world, with principals and one other staff member at their site being identified and trained about the responsibility of having a credit card and being able to make purchases. But this also means that they will be able to do so on demand when they need it with arrival typically within twenty four hours, which is the standard in the industry. We are also moving to what we call ACH payments, which is electronic transfers of funds. You might be surprised to note this is also the standard in the industry. In fact, I don't think I've been in a district that cuts checks anymore. We made a decision some time ago when I say some time ago, decades ago to not use ACH and to continue to cut paper checks, which is extremely labor intensive. So we literally cut a paper check for every single transaction in the district still. So we are moving to an ACH system. This is electronic transfer of funds between banks, payers and payees. You're probably doing it on your phone. We have not been doing that for the district. So that's in line for next year as well. And check cutting, when needed, is typically a county office function. So we will be moving that function to the county office. It might be very apparent to some of you why departments shouldn't be able to cut checks and why it is usually reserved for a double check by a county office, which is why we'll be moving that function there in the future. And in the spring, coming up in the next couple months, we will be getting the best use analysis for non school properties in the school district, another one of my functions, real estate and the management. I'll be then bringing that or sharing it with the board. I'm not going to bring it to you. I'll send it to you. And we should then have a discussion of what is the board's will moving forward based on that report, whether it's to direct staff to have a seveneleven committee, whether it's to actually follow best use guidelines, etcetera. The board has heard that from community members. I certainly have heard it here as well that we have a lot of property that sits and is not utilized in the best possible way for the district. So that will be the time, not that we snap our fingers and it happens overnight, but that the board can provide direction on what to do with those and as well as have data in front of them to see what the best use for those potential property decisions are for the benefit of the district. So with that, that's our update on finance and operations.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Thank you very much. I'll open up for comments and questions from commissioners. Commissioner Gupta.

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: Thank you for that very thorough report, deputy superintendent Matt Benitez. I just had a question on the COLA. That that was actually very educational. I had no idea that there is that discrepancy between how COLA is calculated. I always wondered that as a school site council chair in terms of why we were never able to or it was really difficult to square that in terms of increases in COLA. I have a question in terms of if that's always been the case, and I'm assuming that regionally we've always had higher inflation or generally. I'm curious what has been the impact and what will be the impact when we look at things like retirement pension? I mean, we are we ostensibly setting ourselves up for a huge balloon kind of, I I don't know, just just some financial cliff because of this accruing over time.

[Chris Mumpinidis, Deputy Superintendent of Business Services]: It's the cost of money, we call it. Know you're familiar with finance. The same money that we get buys far less every year and trying to spread that to get the same amount of stuff. And that stuff could be human resource. It's people, supplies, keeping the lights on. There's only so far you can stretch it when you're getting less and your costs are going up more than what you're getting in annually. Right? And that's actually, I think, when you hit declining enrollment, if you were to use it as a graph when those two things cross on the graph. And that's sort of the point we're at. Right? We're at declining enrollment. And certainly, we have very good revenues compared to other districts our size because we are in a wealthier area. But we're at that point where it's hard to keep everything going with the revenues that the district receives.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Commissioner Fisher?

[SFGovTV Announcer]: I agree with commissioner Gupta. There were a lot of really helpful nuggets in there, and thank you for the analysis. I know that the, you know, we just got the governor's report. And so, thank you. I mean, everything has been coming at us a mile a minute. And I appreciate you and your flexibility and the quick response. So thank you for all of that. Actually, when I saw this on the agenda, I thought it was going be an opportunity to potentially follow-up on the FSP from December and potentially, some of the comments we heard here from community tonight as well, like the call for more clarity and transparency around the formulas we were using. That's one of the things I heard loud and clear from public comment tonight, You know, like, what formulas are we using, you know, especially around Title I. LCAP, you know, someone said, is it true that someone asked me earlier, is it true we're cutting 20% across the board for Title I? And just the fact that I really want to echo one of the points made in public comment about the FSP was framed as a worst case scenario. And yet, now it's being framed as our reality. And so I'm just for myself as well as the public, I'd like to get a better understanding of how these decisions are being made, how this budget is being put together, and you know, where can folks go for more information, like regular community members? I know that there's a process for principals to reach out to lead or to fill out the appeals process. But for those of us in the community who feel like the rug has been pulled out from under us, how do we move forward?

[Chris Mumpinidis, Deputy Superintendent of Business Services]: There was a lot in there.

[SFGovTV Announcer]: There's probably I know I did that in, like, '40 the minute, but there's probably, like, an hour's worth of responses.

[Chris Mumpinidis, Deputy Superintendent of Business Services]: Remind me what I'm missing. So I want to make it clear, the FSP and the allocations not related. Remember, so we did a baseline allocation based on enrollment and based on the current enrollment, working with the enrollment center. And the enrollment center I

[SFGovTV Announcer]: don't want

[Chris Mumpinidis, Deputy Superintendent of Business Services]: to put him under glass, so I'll save his name. But they have a very good data analyst. The other good data analysts are in my shop. Actually, two of them are sitting next to me. They're both better at it than I am, quite frankly. And so they were able to do really good, accurate enrollment projections. Two of the three months of open enrollment are complete. And then it was based on current enrollment. Now, as enrollment changes so we've already seen one school, I think, during open enrollment that, for example, gained a TK. So as we see those changes, we add to the allocation. But I want to make it clear. So there's two parts of the process. So we do the mathematical part to make sure that it's clear and transparent. So when you ask about formulas, that specifically is actually Niru's shop. She works on that. And then we don't necessarily make those final calls. So I then turn that over to my colleagues in the cabinet and say, here's the baseline mathematical allocations. And then they take the time to go through every school site and every program and say, what more do we add? And so if you look at the letters, you'll see the base allocation, which is the central allocation that the district provides through its central allocation. And then you'll see all the adjustments that they made. And note that last year's allocations and this year's allocations are both posted. So if folks want to compare, mean, folks are interested, we did post both. And then you're right. There's an appeal process. But we will still always automatically adjust for enrollment as it changes. That's the baseline for enrollment or for the staffing allocation. I

[SFGovTV Announcer]: appreciate the framing that the budget allocations and the FSP are totally different, and the way they were presented feel completely intertwined and dependent to staff, to community. I mean, what I'm hearing from folks is what the heck? You voted seven o against this. Why are we seeing everything that you voted against in our school site budgets? That's literally I've had that conversation across at least a half a dozen school sites. I've been invited to more budget meetings this year than ever in the past. So so I'm I'm having a hard time scoring those. Know that might be the intent, but that is absolutely not how it is perceived in the public. So I think that's why I keep going back to the transparency of the situation. And so the appeals process for school sites, for the principal itself, I guess what I'm asking for, superintendent and deputy superintendent, is what can we do to better engage families in understanding what we're doing, why we're doing it, and what other mechanisms that community members have in pushing back on this, where they want to I mean, like, we heard it today. Like, there's huge concerns about how some of our most marginalized communities are getting hit the hardest, that is against everything that we stand for, it's against all of our guardrails. So, how do we continue this conversation outside of board meetings, I guess, is the real ask.

[Superintendent Hsu]: Absolutely. And, again, what I shared was that we are going to be engaging. We are engaging, actually, all of our principals are engaged in conversations with their lead staff, are essentially their principal supervisors around their budget. I know that our associate superintendent of ed services, Theresa Ship has met with several principals already and have gone through some of their requests and appeals. And so we're having multiple conversations with principals because principals are truly key to their school community and making sure that we have a mechanism to be able to negotiate and talk and work with our principals as we build this budget. Budget. I will say for example, the budget, the school allocation that we shared just last week is very different than the FSP worst case scenario that was presented in December. Very, very different. In that particular, in the December allocation, we heard things like, Title I's only funding social workers. Or that, we were projecting 50% reduction to, T10s, which are security guards. Or we were reducing counselors and APs. So so that the December allocation is very, very different than where we are now.

[Chris Mumpinidis, Deputy Superintendent of Business Services]: Very. It was very different. Very different. And the other thing is title one, I've heard that too. So it's a weird thing here. I actually have the responsibility for the board of oversight over your Title I. But I actually don't manage it. So not the Title I department, but the budget. So we actually have a very talented fiscal person there. Her name is you all know her, Christina Wong. And so if people want her to write a summary of what she's doing but she is doing the allocations correctly. She's been doing it for years. Title I population and the way it's measured does go up and down. And by the way, it is also one of our audit findings, right, is that we've been struggling to do it accurately, which we'll get to in January. But that's preliminarily one of the big ones on the list. But she's she's very confident. Title one allocations do not change with budget. They come to us, they go out to school sites, sometimes with staff specified, meaning that they're paying for staff. So for example, for social workers, we restored all of the social workers that you're mentioning that the FSP suggested that we not do. So again, did not bear reality to that. But in addition to that, Title I sites, instead of getting a half of one, they got a full time one because that's what title one is doing. And we found a restricted resource for the rest that doesn't interfere with title one's ability to do so. But as far as why the site allocations, each site is going up or down, Anybody, any of those principals can send an email to Christina. And if the board wants something more, I'm sure she would be happy to write a summary. Also, in mind, Title I budget cycle is not the same as the school districts. Right? So they run October through September, which is why they have extra time to continue their CYPTAs, which is what Christina announced at budget kickoff this past weekend. But she runs a really and I say this financially because that's my responsibility and I look at these things. She runs a very tight ship financially for Title I and all the Title programs. And

[Superintendent Hsu]: then just what is not inside the school allocation are the discretionary funds. So a lot of our schools, have student success fund and other grants that they bring in to their schools. And that's how a lot of our schools use, those dollars to bring on additional staff. So, the allocation that we sent on Monday was really allocation that was coming from central office to our schools. A lot of our schools augment that allocation with funding that they have through Student Success Fund and other grants or fundraising efforts at school sites.

