okay good evening um so at this point for the audience and I'm pretty sure that our candidates have done this already but if you would please silence your phones and then as many of you have already done uh you can write uh we will be taking audience questions we have uh several questions uh that we've already come up with here uh we will take audience questions after this um if the audence audience questions because you don't know these questions prior if the audience questions are uh the same as these then obviously uh we won't be using them we will uh be prioritizing because we will end at 7:30 um and so we may not be able to get to all of them um and I believe that last time I did say that I would get the remaining questions out to the candidates I did not I apologize um so I've got this fin person here on my left who's going to remind me about 10 times uh between now and tomorrow morning uh that I need to get those out uh so I'll type those up and send them to the candidates uh any others that we weren't able to get to um so if you would please write any other questions on the index cards that are located at the table and then they will be collected we will also be paraphrasing there may be like five different people that all submitted the same or a similar question uh Kristen cinear yellow here uh will go ahead and uh try to coales that into a single question so at this point I would like to welcome everybody uh here in the building in our community room as well as those online live tonight uh and then anybody that will be watching this as recorded uh it is um available uh on the district YouTube channel correct M yeah so um like I said welcome my name is Daniel honig I am the President of Columbia Heights Federation of teachers local number 710 Columbia Heights Federation of teachers local number 710 has a proud tradition of uh moderating and hosting these Schoolboard candidate forums for Columbia Heights Public Schools um and so uh we're very proud to do this uh and again this year so uh welcome Welcome to our five candidates and uh Welcome to our audience online and live here behind me um each candidate will have two minutes to respond to the questions that we ask a green yellow and red card will be held up to indicate the time you have left with red meaning time is up I will ask each candidate to respond in a rotating order I do not have the ability to cut your mics so please respect uh our timekeeper who you can see is here in front of us us and for the audience you probably won't can't see her but she's up here in front so that the candidates can uh we will start in order going from left to right with our candidates up here my left um so we'll start with Miss grandland and uh if you need the question repeated uh please ask that I'll repeat the question before the time is started okay because I know that it goes around and sometimes you're like can you repeat that question I'm the fifth person all right uh so our first question is introduce yourself not really question statement uh introduce yourself and share what in your background leads you to believe that you would be an effective School Board member Miss Grantland well thank you so much uh to local 710 for hosting this and providing us with this opportunity um my name is Mary granin I am a current board member and I have served in our uh Public School Board for four years however I have been active in our school Community for much much longer than that um today I had a picture come up that was um my son started prek 12 years ago so that means 11 years of uh volunteering in our schools um on a weekly basis for um from 2013 to 2020 um my background is I'm a child and family therapist by trade specializing in early childhood and specifically working with children and families who have experienced trauma um I think I'm uniquely suited to be on the school board because of that educational background and also because of um I put in the work very clearly of being present both in our school community in the classroom directly and also um in a much larger capacity in building Rel relationships across the Spectrum with different folks within our community to make sure that as many voices are heard as possible um a friend said we should all have something that we're excited about the way that I get excited to talk about our school district um and I am happy to be here uh so thank you very much thank you for your response miss grandland Mr Davis thank you uh thank you Mr honig uh thank you to local 710 for hosting this event uh also thank you to the other participants uh my name is Adam Davis I'm a lifelong resident of Columbia Heights um I'm married to my wife Maria um I have uh am a graduate of Columbia Heights High School uh 1994 and uh I'm a music teacher and uh I've been doing that for over 20 years as well and uh I don't have any kids but I have uh plenty of kids uh that I teach and uh I very much enjoy I've also spent 20 years at the city council uh recording their Council meetings and have been previously appointed uh to the traffic commission so uh I have a lot of different types of experience throughout uh the city um I've worked with uh community members parents taxpayers uh staff both partisan and nonpartisan candidates and I am somebody who am always working to find ways to work together uh with uh with everyone uh with various backgrounds and excuse me uh in to uh find uh Solutions and um I believe I'm the uh I don't believe that there is a a teacher um currently on the school board so I think that that's something that I would like to uh provide a unique perspective to as well thank you thank you for your response Mr Davis Miss Smith hello all my name is Karina Smith and I'm running for Columbia height school board and I'd also love to take a moment to to just acknowledge and thank our teachers union local sub and 10 for hosting this forum um I'm really grateful for the opportunity to be here with you all tonight uh growing up I have Lear loved school it was a place of learning and connection and exploring endless possibilities and for me it wasn't without its challenges uh as a first time um graduate of high school um I have really learned firsthand the difference that a caring adult can make my senior year in high school was told that my only path to college was through the military despite being an honors as an AP student and it wasn't until a caring adult stepped in and helped me apply to college that my life took a different trajectory and that one intervention changed everything for me I am a lifelong learner and I hold a master's degree in advocacy and political leadership and I serve my community as a nurse a business owner and an advocate I have facilitated School programming that has focused on um youth leadership development Civic engagement and uh Service Learning and I regularly host interns through my small business and education has truly been uh liberatory for me it's been a vehicle that's empowered me to break cycles of generational poverty and I'm really excited to give back by serving on the school board the stakes are really high for this current generation our students in Columbia Heights Hilltop and Fridley are brilliant multilingual and caring and they deserve safe and magical classrooms where they can Thrive and I know one of the ways ways to get there uh is by fostering collaboration supporting our Educators because we know when our Educators Thrive our students do too um so together we have an opportunity to ensure that every student um is able to be a compassionate and caring leader and every educator has the resources to get them there so I am very grateful for all of you showing up tonight and for your support and for folks who'd like to learn more about me and my campaign it's Karina for schoolboard.com thank you thank you for your response Miss Smith Miss extrand okay thank you local 710 for hosting tonight and it's a pleasure to be here and I'm um Sher extran and I'm married to Larry my husband and we've been married for 17 years Larry's been in the community for 35 years and we have two children uh grown adults uh Jake graduated from Columbia Heights in 2007 and our daughter lives in uh Sparks Nevada and she's a registered nurse and um I have a passion I'm running for Schoolboard because I have a passion to see every child reach their academic goals um you know they need to understand the basics of un of knowledge in order to reach their goals and um through my life I've had uh education and um childhood development during the junior college years and I've I'm a great listener I've um I am actively uh serving at the local church at my local church in the child's Ministry and I love being around kids I love Community I you know I just want to make it possible for every every child to have that possibility that we've had growing up you know to have a successful life so that's it thank you thank you for your response Miss exan Miss pway hello um I will also say thank you to our teachers union local 710 for um hosting this and thank you everybody for coming out tonight um my name is Michelle pway and I am running for school board uh I for work am an administrative assistant at bethl University in their social work department um my husband and I have a daughter who attends North Park she's in fifth grade she's been there since kindergarten and uh we couldn't imagine School anywhere else we we love Columbia Heights um initially I ran for school aard um because I was involved in my daughter's education that way um at her school I was in groups and volunteering and showing up and um I realized that I could participate in a different capacity and still be involved in her education as well as you know um be