And jill hendricks, please make your way to the podium. We have about five minutes left. Hello. My name is is a man that rich, and im a junior at lowell high school, and im a member of the performers and stage for the last three years. Getting to put a show on for an audience is so rewarding. I feel lucky to go to a school where we have so many different performing arts classes and extracurriculars that allows us to put on good quality shows for our peers. That being said, youve heard its expensive because of costumes, security, and so on. Not only that, lowell has to pay a fee for our auditorrium each year. If this resolution passes, there wont be any shows to see, so how this equitiable. When reading the Student Councils amendment, i was relieved to know you were considering an amendment. Whats going to be in charge of making these regulations . I worry if a person whos not well informed about the arts, they will make decisions that will hurt us rather than making us equal. Our school has been committed to making it so all students can see performances by helping out any who cant afford it, and we have been doing everything and running it smoothly for years without any outside help, so why do we need to have outside help . It is very important its very important to anyone its very important to us that anyone can see our shows, so i hope you take these things into consideration when casting your vote. Thank you. [applause] hello. My name is jessie moor. Im he junior at lowell high school, and im here speaking on behalf of the 40 members of lowells Technical Theater Program of which ive been a part fore three years. Through ticket sales our drama programs are mostly selfsustaining and for our 2017 fall play, where we had multiple ways of selling tickets, through one of these facets of ticket sales, we made back over half of the money we spent on our play, and if the sale of tickets to students is discontinued, so will our shows, including our upcoming spring musical which student technicians, designers, actors and technicians have been working on upwards of three months. This would be a detrimental loss to money of us. We believe in equitiable access to the arts for all, but this proposed amendment by the Student Advisory Council will only push this problem farther away when most schools already have systems in place to ensure equal access. If this amendment is to pass, i strongly encourage the Student Advisory Council to include students participating in those programs in all their decisions. Thank you. [applause]. Good evening. My name is joel hendricks. Im the band and ork extra teacher at washington high school. Most of you heard this week by email. Im going to take it from a slightly difference angle than youve heard from everybody else. As a band and orchestra teacher, my fund raising is very intensive. We basically fund raise all year, every year. The money that we use for the ticket sales for my particular area is for music for not all my groups because it wont pay for all the groups, so interfering with that, the same as everybody else has said, im not sure what that accomplishes because ive never turned away an adult or a student either one. If they wanted to come to a concert, and it will continue to be that way, but i hope you will reconsider this resolution. Thank you. [applause]. Thank you. Section f, Public Comment on general matters. Did you want to take a vote on that item . This is my first day. All right. Any comments from commissioners . Commissioner . Id just like to say that as a member of choir for four years myself, i just want to reiterate in no way shape or form are we trying to take away these performing arts productions. What we are trying to ensure is the equity for all students, and as was reported with the student del gegate report, we will create an administration to make sure that students voices will be the driving factor for regulations to ensure equity as well as stability for the arts. We have representatives from all schools, so i encourage you students to tell your School Representatives about your concern or about what you would like to see reflected in this administrative regulation or ask them about when the next fac meeting is. Well happily give you an agenda, and well happily invite you to our next meeting, as well. Thank you. Commissioner wolf . Thank you, Vice President cooke. I want to start out by saying our students are amazing. [applause]. Your advocacy and your passion for the arts, it definitely comes through as we have this conversation, and so its just good to see you present when the policy first came forward and here tonight. I do think theres a little bit of comparing apples to oranges as were having this conversation. We most certainly here on this board of education, and i dont typically speak for my colleagues, we dont want any of our arts programs to suffer, but the fact is we do have to be concerned about approximately 56,000 students and making sure that opportunities exist 230r all 56,000 students, rich, low income, middle class, across the board. I think the one thing that is missing in some of the advocacy as we have this conversation is the fact that theres a reality for some of our young people, that they cant participate and see some of your amazing work. They cant participate and see some of the things that you have the opportunity to provide or performances that you had the opportunity to participate in. So thats the intent of this policy, and thats the focus of this policy, to make sure that we allow individuals without certain means in our schools to be able to attend events, but in no way, shape, or form are we trying to eliminate or hamper any of your program. So from my perspective, i think that and it was interesting because i did hear someone talk about tickets being set aside for students, and opportunity for students without means to participate in certain events, and im wondering, as someone who grew up without means, if some people in this room tonight understand how it is to have to selfidentify as someone who does not have an opportunity to be able to pay for something and basically say, let me get one of those tickets that you said aside, and everyone knows and understands that i dont have means. Theres