001Well, good evening, everybody. So we'll be starting around 5.15. In the meantime, please help yourself to some refreshments, some snacks, and then we'll have an opportunity to take some pictures up here with family and friends. So we appreciate you all being here. Well, good evening, everybody. Welcome tonight. Just, it's really great to see everybody. On the behalf of the board, just wanna thank you for all being here today. What an exciting day for our Highline family. We're glad you're here to be part of this special moment. You know, we had a number of incredibly strong candidates who either applied or were nominated for the open director positions for district four and five. We're grateful for each and every one of them who put themselves forward. It really shows the passion, the commitment, and dedication for
002the people that want to betterment of our students. So thank you. You know, the board had some very, very tough decisions to make. We spent a lot of time reflecting on what our community needed and how we can continue to move forward in a way that supports our students and every family in Highline. So after a lot of thoughtful discussions and considerations, I know we are very, very confident we made the right choices. And now, here we are. I'm excited to officially welcome our two new, soon to be board directors to the Highline School Board. Please join me congratulating Dr. Demaris-Espinoza for district four and Blaine Holien for district five. Let's give them a big round of applause. I'll just provide a brief showdown for tonight. So after the swearing in, each director will have
003an opportunity to say a few words, followed by the signing of the oath documentation, and then we'll conclude with photos featuring the judge, directors, superintendent, and their families and friends. So since Judge Galván is here, we'll begin with our district four director that covers big picture, Bow Lake, Chinook Middle School, Choice Academy, Highline Virtual Academy, Moderna Elementary, Maritime High School, Mar Vista Elementary, North Hill Elementary, and Taiye and Valley View Early Learning. So, Dr. Espinoza, can you come on up here? I'm gonna have you guys grab your mic. Good evening, everyone. Once again, it's an honor to be with you all, and I will remind the directors that what you're about to undertake is an extraordinary responsibility. You literally are responsible for ensuring the installation of our values, our history, our culture, our pride, and
004our community into the youth. So thank you for your service, first of all, and now on to the oath. Dr. Espinoza, I'm gonna ask you to stand and affirm your acceptance of the responsibilities of the Highline School District board member by repeating after me the oath of office that will be on file in the King County records. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully and impartially perform the duties of director district number four of Highline School District number 401 of Highline School District number 41 as prescribed by law as prescribed by law and to the best of my ability to the best of my ability I will support and maintain supporting the Constitution of the State of Washington Constitution of the State of Washington and
005the United States and the United States. Congratulations. Okay, we're gonna have you sign real quick and then come back up for a quick speech. And I do apologize. So to my left right here, we have Vice President Stephanie Tidholm and our superintendent Dr. Ivan Duran with us. All right, you have the stage now. Hey, thank you. I just wanna say thank you to the original people and keepers of these lands, the Duwamish, the Coast Salish and all our relations. And I wanna say thank you to my family, my kids for being here and my partner Victor and my parents and my family who are watching from California. It is an honor and a privilege to be here. Like all of us in this room, I'm a product of a collective effort from family and community
006to invest in me, to believe in me and to fill me up with all the positivity and the love that a child needs to reach their dreams. And I'm committed to doing that for all the students at Highline and all the families. I'm really grateful and I will honor my responsibility and my commitment to this community. Thank you. Okay, so we're gonna do pictures real quick. So can I have the judge and the directors and superintendent come on up and then we're gonna do family pictures. Can we get another round of applause? So next up, this is for district five. Those schools include Des Moines Elementary, Midway Elementary, Mount Rainier High School, Pacific Middle School and Parkside. Blaine Holink, can you come on up please? Once again, congratulations. Thank you. I'm gonna ask that you
007as well stand and affirm your acceptance of the responsibilities of a Highline School District board member by repeating after me the oath of office that will be on file in King County records. So I'm gonna have you raise your right hand. Repeat, I do solemnly swear. I do solemnly swear. That I will faithfully and impartially. That I will faithfully and partially. Perform the duties of director. Perform the duties of director. District number five. Of Highline School District number 401. Of Highline School District number. As prescribed by law. As prescribed by law. And to the best of my ability. And to the best of my ability. I will support and maintain. I will support and maintain. The constitution of the state of Washington. The constitution of the state of Washington. And the United States. And the
008United States. Thank you everyone for being here. I'm very grateful and honored and privileged to work for the community with everyone involved. I am very grateful for this opportunity. I wanna work collaboratively together with everyone. Make sure that all of the children within our district are taken care of. I would like to thank my wife who is an educator within the district and the rest of my family that have supported me along the way through a lot of times. So I'm just grateful to be here. Thank you all very much. I just wanted to say thank you for stepping up. We called and you came. I mean, I know that everybody says that it's not an easy job and it sounds like it's all fun. It'll be fun, she said. And it is, I mean,
009don't get me wrong. We are working for the babies. We are in a position that we can advocate for and support the community and our babies. But it's a lot more to it. And especially both of you have children and families of your own and having babies myself just greatly appreciate the sacrifice that you're willing to make and your families for stepping up and supporting you in those sacrifices. And just know it's not all in vain. And I'm super duper happy to have you both on board. And I can't wait to get to know you guys better and get to work. All right, thank you so much. So we still have about a half hour. Please stand up, mingle, introduce yourselves, have a lot of food and drinks. So with that, thank you so much
010for being here. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're hitting six o'clock. Thank you so much for being here. We can still hang out, but I just need to adjourn for local live. So thank you all.