effective in our community and give back and and it's been a lot of fun doing that um I feel like over this last couple of years I've actually enjoyed learning um I feel like my my need for human interaction and uh more knowledge keeps me running um I'm passionate about it I love meeting people I love hearing people's stories I want to talk to community members learn more about their families what their needs are and things like that um I think those things help to be help me to Be an Effective School Board member um I'm dedicated um I'm usually at every event so I'm I'm definitely uh involved and I really learn a lot every time I'm I'm near someone who you know is different I want to know more about them and I feel like I can advocate for them I started out doing that work at my daughter's school and it just made sense to go to the next level thank you thank you Miss pway for your response uh for our second question we will start with Mr Davis and then wrap back around to miss grandland number two the school board's Equity goals are embedded in multiple areas of its new strategic plan please identify the equity actions that you would emphasize Mr Davis okay thank you for the question so I feel like uh where I could uh uh best um play a role in in the equity in the schools is uh in the area of representation I know that when I graduated from Columbia Heights back in 1994 it was uh very much different uh makeup of the school um very white uh I could count them on my hands that are the ones that uh you know that were uh nonwhite and you know to be able to see the representation and the profound difference at this time um I'm uh very elated to uh see that in my hometown uh my mom is from South Korea uh my wife is from Mexico um I you know I've have experienced the the need to be able to uh see you know ourselves in the schools and be able to uh be able to appreciate that and to have that uh connection so I understand that uh right now we have over 30 languages that are represented in uh in the Columbia height schools and uh I think one one of the stats I think is most um interesting to me is that 48% are English Learners the English is not their first language and that's one of our uh very unique challenges right now to be able to uh work through and as a teacher um I'll be an advocate uh for fellow teachers in the classroom to be able to uh bridge that and uh get through and make those connections thank you thank you thank you for your response Mr Davis Miss Smith I have read the Columbia Heights Public Schools Equity statement and I believe that it sets a really strong standard um for how we integrate Equity across the district and part of my role when elected to the school board along with my colleagues will actually be to strengthen it um I'm excited about uh implementing and adding some measures that we can actually look at for how we're doing in reaching the equity goals as stated um I also know that uh in my professional life when when working to address Equity across organizations that it's really important that it's not an isolated Endeavor and that um I know that we have Equity work groups within our district and it's important to make sure that it's implemented schoolwide and districtwide and so that's one of the things I'd love to look at how we can support um I think lastly I would also like to make sure that it's an ongoing process that we continue to check in and get feedback from our families and teachers and students around what that looks like for them how it's feeling how it's uh making sure that they are belonging and succeeding um and that feedback will allow the Schoolboard to then make further adjustments in implementing uh the equity statement as we have it so those are the things that I'm looking forward to implementing in my role and what I can contribute thank you thank you for your response Miss Smith Miss xand thank you um I know that Equity means that there's learn equal learning opportunities for all students but it doesn't necessarily mean that they have the same educational outcome and with Adam saying that there is a um a large influx of Hispanic Learners there's like 50% in the district that I really believe we need to focus on teaching them uh English so that they can have the same benefits that everybody else does um um so I would really focus my attention to find strategies to teach the Hispanic Learners lingu um English because it'll help them succeed in life and make uh education better for them so um that's what I would do so thank you thank you for your response Miss extran Miss pway yep um so there's a few Equity actions I would emphasize um right now we are working really hard on um making sure that we are creating the most Equitable learning space for our students um we have black men teach which promotes um diverse teaching staff being present um at one of our schools um hoping to uh amplify that make sure we can get into other schools um so that the curriculum and the teaching um and staff the facult and staff can um reflect the students that they are teaching we think that's very important for us um we have um a lot more El staff and teachers this year coming in for our El students our English learning students and uh that's very important we were lacking that last year and um I feel like this year it'll be a great thing for them to have that and continuing to push for those funds we're also making changes for that so we can have more funding for our e programs and our special education programs um we also do like surveys to our students and our staff so that our staff feel like they belong as well um because the environment you know is for everyone not just our Learners so we want everyone to feel like they want to come to work they want to come to school and they want to learn um we also um amplify student voice a lot I think that that's a big deal for me um when we talk about Equity because if we're saying equity and everyone getting what they need the students know what they need need at a certain point and it's important that we listen to um what they have to say thank you thank you Miss pway Miss grandland thank you so much um the creation of the equity statement was really important um not just for our school Community but for everybody in our community um and that also includes the communities that we live in and that our school um our students come from Fridley minneapol Columbia Heights Hilltop um and everywhere else our diversity in Columbia Heights is our strength and I think we really need to make sure that we um that we honor that that also means that um when we say all belong and all succeed all means all every student who walks through that door deserves to have an education that is respectful of their culture their individual learning needs the communities with which um they grow in and thrive in and our staff and families also deserve that there are over 36 different languages that you could hear walking down any one of our halls and that is a beautiful thing multi-ch multilingual children are brilliant and their families are brilliant and it's really important for us to be able to look at um how how do we respond how do we support the difficulty in that is that our needs are now and the money and the support that we get from the state and federal governments comes much much later we are working really hard to continue to support our students and families and staff as much as we can and I am committed to continuing to make sure that voices who maybe have not always been heard at our board table continue to be heard we are as a board we should be nimble and we are asking a lot um and I am here to be nimble and supportive thank you thank you for your response miss granin our next question will start with Miss Smith number three what priorities would you focus on for the education of our students is there a particular issue that motivates you to serve on the board of education thank you um the priorities that I have on my website um and that I've been hearing a lot from from Community um as I have my candidate and I've been hearing from families and students and stakeholders and teachers are that we need to address the well-being of our students um we need to also look at how we can recover from learning loss and um make sure that our educators are supported in being able to have smaller classrooms um to be fully staffed to have the support staff that they need um and again make sure that um when it comes to learning loss as well that our students who have language needs um have the support that they need as well in the classrooms I would say that those are currently the priorities that I've heard most from people um and I also know that there are some funding parameters and restrictions around some of those pieces that the district is looking at um being able to better leverage so um that's what I would say at this moment thank you thank you for your response Miss Smith Miss extrand thank you um I would uh like to work on achieving the academic performance of the kids since the uh scores are still quite low from 2019 till now they continue to go down in reading and math and that's a you know that's a priority with me because I need to be able to have a productive life to and to know these um reading and math skills and second of all I would uh Champion parental involvement I think it's key for parents to be involved with their children's education and know everything as every aspect of the education that's going on to the curriculum to health to every subject that's being taught um and also I um through talking with the community people parents are concerned about safety in school and I would um work to make sure that Sr o are um are here um