[Chris Mumpinidis, Deputy Superintendent of Business Services]: Correct. And we've also been asked about special education allocations. That's also done separately, right? Because that's done by service levels for students with IEPs. And so some folks have asked, well, why am I not seeing those teachers? Because special ed actually has to wait a little bit longer until those are finalized, and then they disperse their staff. That staffing is done in a slightly later process.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: I'm going to pass it to student delegates just because I know that time is short for you all. So if you have any questions that you want to ask at this time or comments you'd like to make before you're dismissed.

[Student Delegate (Cruz or Munn)]: I don't really have any questions, but I just want to thank you for the update and then thank Commissioner Fisher for that question. I was wondering the exact same thing. So thank you so much. And then thank you for the responses.

[Student Delegate (Cruz or Munn)]: I don't really have anything. I'm just thinking. Don't have really any question that I've made at the moment. But if I do, I will ask it later on. Yeah. Thank you.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Thank you. You. Student delegates, thank you for being with us this evening. We'll go commissioner Ray and then, commissioner Alexander.

[Supryia Ray, Commissioner]: I think what Commissioner Fisher expressed is very much on the mark about what I, for instance, have been hearing as well. So I'm not going to repeat any of that. But there is a hugely widespread perception that the fiscal stabilization plan and the allocations are intertwined and related. And there are definitely references in the FSP to the staffing model and so forth. So there are reasons for people to believe that they are entwined. To the extent we want to distinguish them, we have to do a lot better job explaining this to the public. And along those lines, one of the things I wanted to ask and this is probably more appropriately directed to Superintendent Sue is, for instance, taking a look at the message that was sent out to staff and families, right? You just mentioned discretionary funds, which seems like an extremely important component of what schools can rely on to do their staffing. But there isn't a single mention of discretionary funds in the communication that went out to staff and families. And this is something that I found myself trying to explain over and over again. The people have asked me about this, saying that it's not like the allocations released are not the only staffing that a school will have because they can obtain additional staff through their discretionary funds. So I'm wondering if you can provide some more just explain that a little bit better about how that's being determined for schools, who they can hire, what guidelines they should be following to do that, and so forth, and affirm, if I'm understanding correctly, that literally the site allocations are the starting point. There's a whole other realm of staff that can be hired through this other mechanism we have. Thank you.

[Superintendent Hsu]: Thank you, Commissioner Ray, for that question. Actually, principals are experts at this. They are genius jigsaw puzzle creators. And they are very, very used to building their master budget, similar to their master schedule. I believe in the memo I shared with our community, as well as to our principals, I alluded to the revised and updated supplemental hiring guidelines, which dictates or presents the guidelines for how school community was going to use their discretionary dollars. Now, I may not have made it clear, but, I will go back and review that. But that is something that I know, all of our principals are very well aware of.

[Supryia Ray, Commissioner]: Just to clarify, I read both the budget development email template for schools and the email sent to staff and families. And the staff and families one doesn't mention the discretionary stuff for the hiring. I shouldn't swear about the hiring guidelines, but I think not that as well. However, the other one, the budget development email template, does reference that. But what most people read would have been this staff and families email.

[Superintendent Hsu]: I appreciate that. And we'll go back and check. We do strongly encourage our families to go and participate in their school site council so that they can learn more about how the school community is going to be budgeting, both the allocation that the central office is allocating, but then also other funds that our school leaders are bringing into their schools.

[Chris Mumpinidis, Deputy Superintendent of Business Services]: And just a quick clarification. Niru just reminded me For Title I thank you for the reminder. Have too many things in my head. So for Title I, because they are on a different fiscal year, they gave 80% of their site allocations because they have to wait and see what the Title I budget does at the federal level to make sure they have enough to allocate what is typically the other 20%. So because they're on a different cycle, she has to wait and true up her budget before she makes sure that she then has enough to give additional to each site. And that's sort of typically how they run it. So eightytwenty split.

[Matt Alexander, Commissioner]: Thank you. I want to come back to this issue of the confusion about what happened between the seven-zero board vote and the school staffing models. Because I have received countless calls and messages and emails in the last week suggesting that the board voted seven-zero against the fiscal stabilization plan. And then the superintendent sent out staffing models based on it anyway. I got a call from a principal yesterday who said went back even further and said, associate superintendent Shipp had a meeting with principals, asked for our feedback, ignored our feedback. They brought it forward in the fiscal stabilization plan, the board voted seven zero, they ignored the board, and then they sent out the staffing model. So that's that's from a veteran principal who's never called me in five years being on the board, who's been in SFUSD a really long time. So I just wanna point that reality on the table and ask the superintendent, like, what what did you take as the message from that seven zero vote and how did it adjust the staffing models to schools in a real way?

[Superintendent Hsu]: So again, the fiscal stabilization plan is a technical document that is connected to first interim. It's a document that shows CDE that we as a governance team are willing to and are able to make reductions in worst case scenario. I will say that because we did not pass a fiscal stabilization plan, unfortunately Chris and I are now in the very unfortunate situation of explaining to CDE that we are still, we should still be certified as qualified right now in our budget and that we should be, still moving forward, towards a positive certification. Again, fiscal stabilization plan, technical document that demonstrates how and the willingness of this body to make reductions to meet worst case scenario budgets. In terms of the school allocation, we did take into consideration all of our community feedback with the amount of money that we knew at that moment in time. In my conversations with principals, in all of my principal roundtables, in conversations with our labor partners, particularly UASF, we shared we shared that, that you know, would it be good, would it benefit you as a site leader to get your budget earlier? If we could get a budget out to our site leaders, to our school community earlier, it will allow more time to have these very difficult conversations. And it will allow us time to review all of our restricted sources and determine how best to use them to really meet our school community and our school needs. Which is exactly what we're demonstrating now where we were able to use restricted sources to now fully fund school social workers. We're able to identify other sources to now have security guards on school campuses. We are now able to identify restricted sources to have counselors, to increase not fully, but to increase a few APs at some of our schools. So we're continuing to build out the budget. And this is why we've been naming it our budget development month because we're not done yet. We have many more weeks to go. The budget will not be done until the January where we're having, continuing to have conversations with site leaders. I know that, you know, I was looking at, interim associate superintendent, Theresa Shipp's calendar of just all the principals that she's meeting with, where she's having these conversations. And I know that principals are also meeting with their community. I mean, she just told me the other day that she's been trying to schedule a meeting with one of our key, principals. And the principal is having multiple meetings with you all. And so that's why there's this constant rescheduling. But this is what happens in the month of January where we're having these conversations. And we're doing this earlier than ever before because we want to be prepared for February. We have very strict state guidelines and deadlines for noticing of our employees for reduction. And so we want to make sure that we have the time to be prepared for that and to do it right.

[Matt Alexander, Commissioner]: Okay. I think the yeah. And maybe it's just so I guess the I still think there's this misperception of what's happening and what is the authority of the board. I mean, people came to public comment. The board then voted in a particular way. And I think there's still a disconnect. So I just want to name that.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: And if I can maybe speak to this a little bit. Because I think there's this important question of what is the role of the board versus what is the role of the superintendent. Just to be really clear, as a board per our own governance practices, we do not hire and fire individual staff. Right? The the sole employee that we have is the superintendent. And so when it comes to something like a staffing model, that is truly a product and deliverable of the superintendent. Now I also get frustrated when I hear that the staffing model is totally unrelated to the fiscal stabilization plan because very clearly there are elements of the stabilization plan that are not related to staffing which is true. It is a legal document that we need to submit. It is also true that there are elements of that stabilization plan that directly speak to the staffing model. So that conflation, I think, is important to just acknowledge because I don't think it's really a conflation. It there is a direct relationship between those two documents. And, yes, it is a technical document that we need to submit to the state and different commissioners may have had different motivations for voting it down but just for the record, was zero to six. Commissioner Weissman wanted to go depart us at that time. But just to be really clear, what I heard in that evening was that and and maybe I'll just speak for my own self. The reason I voted that down was because I did not think the board was prepared with the right information and context to be able to to confidently vote on this document And what we heard loud and clear was that community hadn't been robustly engaged about some of those decisions prior to coming to

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: the

[Phil Kim, Board President]: board. Now there may be other reasons why commissioners also voted against that fiscal stabilization plan. But at the end of that evening, I very clearly remember making a statement afterwards. This was less of a a statement around us not unwilling to make decisions around writing our fiscal ship. It was about what it means for us to be prepared in our decision making and for the community to be prepared in that decision making. So I I just wanna make sure that that's very clear. We may not have a direct authority over the stable or over the staffing model. That is a superintendent deliverable. The decision that we had in that moment was do we approve and pass the stabilization plan to send to the state as part of our budget or not. Right? And and and so just to add some context there. The

[Chris Mumpinidis, Deputy Superintendent of Business Services]: Yeah. Or

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Yeah. I'll just kind of Is

[Matt Alexander, Commissioner]: that what I'm saying?

