001So I'd like to welcome everyone to our regularly scheduled board meeting tonight. And with that, I'm going to ask Giovanni to please stand up and help us lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. So. --to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you so much Giovanni for leading us on that. And with that, I'll pass it down to Adriana for roll call please. Director Tidholm? Present. Director Petrini. So I don't even know how to work this. Present. Director Van. Here. Director Alvarez. Here. And Director Hagos has an excused absence, and the gentleman to my left is our superintendent Dr. Duran. And before we move into director liaison appointments, I'd like to see, are there
002any changes to additions to our board agenda meeting this evening? Yeah, I would like to make a motion to move our director liaison appointments to our next scheduled meeting. With Director Hagos out, we'd love to have her to be part of the conversations and the appointments. Thank you for that motion. I need a second for that. I'll second that. I'll second it too. And so do you do roll call, or just do all in favor? We need a roll call, please. OK. Roll call please. Director Petrini. Yay. Director Tidholm. Yay. Director Van. Yay. Director Alvarez. Yay. This motion passes four to none And with that, I'll pass it over to our superintendent for recognitions. Yes, it's my honor to honor our board on school board appreciation month. So we are going to be having a
003photo up here really quickly. Your beautiful faces on the screen, and have a proclamation to read. A little recognition for you. So whereas our promise in Highline Public schools is that every student is known by name, strength, and need, and graduates prepare for the future they choose, and whereas high lines five elected school board members established a policies and budgets to support our promise and our bold goals for students, and whereas our schools serve approximately 17,000 students in the Highland community, and whereas School Directors play a crucial role in promoting student learning and setting clear standards of accountability for all involved, And whereas School Directors are directly accountable to the citizens serving as a vital link between members of the community and their schools, and whereas our School Directors are passionate advocates of equity for
004all children, and whereas it is appropriate to recognize our School Directors outstanding volunteers and champions for public education. Now therefore I, Ivan Duran, superintendent of Highline Public Schools do declare-- do hereby proclaim January 2024 as School Board Recognition Month in Highline, and we urge citizens to join in honoring recognizing the dedication and hard work of our school board, and we can start that tonight by giving you all round of applause. [APPLAUSE] As you all know, I've also have started Living the Promise Recognition Award. And that is handed out to people for the ways that they have been living our promise, and I know our board members are definitely getting to know our students and staff in ways to know them by name, strength, and need. So I like to give you a pen tonight and
005thank you for your service. And I think we're going to do a photo opportunity tonight. [APPLAUSE] That's it. So thank you to Dr. Duran and thank you every one of the directors for their service as well. And with that we're going to move to scheduled communications. On behalf of the board we'd like to thank you for coming and speaking this evening. Our norms and rules are posted on the screens. Please be mindful that you're here to speak to the board, and that there may be students here who are watching that are paying attention to your words. In addition, the board will not be able to respond directly to you about your testimony during the meeting. Thank you again for coming and speaking. And first speaker is Cece Newman. Welcome, Cece. Thank you, President Alvarez. I
006already forgot what I was going to say, so I wrote it. [SPEAKING SPANISH] Esteemed superintendent Duran and board directors. [SPEAKING SPANISH] My name is Cece Newman, language access coordinator. Thank you for allowing me to serve our community with you for almost 20 years. 30 years now, I'm getting old. Vice President Van and board directors, I'm here to ask you to please sign my request to divorce-- I mean to separate from the district as well as of the end of this month as listed in the personnel report. It's been my honor and privilege to live in this community and be part of the Highland family. I am so, so proud of our district, and the direction we have taken over the years. Please continue to do this amazing job, this work that you do, along with
007my bosses Lita and Kisa in our district around equity, race, and identity, and to support an environment in which all our students are known by name, strength, and need. And so thank you very much for all you do. Thank you. Can I do it now? [APPLAUSE] So our next scheduled meeting is Alex Merrick. OK. Good evening, directors. I understand the impulse to be inclusive and welcoming to all staff, but at what cost? On Monday, with less than 24 hours notice to parents, elementary students at Mar Vista were read the book It Feels Good to Be Yourself. Leaving aside all issues of ideology, the errors in science alone are striking. The book states in the text and glossary that, quote, "sex is assigned at birth," unquote. As I pointed out from this podium almost a year