I don't know if they're contracted right now I don't know what came of that bill but uh I would hope that we could work on a solution to get the r sro's installed um correct me if I'm wrong but I not sure if the police are here or not but um that's what I would work on because parents are concerned about safety thank you thank you for your response with Z strand Miss pway sure so um I think one of the big priorities right now is literacy um it's definitely something that's taking over right now um we've as board members have um done the same uh um science of reading uh teaching um sorry I don't know what to call it program that the teachers have taken so that we can see what it's going to take for them to do what is being mandated um not to say that we weren't already doing some of that work so um there's a lot of um professional development involved and ways to help our teachers be successful in this space so so that our students can be successful as well um building the confidence and the passion around reading um I think test scores and assessments are also important um obviously there are different assessments for different things I want to make sure that we are focusing on um growth over time and keeping that data so that we have something to reference for the future um for every you know class every student so that they know where they stand I think that's very important to keep a close eye as well as that you know major one like the MC or something like that which do test for good things as well um but there are different ways of doing that and I want to make sure that we're staying focused on um each individual child's um learning patterns and what they need I think that it's important for us to have the correct Staffing to teach um our e students um being in the correct classes getting what they need in order to test um you know because they are very smart and they are brilliant um but if they don't know the culture or what they're reading then how can they be successful so getting that education to them as well and giving them the thing they need um having the correct class sizes which is conducive to you know a great learning environment for students as well um I know a lot of that is not direct you know academics but it definitely comes with the space um and everybody will be able to succeed in that space thank you thank you for your response Miss pway Miss grandland thank you so much um so what I ran on originally and what I continue to run on is increasing student family staff Community voice at our board table people lot have lots and lots of questions about what we're doing in our schools and it's important to be thoughtful and responsive to that as well because our taxpayers are here and regardless of whether or not you have children in our school district you are still paying taxes even if you are a renter it's important to have your voice be heard and be a part of the decisions that we're making um I'm really proud of the work that we did in the um in bringing the Strategic plan uh to fruition and reaching out to a number of stakeholders and that has been something that I have championed and will continue to Champion is to make sure again that those voices are heard um all means all right um I also want to focus on literacy as other people have said um but I've spent many many many hours in our classrooms I have been part of taking children and doing small reading groups children are reading the MCAS are a one sides only um and it does not it's not it does not give a complete picture of where our children are where our students are and how they're doing one of the things that we're working on is making sure that we have Assessments in other languages that we can continue to help and address is this truly TR a problem with reading and understanding and comprehension or math or is this a language concern because guess what we have tests that can do that the MCA is is not multifaceted and I'm not saying throw it away and it doesn't mean anything it does mean things I'm saying that there is a total picture that we need to look at and I will continue to talk about that um at the board table thank you thank you for your response m grin Mr Davis all right thank you I guess the things that I would be looking at to focus on uh is uh first parental engagement and you know while we're trying to reach out and we're doing the open houses and we're doing various things on here I think uh we need to think a little bit more outside the box be a little more specific on how they can help and make sure that we're reaching uh these parents that are from all these different cultures and have different ways that uh we can reach them in unique ways here um you know some are uh it's a language barrier uh some it's because they're a single mom and they're working and it's just hard to find so just being able to find really unique ways to be able to reach each and every parent so that each and every student uh can Thrive here um I know that uh Miss grin mentioned about the test scores and I will agree to the to the extent that you know um it's not everything you know it it's one facet of it however when I do hear from people that choose not to come to Columbia Heights the thing that breaks my heart is that they will point to that and say well I don't see those test scores going up I don't think you're a good school and uh we do need to find ways to be able to better demonstrate uh all of the things that Columbia Heights does and that it's not all about that uh but it is one important part of it uh regarding the budget um you know I think that while it's online it's often not understandable for many and they can't appreciate what it's actually saying and I think that we need to find ways to um get some more transparency the last thing I want to mention is when I'm out door knocking most common thing I hear is I don't have kids in the district so why should I care and so I want to be that person to tell them why I'll tell you in a few minutes thank you for your response Mr Davis yes I want to remind the candidates that if you'd like me to repeat the question at any point uh the longer we go on with the uh The Forum the more you'll wear down and you may need the question repeated uh we will begin with is extrand on question number four which is what issues do you believe our district needs to address in academic programs and offerings what changes would you recommend that's a tough one um what would I recommend you know I'm not too sure um can I pass on the question because I don't know um can you repeat the question sure what issues do you believe our district needs to address in academic programs and offerings and what changes or are there any changes that would you would recommend to those offerings academic issues um well I don't I really can't think of any issues that need to be addressed um well other than safety and um getting more parents involved I guess I would well that I suppose that would be it um reinstating the SRO back into the schools you know I would work on that um because I think one minute um yeah I guess I would work on getting those uh policemen back in because they you know provide a safe haven for the kids and although the teachers help with that too um and the faculty and you know everybody else involved in the school system but I would you know and and parents have been um asking that too and they're concerned about safety so I guess that's what I would work on that issue thank you thank you for your response Miss extran Miss pway yeah so um I think we offer a good amount of academic programs to our students um um I mean I don't think that it's the fault of the district maybe why like some of the things I would change would change um obviously I would have more funding I feel like you know that's going to be the answer to everything right it's the umbrella thing that everything falls under um but in these programs um sometimes they have a limit of how many students they can take so there may be students who want to take it who can't or have to wait um and there's also cost to some of them um we've done good at eliminating some of those barriers for families for certain programs but but um it'd be nice to be able to offer it to everyone have enough Staffing have enough um uh people there with experience in that subject matter for more than just the allotted amount of students um yeah so I think we've done a good job at that some of them uh fund themselves some of the programs they find grants and other monies to be able to still provide things for students and I I think that um we're moving in the right direction with that so I don't know if I would change to much um we also go through the programs every year and see you know the amount of students who are participating in them and if they're um some a program that we should keep or you know should we improve it or change it in some way so I think we're always looking at that and I think we always land where our students um are happy and and we're offering what they want thank you thank you for your response Miss pway Miss grandland thank you so much so in this question we're specifically talking about academic programming and I can say that I believe we have a wide variety of classes for students um obviously with the additional funding that we did get uh from last year we were able to actually expand and offer even more um which I think is fantastic our students get to do different things and try different things and that's important at this age um we also have a number of AP classes and PSO Partnerships um which allows our students to be able to take classes here um within our school district and in partnership with community colleges