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Yeah. The challenge I I am still experiencing I think is somewhat going back to some of the lessons learned from that December meeting of how does the public and how do we as commissioners understand how things are progressing as they go. So in December, as those decisions were made by the board, clearly things have changed around the kinds of things that were being talked about at that time with what sites received in January. My question would be where is that documented for us to understand the changes that took place between then and now? Right? Because I I'm hearing that, oh, we did not actually move forward with some of those things that were named in the fiscal stabilization plan. Now just to be clear, we may not have approved the document, but the superintendent still has the authority to move forward with some things. But my question would be, how do we know what's moved forward and what hasn't from December to today? And this kind of carries from a different conversation that commissioner Alexander and and I had in a finance briefing. For sites, how do they know like that I call it a gap analysis and I it's not really the right technical term for it, but how do they know from last year to this year what has changed from their budget? Right? And then as commissioners, how are we supposed to understand the impact of those changes from last year to this year if we I guess that's my question. How are we supposed to understand the impact and difference between last year and this year and that delta? And if that means that one, two plus more people are not gonna be at a school site from this year to next year, clearly, they're I mean, I don't think educators and staff are holding nothing at school sites. They're hold they're doing something. What is that loss? Right? Like and I think that analysis is helpful not only to know by a site, but as a district too and as the board who needs to ultimately pass this budget, understanding the implications of that is critical for us to to be informed on the impact of that decision. So so that is I think part of my confusion still. And I will say this, just to the finance team like and and to your leadership mister Mount Benitez, like I very much appreciate the lens and refreshing perspective that you have brought to our our financial decisions And I very much can appreciate the difference between the kind of calculated nature of a of of of like a model that one's that you're creating versus the inputs that go into that and the inputs that come out of that. I I actually think that my reflections and feedback are less so for your team and the kind of mechanisms of it all and more for how we are taking that information and translating it for our schools, taking that information, bringing it to the public and taking the messages that go around the kind of models that you're creating and for us to make sense of that information. Again, I don't I have not heard from any commissioner here a lack of desire to follow through on the financial commitments and the fiduciary obligations that we have as a board. But understanding that change and that impact is critical to our own governance and that's I think the part that I'm missing in this whole conversation. And that's the part I still don't quite really know And that's partly why that document I voted against in December. Yes.

[Matt Alexander, Commissioner]: I had some I appreciate everything president Kim just said.

[Superintendent Hsu]: And I

[Matt Alexander, Commissioner]: I just and I had a little time left too, so when he went over too. But I so I just wanted to I think my other questions and I and I just to your point, a 100% agree. The board's authority is not to micromanage the staffing model. However, the board you you know, what we were asked to do in the fiscal stabilization plan was to make $26,000,000 worth of cuts to schools roughly. It was items three and four, which were the that was the focus of all discussion. Right? There was very little, if any, discussion of the other elements of the fiscal stabilization plan. Then there was this six zero sorry. I think I said seven zero. Six zero vote against it. So, I mean, that was the nature of my question. Well, then you would expect the superintendent and team would say, oh, that's not the direction the board wants to go in. Let's go back to the drawing board, figure this out. Clearly, that wasn't the right approach. Let's consult with our school communities. Let's consult with our principals. Let's consult with our teachers, parents, families, and figure out another approach. Right? And again, we might come back with a bunch we may include cuts to schools. Again, I think we can get away with no cuts to schools given the amount of $430,000,000 fund balance. Some of my colleagues may disagree. But that's a debate we ought to have. It But was clear that approach in December was not the one we wanted to take. Right? That approach wasn't the one we wanted to take. And then schools get more or less something quite similar in January with, as president Kim said, not any clear messaging about what the changes were. So then it's sort of like, well, what's going on? So I think it raises this kind of governance question. I think for me, then there's also substantive questions around the impact. It looks like schools serving low income students and particularly immigrant students have faced the deepest cuts. We heard tonight from, Vis Valley Middle School. We heard from SF International about these programs serving immigrant students. You know, we we may you made an eloquent statement, President Kim, about protecting our immigrant families in the in the wake of what's happening with ICE. We can't decimate their educators and say that with a straight face. Like, just can't do that, right? Does that mean that we can't make adjustments to programs serving immigrant students? Of course not. But we need to do it with families, with educators. Villa Valley Middle School got a budget where their newcomer program had been eliminated, and no one at the school even knew this was happening. That decision got made by somebody in the central office over the winter break, apparently, and they just included it in the budget. That's inexcusable. I mean, that's morally, for me, thinking about how we serve our immigrant students, that's it's embarrassing. And so I think just I mean, we need to do much, much better. And and it feels capricious. It feels like there's not explanation. And I just we cannot continue like this. And I just I don't know. I just wanna say I don't mean to be to overstate it, but I think it's we can't just say we're gonna make these cuts without doing it in a way that respects and honors the folks in the school communities that are being impacted. That is our responsibility as commissioners. So so whatever that takes and I think that isn't something that should happen in the boardroom. Right? That can't happen in public comment. It's you all as staff need to go to the schools, you talk to the principals, talk to those families, and make a plan. And, again, it doesn't mean no one's gonna object, but it but there has to be some level of real engagement.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Sorry. Before we go back to commissioners, can we just see if others have other comments to make and then we'll circle back around. Vice President Huling?

[Jaime Huling, Vice President]: I really appreciate the analysis that you guys that you provided on the impact of the governor's proposed budget on our budget, or I suppose lack thereof, since it is not the historic investments in education headline translating into numbers that one would hope for. But just to echo the comments today of my fellow commissioners, the board meetings just cannot be the place that we're communicating things to the public. And so I do hope that there are this is Superintendent Hsu, that there's active communication to school communities, who I'm sure, some of whom have seen the news about all of this education money that's allegedly flowing to us, about what those impacts are and aren't on the district, and also, therefore, what they are and aren't on our labor negotiations. Just to echo what everyone has, well, many commissioners have said, I think that for me, my concern with the FSP was really around the lack of communication around it, around the kind of lack of transparent airing of what was ended up in the FSP during the budget town halls and engagement around specific issues. And I just would ask Superintendent Hsu what is the plan to change the communication with our schools? Like, I am still getting emails from constituents who are concerned that there's going to be no middle school health and that teen pregnancy and STI rates are going to go up. Where is the communication to every family in middle school that there is still going to be middle school health, even though the grants from a public fund private funder for these specific dedicated health positions are ending, and the state is not giving us money to backfill? Where are the communications about how zero periods and seven periods can help provide access to electives. Because while I think a lot of the proposals coming from the central office can be aligned with reaching our student outcomes and serving our students' needs, I can't expect people to understand things that have literally never been communicated to them. So that's really my question is, what are we going to see different in the communication around these budget developments to families and teachers directly and educators?

[Superintendent Hsu]: Again, we shared the budget to our site leaders at the request of site leaders in early January. We wanted to give site leaders the time to work with us to make sure that we were allocating staff and resources to meet their school community. What I actually shared with, Commissioner Alexander when we talked about this was that when Theresa Ship and I were going line by line through each of these schools and looking at their staffing allocations, we started to realize that there were teacher allocations that were not showing up in our budget system. But they were showing up on school sites. We made a decision at that moment in time to move forward with a message to our school community that we needed additional time to understand the allocations that schools ended up having but we don't have a budget allocation for them. It is a systems problem that unfortunately the team has been working on for the last several weeks. We are going to continue to understand how these allocations were made, particularly to middle and high schools, because we do not see this anomaly in elementary schools at this moment in time. But we see it in middle and high schools. And we need to understand how these additional teachers were budgeted. They may have showed up in, at the school, but we can't trace them back to a budget number that is connected to their school number. It takes time. And thankfully, we have the time to sit down with our site leaders to do that.

[Chris Mumpinidis, Deputy Superintendent of Business Services]: I would just gently remind folks that we're talking about the beginning of a budget process that culminates in June. During that time, you still have a lot of factors that are still unknown. We don't have the May revise, which is going to be pretty key, although I don't anticipate a whole lot of changes, to be quite honest, not with the current state government budget. The biggest drivers for us that are still unknown are bargaining. We simply don't know where it's going to end up. And most of our units and most of our staff still have not settled. And that's for this year as well as the next couple of years. So none of those pieces are going to come to land. They might not even come to land until after second interim. So your second interim is still going to be devoid on March 10 of all of those numbers. It's the biggest driver of our annual budget. To what Doctor. Su is speaking to, we can do our best, the three of us here as well as the folks we're not a large staff, by the way. It's a pretty small staff to try to reconstruct what was done in the past with no evidence given us. All we can do is our best. We can't figure out the unknowns. One of the lacks here as far as transparent systems is there was nothing to start with other than last year's allocations, but then to find out that there's more people that don't even show up anywhere. And we aren't going to know, by the way, until the end of budget development when we do that first position control reconciliation. We don't even know the delta of what we're talking about right now. That's pretty highly concerning when you look at a systems aspect of running school districts that we can't do that. We'll be able to do it moving forward. That's exciting to me. And giving transparency to the process and the baseline we develop for the future, that's exciting to me. But we can't necessarily fix the past. We can see the problems. But until we have the time to see the data that comes in, we can't just fix it. So it it's gonna take the board asked me earlier this year, how long is it gonna take to get it in good shape? And I said, budget cycles. We're not even halfway through the first.

