SFUSD Committee of the Whole Meeting in progress. Begining process of identifying Budget priorities for 21-22. $75M deficit projected. #BoardWatch
Will start with each commissioner taking 3 minutes to discuss priorities. Then staff presentation. Will be using Jamboards later. #BoardWatch
President Mark Sanchez is beginning his remarks. Notes that many resolutions have been passed with budgetary impacts for district, also don't want to make cuts to school sites. What parts of resolutions can we afford to put in place now, what has to wait. @marksanchezsf
VP Lopez agrees with Sanchez also wonders how to offset expenses with city funding. Could be led by city experts and still support school systems. What most helps educators in classrooms? That should be the framing of budget discussions. @lopez4schools #BoardWatch
Sanchez adds that "hefty portion" of city ERAF funds should be coming to SFUSD. Commissioner Collins thinks rather than an "ask for cash" need to ask for specifics (eg. social workers). Some aspects of resolutions can be worked into what we are already doing. @AliMCollins
Collins notes that perception of City is that they give SFUSD money and it isn't spent right. #BoardWatch
Commissioner Moliga sees opportunity to refocus school district around what equity really looks like. Notes the transportation policy resolution he supported was because of the opportunity to cost-save. Resolutions passed are a roadmap to equity. #BoardWatch
Commissioner Rachel Norton thinks it would be helpful for the board to have context going forward as it votes on priorities. How much will a particular priority or resolution add to the budget this year and in coming years? @rpnorton
Norton: Important to work with Supe early in the year. There is temptation to try to push forward the issues you ran on, but important to stick to priorities, agreements, and working as a team. Not propose new priorities until you have made a dent in what is already on your plate
Collins: another way to look at this is "what are we going to stop doing?" #BoardWatch
Commissioner Cook is speaking "mostly as an observer," reflects on this past budget year. Hasn't been clear how much we can transform student achievement. Get updates on suspensions, not clear how much we care about proficiency. #BoardWatch
Superintendent Matthews has worked in 4 districts. Have seen districts have to "go to the state" (state takeover) when board is unable to make cuts or paints too rosy a picture. #BoardWatch
Matthews says he worked at Luckys at one time, sometimes people would ask during check-out what the running total was, at times had to take some things back. That is where SFUSD is. @SFUSD_Supe #BoardWatch
Commissioner Lam is interested in achievement, proficiency, early literacy, especially for African American, PI, Latinx and English Learners. What models are working? @jennyhlam #BoardWatch
Lam is also interested in community schools model. Will be imperative for recovery. Will take time to scale. Children learn best when supported holistically #BoardWatch.
Turning over to CFO Wallace and Budget Director Gordon for presentation on the budget development process. #BoardWatch 
This is district's first attempt at zero based budgeting. The vision for the process is bigger that what will be accomplished this year. Need more data and cost analysis says Wallace #BoardWatch
Continuous improvement will be very important in this work. In establishing priorities today, we can start there and see how to implement strategies based on the priorities #BoardWatch
Here are the priorities from December 2019 #BoardWatch
From here this will be handed back to Commissioner Lam #BoardWatch
At this point we are opening up to public comment #BoardWatch
There are four people wanting to talk and each person will get two minutes to speak #BoardWatch
Public Comment: Advocacy Chair for CAC: Appreciate comments from Commissioners. There is a huge amount of work to do when it comes to equity and need to focus on early screening in terms of literacy issues #BoardWatch
Public Comment: Appreciate the focus on getting resources to sites and supporting the community school model. It's important to have that continuity and the pandemic has shown how important it is. Appreciate naming the Latinx Resolution, the Black Studies Resolution #BoardWatch
Public Comment: Coleman Advocates: I do not envy your tough choices. Want to lift up and echo about lifting up equity and centered around giving resources and tools to those who have been left behind and pushed out. Doing the work to make community schools a reality #BoardWatch
Cont Previous Comment: Want to make sure that our schools function like a community center. They house the resources that our students need in a holistic way. Definitely want to lift up the Black Studies, Ethnic studies, & the work to end the school to prison pipeline #BoardWatch
Public Comment: Coordinator for PAC. Echo previous speakers who appreciated this thoughtful discussion. It is a time of very difficult decisions. It is time to put our money where our mouth is. Want there to be ways for accountability #BoardWatch
Public Comment: Mission Promise: Echo the comments around Community Schools. Big proponent for Latinx Resolution. Community Schools model are the the best, want this to be protected & expanded. Facing a budget deficit but take into account additional funds from Prop J #BoardWatch
Public Comment has ended #BoardWatch
Opening up for Commissioners, keep in mind this is the beginning of this discussion. Remembering that they are now documenting what we are saying #BoardWatch
Commissioner @AliMCollins : In the Black Studies Resolution we highlighted community schools. We tasked the district to conduct a needs assessment to make sure schools are safe. Our convo should not be informed by what we think but by what is in place & the gap #BoardWatch
If we know where the gaps are, then we can see where resources need to be moved, purchased, or the cost of them #BoardWatch
Trying to figure out what the process is #BoardWatch
Tonight, we are asking the question, what are our priorities? #BoardWatch
We do need to land on a frame work, we don't need to fine-tune outcomes, but honing in on themes would be very helpful for staff. Staff will bring back a budget structure for top priorities #BoardWatch
What the priorities due is allows us to categorize those. We can fairly quickly do the categorization and see how to support health and wellness. We want to be able to look at different categories in a coherent way #BoardWatch
VP @lopez4schools if something isn't working, why are we still funding it? We should look at and evaluate different programs. Involve families, they can tell us if something is working or not. Coleman Advocate is doing a lot of this, measuring effectiveness #BoardWatch
Budget teams is having conversations about realigning our budget into the zero-based budgeting process. Effectiveness is an important question #BoardWatch
President @marksanchezsf I also want to look at how we evaluate how effective things are and what this process will look like. If we are able to get some cost savings with cutting ineffective programs, then we will have more $ for things that we want to prioritize #BoardWatch
Commissioner Collins: What are the criteria we use to evaluate different priorities? We all have different internalized criteria, so we may all be functioning with a different schema. For me, I really feel like we need a process and I don't like this open conversation #BoardWatch
Commissioner @FaauugaMoliga wanted to go back when talking about programs that aren't producing the outcomes we want. Not only are there programs that may need to go but we built systems that we put a lot of $ into and don't have to do with student achievement. There are these...