to make sure that they they go into college with a little bit less debt and there are students that graduate with an associates degree it's very important we are doing that now things that I would love to address I think we can streamline the process of registering for classes both at Columbia Academy our middle school and at the high school um originally last year I know that the high school students came home with P well well they didn't come home with it they were encouraged to fill it out um print out a sheet and fill it out in paper which was challenging for a lot of reasons we don't have a printer at our house anymore and I don't know very many people who do and I wasn't going to pay $3 to print one thing off we need to be and continue to look at the systems that we have and whether or not they make sense we are in 20124 filling out that by paper is probably not the best way to do it I think we can do better and continue to offer um the this the wide variety of things that we do instead of wasting our time um with pen and paper for something that's so important thank you thank you for your response miss granley Mr Davis thank you um I guess offerings that I would be looking at um one of the things that that uh really dawned on me when I when you asked the question was that I believe that the only foreign language we're currently offering is Spanish and with a school district that has 36 languages right now it's uh rather surprising that we're not offering any of those languages so that uh we can uh you know diversify ourselves and talk you know with all of those unique languages that we have here um another thing that I thought of was that um as a music teacher uh I'd like to see if there's possibility to expand the music program as far as having uh an orchestra here so it's one of the things that when I went to school here we've always had the band but we've never ever had an orchestra and I always was a little disappointed by that and I thought that would be an interesting thing to look at uh having said all that one of the things I've also learned is that about three4 of the current budget is considered restricted meaning that we don't as a district have the flexibility to take as much of that state and federal dollars and apply it to those unique challenges in Columbia height School District so one of the things that I would like to do is despite our historic increases in funding we have a lot of new unfunded and underfunded mandates that far exceed that amount of new funding and we're actually in a position I think in the out years coming here up we're actually going to be less able to respond to the needs of our students unless we get further increases from the legislature so uh I would ask that uh we look at making sure that we elect State House candidates that will uh respect the fact that we need that flexibility thank you thank you for your response Mr Davis Miss Smith our students and Learners get to do this once and so I think that it's really important that our academic programming has rigor and Excellence embedded in it um I also think that there is a lack of um communication that we could actually improve within the district so that families know the classes that are offered I've heard from families that um they didn't know that we had work wood shop they didn't know about some of the electives um and those are important to them it's important that we um have the opportunity for students to learn about the trades in high school um and I've also heard that um there's an opportunity to have further Partnerships outside of the district to bring other offerings academic programs um into the school um that's Partnerships with organizations with other school districts um to be able to share that capacity um to to leverage those resources I also think that um you know we need to hear from our students around what it is that they're most excited about um I would love to uh know more about um the possibility of having another student on the school board to be able to have that access and feedback Point regularly um to hear about what is happening in the classrooms what programs um do they hear that their friends have access to that they'd be interested in learning more about um I think that those are some of the uh priorities around our academic programming at the moment thank you thank you for your response Miss Smith we'll start it's me I start I start yeah I don't want to start again I didn't want to say it but that's good I'm Excuse me no it's it's it's it's on me I was just saying ask the next question too you're going start with her oh yeah yeah well that's why I said that and then I it's okay you teachers have been here for a very long time today so it's all good okay uh question number five Miss pway uh in what specific ways would you be an advocate for the needs of the district on a legislative level um so um I think staying informed is is a huge part of that feel like knowing where our district stands um where our deficits are things we need to be going to our legislators and asking for uh is a is a big deal so that means going to you know informational sessions or school meetings or you know looking at the information on the website asking questions if we don't understand and trying to get an understanding of how we are formed and what we need moving forward um I feel like our legislators are very close to us in Columbia Heights um and I feel like over the last couple years I've been able to get closer with them build a rapport have that connection and personally be able to reach out uh as an advocate for others I also encourage people to advocate for themselves so that means you know writing letters emails I know no one write writes letters sorry younger audience members um making phone calls and you know even texting um and just to get out you know what our concerns are um our legislators love to hear from us they want to know what we think what we feel um and I think that that's better given from the people who are most going to benefit from our school district um being where we are um I think there are other things that we can do like um like I said the info sessions or going to the capital on like advocacy event days that they have where you can go and and show what what you support and how much you support it um so there are other ways um to to be involved in that rather than uh reaching out if you're not comfortable doing that thank you thank you for your response Miss pway Miss grandland thank you so much um our district does not exist in a vacuum and it's really important for us to have a good working relationships to serve our community um that transcend the boardroom it you know I have a pretty extensive history of advocacy at the legislative level um and it's not just the legislative level that we as a school board are required to interact with um it's really important for us to also have good relationships and communication with um our Congress people um our city uh elected officials and also County elected officials on top of the state legislature um you know through my advocacy I have worked um with professional groups with uh National Association of Social Workers uh nasw Minnesota um prior to being on the school board I also uh formed citizens for safer streets which was an initiative to help um bring safety to the 49th Avenue in front of Valley View and Columbia Heights um and that was multifaceted it took place over our time and it required us to um communicate with all of those different levels of people to make sure that we were all in the same place because what happens otherwise is the Spider-Man meme this is for the kids and maybe some of the you know younger adults in here but you know where everybody's pointing at each other nobody's taking responsibility but I think it's really important and I have shown that I can help bring all of these voices to the table and all the decision makers in the same room with the stakeholders and not end with nothing the reason why we have turn Lanes on 49th down there the reason why we have um that light there that came from Grassroots advocacy I will continue to do that thank thank you thank you for your response miss granin Mr Davis thank you I remember uh working with you on the safe street so that was a great project to do that um so as far as going through the state legislature uh we need to be able to work with them as a partner but also have the respect right now of understanding that we need that flexibility so when we're dealing with our influx of English Learners when we're dealing with the unfunded special ed the cross subsidy that's not being uh uh fully funded all of the things there's 65 different items that um that I've seen that aren't fully funded and if the state and federal government feels that this is important enough to mandate they should fund it if they don't want to uh fund it then they shouldn't mandated and they should give us the flexibility to make our own choices here at the local level and uh that's probably the number one thing that I want to impress upon uh those levels of government that we're an independent school district and in order for us to have that Independence we need to be able to have that flexibility to do that and uh you know another thing about it is that uh when we get when we do get our funding uh you know it it's really dependent on so many of these uh formulas that really don't work well for us you know and it actually encourages things like larger class sizes because we're trying to get more kids in for instance and you know our district we have a big heart to support our students but we have a limited ability to pay more property taxes for instance and our residents