[Jaime Huling, Vice President]: And I appreciate that. I think my concern is that it wasn't communicated to site leaders, that this doesn't include your supplemental hiring. It wasn't included in the communication to site leaders that were dealing with this major discrepancy and many more people may be added in. And sometimes it seems like the approach of the district is to do the harshest thing and then see who yells to get their supplemental funding. And that just should not be how it works. And it should be communicated to communities to not cause unnecessary harm and concern for their students' learning and well-being, that this is the beginning of a six month process, that we expect that many more positions will be added in, that we are working through these unknowns, that maybe you have fewer teachers, you'll have less enrollment. And that message is not being received by the community. They are not understanding that. And so that means that it's incumbent on the district to communicate either through different avenues, in different language, more times, not requiring people to go to a three hour in person weekend summit to get the information that they need to be reassured about their students while learning.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: I'm going to move to Commissioner Weissman-Ward, and then we'll come back to the commissioners who have further questions.

[Lisa Weissman-Ward, Commissioner]: Thank you. I also think this question is probably for you, Doctor. Sue. It's reiterating Vice President Huling's point on the communication. Because I think that there's, the numbers are what they are or aren't to be determined. I think there's the communication to the site leaders. And I I I Jaime sorry. Vice President Huling, made this point, but I just I wanna sort of push on it a little bit more. I think the understanding of not just the what but the why. So we're talking about six versus seven period days. And when it first came up, it was it to me felt like it was in the context of money saving. Then after learning more and hearing more, it's like, actually, no. This is about instructional minutes for core classes. And in some of our schools with seven period days, we're actually not teaching the number of minutes we need to be teaching for math and ELA. That's huge as a parent. That's something I'm interested in knowing. I'm also really interested in the fact that my kiddo gets to take algebra and Japanese. He doesn't have to choose between those. And so to the extent that you all are, I know you all are brainstorming, what are other options? You mentioned the zero seven period. Until and unless all of that is shared, all folks here is we're doing this and it came up in the context of this budget conversation, so it's about money. And if it's not about I mean, it can it's not it's not necessarily mutually exclusive. It may also have some slight impact on budget. But if the the focus is we need to have instructional minutes happening in these core subjects, but also we're looking at ways and exploring how the schools that are doing it are still able to offer multiple electives is really important. And so I think that's sort of, that's an example of I think where that communication is really lacking and if folks had more, we could have a a, I think, a more nuanced and better informed conversation. There was another example I was gonna give that was six versus seven. I don't know what it is now, but it's that communication that isn't just it's why are we doing this and also how are we how are we being creative and how are we talking to the school sites where if there's a school site that's really doing something really well with a separate period day, how is it working? Let us see your master schedule and then sharing that with the other middle schools that maybe their master schedule isn't quite up to par. So and I know you all are working on it, but but no, you're not telling people that you're working on it in the ways that are important.

[Superintendent Hsu]: Yes. Thank you, for the question, commissioner. Yes, we are working on it because, yes, that was and I think I've shared this before, it was a mistake to connect and link the fiscal stabilization plan presentation with the allocation the staffing allocation because they're not linked. And I also acknowledge that the way that we presented the staffing allocation made it sound that it was more financial, fiscal, budget oriented as opposed to student enrollment, needing to contract towards our labor agreements, making sure that we're allocating towards restrictions of different types of money. And we should have done a better job at that. We've learned our lesson. We are meeting with all of our schools because you're right, VB Huling, we can't just do a virtual town hall and then call it a day. Which is why we've scheduled meetings with all of our principals. Chris and I have been meeting with lots of principals along with Amy from HR, associate super of HR, and Theresa, so that we can just hear from them how they are perceiving the allocation. Where do they want to make some changes? Because you know, I I just heard a principal said, well, instead of this position, can we get that position? And we said justify why? And the justification made sense. And so we made the change. And that's what a budget development should be. That's the process. The process is to really allow time for the community to come together and build it. And that's the power of the school site council. Now, should we do more? Yes. Do we need to have more meetings? Absolutely. And we're committed and we still have time. Actually, as a matter of fact, know that we keep talking about middle schools. I'm gonna just say this here, I would like to meet with all the middle school principals, within the next week and a half. And so I see my staff back there. Please make that happen because I wanna sit in front of our principal and have this conversation with them.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: I'm gonna say

[SFGovTV Announcer]: I'll be brief.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: No. I I was gonna say something, but I'm gonna pass on.

[SFGovTV Announcer]: Looked at me though.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Oh, no. No. I mean, here's I'll just say quickly. I think that my I appreciate the nuance. I appreciate the desire to sit and have a conversation and make changes given rationale. I don't know if that was received, it sounds like, by sites, by educators, by principals. I certainly didn't perceive that that was the intention by rolling out of the staffing model. And so, you know, there's this question of, like, we we believe, I I think, that one size is not fit all for all of our schools. Right? I I think of a conversation I had just recently about a continuation high school about their enrollment actually changes from day one of school to the end of the school year. Right? So then if we know that that school grows in their enrollment because it's a continuation high school and by definition, they will have more students that they receive throughout the year, what does that mean then for their allocations moving forward? Right? And and so I I think these these are nuanced questions. I think I continue to go back to where how is that communicated? What is it what is being said in that in that change? And and here's the challenge I think is that that we've already kind of lost the narrative because the message had gone out in December and people have experienced that. So as we try to change and pivot between last month and now today and onward, we have to almost redouble our efforts to to kind of get the message across that we are that we had not intended to do x y z, whatever that might be. And we or that we, you know what? You you heard us right. We do plan on doing this because I think that is fine too. We just need that clarity, I think. Right? And this kind of resonates from our ad hoc committee meeting where the you know, we heard loud and clear from our community. Tell us the hard news. We can deal with it. Right? Tell us what's movable and what's not movable. And sure, we are gonna disagree especially even on this board. There's seven of us. We're probably gonna have seven different perspectives on how to cut a 100 and whatever million dollars. And how how do we make sure that we then have a structure and language around that I think. Okay. So I'm gonna go to commissioner Alexander, commissioner Ray and then we'll come back around this way.

[Matt Alexander, Commissioner]: I just want to give one more example of this. I've gotten all these calls from principals in the last week. And again, they shouldn't be calling me. I think that's the problem. They should be calling you all. And there's something blocking that system. I think part of it is one thing I heard was that the staffing model allocations weren't shared even with assistant superintendents before they went out. So I think there's something happening where there's a small group of people making decisions in the central office. They aren't even consulting with other folks in the central office. But one of the things the principal said to me when he or they I shouldn't have said he called me was that they had at their school this I think it was a I'll probably get the details wrong. But anyway, so you probably won't be able to figure out who it is. But I think it was a math interventionist maybe. But then now that was being taken out of their budget, even though they had data that showed that it was improving, but then they were being told they needed to have a reading coach. All these reading coach for their teachers. So again, the and to your point, I think that superintendent, that you were saying that nuance because that was a student outcomes conversation. Like, this principal was saying, have a strategy around student outcomes. I'm actually working on it. The data is showing improvement. And now I'm being told that I have to abandon that. And I just think that conversation needed to happen before they got a budget allocation that they then had to give to their families. I think that's the problem. Right? It's it's the cart before the horse. Once these come out, it's like, they clearly didn't know anything about my school when they gave me my allocation, right? So I think that's where we're behind the ball on this engagement piece. And

[Phil Kim, Board President]: As an example, use that as an example of let's say a math interventionist was gonna be swapped out for a reading coach. What I would wanna hear is is does that mean that our strategy as a district is that we're gonna double down our reading coaches? Like, there's a question here about what where that message is coming from. Right?

[Matt Alexander, Commissioner]: That's right. And because then

[Chris Mumpinidis, Deputy Superintendent of Business Services]: we could defend

[Phil Kim, Board President]: that and say, actually, our our district wide strategy is this, which makes sense as to why this is getting pulled over here. But then there needs to be that. Right? So I think that's the kind of question that I have around.

[Matt Alexander, Commissioner]: Yeah. And if they're getting data with their math interventions, maybe there's a way to fund both, right, and not fund something else. Mean, again, think that the nuanced use of resources and again, that's not our job at all. Like, we should but I think our job as a board is to say, are you, staff, doing that kind of process that actually ensures that this results in something that actually does improve student outcomes? Because we it's not if we just sit up here and say, oh, our strategy is reading coaches, that's not data. Right? Principals have actual data about what's working and what's not working in their schools. And this is a point that I Vice President Huling has made a lot. We can't have a one size fits all approach because kids are different in every school. And, yes, we need a strategy, but we also need space for if they have can show that something is working, then we need to support it. And I think that's the other piece that this just that's my concern is that if if that's not included, then this process undermines our ability to achieve student outcomes.

