Good morning and welcome to Rosa Parks Middle School. I'm Renee Balestrieri, the principal of Rosa Parks. I'd like to thank the guests who are with us this morning: Mayor Kevin Johnson, the city of Sacramento; Jonathan P. Raymond, the superintendent of Sacramento City Unified School District; Margaret Fortune, member, Board of Trustees of the California State University and CEO of Project Pipeline; Dr. Glen Thomas, the Secretary of Education; Jed Wallace, CEO of Charter Schools; Branche Jones, California Charter Schools Association; Ted Mitchell, the president, California State Board of Education; Ed Manansala, the superintendent of St. Hope Public Schools.
In our audience we have the Rosa Parks AVID class. AVID is a national program that stresses rigor and individual determination to provide students with the skills and strategies that will take them through high school on to college. We also have students with us this morning from Sac High.
It is my honor at this time to introduce the Governor of the great state of California, Governor Schwarzenegger. (Applause)
In our audience we have the Rosa Parks AVID class. AVID is a national program that stresses rigor and individual determination to provide students with the skills and strategies that will take them through high school on to college. We also have students with us this morning from Sac High.
It is my honor at this time to introduce the Governor of the great state of California, Governor Schwarzenegger. (Applause)
GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:
Thank you very much, Principal Balestrieri. Is this right, did I pronounce it right? OK, good. And I want to say thank you for your great leadership. And I think that's why we're all here at the Rosa Parks Middle School, because this school is a spectacular school and we have heard so much about it, so I wanted to come here myself to see all the action that's going on here and the great education that all of you are getting.
But in the meantime, I want to just say thank you very much to Mayor Johnson, who is such a big believer in children. We have worked together way before he became mayor and way before I became governor, when we talked about after school programs and charter schools and all this, so it's really terrific to have him here. And also Superintendent, I want to say thank you very much, Superintendent Raymond, for his great energy and also Margaret Fortune, who has been a great education leader here in California and has worked with our administration and all the other education leaders that are here with us today.
Now, as I said, we are here today because you have shown such great, great work. And I think that, because of the great leadership of your school principal, you've done a great job with improving the grades and your scores jumped up and test scores have improved so much in these last few years in every area. And you have also coaches here that are coaching teachers how to teach and you have created a great team effort between the students and the parents and teachers
