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Meeting Information



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APPROVED

MINUTES OF THE

SOUTHEAST COMMUNITY FACILITY COMMISSION

MEETING WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2009 – 6:00 PM

SOUTHEAST COMMMUNITY FACILITY CONFERENCE ROOM SUITE B

 1800 OAKDALE AVENUE

SAN FRANCISCO, CA  94124

 

1.0     CALL TO ORDER 

 

Commission President Willie B. Kennedy called the Wednesday, January 28, 2009 meeting to order at 6:11 p.m. in the Alex L. Pitcher Community Room at 1800 Oakdale Avenue.   Commissioner Kennedy read the Sunshine Ordinance.

 

1.1      ROLL CALL

 

6:12 p.m.                                  Commission Secretary – Carla Vaughn

 

Commissioners Present:            Kennedy, Sampson, Chung, Yang

 

Commissioners Excused:           Jones, Brown, Churchwell   

 

Staff Present:                            Toye Moses, Executive Director

                                                Ella Empleo, Management Assistant

Carla Vaughn, Commission Secretary

                                               

1.2      CONSENT CALENDAR

 

Commission President Willie B. Kennedy announced the Consent Calendar.

 

Commissioner Sampson moved to accept the consent calendar and the minutes of the Thursday, January 8, 2009 Commission meeting were forwarded to the calendar of the next meeting. Commissioner Brown seconded the motion.  The consent calendar was accepted.

 

2.0      PUBLIC COMMENT

          

None.

 

3.0            COMMUNICATIONS

 

Carla Vaughn, Commission Secretary announced the following:

      

a)      Invitation from the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services and the San Francisco African American Historical & Cultural Society for the 2009 Black History Month Kickoff in the Rotunda at City Hall on February 6, 2009.

b)      Press Release:  Mayor Newsom Launches Green Rental Car Incentive Program.

c)      Press Release:  San Francisco Launches SF City ID Card Program.

d)      Press Release:  Mayor Newsom Announces Expansion Of San Francisco’s Free Wi-Fi Network.

e)      Revised Press Release:  Mayor Newsom Announces 2009 Homeless Count.

f)        Press Release:  While Touring French High Speed Rail System, Mayor Newsom Calls For Bringing High Speed Rail To Transbay Terminal.

g)      San Francisco Prepares To Count Homeless Population Tonight.

h)      Mayor Newsom and World Channel, Inc. Invitation To Celebrate Chinese New Year, Year Of The Ox, Thursday, February 5, 2009 at 5:30 pm.

i)        Press Release:  Mayor Gavin Newsom Announces San Francisco Bike Sharing Pilot Program.

 

4.0             PRESENTATION

     

Chair Kennedy welcomed Dr. Don Q. Griffin, Chancellor of City College of San Francisco.

 

Dr. Griffin expressed his delight in providing a presentation to the Commission and noted that Chair Kennedy had been a student in one of his classes in the 70’s.

 

Dr. Griffin said the main thing gripping all of us was the economy and with the unemployment rate approaching 10 per cent City College was seeing actually thousands of more students.  He reported 7,000 more students had been enrolled, and an almost equal number of students were turned away.  Dr. Griffin said City College’s dedication is to try to maintain access to our students in all of our communities and to actually focus on some communities and bring more services and programs, like the Southeast community, because it is still very much under programmed and under staffed in terms of support services.  Dr. Griffin said it was his objective to engage the community a lot more at Southeast, and the College was looking at all of their programs and trying to develop new programs.

 

Dr. Griffin told the Commission the College was in talks with the Mayor’s office and was looking to jointly partner with the Mayor’s office and some other parts of the City, private as well as the unified system, to bring the programs.

