The Board of Education began its 1/22/08 regular meeting 25 minutes late with Commissioner Mar being absent.

The highlights of the meeting were as follows:

1. The Board of Education spent most of their meeting debating the proposal to put $6.5 million in reserve from the funds of the “third third” of the Proposition H Enhancement Funds.

Dennis Kelly, president of UESF, noted that the union supported the Superintendent’s proposal, since it appears that SFUSD will lose $25 to $40 million in state funding next year.

Prop H Committee members Sandi Fewer and Diana Ping both testified that the legal text that created Proposition H, specifically stated that the funds were to enhance enrichment activities for SFUSD’s students. Sandi Fewer read into the record the direct language from the Proposition H legislation. Fewer reminded the Board of Education that Proposition H will sunset in 2015 and that the Board of Education will have account to the voters on how they spent the funds to enhance the students’ academic career in order to get the voters to renew the funding.

Christina Wong of Chinese for Affirmative Action also testified that the voters approved Proposition H to enhance the students’ classroom experience with arts, music and direct classroom experiences.

Kim Knox provided copies of the BOE’s 07-08 budget in comparision to its 06-07 budget. This year, the Board of Education spent an additional $6.5 million in unrestricted funds on its own offices, including:

-Board of Education’s own office
-Policy and Planning’s office
-Superintendent’s office

For 07-08, the Board of Education also approved 11 additional positions funded by unrestricted funds and 126 additional positions funded by restricted funds for its central offices. Most of these positions are being housed in the Central Offices, such as Chief Academic Officer, Facilities Executive Office and Labor Relations Office. Knox suggested that the BOE looked at cutting its additional central office expenditures before cutting direct classroom expenses.

Commissioner Maufas asked SFUSD Counsel Miguel Marquez to give his legal opinion that the original legislation specified that the funds should be used for enhancement and not for supplantion. Marquez stated that his interpretation was that the passage was directed at the State of California to give a disincentive to cut funding to SFUSD.

The Board then decided to amend the recommendation and put $881,000 back into the Prop H proposal for violence preventation funds. The amendment was made by Commissioner Jane Kim and seconded by Commissioner Yee. The purpose was to give each school access to violence prevention funds for funding a portion of the salary for a counselor or PEER advisor. This amendment passed on a 4-2 vote (Mendoza and Wynns). The Board then voted 6-0 to approve the amended proposal.

This means that all of the Sports, Library and Music programs are approved, but additional funds for the counselors, nutrition (aka additional salad bars) and other items are frozen and will be used to meet the district’s projected shortfall.

2. Tom Breyer, an independent auditor, reported that his audit shows that the District is in strong fiscal condition. He noted that there were very few adjustments in the audits and complimented the good job that Chief Financial Officer Joe Grazzoli and his staff are doing to keep the district’s financial records in order.

3. The Superintendent pulled the item to discuss the proposed parcel tax measure for the June ballot. Dennis Kelly noted that UESF and SFUSD had meet for the last two days on hammering out the details of the parcel tax measure. He also noted that the District and the union were very close to an agreement about what the parcel tax measure should cover.

4. Emily Murase of the Parents Advisory Council noted the PAC had discussed the proposed parcel tax measure. The PAC had four key issues that they wanted addressed in the language for the Parcel Tax:

a. PEER Assistance Program (a program to help struggling teachers) needs to be strengthened and a better evaluation of teachers and principals needs to be instituted.
b. The District should incorporate parents/family members in evaluating teachers and principals.
c. The District should include in its criteria for recruiting teachers for diversity in socio-economic backgrounds and language competencies.
d. PAC strongly supports more professional development for teachers and principals.

5. President Sanchez announced his committee appointments for 07-08:

Budget and Finance Committee-Norman Yee, Chair
Jane Kim
Kimshree Maufas

Buildings and Grounds Committee-Hydra Mendoza, Chair
Kimshree Maufas
Mark Sanchez

Curriculum-Jane Kim, Chair
Eric Mar
Norman Yee

Rules-Jill Wynn, Chair
Hydra Mendoza
Eric Mar

Ad-Hoc Committee on Labor Relations-Jane Kim
Norman Yee
Jill Wynns

Ad-Hoc Committee on Personnel-Kimshree Maufas
Mark Sanchez
Jill Wynns

BOS/BOE Select Committee-Eric Mar, Lead
Hydra Mendoza
Jane Kim

The designated representatives for outside organizations will remain the same.

The Curriculum Committee will meet on Thursday, Jan. 24 at 6:30 p.m.

6. SFUSD reported that there was one Williams Uniform complaint filed against the district for facilities conditions. The District has reversed its stance on releasing the facility’s name and how the complaint was resolved.