[Superintendent Hsu]: Thank you so much for that question. I I think we've made it clear that in elementary school, instructional coaches are non negotiables. Literacy coaches are non negotiables because we want to move the needle on our literacy outcomes as directed by this board. In middle school, what we're asking for are instructional coaches that lean towards math. So it's inter I don't, based on what you're saying, I'm assuming that maybe this is an elementary school person because they have an they have a math coach instead of a literacy coach, so we'll figure that out. But that shouldn't be, right? So for middle school, we want we want our middle schools to really double down and focus on math because that is part of our VVGGs. Actually even even what vice press not vice press Commissioner, Wiseman-Ward was saying around, her her student having, electives and algebra. I also know that her student has math and algebra, right, because we wanna continue to try to preserve that because we know how important it is. Increasing instructional minutes for students will increase those outcomes. So yes, we have to sit down, have those conversations. And you know, the other day I did meet with a handful of principals and I was walking through the logic of sharing their allocation this early, again, earlier than they've ever received it before, because they asked for it to be this early. Now what I didn't realize, what I didn't realize was that because we also then scheduled the school size summit early, it didn't give our principals time to then work with us on building out the the allocation. Now, in January, there is this President's Day weekend and so we were then faced with all of these scheduling issues. However, knowing what I know now, next year will be different. But I think, I still think it's important for our site leaders to have access to their allocation. Spend time with us, with central office, so that we can work through all the nuances because each school is very different. And then do the school site summit at a later time.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Commissioner Ray and then Commissioner Fisher.

[Supryia Ray, Commissioner]: Okay. Just a couple of things. First on impact, That's come up here, and it's absolutely critical that we look at the impacts on schools, particularly as they relate to student outcomes, as Commissioner Alessandro was mentioning. This is something that I had asked about in the Q and A for the December 16 meeting. And the answer that was returned was unbelievably generic when I was asking about, for instance, has the district done any analysis beyond cost savings to assess the impacts of these proposed reductions in the staffing model? And the information was so generic as to just be essentially useless. I mean, if our answer is simply the district has been engaging with site leaders who effectively leverage unrestricted and restricted resources, etcetera, etcetera, that doesn't tell anybody anything. And it doesn't give folks confidence that we are actually assessing the impacts. I have to keep wondering, did we assess the impacts? Do we have any kind of documentation to show that, that we thought about what the impacts were, or talk to people about those? So I think it would help a lot if we were able to provide that sort of analysis. And I would hope that we are undertaking it in some fashion before we're just suggesting or allocating things in particular ways. That was one thing I wanted to ask about. Like what do you have that you can show us or show schools around impact analysis, and particularly how that affects outcomes? And the second thing I wanted to go back to, again, was communication. Because just sitting through this discussion here has made me feel again the disconnect that I have personally often felt but also feel is widely seen in the community. There have been a number of questions around communication with schools and families and so forth. At one point, Commissioner Huling asked, what is the plan to communicate with the communities? And when you were answering, Superintendent Hsu, your answer was about sharing the budget with site leaders in early January because they requested that, which, I mean, it was just it had nothing to do with Commissioner Huling's question about the plan to communicate with the school communities. And I feel like if we we need to be able to talk with each other and show that we're responsive among ourselves and with our communities and so forth. We need to do far, far better. And I guess I would ask that we try to do that, that we try to be responsive to the questions people are asking, and that we try to that we do our best that we can with that. I'm not sure what the fix is for it, but we need to directly my view is that we need to directly answer questions. We can't just provide very general statements that don't mean anything to anybody. And we should directly answer what people ask to the extent we possibly can. If we can't answer, if we don't know, then it's better to say that. Thanks.

[SFGovTV Announcer]: I really appreciate this conversation. And I know I took it off the rails where we weren't expecting to go, but thank you all for digging in and actually having this conversation transparently. I also really want to recognize between the three of you sitting here, you've got what, like maybe you've got less than a year experience in the district between the three of you, right? So, I mean like, you know, how far we've come? I don't want to lose sight of the amazing work that you've done, right? You know, and the fact that we are actually here able to hand data to super or to to principles in January rather than the end of Feb. Like, so, yes, we need to do better. And I also want to recognize, you know, first year of, first year FrontRide and Red Rover and like, so thank you all for the work and the pivot and the work that continues to happen. And we all have very high expectations. And I think part of the challenge of such a new team is that we don't know what came before us, right? Like when Commissioner Alexander and I were at, Vis Valley Middle School last night, one of the things that we talked about was just how many cuts year over year over year over year have already happened to them. Like back in the early two thousands, they had this amazing, like the wellness program and the meditation program, the mindfulness program that they had was huge. They had the lowest level of chronic absenteeism district because of it. They had a huge number of students that were getting into and qualifying for Lowell, think highest per capita back at the time, right? And that got cut in previous rounds of budget cuts. So it's a death by a thousand cuts to all of our schools year over year over year over year which is part of the trauma. So I want to recognize that when we talk here too.

[Matt Alexander, Commissioner]: Commissioner Fisher, may I just add real quick that that As

[SFGovTV Announcer]: long as the timer gets paused, sure.

[Matt Alexander, Commissioner]: Yeah, pause it. It's not just because it's not just the the death by thousands of cuts of the school, but it's also like, for example, the newcomer program. They they were talking about how the teachers in the newcomer program work together really well. They've got a team. Right? So if you just say, oh, we're gonna cut the program or now we're gonna cut a third of the program, that actually will totally disrupt their teaching team and all these procedures they have in the school. Right? So is there a solution where you move some newcomer students there? I know we have fewer newcomer students, but that's a systemic problem we've known about for a year. So just to say, oh, well, now there's good fewer newcomer students. Let's all of a sudden cut equally from each newcomer program. That's not a that's not an effective response. And what you're gonna do is you're gonna end up losing that expertise that they've so that's the program they haven't lost. They still have it. But our cut is now about to to destroy that program if we don't sit with them and figure out the impact. And this goes to I really appreciate Commissioner Ray's point around impact analysis. So just to add to that as an example.

[SFGovTV Announcer]: See, we're all so much stronger when we're together, right? We build on each other. I love it. So keep building. I

[SFGovTV Announcer]: will build

[SFGovTV Announcer]: on that example of dismantling programs. That was exactly the conversation I had at Buena Vista Horace Mann yesterday too. And they love the idea of the creativity of a zero period. Their constraint there is that 75% of their students take SFUSD transportation because they're at their new school. So they and they have students they have a lot of students with IEPs, have a lot of students who have the ELD, and they have no idea how they absolute they could equitably implement a zero period when so many of their kids are constrained by our transportation resources, right? So I want to make sure that we're I appreciate the conversations, and others have said this. The conversations we're having at the high level are great, but let's use the restorative practices frame. Let's not do things to folks. We've got to do it with, not for, we've got to do it with folks. And so I think that's really the struggle that a lot of us are having here is that these are great ideas and really, really difficult to implement without the full buy in of the community. So the last point I make and then I'll stop, student outcomes focused governance, our framework. Our job is to go out and and reflect and learn from the community and reflect the vision and values. And we're hearing a lot from the community. That's our job, not the superintendent's job. That's our job. And we're working on that with our ad hoc committee. So thank you, Chair Gupta. But I look at, like, where are my levers to impact and not step into micromanagement? So we have upcoming votes on, for example, layoff notices, right? That's, I think, our next vote that could really impact the staffing model. And I just want to make it known to the leadership team here, if you want me to vote on layoff notices that are due to this staffing model, you've got to show me the impact analysis. Like, you've got to show if you want me to vote to lay off middle school teachers so that we can go to six periods instead of seven periods, you've got to show me that the access level is still there, that it's not being done in a discriminatory way. Right now, don't have my vote for layoffs of middle school teachers. If that means I vote no on everything because of the plan, then so be it. But that is my governance level lever right now. And I just wanna make it clear here. I wanna set that expectation here and now that show me that this is being done in an equitable and non discriminatory way. And I I value my fiduciary responsibility. I think it's important. Help me help you. So that's that's the last point.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Commissioner Gupta?

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: Vice president Huling, did you have a quick comment or did you

[Jaime Huling, Vice President]: Just to add to what Commissioner Fisher said, under our student outcomes focused governance model, we are supposed to delegate basically to the superintendent to achieve the student outcome goals within the guardrails however she sees fit. And so we have heard that there is data that our schools with six periods are doing better in reaching our student outcome goals because they have more core instructional minutes. We have not seen that data. So it is incumbent upon the superintendent and her team to bring that forward in order to secure our votes, to show us how this plan actually moves us toward reaching our student outcome goals.