a huge stigma that is associated with that, and i definitely see lack of understanding in some of the advocacy here tonight, that those things apply to some of our students. And so one, as i thought about the amendment, and i had a conversation to briefly chat with mr. Ong and miss min about this, is at first, it was something that seemed like i might be inclined to support, but as i sit here, listening to Public Comment today, i more and more understand that, one, i cant support the amendment, but two, maybe we need to have further conversation about our policy, because if i vote tonight, im going to vote for the policy without the amendment, because again, i have a job to make sure all our students have equitiable access. And thats where i stand on this. [ inaudible ] commissioner norton. Sorry, sorry, we had Public Comment. Excuse me, you had your turn, maam. Maam, if you dont please, thank you. Miss norton . So i want to first say that i i think its crazy the situation that were in. I think that all of us would much prefer that the arts and schools equally funded so we shouldnt have a conversation about who we should charge and who we shouldnt charge to fund or arts programs at our schools. So that feels very just sad and upsetting to me that were basically fighting over the crumbs here, but because the state doesnt fund our schools, and certainly doesnt fund our education to the extent that it should be. That said, i also want to appreciate the students who brought forward i think something that feels like a compromise; and like commissioner walton, i, before the meeting, was inclined to support the students amendment. I think what i in listening to the comments, though, i appreciated commissioner walton for your comments. I do think we should we should talk about this a bit more. You know, i think theres a there is room for compromise here. I would like to see the fiscal analysis that was requested, and im not sure why we didnt get one because the question was asked by a member of the public, you know, where is the school analysis, and i asked the same question before the meeting because i think we were we did request that, that we wanted to know sort of how what are different schools charging, you know, and what the impact of not charging students would be to the extent we can determine that. I dont want students to have to selfidentify for the charity tickets, and i dont want students to not be able to see their classmates perform, you know, in at schools. I mean, maybe the idea about there being afterschool performances at some schools. I think thats great that thats available at some schools, but i do think we need to think this through a little bit more comprehensively, because weve hit a nerve here. Clearly, we dont want to harm the programs that the students have really spoken really eloquently that are really impactful to them, but we need to think through the impact of students who wouldnt be able to attend performances or who would have to pay for performances. I think id be in favor of sending this fack back to comm one more time to think this through a little bit more and have a more reasoned decision on this to hear from all perspectives, get a little bit more data, and really decide what is our policy goal here. So my im with commissioner walton, i think we should table it. Commissioner haney . Well, the first thing i think we saw tonight exactly why we need to fully fund the arts in our school district. I think this should not be a situation where we are making anyone feel that by ensuring access for all students to these critical wonderful performances that are such a crucial part of the Student Experience for so many that we would be potentially eliminating all of them together, and i think that its sad that that was what we heard tonight, because thats certainly not the intention of this conversation. We want to strengthen and grow these programs, at the same time that we want to make sure that everybody has access to them. Im grateful for this, the student delegates, and for the Student Advisory Council for stepping up to this. I think this is exactly why we have student delegates and an s. A. C. , to be able to step in and get the feedback to hear everyones voices and to do the right thing and to tell us what the right thing is for students, so i want to applaud you for doing that. And certainly if there is some sort of compromise, i would like to know what it is. I think youve heard from us that we are very open to hearing what the possibilities are, but were not willing to create a situation where some students dont have access, and thats a bottom line that we have, and we want you all to know that, and we hope that you hear that. There are many schools that have a process that works, so lets hear what those are and city see if theres an idea that works for everyone. I want not saying that you should show a special i. D. Or put tickets aside. Thats not a solution that at least in my opinion going to work. Somebody brought up athletics, someone yelled out yearbook, student government, prom, graduation. I actually think we need to talk about those things, too. When when when when when i visited our school does, and i met with student government, and i asked them what are the things that theyre working on and what are the priorities that we have, were told we actually cant work on challenges on our school because we have to fund raise for our school. Which have to fund raise just to be able to go to graduation, just to be able to go to the prom, just to be able to do basic things that should be available to every single student. I do think if were going to talk about the arts, we should also talk about these different programs because we tend to balance our budget on our teachers, on our students, and on our parents, and thats not equitiable, and i think as we do have a conversation about the arts, we should also talk about these other programs, because if a student is spending so much time and stressing out and staying late, raising money for things that should be basic and available to every student, thats not fair for that student and thats not fair for those students who cannot pay and do not have access to cover it. So i appreciate those comments that