are in fixed incomes they're single earners and we have record house High housing costs and rent payments and I think we need to be smarter about how we are able to uh get that money and find uh ways to work with State Legislature for that so thank you thank you for your response Mr Davis Miss Smith I look forward to um understanding what historically has been done and strengthening what we need to make sure happens in terms of um getting the resources that our district need needs and deserves I have professional experience in lobbying policy and an advocacy at the legislature and I have had some success in uh being able to get bipartisan support for bills particularly around maternal and infant Health that have Early Education outcomes um and have successfully collaborated with state senators like Mary kunish and Jim abler to be able to pass that um so I believe that I have the ability to work with colleagues on the board and across the District to leverage those relationships and um my understanding of the legislative process and how to move bills um to be able to advocate for the resources that our district needs I understand that we have some challenges around mandates and being able to um realize those a little more fully um being that we'd love to be in compliance around those and have them be fully funded because those would help our teachers and our students in the classrooms um and have the ability to to effectively get there so I'm excited to to bring that to the school bre thank you Miss Smith Miss extrand okay thank you I'm very strong Advocate to keep the communication flowing with our uh Local District Representatives um it was great to see Aon keigle and Mary kunish on the first day of school greeting greeting the kids to make them feel welcomed and um feel very special and that was great to see and we you know we need to keep our communication flowing with them because they need to know the challenges that the school boards face uh it's very important to get out in the community and talk to them and talk to the Educators and the students about the concerns that they have so we can get back to our Representatives because a lot of people they really don't have time or some don't care to uh know what's going on with the bills that are being written up um and so it's very important to get the message out to them so that they can voice their opinion you know about what's being written up and because it's very important because the government works for us and we they should listen to our needs and wants and really um go by that to when they write bills up and feel good about it so I'm a strong advocate for that and it's very important to keep in contact with them thank you thank you for your response M extrand so uh I'm actually going to pull a teacher move here um because teachers are constantly learning from their students uh I Want To Praise this audience uh we got some excellent questions and actually uh two of the questions are very similar to the last two questions we were going to ask but they're better so a little more in depth a little more probing on what the audience wants so instead of our last two questions I'm going to supersede them with two of the questions uh from the audience and then we'll be able to get to more of what the audience is asking so uh some of these questions are a little bit longer and a little more multi-art so please feel free to have me uh repeat uh even while you're speaking um and if that's the case uh we'll give you 10 15 more seconds um if you want me to repeat the second one so uh we will start with Miss granin for this uh um so the question is um on funding can you talk more about the budget of ISD number 13 where does the money to fund our schools come from additionally did you support and vote for the referendum last year and would you support a referendum in the future that's a fantastic question um everybody has ideas and opinions about how schools are funded but very few people come to to the board table or watch the Youtube videos that explain how and why we do these things um a lot of it as Mr Davis has said comes down to the rules and regulations the the literal laws that we are required as a school board to um adhere to uh our funding is um you know we have those mandates especially around special education the special education cross subsidy def it previous boards have seen me come up every year and talk about that before um I join the board I continue to talk about it and now I also talk about the special or the um English language uh the cross subsidy we have with trying to work with our M multilingual Children and Families um those are massive deficits and we are required to pay now and then somehow come up with um you know the money while waiting until the very next year to get that funding and we were promised it was going to be fully funded the federal and state government provides 40% repayment so that's why we have a cross subsidy I continue to be an advocate about that and I will always be an advocate the historic amount of of support we receive from the state legislature is absolutely atrocious because it really was not enough it was not enough it was not enough for all the mandates that they gave gave us and it continues to not be enough um in regards to whether or not I supported the referendum I have always gone out and door knocked for those and been a champion and talking about it I was there on the doors in the room making calls talking with people in 2017 and I was devastated when it didn't pass I worked twice as hard along time aside my community in 2018 and also last year I will always support those thank you thank you for your response miss granin Mr Davis okay uh clarification so are we talking about last year's referendum yes uh so the the the most recent referendum uh and then would you support another one in the future I see okay I just wanted to clarify uh so what one of the things that uh that uh when I go out and I meet with uh the community and I talk with them you know and I know that some of the people that I meet are probably in a different Circle than Miss granin is for instance uh and the ones that I tend to run into are the ones that don't have kids in the district uh that um that are on that fixed income that are on that are that single mom and they're just and they're just like oh my gosh I can't afford another tax increase and and so it's it's one of those things that's really heart-wrenching because uh we legitimately at the school district did need the money we did need additional funding and there's a lot of of the things that I mentioned previously um that frustrates that you know because we shouldn't be in that position and yet we are um my position on that was that there were two different options to go with there was the higher amount and there was a lower amount and I was an advocate of going with that lower amount uh even though that was still a significant increase and uh uh so that was my position on that uh to go for that second uh that second highest one uh with respect to some of those taxpayers that have uh difficulty paying and in particular right now because we're dealing with double digit tax increases not just from the school district but also from the city and the county it's it's it's a tough situation so I guess for myself I would have to look at the situation when we get to that point as far as additional um ones and what the need was at that time and and what I would support in and by how much but generally speaking Yeah I mean if that's what what's necessary you know and we'll make that case at that time thank you for your response Mr Davis M Miss Smith could you repeat the question absolutely on the issue of funding can you talk more about the budget of ISD number 13 where does the money come fun come from to fund our schools additionally did you support and vote for the referendum last year and would you support a referendum in the future thank you um my understanding is that the budget primarily comes from our property taxes um I actually had the opportunity to attend one of the work session meetings where the district actually reviewed the budget and unfortunately it's not quite as transparent as I think it could be for families and Educators and stakeholders to understand where our dollars are allocated and um I think that we can do a little bit better around that um in terms of referendums I am a strong supporter of our public education in our public schools and I did support the referendums and I believe they did pass most recently um I think that we need to do a really good job of the meaning making and storytelling about why those referendums are necessary um because they hadn't been raised in more than like two decades nearly um and so I think that it's important for folks who who have a stake whether or not they have children in the district they want our students and our Learners who are going to come back into our communities and be our doctors and our bank tellers and our dentists and our small businesses um Etc to to be equipped to to be able to provide those Services um and I think that it'll likely be very necessary that we have an another referendum in the future because um we didn't raise it to the degree that it actually needs as you hear a lot of us up here talking about we still have budget deficits we still have budget restrictions and parameters that um we still have to navigate regularly um thank you thank you for your response Miss Smith Miss EX brand okay well I don't know too much about funding but I do know that uh schools are funded by our taxes and uh some corporations I believe um and schools never have enough funding they're always trying to