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: Thank you, Vice President. Actually, I was about to say that, so I appreciate you saying that instead. It is absolutely incumbent that we see that impact data. You know, and I think what I'm hearing over here what I'm hearing across all my colleagues is we've had these conversations with a lot of different school communities. And it's amazing how similar they are all of them, right? I mean, across the city, really. And I think the headline is, in the absence of information, which is what we had and I want to make clear, this is not a budget. What we're talking about right now is not a budget issue. The numbers were beautiful in terms of the way in which it was laid out, even to the reserves, which actually are being used, as I understood from it, in fiscal year two and three to get us to a positive certification so that we no longer have the CDE on our back. So I just want to put that to rest because there was artistry in that sorry, I'm geeking out because it actually was saying, Okay, here's how we're going to use our reserves as a last push to get us into fiscal positive certification. This is a failure of communication in terms of in the absence of the information when people just got sheets of this is the savings and this is how many people are going to get cut. With no narrative, they're forced to create their own. And I think that's kind of the main if I take what Vice President Huling was sharing earlier, how do we all do better in terms of sharing that information upfront? And I'll give you an example. Health continues to come up right now, right? Do we have health? Are we not? Is that funding being taken away? Is there a restricted grant towards this? That still is clearly not clear and we are now in the January. I was having a conversation with educators and I explained that part of the reason that we were going to sixth period was not funding related, but rather for instructional minutes. And the teachers, that was the first that they had heard of it, right? And so this to me is communication that clearly had to go out before this came out. I I do appreciate the individual conversations that then happen as a follow-up after that broad communication goes out to our community. And there, it seems like there is that ability to sort of indicate, well, here's the broad instruction as far as why we are going to sixth period. Here's the impact analysis that backs that up. And if a school in an individual conversation can demonstrate that they are meeting those outcome goals, is there room for flexibility? I mean, I'll give you another example. I understand we want to have instructional coaches at one of the schools I was speaking with. They indicated, well, they learn better with CPT. They understand they feel like they are better with some of that peer learning. So just being able to understand and being able to meet our schools where they are, especially if they have the outcomes to back it up. I do have one question, which is regarding I am also appreciative of the January being able to provide this information in January, not at the last moment before we have to do this. And I want to give kudos and credit to our team for doing that, getting us in that position. I do have a question when we look at the impacts to our communities. So as I understand, our principals have to come forward with their potential layoffs by the January. Is that correct?

[Chris Mumpinidis, Deputy Superintendent of Business Services]: No. Especially with the lack of data in our district, what we're doing is we're putting together a data set that when the principal same thing I guess I'm the only one that's been a principal here. So Matt was a principal, too. So it happens every year. You get your central allocation. And then you put together all your other resources to see what else you can buy. I think that's what Doctor. Su was referencing as far as principals are sort of masters of putting those puzzles together and getting the staff that they want. But there's always a delta potentially of what can't you get between what you get essentially and between your resources and between PTA, PTO, grants, all these different things that come in, Title I. And that's basically the delta. We don't know what the delta is until the principals finish. And then we can run and reconcile position control to say, how many positions come out of the bottom that weren't either afforded by central allocation or by school sites in their discretionary or Title I or grants, right? We don't know the answer to that yet because we are at a bad point in data where we can't even we don't have that holistic picture going into this process, So that's part of the difficulty in doing a budget season without that data, historically. And we haven't had. That's why it's called out so specifically in the CDE and FICMAT reports, the lack of position control and the ability to even know sometimes how many employees we have on payroll. That's not an exaggeration. That's actually in the report. And so we won't know that until January. And to Commissioner Fisher's point, it won't necessarily even be a layoff. You look at our turnover here year to year in positions, the board was able to do all of its reductions last year without any teacher layoffs just because of the number of folks we recruit every year. We are not necessarily going to be in a dissimilar situation. But again, we won't know until we have the reconciliation, negotiations, and put it all together with what we have to figure out the delta of positions. And then what's the delta in the budget, and what's the overlap there. So it's a pretty complex process between February and whenever we can get a budget together, quite frankly.

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: So I guess my question is, so our sites are putting together their budgets. Presumably, though, I mean, say, for example, if they're being told you need to lay off or you potentially will have a reduction in three teachers, They have to kind of identify who that might be. And as I understand that, they have to then submit that to central by Jane

[Chris Mumpinidis, Deputy Superintendent of Business Services]: That's all done by rules, right? So there are rules largely set by law and the unions that are establishing things like seniority and bumping rights and all those kinds of things. So it's actually not up to the principal or me or anybody else to identify people, they'll see a delta in the FTE of different types that they have. And then it's HR's function to then come in and reconcile. Clearly, a vacant position would go out first, right? So they then reconcile what is the actual loss in positions at the school site. So that's part of the process as well.

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: Thank you for that clarification. So I guess what I'm trying to understand is when will they have clarity when they would or would not have to potentially lay off a position?

[Chris Mumpinidis, Deputy Superintendent of Business Services]: So our responsibility is to get to you. This is all set by statute. So in California, it is now for all employees. It used to be just certificated. It's now all employees. By March 15, the board has to act. So you have to have a pretty good list of, first of all, who's not being continued. So that has to deal with probationary ones and twos and that kind of stuff. Commissioners are probably pretty familiar with that. And then before March 15, what is that delta putting together a budget? The problem with that here's an interesting thing to consider is that if you still don't have, and we likely won't have based on where we are in the calendar right now, your negotiated settlements, you're going to be in the position that you were in last year, which is you're going to have to then over notice and then pull back once you settle. Because there's no predictability when you're in negative certification of just taking a stab at it. So the CDE is gonna be watching that we have enough flexibility for the board that you over notice and then you rescind those notices once you actually settle your negotiations.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: I actually will pause here because I think this moment right now is actually a critical conversation around what we can expect over this coming spring. And so maybe the request here is actually if if we we can can carry on this conversation and and get some clarity on exactly the process from here on out for the spring, we have been trying to do that from a board governance calendaring perspective. But I think from a just being able to understand what we can anticipate as an experience this spring. I think this is actually a very similar conversation we had this time last year around what is it that sites will experience? What is it from a board governance level that we'll experience to be able to know that? I know there's a general timeline that's been put out there at the beginning of the budget development process, but I think what we're asking for is one level deeper here of understanding kind of when are those decisions expected of sites that will then impact how we are then going to be experiencing this from a decision making standpoint. Yes. And then I just want to I do need to

[Matt Alexander, Commissioner]: Well, I was just saying particularly around because the board voted down the fiscal stabilization plan. I mean, normally, if the fiscal stabilization plan is approved, that sets the template for any potential layoffs. So in some ways, it feels like the board hasn't authorized you to begin preparing for any layoffs. I mean, I know you still have to think about it. That's why I think it's I think that's why I think from a governance perspective, why I keep asking about what's changed and when do we come back to that because if we don't

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Exactly.

[Matt Alexander, Commissioner]: If if the board hasn't said here's the direction, it becomes challenging.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: So I'll I'll pause us there because I do think that this is too important of a conversation to have past 10:00. And so thank you very much to staff and the finance team, and we will pick this conversation back up. And much appreciation to the leadership of the finance division here in in bringing us to where we are today.

[SFGovTV Announcer]: President Kim, may I make a motion to extend the meeting past 10PM reluctantly?

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Thank you. And I will second. Roll call vote quickly, please. Thank you.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Commissioner Alexander? Yes. Commissioner Fisher? Yes. Commissioner Gupta?

[SFGovTV Announcer]: Yes.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Vice President Huling? Yes. Commissioner Ray? Yes. Commissioner Commissioner Weissman-Ward?

[Lisa Weissman-Ward, Commissioner]: Yes.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: And President Kim?

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Yes. Those have a nice. Thank you. As we move on to the second item here, I actually appreciate that we actually had our fiscal and operational update before this part of the conversation because I do think a lot of the takeaways here, carry forward into this conversation around updates from the superintendent around her short term evaluation metrics. As I turn to the superintendent to present, and introduce this item, I I I will just encourage us to now, reflect on things that are not the conversation we just had as we just had a very thorough conversation around things like communication, engagement with sites, engagement with educators. And so so I would hope that we message was loud and clear. And so let's let's turn to the superintendent for this next item on update on the progress of the superintendent's short term metrics. This is a discussion item and no action will be taken on this item tonight. I will turn it over to Doctor. Sue to bring this forward.