 

Dr. Griffin said the “Gateway To College” program was recently approved and is actually financed mostly by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  It’s a program specifically designed to help high school dropout students.  As you know, the high school dropout rate is somewhere between 20 and 50 per cent depending upon which school system you’re talking about, which in this particular neighborhood is approaching 40 per cent.  This program is designed to partner with San Francisco Unified School District, City College of San Francisco, the Mayor’s office, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and would be housed right here at Southeast.  This will bring in students and allow them to concurrently enroll in both college and high school at the same time.  So, a student can come in that has dropped out, get high school and college credits, and in the course of two to three years have almost enough college credits to transfer to a four year college or university, plus have their high school diploma or GED.

 

Dr. Griffin told the Commission he was very excited about this program.  It will be a model program and if effective it will be something done all across the City.  It will start at Southeast. 

 

Dr. Griffin said the college was also looking into “Green Programs” for the Southeast because they believe there will be job opportunities.  There will be a Sustainability Fair on April 23rd which will be beneficial to acquaint the people here about what is being done to provide sustainability.

 

Dr. Griffin provided a description of the Single-Stop program which originated in New York City and is privately financed.  Most people don’t realize that for families that don’t earn a lot there is a lot of federal tax credit and other types of programs that low-income families are eligible for.  This program would be housed here along with four other locations in the city and would allow individuals from the community, and you don’t have to be a student at City College, to come and be processed and search for tax credits.  On average people have received up to $2,000.00, cash money and for a family that may only earn $16, or $17,000 per year.  Single-Stop will also provide additional services such as, How To Get Financial Aid and How To Do Job Searches, etc.

 

Dr. Griffin told the Commission he felt the Southeast community had been neglected a great deal by City College and San Francisco.  He said it was his job to bring a lot more focus to the community.  He noted the Southeast Annex was a little out of the way for a lot of students and hard in terms of the public transportation system.  There are some concerns about safety issues, but with enough services, and if the community is sufficiently engaged, the College can have a good presence.

 

Dr. Griffin said the rental-lease agreement had been brought to his attention and he was directing staff to get the lease done. 

 

In closing, Dr. Griffin offered to answer all questions.

 

Toye Moses, Executive Director thanked Dr. Griffin for his presentation and said there were concerns regarding City College consolidating with the Evans Campus and he was glad to know those rumors were not true, and that City College would not be moving. 

 

Dr. Moses asked how outreach efforts would be improved and suggested a full-time outreach person was needed to provide support to the current Dean, Dr. Hunnicutt.

 

Dr. Griffin said there was no intention to sever the relationship with Southeast and more outreach was needed however, there were no funds to hire a full-time outreach person so everyone would have to chip in and help with the churches and the CBO’s.

 

Chair Kennedy said the “Gateway To College” program sounded like an excellent program and was totally needed in this community.  She said there are so many young people who don’t have a high school diploma and they don’t want a GED, there’s no place for them really to go in this community.  They can go outside of the community to get a high school diploma, but to have it right here is excellent.

 

Chair Kennedy asked when the program would start.

 

Dr. Griffin said the program was scheduled to start in the Fall of 09, and the first grant was expected to run 4 or 5 years with a renewable option.

 

Dr. Toye Moses had questions regarding the addition of campus security on weekends when classes are in session.

 

Dr. Griffin agreed to look into the issue.

 

Chair Kennedy had a question regarding Single-Stop.

 

Dr. Griffin said so many people think when they fill out their income taxes, and even when they don’t fill out their income taxes, that they are not eligible for anything from the federal government.  He said we have about 30 billion dollars every year that goes unclaimed across the country and they were trying to tune people in to the opportunities that are out there. 

 

Dr. Griffin told the Commission the organization is very sophisticated and has a lot of experience helping people access those dollars.  The program will be housed in the lobby and has the necessary hardware to help return money to the community.

 

Chair Kennedy said the program needed to be advertised because people don’t know about it.

 

Dr. Griffin said the college needs more signage.

 

Commissioner Sampson thanked Dr. Griffin for his presentation and said the church he pastors is right up the street, less than half a block, and not much communication goes out to the churches.

 

Commissioner Sampson said in regards to security it would be good to have name badges to identify students.