008and a half ago, and as any honest biology teacher will tell you, sex is not assigned at birth. Sex is determined at conception, then observed and documented at birth. The book tells the young reader that when they were born people looked at them and made a guess as to their sex. When I had an upper respiratory condition a doctor examined me, looked at an X-ray, and made a guess. Does he have pneumonia or bronchitis? That was a guess. Looking at the external reproductive organs of a newborn entails absolutely no guesswork. It is clear and obvious in 99.98% of cases. For the remaining 1 in 4,500 there are ambiguous genitalia. This requires an additional step, which is a chromosome test, which is definitive. This should be the end of the story. But activists who put ideology
009above child health have invented and pushed their own unscientific ideas. In Washington children must wait until age 13 to decide if they want mental health services without parental consent, but with this book Highline School district is encouraging children seven years of age or younger to choose their own gender. This is an absurd, unfair, anxiety producing burden to put on these young children. This book is not merely a failed attempt to make a complex adult topic understandable to young children. As a former Washington State child protective services social worker. [BEEP] Thank you. Next scheduled speaker is Deborah Lipp. Hello, everybody. I think most of you know me. I work for the district. I have grandkids in the district, and when we address you, years ago, it was four minutes, and it was to the members. To
010everybody, because we're on video. And so when I talk, it is not to any of you personally. I want you to know that. It's to every parent here, it's to every grandparent here. It's to anybody that cares about our kids at Highline or in our own homes. So I want you to know that. I don't pick out anybody. And that's not what I would do. So tonight, you know, I did hear about Mar Vista and the book and this stuff, and that's what I said I'd talk on. But I wanted to make it clearer. We're all parents here. Somewhere along the line, or we wouldn't be here. So we all care. That's why we come here. That's why we're here. And so let parents be parents. We saw the compassion a month ago. I have
011it, we all have it. And we should have it. And every father and mother here should have it. Very proud of what we spoke last time, because that's how passionate we should be about our children. That's why we come here. It isn't to judge. It isn't to throw stones at nobody. We're all sinners. We all have a sin problem. And that's what it's called, and if we don't address it, this is wasted time. We're all wasting our time. And that's how I feel. I don't want to waste my time. These kids are valuable to me. They're going to be gone soon. I care how we treat them, and what we teach them. I'll bring the Bible, like I said before. That's what I teach my kids. It should be in the school. If you can
012have your books in the school, we're going to have our books in the school. Because we're not teaching what you're teaching. [BEEP] Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is Damien Rossi Bussichio. I hope I said it right. Hello, my name is Damien Rossi Bussichio. I'm a Burien resident and have a son attending a private school within the school district. I'm here to speak about school safety, but specifically HB-1230. HB-1230 was passed into law and signed by Governor Inslee in May, and became effective July of '23. Within existing resources, each school within the district that maintains a website must post a prominent link on their home page and the home page for each school within the district to make information from the Department of Health about substance use trends, overdose symptoms, and response. And
013the secure storage of prescription drugs, over-the-counter medication, and firearms and ammunition, available through their website and other communication resources. From looking at the Highline website, and schools within the district, you all have failed to follow this law. Firearm related injury is the leading cause of death for children in America. Drug overdose and poisoning are the third highest cause of death for children in the US, and is trending up. The district is required by this law that student identification and staff ID cards must print on the card the contact information for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. Do you all know the number for that hotline? 988 is the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. It seems easy to share a website such as besmartforkids.org Twitter, or Facebook, or the Tuesday memo. You could print many small stickers with