were made around ensuring equitiable access to all students for activities that should be essential and available to all. So i wish you the best of luck. If there is if we want to, if theres another solution, i dont want to undermine personally the work that the student delegates and the s. A. C. Have done, so i would like to also hear their view on potentially other opportunities, but i appreciate and applaud your work and thank everyone whos here, and i hope we can work out a solution that works for everybody. Commissioner morase . Thank you. I want to thank everybody who came out here tonight and on january 23rd, and those who contacted me on these issues, particularly those students who are passionate about the value of the arts, but its precisely the value of the arts that we want to make accessible to all of our students, and so in my response to the emails that came in, i asked folks to help us brainstorm how do we make these opportunities available to our homeless students, to our foster kids students, to our low income students so that they, too, can have the same spark that we saw so abundantly clear from the podium from our young people, and thats really the fundamental question. It really strikes me as inequitiable that students going to different schools have to pay to see their classmates be on stage. I think we do need to look at it district side rather than leave it school to school, and i want to thank my colleagues, commissioners walton and haney for introducing a resolution in december to urge the state legislature to make it number one in the country, california number one in the country in perpupil spending instead of in the bottom ten states in the country. So really, as commissioner norton stating, this is an issue of fully funding our Public Education so that ptas are not just focused on fund raising, so that band directors dont have to be obsessed with fund raising. So im hoping the energy in this room will help us move the state in the direction for better funding for Public Education. Im not prepared to take an action tonight until i see the fiscal analysis. I, too, was expecting some kind of fiscal analysis. I predict that its not going to be pretty. I think were going to see some schools with a lot of capacity for raising money for tickets and other schools with very, very little capacity, and i think thats an equity issue that we have to struggle with. Its not going to be easy, its not going to be pretty, but we have to struggle with you know, we heard from a number of schools from the west side of town. I didnt hear from any of the schools on the east side of town, and i think as we ponder this challenge, we have to make sure that all voices are represented, that we are getting input from a lot of different communities. Just a final two things, i do like the compromise that was offered of a free daytime performance thats accessible to the entire student body and potentially a feebased evening performance, but its something that we should consider among options; and th options. And then finally, i appreciate the Student Leadership on this. I do think the committee should also review it, so i am not prepared to take an action on this tonight. Thank you. Commissioner sanchez and then commissioner norton . Thank you, Vice President cooke. I want to commend all the students that came out tonight. I think we have, obviously, amazing drama programs going on in our schools, and other programs that are producing excellent talent, so im very proud of that. I do wish i want to echo some of thoughts of my fellow commissioners. Commissioner merase bringing up the thought that maybe we dont have really strong programs on the west side or on the east side of town because were not hearing from them. I urge those communities to come out, as well. I want to ensure we have being ses for all of our students and at least be able to attend our performances and not have to worry about the financial aspect. I agree with other comments that this is linked to financing in california education. We are 46th in the nation in perpupil funding, and that means we cant afford to do the things wed like to do all across the board. Prop 13 needs to be revised, so thats one thing that we have to deal with, to make sure theres public funding for schools. I dont see why the s. E. C. And Advisory Council cant work as well, and be able to present at that Curriculum Committee and at the rules committee, as well, so id like us to urge to consider that happening, at well. Again, i really appreciate all the people coming out to have their voices heard on this issue. Commissioner norton. So im going to make a formal motion, although i dont really think i need to exactly because im hearing consensus, but im going to formally move that we postpone action on this tonight, that we send the action back to the rules committee for further discussion, in particular, further analysis from the staff on what would the fiscal impact be on the various programs of not charging students. I realize that that may be it may have to be anecdotal data on this, but i think we should see what we have and look at that as part of our discussion. Theres been a number of good suggestions made tonight, so im sure the committee, you know, is taking commissioner sanchez, youre taking note of some of these ideas. And i also really support the idea of having students continue the Student Advisory Commission to continue to meet on this issue, so thats my statement, it was kind of long. Can i ask a point of clarification, are you sure its rules that the board would like us to turn to, and not analysis since i think thats a component to this, but it really is a polish for the board, so i think it is more appropriate to go to rules committee, but i think that part of the the committee in evaluating potential policies should see what you know, what fiscal impact on the on the programs would be, and at least just data on, you know, what are different schools charging for their performances, because in my experience, different schools are charging vastly different amounts to attend performances. It may be that a nominal fee is fine and but, you know, what is a nominal fee, so i think just looking at the practices of various schools in