 

Dr. Griffin responded there was a very nice badge system in place at the main campus and it could be provided to Southeast for the purpose of providing badges to Southeast students.

 

Henry Calhoun, 1840 CCSF employee, had a question regarding people in the neighborhood that would like to attend the Southeast campus to earn their AA/AS degree instead of traveling to the Ocean campus, this also includes older adults.  He asked if there were any plans to offer more basic English/Math/Science classes to work toward degrees.

 

Dr. Griffin responded there was not enough capacity at Southeast campus to house all of the required courses; however, satellites could be acquired to house more academic courses until City College builds a new Southeast campus from proceeds of the next Bond measure.

 

Upon Dean Hunnicutt’s arrival she indicated most classes at Southeast campus are vocational in nature and provide a “clean, lean operation” helping students to acquire additional skills to get jobs and promotions.  She said credit courses are offered on nights and weekends.  She informed the Commission that student ambassadors are being used to do extensive outreach in the community so we can find out what the needs of this community truly are, when they need to have their courses, and what they need to have packaged.

 

Dr. Hunnicutt told the Commission this is a very diverse community and each ethnic group has certain requirements.  Some folks work in the daytime so we have to deliver services to them at night. 

Dr. Hunnicutt said with some courses it doesn’t make any difference.  Our child development and family studies courses are being offered in the daytime and we thought it wouldn’t do well and it’s doing fabulously.  We give people a chance to take those courses and either go out and work in child care centers or open their own businesses.  We will be offering a Gateway Entrepreneurial Program to help people start their own businesses.  She said the campus was at the cutting edge and Dr. Griffin had been wonderful in working with Southeast.

 

Dr. Hunnicutt spoke of a new program that will allow more people to be bridged to employment and careers.  She said she was not interested in offering classes for classes’ sake, because when people come into her office they say, “Dean, I need a job, and I reply, true, but you need some skills.”  “The solar courses we offer over at the Evans Campus, there are two classes and their packed out with waiting lists.  To do well in those classes, we want you to do solar, we want you to be entrepreneurs, because let’s face it, if you do that kind of work, for each roof that you lay down you can make $15 to $20,000.  I would want our folks to be out there doing those kinds of jobs, but in order to do that you need to take an introduction in construction class so that you can go into our entry level class and do well.  And then you need to be resilient.  There are people out there who are in the union who are not gainfully employed; they have to be gainfully employed.  We need to teach our students that they will have to deal with education on a life long basis.  I model that after myself.  It is not uncommon to see me take classes outside of my employment here.  I will drive down to Stanford in a minute to take a night course if it enhances what I do, or for my own personal enrichment.  No one stays in a job any longer now than five or seven years, which means that throughout a lifetime they could have ten different jobs where they take their skill sets and move it on to their next job.  So that’s what we’re doing here.  It’s a very clean, very lean operation that allows students to get the skill sets they need and into jobs, because when they come through the door regardless of who they are that’s what they ask me.  The other thing that they need to know and I tell them all this, and a very wise women I know states this, English is king.  They have to know how to read, write and speak well.  They need to know how to present themselves so they can get a job and keep a job.  They need to know how to be an excellent individual player as well as a good team player.  They need to know what the employer needs and match that skill set.”

 

Sam Murray, Communications Manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission stated one of the problems he sees is that City College needs to embrace SFPUC because SFPUC has programs that can benefit students, i.e. the “Green Economy”.  Mr. Murray said there are three things always needed in any economy, sewer, water, and power.  He said there are always jobs in these sectors and suggested CCSF couple with SFPUC on these courses.

 

Mr. Murray used Cal Maritime as an example for “Jobs on the Bay”; citing Cal Maritime could bring high school students to learn about jobs on the SF Bay.  He said CCSF could partner with SFPUC to create an Apprenticeship Program to prepare students to pass the Civil Service Exam.  He also indicated he would like a new Contract Education agreement with CCSF.