find new ways to come up with more money um and it's a challenge I know um and I do know with the 65 mandates that uh were passed that you know they've got to find extra uh money to fund those band dates um which is difficult and um but you know I know they're working hard on Solutions so uh as far as the vote on the levies uh I did vote the last time because I knew the schools needed the money um and as far as if another one was to come up I too would have to uh look at the situation at hand and look into it and and decide on that thank you thank you for your response M xran Miss pway yeah so um I would say the money comes from yes the taxpayers it also comes from state and federal funding um there it is restricted dollars for some things um and it's bucketed so you can't spend this over here that over there it takes a lot of moving around to do that um there are other ways that our schools in Columbia Heights are funded and that is through uh grants we have so many um Educators and programs who reach out to you know these these grants to get money every year to do things for students um the reach program is is Grant funded um our some of our sports are Grant funded our field trips are Grant funded um or the students raise it themselves they're you know with the boosters they're I mean they're out funding their own activities and education at times um dreamline we talked about at our meeting yesterday um is partially funded um by a grant and so those grants are a huge deal in um research and trying to find more of those it will will help us a whole lot um trying to find ones that are going to stay around for a while as well um our Encore Grant was cut last year we missed summer Encore you know so um we do need to make sure we are doing that too and we get a lot of contributions from our community members every meeting we list out all the contributions that we get monetarily and in kind and we have some great community members who really um give to our students and that is whether they have students in the schools or not um I did support the referendum um pretty hard and uh I think that we needed it especially since we had not had an increase in our district in 18 years um and you know this is it shouldn't be but it is a competitive space and we want to make sure we can keep up with the surrounding districts um we can go out of District other people can come into our district and so we want to make sure we're offering the same thing that our neighbors are because we are also close in that competitive space um I would definitely support a future referendum I believe that being in this space I've learned to trust my district and honestly if our teachers our students are saying they need something we should believe them and support them thank you thank you for your response miss pway our next question will be started with Mr Davis what will you do to support lgbtq q students and staff additionally what will you do to support transgender non-binary gender diverse and neurod Divergent students Mr Davis Okay so I would be treating them with the same respect as any other member of our community um and uh with that utmost respect you know of of their like you said of of the LGBT community so I'm is there something specific you were looking for there or no I think it's just an in general question and I should the neurode Divergent uh I added that from another question neur the neurod Divergent that would be autistic people things like that uh that's not in mental health diagnoses yeah those kinds of things so I just include that I know it's not quite the same but uh I wanted to put all in one question okay yeah well I I do uh appreciate the question and you know as someone who is neurodivergent myself um I'm on the autism spectrum and I do appreciate being able to um you know have that support and that respect um of uh my uniqueness and my differences as well as uh what I bring to the table um so I guess for myself you know that's not something that I lead with but it is an important part of me and likewise with the LGBT community you know I'm here for you to support you um and that's you know and uh I think that's the important thing there is that we're we're all in here for to uh with it together thank you so much thank you for your response Mr Davis yeah Miss Smith could you repeat the question absolutely what will you do to support lgbtq students and staff additionally what will you do to support transgender non-binary gender diverse and neurod Divergent students thank you um I believe that all students and Educators should have the tools that they need to be able to show up as them best selves each and every day both in the classroom and outside of it because schools are a part of our community um and not mutually exclusive um um I think that we ultimately should also have schools that are able to offer a consistent standard of Safety and Security for our students and our staff um and I think that we can continue to build upon the resources to create Pathways for special education Educators um and for the proper representation and reflection of our community within our classrooms um both as students and Educators um and I think that um again when we prioritize and Center our students and their well-being and allow for our Educators to thrive because following that our students will thrive in the classroom um then I think we'll be moving in the right direction thank you for your response Miss Smith M extrand uh thank you for the question and I too would uh make them feel loved and welcomed because we're all you know we're all made of the same blood so um we're here to respect one another and build it build each other up and just um accept them as who they are and just make them feel welcomed thank you thank you for your response Miss extran Miss pway um yeah so I feel like to support um the lgbtqia plus um students and staff it's very important as a school board member like we we aren't in the classroom right we aren't making decisions about curriculum or things like that for me it's information I want to know um what that curriculum includes like what it looks like I want to know what the classroom feels like um and I feel like that comes from listening to our students and our staff um if we're talking about that demographic um I feel like we we do a good job at that right now um I know we've used equim metrics in the past to um survey our lgbtqi plus staff to see if they're feeling like they're in a place of belonging in their own school um and and that's a great way to kind of give it uh give them a space to feel uh like they can speak out if they're not and um according to that in in those few groups who may not have um shown the numbers that we wanted we are working hard to make sure that we are giving them that space that they need um I think it's all about being inclusive right making sure everyone feels like they belong as Miss grin keeps saying right all means all um it doesn't mean to teach anyone who isn't that lifestyle a lifestyle it means to include the people who identify as a certain thing in the space that they are in so I think that that just means making it safe um like some others have said and making sure that they feel like they have a place to learn in um that's ultimately what our goal is is to create um a learning space where everyone feels like they belong um I don't think that a student would want to go to school or a staff member will want to go to school if they felt shunned or felt like they didn't belong there or like you know was no place in that space for them thank you thank you for your response Miss pway Miss Grantland okay give me a second I was writing and now I have to take a drink before I start talking when you start speaking she'll start timing I figured thank you um that's a really great question so again our students walk through the door with their whole selves and also they don't exist in a vacuum um so being supportive to our lgbtq Plus student students also means being supportive of their families of the communities with which they are a part of and also of our staff and their families um representation matters uh you know and also we have to make sure that our policies are reflecting the amazing diversity of our students and their families too one of the things that I did as a Schoolboard member when I first came on was I made sure as we were going through policies that we removed language that gendered and that we talked about um Guardians because not every every child lives with their parent directly there's lots of different families and part of that is making sure that those policies are reflective um I think we also need to continue to make sure our spaces are welcoming I had a student tell me um that one of the biggest reasons why they're here in our district is because we are so welcoming an understanding of all of our students that's big that's huge especially when we hear nationally and also within the Metro other school districts that are not being as open and as welcome in their policies and in their actions I think we also need to continue to provide resources for staff and administration and families and students that talk about how do we how can we be more responsive what else should we be doing I think we need to do Callin versus call outs so that we don't have um a system of shaming or um guilt or anything it's really important for us to continue to provide that space thank you thank you for your response miss granin our next question will start with Miss Smith and uh I really like this one because I believe that uh we've had at the last couple forums so uh on reading and learning our world is constantly changing what are you currently working