[Superintendent Hsu]: Thank you, President Kim. And yes, that was a very lively conversation. And it just so happens that I actually have a memo about our budget development timeline that we did not I have not shared yet. But I will definitely submit I'll figure out a way to submit this into the record so that our community can see the budget development timeline that we are sharing with our community. And we will continue to meet our school community. In regards to my short term metric, I again thank the board for the opportunity to continue to serve our children and staff and school community. Just very quick highlights. I also have a memo that I will submit into record so that folks can see this. But I wanna say that last year was a combination of a really rough year where we had to make a lot of really hard decisions. Decisions around our budget, decisions around changes and decisions on how we were going to move forward together. At the end of the day, we were able to make some really tough decisions to prioritize our students, to ensure that we continue to have high quality staff in our schools to support our students. Even with a reduction of $114,000,000 within our budget last year, we were able to do that without laying off our teachers. We were able to do that while we continue to ensure that our classrooms, our schools were staffed with supports that our students need. Providing the resources and tools for our teachers so that they could continue to provide the supports that our students need. Actually, I believe for the first time in many, many years, the district started this school year at a 95% teacher staffing rate. At this moment in time, we are at 97%. Now if you are part of the unfortunate 3% classroom, of course this doesn't feel good for you. And of course we do want to be fully staffed at 100% and we are working towards that. But I will say across other large urban school districts, most do not actually fill their classrooms at anywhere close to 95%. I would dare say even some of our smaller school districts struggle to get to a 95% fill rate. So I am very proud of the work that our team has done. While we prioritize having and meeting the staffing capacity within our schools, we continued to provide the trainings and and professional development that our teachers needed. And it proved to be very beneficial. So we, for the first time in this school district, have, well, first time in ten years, that's as long as I went back, we saw a statistically significant increase in our African American students' literacy rate. And that's because it's a combination of ensuring that we have teachers in those classrooms, that we are providing the training and the professional development and the resources and tools that our teachers needed to be successful in those classrooms. And that's how we're seeing this increase. We also changed our math curriculum. And we are seeing, we're slowly seeing the adoption of those math curriculum. I've spent many, days going to visit schools where we're seeing teachers embracing the curriculum, and using the manipulatives of this new math, our math tools. And it's wonderful. Our students are engaging. They really, for the first time in a long time, see their competency in real time because we're integrating technology into the lesson plan. And it's yielding that type of success for our students. Again, we did a lot of work last year in making sure that we have operational efficiencies. We transitioned from a very well documented broken system, a payroll system, a finance system called Empower, to now a system called Frontline and Red Rover. Where, yes, there are bumps and hiccups along the way. But we are able to respond to those problems in hours as opposed to months. We are able to be even forward thinking about potential problems and addressing it sooner. So we're moving in the right direction. We definitely need to bring our error rates down to zero because, again, you don't want to be part of the 1% that is getting, the incorrect pay stubs. But we are able to cut checks if we do see the errors. So we're making real improvements, real operational efficiencies. And yes, have to do more as we just shared in the conversation just now. We are seeing in our system that we have staff that are not accurately and correctly allocated to school sites or to different programs and we need to rectify that. And as we continue to build greater operational efficiencies, we're going to be able to have more accurate information so that we can then tell the more accurate story. We also spent last year building and strengthening partnerships with our city leaders where we are working with San Francisco State. We're deepening our relationship with City College to have more dual enrollment class options for our students. We're reestablishing and double downing our partnerships with Stanford University as well as with, Berkeley so that we can have leading experts in the field of education guiding us and providing supports to us. And of course, we need to do more in partnership with our community. They'll never be enough unless we can talk to every single one of our students and our families and our staff. And we're gonna continue to push towards, having different ways to communicate with our families, to communicate with our staff, so that we won't have the problem of not knowing. At a minimum, if you don't know, you would know where to go to find the information. So, we're building those systems. At the same time, I'm really excited about what we're going to do in the next couple of months. Looking forward to actually getting, and I know our CDE friends are listening, certification. I know that. Because I know that we will be able to make the hard decisions. We will be able to find the restricted sources to then meet the needs that our schools, and our community deserves. We will be able to get to a positive certification. We will also be able to have deep conversations with our community to then come to a school reorganization model that will really meet the needs of our students. So that we can have instructional excellence in all of our schools. So that we can have instructional coherence from classroom to classroom. So that our community can see that their neighborhood school is the best option. Or if they want, they can go to the citywide school. But we need to make sure that everyone sees that every one of our SFUSD school is the right place for them. Is the place that they want to send their children to. I'm I look forward to working with our community and of course with the board on that. We will continue to double down on supporting our teachers so that they have the resources and tools to be successful in the classroom. In implementing our ELA, our English Language Arts curriculum, in implementing our math curriculum, in making sure that we have rigorous, high quality math programs and curriculums available to all of our students, particularly middle schoolers. And, of course, we look forward to making sure that we stand up some of these really exciting initiatives that we've already shared. We're gonna be opening a Mission Bay Elementary School, starting out small. We're only gonna have preschool classroom, a TK classroom, and a kinder classroom. And as the community grows, our school is going to grow with that community. We're going to open a t a kinder, a TK to eight Mandarin immersion school. Something that our community has been asking for and something that I'm so excited to work with this board in making, that into a reality. And of course, making sure that we meet the goals that this board has laid out for us in terms of our literacy rate, our math rate, and our college and career rates. Because what else if not to make sure that our schools and our students have the resources to be educated to read, to write, to do math. That is what a school district is all about. So I look forward to continuing this work, continuing to serve our community, continuing to serve our students and our staff, and of course partnering with this board to make all of these things a reality. Thank you.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Thank you. I'll open up for comments and questions from commissioners. I'll kick us off here. If there was a banner to be held over the work from last year, would say it was get a teacher in every classroom. And I will say I think that is a huge accomplishment for this district to be able to confidently say that we've surpassed our goal of reaching 95% of educators in the class on day one of school, granted the work that we have to do to continue to maintain that focus on closing that last gap. I think I have a question around just what would be the next banner for us this year. And I would hope that a part of that would talk would speak to the work for us to be transparent and honest about the hard challenges that we have ahead and to bring our our staff and communities along in that work. And so thank you for your leadership in getting us to this point. I I think it's I think because of the work that we have done up until this point, it enables us to make this folk intentional focus on being able to actually invest in the ways in which we are engaging our communities, our staff, our educators, our families. I just wanna be really clear, I think, commissioner Gupta, you mentioned this in your direct comments to staff around the numbers. We have greater clarity today than we ever have as a district, district. And we shouldn't be ashamed of that. We should be very proud of that. But that opens up a whole set of other questions and opportunities for us that we really do need to lean into. And I would hope that we are taking advantage of the great progress that we have made operationally and financially as a district to now lean into the conversations that we need to lean into around our instruction and our vision and the direction of this district. And so so thank you again for your leadership. I I think it it makes it all the more important that we continue to engage our communities, in the in the really challenging work, frankly, and and I think the perpetual work of connecting the fiscal and operational work of our district with now the instructional and academic work of our of our district. And And we have a lot of work to do in that regard.

[SFGovTV Announcer]: Thank you for kicking us off, President Kim. I really want to recognize how far we've come from the start of your tenure, Doctor. Sue. I mean, the community was reeling from RAI when you stepped in. And you were really able to bring a whole lot of gravitas because the community knows you, the community respects you. You have such a long history in the city of going to bat and fighting for families and students. And I really appreciate that you brought that frame to us and appreciate your leadership there. Your strong partnerships with the community, I think, were a big strength and part of the reason why we're all so excited that you're here. And we talked about it earlier. I won't read over it. You mentioned it frontline. But also, I think it does you a disservice to not even mention the huge amount of you've had a huge brain drain this year. I mean, we had a huge number of institutional leaders take the CERP last year. Right? You're second in command. Like, we lost a huge number of folks with

[SFGovTV Announcer]: a

[SFGovTV Announcer]: lot of institutional knowledge. And I think that's part of what we're feeling now. I appreciate your hiring Deputy Superintendent Mount Bonitas and the expertise he's bringing. And just seeing where we are there and some of the other leaders you've brought in, really, really appreciate the work you're doing to stabilize leadership. And one of the things we've heard from CDE is just how important stability is to our getting back to a positive fiscal certification. So, as much work as we have to do, and I know you're up for the challenge, I just also, and especially as much as it felt like we were pounding on you and your staff in our last conversation, I really want to recognize how far we've come. So thank you for your continued leadership. I appreciate you.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Any other comments or questions from the commissioners? Commissioner Gupta?

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: Likewise. I feel like I've only been here for a year. And

[Phil Kim, Board President]: you have maybe

[SFGovTV Announcer]: Did the meeting just crash?

[Interpreter (Spanish-English)]: I know we're back. It's right there.

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: So you have a few months on me. I know. There you go. That was just sort of like a mic drop, bam. But to me, it certainly has felt like a bit of an iceberg, where there is what one sees on the surface. But then as we go deeper and deeper, there are things that you are fundamentally fixing. And those aren't always present day to day in terms of what perhaps the public sees. But we do appreciate that. And and that is that does not go unrecognized from Empower, Red Rover, being able to get some of the curricula piloted, approved within the time that that that we've we've had being able to hire a stellar financial team, as Commissioner Fisher said. So we know that fundamental work needs to go on. And there's a tremendous amount we all have to partner on with things like enrollment, with making sure we have fully staffed schools for our students. And I will say, I and I think I speak for the board, if I may we are all up for that challenge and working towards that.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Any other comments or questions from the board? Vice President.