 

Sam Murray said CCSF needs “Leadership” classes and to be innovative with career preparation.  He stated programs grow and then leave the Southeast Campus, so a commitment is needed that when programs grow and are successful they will stay.  He said one of the other problems is that the community really doesn’t know what it needs, and bold leadership is needed from the college to step up and say these concepts worked back then, but these are not the concepts and marketplaces now.

 

Mr. Murray said he’d like to see a shuttle created to allow elderly students the ability to go back and forth between the Southeast and Ocean campuses.  Sam Murray said he was available to help with community outreach and outreach to the faith-based community.  He suggested the Southeast Community Facility Commission host an outreach event to the faith-based community and invite all of the pastors to the facility and create an ambassadorship with those churches.  Mr. Murray suggested the pastors select a member from their church to preside as ambassador.  He suggested the development of a program where high school students could take classes at the college while still in high school.

 

Mr. Murray suggested City College might bring the CSU’s and UC schools to recruit at the Southeast Campus.

 

Marlene Walker, Coordinator of the Biotech Program at Southeast Campus indicated that a lot of outreach is done, however the facility needs better signage because most people think it is a community center only, they don’t realize the college is there.  She agreed that a relationship with the churches is necessary so the people in the community know about the college and what is being offered.  Ms. Walker noted that more email contacts are needed and a lot of the residents don’t have email access, even the churches in some cases don’t have email addresses.  She agreed there is a need for more core classes (English, Math) during the day.  She said the entry level math is needed because people graduate and still don’t know basic math and can’t get jobs.

 

Ms. Walker suggested waiving the class size rule for this community, at least to allow those that need the classes the opportunity to attend.

 

Chancellor Griffin responded that something could be done about the signage and some of the other issues, however, class size could not be reduced because it would affect the ability to provide payment to the teachers.

 

Mr. Henry Calhoun, CCSF employee stated there was never a team outreach effort for Southeast and he believed that was one of the main problems.  He said there needed to be a campaign, a volunteer effort.

 

Chancellor Griffin said he was delighted to address the Commission and admonished them to hold his feet to the fire.   

 

5.0     REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

 

None.

 

6.0     HEALTH AND HOUSING AD-HOC COMMITTEE REPORT

 

            Chair Kennedy reported the Health and Housing Ad-Hoc Committee had been working diligently on the

            Health Fair.  Two meetings had been held and Dr. Churchwell had agreed to Chair the Committee in the

            absence of Commissioner Jones.  She advised the Commission the next meeting would be held at 12:30

            pm rather than 11:30 am.  Commissioner Kennedy requested volunteers from the community, for the

            various  committees, needed to facilitate the Health Fair.

 

Commissioner Kennedy said the focus of the Health Fair would be Diabetes and Obesity.  Commissioner Kennedy provided the names of the various committees and asked for volunteers.

 

7.0            STAFF REPORT 

 

Ella Empleo, Acting Jr. Management Assistant reported on the ADA project and said she was waiting on the cost proposal for installation.  Regarding the HVAC project she reported  the cooling tower, boiler and chiller were installed and were 97% complete.  Ms. Empleo advised the Commission of a new project, the facility improvement of the lobby and receptionist area.

 

Ms. Empleo reported the Org Chart was in the binder and available for the Commissions perusal.

 

Director Moses reported the budget was in progress and was now with the PUC Commissioners.  He also advised the Commission the application deadline for the Challenge Grant was fast approaching.

 

8.0    NEW AND ON-GOING BUSINESS

  

            None.  

 

9.0     INTRODUCTION OF NEW BUSINESS BY COMMISSIONERS

 

Commissioner Kennedy suggested the possibility of having a Commission Retreat to discuss a review of the Southeast Community Facility Commission purpose and role in the community, a discussion of the vision and mission values, and a review of short and long term goals, objectives and accomplishments.  She requested it be calendared for the next Commission meeting.

 

10      PUBLIC COMMENT

 

None.

 

11      ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

None.

 

12      ADJOURNMENT

 

        The meeting was adjourned at 7:45 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted.

Carla Vaughn, Commission Secretary