Cont previous tweet: little pockets of things we should look into #BoardWatch
Commissioner @jennyhlam student absenteeism is important to me #BoardWatch
Replying to Commissioner Collins: We want to move towards our goals which is an initial step of priorities for staff. This will take months and there will be public engagement. We have to align our budgeting timelines to match with commitments we've made #BoardWatch
Public Comment was very right, looking at all the different pieces of the puzzle are a challenge. The priorities that are coming to a higher level are: equity, health & wellness, and achievement. I think from there, health & wellness staffing is 1 way to address health & wellness
Commissioner Moliga wants to ensure that Latinx students, Black students, and Samoan students are down as priority groups #BoardWatch
How do we feel about equity, health & wellness, and achievement? #BoardWatch
Commissioner Collins: Not disagreeing about these priorities but we might all have different definitions of what each of these looks like. Maybe we should have a retreat or some type of thing where we can get into this more #BoardWatch
Commissioner Collins: We need to start with our vision and our mission and look at the entire process in addition to requirements from the state #BoardWatch
Commissioner @stevoncook : I care a lot about chronic absenteeism and I want to see what we do around it virtually. That needs to be a priority. #BoardWatch
Commissioner Cook: We have to look at something and we should be making hiring decisions around those outcomes #BoardWatch
Commissioner Lam: Thank you Commissioner Cook for always being an advocate in that way. I want to understand how are we seeing that progress, are we seeing those investments in certain schools or for individual students #BoardWatch
Commissioner Lam: I don't want individual students to get lost, how do we ensure those supports are following the student? As we embark on this it should be complimentary to schools but should also be reaching the student #BoardWatch
Time Frames and what's ahead: Our focus tonight is honing in on what we want to prioritize for our students. The next two meetings are the how. We have a lot of work ahead of us and we are trying to move quickly so then school sites can also look at their budgets #BoardWatch
Delaying our establishment of our district priorities puts us in a position that is less equitable. The timelines stagger different employee groups rather than the last group bearing the brunt of our blow. Let's go with the good and make some categories #BoardWatch
Love the idea of drilling down for the board but lets go for the long view and if we start now then we can be a good place for next year #BoardWatch
Commissioner Moliga wants to land on these priorities tonight. It's concerning that we aren't able to land on this as a board. There's enough data & we have enough experience to guide the district with the priorities. Encourage the rest of the board to be in agreement #BoardWatch
Let's take a look at the jam board! #BoardWatch
Commissioner Collins: We don't have to abide by this formal process. We should have been seeing these notes as they are being taken so we can correct something in the moment. If we don't do it correctly, then it won't be worth it #BoardWatch
Commissioner Moliga: We knew this meeting was going to happen, it was scheduled. It's been on the docket. I did my homework and I'm reading #BoardWatch
Trying to figure out if there is a time to meet and get together to establish priorities as a board and the initiatives that will lead to those goals #BoardWatch
If we don't have consensus tonight, then we need to give something to staff at the end of the next meeting #BoardWatch
It sounds like January 5th is going to be the next meeting to figure out priorities with new Board of Education Commissioners #BoardWatch
Jam board will be posted to board docs as a PDF #BoardWatch
Commissioner Lam has tried to be mindful of everyone's time & brain power. This is part of the discovery process. Though tonight's discussion was not the outcome that we were ready for, this is all a part of the discovery. & to reiterate the importance of a 3rd party facilitator
We need to give that clear direction to the superintendent and staff. It's going to be very tough, we have submitted one budget. Ultimately let's hold on for the ride, just want to express that this will be the first of many deep conversations #BoardWatch
Check out the jam board, this will also be available as a PDF on board docs! #BoardWatch
Opening to public comment on closed meeting items and no one is here to comment #BoardWatch
We are signing off of #BoardWatch, see you all in the new year!
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