on learning what is the last book that you read or is there a book you would recommend to students to read before graduating could you rep the question one more time yes on the subject of reading and learning our world world is constantly changing what are you currently working on learning what is the last book that you read or is there a book that you would recommend the students to read before graduating thank you um I love this question because as I mentioned I am a lifelong learner um and I very much want to embody and support others to be lifelong Learners as a Schoolboard member um I am learning a multitude of things at the moment uh a lot of my world is steeped in public health um there are many social determinants of health education being one of them that I deeply care about and so I've been learning a lot more about what that looks like um not just through K through2 but even beyond that um and what interventions we can even have to support families um preconception um to make sure that there is the development that they need when we have students then coming into um our learning spaces um I think that um maybe even a little more specifically I've been learning about uh brain development when families have um guaranteed basic income programs that have been piloted across the state that allow for uh nutrition allow for Access um to um additional resources so families aren't stressed um things of that nature I've also been learning around how um I can further automate my business so that um I can do the things that only I can do um and looking to see how that further is developed and and shows up in our classrooms um some books that I have been reading lately one of which is called the courage to be disliked um and Beyond just the title it's a it's a pretty cool book um it is a conversation with a philosopher and a young person um and it's a lot of adarian psychology around what it is to be happy and I think that uh when young people can learn what they should actually center around um in our social settings and making sure that they themselves are uh being authentic that that can can be something that they can learn earlier rather than later thank you for your response Miss Smith Miss extrand okay I'll start out by saying um Mio Sherry so I'm learning Spanish because I want to be able to talk to my neighbors we just had new neighbors moving next door and they're from Ecuador and one of them speaks English and the other three speak Spanish so it's kind of hard to communicate so I'm starting to learn Spanish and it's fun so we'll hopefully um do good in it and as far as the uh books um I've been reading a lot of Articles lately and I do read a lot of books and the latest one this is probably TMI but it sits in the bathroom um so as a graphic novel it's called Kingdom Come and I'm reading it because my husband asked me to because he's such a a graphic novel novelist himself he just um he's into that kind of thing so I said okay I'll read it because I'm always reading this and that and everything else that you know with education to health so I'm doing I'm reading that now so um yeah that's it thanks thank you for your response Miss x- friend Miss pway yeah so um what am I learning right now uh I feel like I'm always in a new space and so School Board is in new space I I I'm only six months in as an administrative assistant at bethl University um and I'm I also have aspirations to become a social worker myself and so um I'm I'm never really reading a book so much as I'm reading manuals and like you know guides and things like that um reading the nine competencies for social work you know I mean like um going through stuff like that so I can see like what my future will look like um every space that I'm in seems to be a learning space I don't think I'll know what to do when I don't have any of it to do anymore so um I think you guys are going to see me for quite some time um as far as books go my my little one reads she's 10 she's at that Peak learning stage right now of getting her mind in order she loves to read um with a lot of character I'll say um and so a lot of the times I sit with her and just read her books with her and see what she's into um she has a great imagination and I love to just be in that moment with her um and hopefully once I get some some time you know to sit down and read I will do that so I'll take recommendations maybe after this thank you thank you Miss pway Miss granin oh my gosh I love to read the joke is um within my my clinical practice um if there's a concern you have I have a book for you um that is that is one of my love languages um is being able to provide people some uh some of those accessibility things so um what am I learning I think one of the biggest things was um again as Miss pway had said earlier we as a school board um believe in doing the things that we are asking of our Educators and staff so we spent a long time with the science of reading because we can't talk about um literacy and and the importance of that without also understanding a little bit more about what our educators are doing in learning because it has changed a lot um it was fantastic and eye opening and I truly am grateful for that opportunity um in terms of what am I reading uh I'm kind of a nerd and I will own that um so I I shamefully have not actually read any of the Dune books until after they came out in a movie so I've been trying to go through that one it's fantastic I love it don't judge me I see you shake your head um I also I was looking it up because I wanted to make sure that I got it right I'm also reading a book um by a former classmate of mine when I was getting my masters in social work uh when skies are gray and it talks about her journey as a grieving parent who had um whose baby was born sleeping um and the impact of that on her life and her children's lives and also what as clinicians we can do to support fam as who are going through that so thank you thank you for your response M grandland uh Mr Davis all right thank you for the question well let's I uh do a lot of reading but as far as cover to cover books I have to admit I'm embarrassed to say I haven't done that in a while but I love to um you know read news stories I love to uh read about music I love foreign languages I so I'm on I'm on my phone with the DU Linko and uh so I have the Spanish and the German and Korean and they have the music course now as well and one of the things that I just recently did is my students had their um back to school um recital and uh so as part of that you know we had three of my students that were playing a song by Beethoven so I decided to uh look up some facts about that and the life of Beethoven and you know just you know just getting some background so that people can not just appreciate the the music but also appreciate um the origins of that so for instance one of them was Moonlight Sonata and you know most of the songs at that time didn't get a name you would just have some random you know this is you know this is the Opus for that or this is the Sonata for that and but this one actually got a name and it was like well why well it uh went against the the way that most songs were done at that time and so normally you would have a first movement that was fast second that was slow third that was fast and he said well I'm going to mix it up I'm going to make the first one slow and then the other two fast the third one really fast and uh the the uh what the people at the time there that were um in the media I guess you would say with Pandit they said well only a person who was uh howling at the Moonlight would like it and turned out the public did love it and so the the the name of it stuck anyways thank you thank you Mr Davis uh our next question we'll start with Miss extrand uh but I'm actually going to take a liberty because uh as a math teacher uh you may think that we don't really read I am an avid reader uh when I can get one in and uh I am currently reading a book about because I'm a I'm a history buff yes I am uh and it's a book about Harry EST Truman um and the first few months of his administration which changed the world right and about the dropping of the bomb and all that kind of stuff and the death of Franklin Delo Roosevelt um and did you know that the S only stands for S mhm right yeah doesn't have a middle name I know uh and then I read uh dick bramer's uh book my life in stitches uh and now that he is no longer the uh play-by-play caller for the Minnesota Twins I absolutely enjoyed that so now we will move on to a uh to uh what will be our last question of the night uh and again we'll start with Miss extrand on this uh on the subject of voice and participation there are many voices in a school district would you welcome parent participation and voice in our schools would you trust teachers and administrators to select and teach age appropriate materials in school and what are some ways you would encourage student voice and Leadership and at any point if you'd like me to repeat some of that just ask well the first part is the parent involvement participation and voice yes about curriculum right or just in our schools so if you want to address curriculum on that's fine course yes oh of course because you know I totally would be in favor of that because parents are the sole educators of their children and they you know should know what's being taught in the school so I'm advocate for that um what's the second part uh would you trust teachers and administrators to select and teach age appropriate materials in school uh yes I would trust the teachers um actually I would want to see the the age appropriate U material first I guess um yes but for the most part I