[Jaime Huling, Vice President]: Thing that stood out to me from the update about our finances was the update just on the very basic systems that are now being put into place to bring us into this century and we're in the twenty fifth twenty sixth year of this century, like having credit cards and ACH and things like that. So I I definitely, you know, a theme I think for us has been that we're building the plane as we fly it, that there's a lot of work to be done to repair things and do essentially deferred maintenance to bring us up to present while also trying to really push us toward the future. And it is hard to do everything all at once. And I know that this city demands a lot of us and of the district, our leadership. And, you know, they deserve that. And so I would just say that I really appreciate the work that has been done on the very unglamorous things like just fixing broken systems, just getting to the bottom of very basic things that any leader should have in place to be able to make informed decisions. But also, I talk a lot about communication,

[SFGovTV Announcer]: and

[Jaime Huling, Vice President]: so I won't retread that. But I think people really want to come along and support the district. And I think it's really incumbent upon you as the district leader to, you know, give the banner that President Kim talked about and to, you know, really communicate the vision of the SFUSD of the future that we can look forward to and the investments that we are going to be able to make in education when we get those basics right so that people can see the light at the end of the tunnel and stick with us long enough to reach it. And so I know that some of the short term metrics involve things like articulating initiatives, getting key staff into place. And I think there is still, with a great appreciation to all the work that's been done and the many key hires that you've made, I think there's still work to do around that. And so I look forward to supporting investments where they're needed strategically to help us get to our destination.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Thank you. Any other comments or questions?

[SFGovTV Announcer]: Yeah, I think Commissioner Weissman-Ward has said this in the past, but the job of superintendent is basically an impossible one, right? The asks, not just from us, your seven bosses with very, very distinct Okay, President Kim will give you that. I know, right? Okay, you both. Right? Put you both in a get along shirt and you can figure out who said it first. How about that? Don't make me turn the car around. So the point that I wanted to make really was, I think in some cases, have set multiple superintendents in this district up for failure with the impossible asks. And so my ask of you moving forward, knowing that we all very much do want you to be successful, push back on us when you need to and help us understand where you need more support, where you need more staff, where you need, you know, us to whatever. You know, I think we very much for the district to be successful, we all have to work together and we all have to be in alignment. And so that's what I look forward to is more of that this year.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Thank you. Seeing no other comments or questions, we will do a lightning round of action items here and consent calendar before you call it an evening. Item I, the next item on the agenda is two sixty one-thirteen SP1 approval of PIPs and waivers. Can I a motion and a second?

[SFGovTV Announcer]: I move that we approve action item two sixty one-thirteen SP1 approval of PIPs and waivers.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Second. It has been properly moved and seconded that the board approve item, 826,113. Are there any I turn it over to the superintendent to introduce this item.

[Superintendent Hsu]: And I will turn it over to our associate superintendent, Amy Bear.

[Amy Bear, Associate Superintendent (Human Resources)]: Thank you. Good evening, commissioners. So the first item is to approve provisional internship permits for five teachers, two multiple subject, one art, and two early childhood special education.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Are there any comments from the board or questions? Speaking of impossible jobs. Debate is now closed on the motion to approve item a two six one dash one three s p one approval of Ipsen waivers. Roll call vote, please, miss

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Leno. Commissioner Alexander? Yes. Commissioner Fisher? Yes. Commissioner Gupta? Yes. Vice President Huling? Yes. Commissioner Ray?

[Supryia Ray, Commissioner]: Yes.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Commissioner Weissman-Ward? Yes. And President Kim? Yes. Seven ayes.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: The next item on the agenda is item two sixty one dash one three s p two approval of local assignment options. Can I have a motion and a second?

[SFGovTV Announcer]: I move that we approve item, I two action two sixty one dash SB2, approval of local assignment options.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Second. It has been properly moved and seconded that the board approve this item. Any or I'll turn it over to the superintendent to introduce that item.

[Amy Bear, Associate Superintendent (Human Resources)]: Just a comment that this will make Commissioner Fisher even more excited because it's a local assignment option for eight speech therapists.

[SFGovTV Announcer]: I saw that. I'm so happy.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Any comments or questions from the board?

[SFGovTV Announcer]: Yes, I do just appreciate that we're reducing our dependence on outside agencies, we're hiring more staff and hopefully meeting the needs of students in a much more effective way, so thank you.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Thank you and thank you to you and your team. Debate is now closed on the motion to approve item two sixty one-thirteen SP2. Roll call vote please, Ms. Leno.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Commissioner Alexander? Yes. Commissioner Fisher? Yes. Commissioner Gupta?

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: Yes.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Vice President Huling? Yes. Commissioner Ray? Yes. Commissioner Weissman-Ward? Yes. And President Kim? Yes. Seven ayes.

[Jaime Huling, Vice President]: President Kim has a standing recusal from the consent calendar due to his employment with City and County of San Francisco, which is a frequent contractor with SFUSD in order to avoid any appearance of conflict. Superintendent, are there any changes to the consent calendar?

[Superintendent Hsu]: There are none. Thank you.

[Jaime Huling, Vice President]: Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar? I

[Matt Alexander, Commissioner]: move that we approve the consent calendar.

[SFGovTV Announcer]: Second.

[Jaime Huling, Vice President]: Can we have a roll call vote, please?

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Commissioner Alexander? Aye. Commissioner Fisher? Yes. Commissioner Gupta?

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: Yes.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Vice President Healy?

[Jaime Huling, Vice President]: Yes.

[Ms. Lenoff, Board Secretary/Clerk]: Commissioner Ray? Yes. Commissioner Weissman-Ward? Yes. That's six eyes.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Okay. Would any commissioners like to speak on any items in item K board member reports? Commissioner Gupta?

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: I'll be brief. We had our ad hoc committee on public engagement, the best committee.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: And

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: I I will say

[SFGovTV Announcer]: to cuffs.

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: We had over we we were fortunate to have over 50. I believe it was over 50 participants from our community based organizations.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Point of clarification. How many people showed up to the other ad hoc?

[Matt Alexander, Commissioner]: Think that's out of order, president. I'm gonna rule that out

[SFGovTV Announcer]: of order.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: Okay. Just wanted to know.

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: I was curious. Enough said. So so so we we were very fortunate to have that participation and very, very appreciative of that. You know, we started off with a bit of a review of what we had done in the past, what some of the best practices were, but then we just really turned it over to our community to tell us what were critical issues that they sought public engagement on and what was the method by which they wanted to engage. And we're very fortunate as well to receive feedback that we'll then also incorporate into the second meeting. And in the second meeting, I would say one of the things that we will also work on is being able to get more PTA school site council representatives. We're thrilled that we had our student delegates come and be a part of that conversation. We would love more students to come. So for those who are still listening at 10:32, I will say, please do come. It is open to everyone. We will figure out the location, but it will likely be in the Southeast of the city as we seek to move it around so that it is accessible and we can engage different members of the community. So, that is February 5 at likely 6PM. So, please do keep that date in mind. More information will be coming forth.

[SFGovTV Announcer]: With child care and interpretation and

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: Yes. Child care interpretation and food will be provided. So, are again very appreciative. And also, I just want to appreciate the staff because the staff did a tremendous job in helping and we will likely include even more staff if we can. But thank you to Hong Mei, to Laura Dudnick, to Christina Wong for all of their tremendous work on that. And we appreciated you coming as well, Superintendent Hsu, to participate in that. And thank you, President Kim and Commissioner Fisher. And if I missed anything, please All right. It's going be awesome next time as well.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: It's a great summary for the best ad hoc committee we have. Moving forward, if there's no other comic Commissioner Alexander?

[Matt Alexander, Commissioner]: I I should give a brief report on the the boring ad hoc committee. The less exciting ad hoc committee, is happening. The next meeting is next wait. Is that next Tuesday? The twentieth? Yeah. That's next Tuesday. Right? The twentieth? 06:00. I promise it will be less interesting than than commissioner group does ad hoc, but it is, well, and we're it's part of the effort to make school board boring again, which is, you know, a good thing. And it's a little bit nerdy, but but I actually think it's a it is a good we we've been having some really good meetings and definitely wanna echo I wanna appreciate Superintendent Hsu, Devin Krugman, Josh Rice, and Moonhawk Kim and Theresa Ship, who've all been key, participants in that. So and we're gonna look at actual it's actually gonna be a little bit like, you know, how how after a football game, the coaches review video with their players? So we're gonna get video of other board meetings and be doing some analysis of question asking. It'll be you know, I think it'll be interesting.

[Phil Kim, Board President]: It sounds so exciting. Yeah. Thank you for that report.

[Parag Gupta, Commissioner]: Sorry, I forgot to say. Marin, thank you and also Laura. Laura as well.

[Mr. Trujillo, Board Staff (Public Comment/Zoom)]: Since you said that we did have more people on Zoom as well for that committee, just saying. Board

[Phil Kim, Board President]: members I know have been asking around understanding better what committees that we can appoint to. I wanna thank Hongmei and the board office who are working together to help us identify who we can appoint to to which vacancies, and and through which process. So just know that that is coming, for the board as well. Before we adjourn, as a proud Korean American, I wanted to take a moment to recognize today as Korean American Day observed January 13 of each year, which commemorates the arrival of the first Korean immigrants to The United States in nineteen o three. Tonight today, we honor the resilience and contributions and enduring legacy of Korean Americans whose leadership, creativity, and commitment to community have profoundly shaped our city, our schools, and our nation. And from educators and small business owners to artists and caregivers and public servants, Korean Americans have strengthened our shared civic life while carrying forward a rich cultural heritage rooted in perseverance, family, and service. We reflect on this history. As we reflect on this history, we also recommit ourselves to standing against anti Asian hate and to advancing equity and dignity and opportunity for Korean American students, families, and communities today and every day. So thank you for that moment. And with that, I will adjourn at 10:36PM.