San Francisco Youth Commission
Education, Health, & Wellness Committee
Held jointly with Student Advisory Council Representatives
Minutes
Wednesday, November 6, 2012
5:00-7:00 p.m.
City Hall, Room 345
1. Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl.
San Francisco, CA 94102

 

There will be public comment on each item.

YC Members: Anna Bernick, Luisa Sicairos, Joyce Wu, Ariel Yu,
SAC Members: Liam Thirtyacre, Rain Talosig, Elizabeth Jones

1. Call to Order and Roll Call

The meeting was called to order by Commissioner Yu 5:13pm.

Commissioners Present: Bernick, Sicairos, Wu, Yu

SAC Representatives Present:

Staff Present: Allen Lu, Sal Lopez-Barr

2. Approval of Agenda (Action Item)

Commissioner Sicairos, seconded by Commissioner Bernick moved to approve the agenda for the meeting. The motion was approved by acclamation.

There was no public comment.

3. Approval of Minutes (Action Item)

A. Wednesday, October 23, 2013
(Document A)

Commissioner Wu, seconded by Commissioner Bernick moved to approve the minutes from October 23, 2013. The motion was approved by acclamation.

There was no public comment.

4. Public Comment on Items not on Agenda (Discussion Only)

There was no public comment.

5. Business (All Items to Follow Discussion and Possible Action)

A. Check-in

The committee members did an icebreaker.

There was no public comment.

B. Review Research Findings from October 23, 2013
(Document B)

Committee members reviewed their research findings and recognized that the research gathered from the last meeting were helpful in providing a national context for creating inclusive spaces at schools. Commissioners brainstormed specific questions they wanted to conduct further research on. Some of these questions include:

• What kind of training is required or recommended for teachers to teach students in special education?
• Should we approach this issue by proposing training for teachers or students? Or both? Why?
• What are other cities doing in offering sensitivity training? What are the statistics around the number of schools that have these trainings, the number of teachers trained, the number of students involved, how success is measured, etc?
• What are the various formats of existing training?

After brainstorming these questions, the committee individually conducted research on designated questions.

There was no public comment.

C. Presentation from SFUSD’s Student Health Services

This item was cancelled.

There was no public comment.

D. Debrief and Updates

Committee members regrouped from their research session and shared their findings with each other. The committee decided to work on drafting an email to Baltimore County Public Schools to learn about their intense training and workshop on special education and disabilities. They would like to learn how they could approach integrating a similar initiative here in San Francisco. The committee also wanted to learn more about Florida’s “Study Awareness” Interactive Study they conducted with 4th graders where students went through obstacles as if they had disabilities.

Committee members decided to also come up with one “whereas clause” based on the research they have conducted. They will share with one another during the next update.

There was no public comment.

6. Staff Report

A. Programmatic updates, reviewing upcoming events
Mr. Lu briefed the committee on Free MUNI for Youth and the Children’s Fund. Mr. Lu also presented a memo on the “Solutions not Suspensions” campaign from the Youth Commission’s Youth Justice Committee. The committee looked over the memo and was asked if they would like to work on this issue with the Youth Justice committee. Mr. Lopez-Barr mentioned that the SAC will be receiving a presentation from Mr. Kevin Truitt on this issue at the next meeting. The committee decided to wait and hear the thoughts of their fellow SAC members before making any decisions. They would like to learn more about this campaign and policy issue.

7. Items to Report to Executive Committee (Action Item)

Commissioner Sicairos, seconded Commissioner Wu, motioned to report to the Executive Committee updates of their research. This was approved by acclamation.

8. Executive Committee Report (Discussion Only)

There was none.

9. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 7:01pm.