would trust the teachers uh I was the the last part and then uh what are some ways you would encourage student voice and leadership in our schools uh well uh I would encourage them by uh participating in school board meetings um to be to get more involved um in the community uh yeah okay that's it thanks thank you for your response Miss extran Miss Petway yeah um so yes I support parent voice in our schools um I feel like you know we're creating a full environment for our student we're taking care of you know the holistic child right um I don't think they would be successful without their parents just like I don't think they would be successful without their teachers I think that we all have a part to play in their education um in the schools yes I think that um if parents feel they they need to see more of something they should be talking to their District um to the teachers to admin and seeing what they can do if a parent on the other side feels like there's something that they don't want their child involved in they absolutely have the right to say I don't want my child to learn this um and and I feel like it is you know the parents job first and foremost to tell their child what they what they would want to teach them and help them out in that way so yes student voice is a yes I mean a parent voice is a yes for me um I would trust teachers to teach a appropriate material um as a school board member uh I'm not hiring teachers right I'm trusting that the teachers are being hired by you know someone who I who I've hired right as a school board member as our superintendent and um I trust their judgment I feel like um that kind of support um is is amazing for our teachers to have so that they can have that space where they can teach the way they want to um again transparency communication things like that are definitely important um parents should know what's being taught in their classroom um they should be following up with you know students and seeing uh where they are um but yes I'm I'm for that and yeah um student voice is so important um we do have um we well last year we had student school board members um and they were a part of each of our committees they came to our meetings they would update us and that was awesome um I'm the parent facilitator of a bipac family group at North Park um I think that the students come in and talk the parents talk we we have a lot um that we put um up for for that and you know they have days like African-American parent involvement day too where they promote you know parents being there um and students um seeing their parents in school so thank you thank you for your response Miss Petway go ahead I'm letting her get that drink Miss grandland yes um it's a great question and I will say in terms of student voice um one of the first things I did when I got on the board again was um look at our policies and something that um my my oldest son who has gone to school his whole life here um when he was 18 months our babysitter who was a senior at our school here in our school district told us that she had just staged a walk out over um concerns related to the dress code I was very sad when I got on the board four years ago to realized that it was still the same dress code that she had walked out on um and so it became really important to me and um to other members of the administration and the board that there should be no decisions without us right um and so coming in and and having really Frank conversations with students about what does this look like right um so those policy changes we made sure that we had student voice involved with the Strategic plan this week I told a student that this was happening and they said but I can't vote and I said it does not matter your voice is important and we need to know what's important to you that also extends to their families in our community in general um our school district has always welcomed volunteers although I don't know that they've been really great about it historically and there's been some you know we need to make that change a little bit more um I volunteered every week I know that families are able to come in and I think one of the things that I want to continue do is to help the teachers feel um empowered to reach out to families and know that they can ask for help and families will come in and provide that help whether on an ongoing basis or one time so thank you thank you Miss granin Mr Davis thank you all right so you're asking for voice and participation um yeah so parents are the primary caregivers of their children as a teacher we're entrusted uh for a time uh you know to uh to be there for that child and to be age appropriate to not be at odds with what the what the parent is looking for but uh you know allow the the student to be able to explore to be able to nurture and to be able to find out uh who they are in life and I think that you know by being able to listen uh to those students and to see where they want to do and asking questions and being able to um you know see what options what kinds of things that they want to get involved with and you know sometimes it's fle you know sometimes you want to be part of a group and you're going to uh do things for an extended period of time and other times it's like you said maybe it's a a one day thing that you're really passionate about and then maybe it's another thing next week but it's very important that you know that we're there that we that uh you know we listen and we have that um participation with the parents and with the students thanks thank thank you for your response Mr Davis yeah and to close us out Miss Smith can you repeat the question absolutely on the subject of voice and participation there are many voices in a school district would you welcome parent participation and voice in our schools would you trust teachers and administrators to select and teach age appropriate materials in school and what are some ways you would encourage student voice and Leadership thank you um I absolutely wouldn't would support and welcome um parent engagement within our school district again they are a part of our community um and they trust and invest in our school district and our schools by sending their little ones um to us to be able to to educate them and I think it's important to have them involved as much as they're able to be and have capacity for um a lot of our parents wear multiple hats some of our parents are teachers within the district as well and I think that they have a lot of sight um that they can bring I also think it's important to acknowledge when they are advocating for um issues or you know things happening within our local community that they have the ability to collaborate with their Schoolboard members um that's part of our role to be able to um to listen and listen deeply um I absolutely support our teachers and administration in uh determining what is the age appropriate um curriculum that um our students get access to I think that it is an amazing opportunity to inspire and bring out curiosity for students and for them to see themselves um represented and I think that our our teachers are doing a pretty good job of that um and of course they they also have the ability to receive feedback um and I think that they take that uh really well and and very seriously when they receive it and I think that there is a lot of trust around it though um and in terms of student voice uh I think that it's super important as I mentioned I'd love to see another student be represented on the school board um for their voice to to truly matter um and some of the feedback that they're able to offer um and I also think that you know lastly I'd love to be able to uplift um diverging perspectives I think that it's important for people to be able to understand how uh decisions get made and and to see that their voices were heard in those decisions ultimately no matter where we end up arriving and I think that we have a lot a lot of alignment um across the district as a whole and the ability to to collaborate and listen more thank you for your response Miss Smith so that concludes our questions for the evening um I have a couple of announcements uh unfortunately uh we have experienced technical issues with the live stream this evening uh because of that this form has not been able to be live streamed the for is being recorded and will be posted on the district YouTube channel and the website I believe that it's in the same place that the the board minutes or the board meeting videos are posted uh and uh the district apologizes for the technical issue um and then for the candidates uh local 710 would like to remind you uh that you were sent a questionnaire and we'd like to encourage you to fill that out uh if you'd like to be considered or have your respons is considered in our endorsement process uh and uh we'd like that before 900 amm tomorrow that's tomorrow morning correct okay and I believe that uh the email was send from Kristen C carello here if you're looking for where that is um so did you just give us homework yeah sounds like it that sounded like a writing assignment I don't give those u i I was looking at Miss C well but but uh I believe that I do really know Miss Douglas who her picture is up there on the wall and she ass writing assignments so um so and now I'd like to conclud just thank our audience uh and those people who will view this in the future uh online uh and our five candidates uh for coming out uh we had an informative discussion uh thank you for informing our community of where you stand uh as a concerns trying to join our school board thank you thank you thank you everybody drive safe take care of yourself and come back [Applause]