014the name and number for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline for students and staff to affix to their ID cards. Has Highline School district met any of these requirements? I ask the district to take immediate action and comply with state law. Thank you. And I support and stand with the teachers in Mar Vista. Thank you. [BEEP] Thank you. Our next speaker is Wendy Butson. Butson. Sorry about that. That's OK. OK, oh boy. All right. Good evening, I'm a parent living in the Highline School District, and I'm deeply troubled by the last minute advisory notice to fourth grade parents regarding a transitioning employee at Mar Vista school earlier this week. Late on Sunday, January 7th, parents received a notice from Principal Heater announcing that one of the staff members who regularly interacts with the fourth grade class
015was undergoing the process of transitioning from a woman to a man. The next day the children were going to be instructed about gender identity and be asked to use pronouns to reflect the new identity of one of their familiar adults. Further, the principal shared the book It Feels Good to Be Yourself, a book about gender identity by Theresa Thorn that would be read out loud. The book explains transgenderism and encourages children to explore their own gender identity. And this is odd, because the lesson isn't focused on understanding and respecting a particular staff person. Why bother to encourage sexual identity to nine-year-olds? I know there's a lot of pressure on schools and boards to make everyone feel included and welcome, but what about the parents and how the students feel? Parents were given less than 24
016hours notice before the lesson. Adult gender transitioning in any situation can be controversial, but especially when it's at school. As a parent I could have easily missed this message, as I'm sure many parents did. And if I'd seen it, what choices would I have? Some families could keep their nine-year-old at home, but what if there's no childcare available? How would I be sure my child would be removed from that instructional event? What if I was so upset I wanted to move my child out from the school entirely? This is happening in the middle of the year. That's very difficult. Highline School Board, you continue to stress that engaging the parents is important. October was even recognized as Family Involvement in Education Month. This late notice to parents on such an important topic shows Highline still
017has work to do. Please, board, I ask you to take steps to improve communication between schools and parents so that this breakdown doesn't happen in the future. Thank you. With that our next scheduled communication is Katie Kressley. Good evening, board. We have an interesting situation going on, and I'm speaking about-- I was intending to speak about the financial situation that you're going to be talking about tonight. But I also want to discuss policy and Marvista, and also transparency. So important right now. We have with regards to the financials, you've had a lot of extra money in the COVID funding. There's been a lot of extra programs being put in, a lot of administrative people being put in, and at this point, it's time to consider what's working and what's not. At this point, it seems
018that some of your policies are not working. Now how do I know this? With Mar Vista with what Miss [INAUDIBLE] was talking about, parents were not given adequate notice that their children were going to be taught a lesson with regards to transgender identity. And someone that was going to be there could have easily been handled with this person is a woman, is going to be identifying as a man, and you just-- that's how we refer. This could have been a 30 second lesson. Instead you made an entire lesson out of it. How do I know this is an issue? Because the article that we wrote and we published on Monday morning that I sent to all of you has now gone viral. I just got word that Fox News picked it up. You are having
019your 15 minutes of fame all in one swell crazy floop going on right now. This is so important that you revisit your policies and find out what's working. And why are people upset? Why are you having millions of views across the country over something this trivial? The question is, is it trivial? And are you actually providing students something more than feeling good about themselves? And are you actually helping people feel good about themselves? Please discuss this at your retreat coming up in 10 days. Thank you. [BEEP] Our next-- thank you. Our next public speaker is Rochelle Monahan. Good evening, Dr. Duran, board. I was here, I can't even remember, maybe a year and a half ago or something like that. My 11th grader went to Mount Rainier at the time and had just come out
020trans male, and just post pandemic, a lot of anxiety, a lot of depression, and a high school that big, with that many kids, it just was not working. A lot of absences, a lot of panic attacks. Just-- it was really hard. And I remember saying when I came to speak to the board, I said, you know, I hope the school we're going to is a welcoming place that sees all of my child, and celebrates all of my child. His academics, his transness, his love for art. I hope that it's all seen and all celebrated. And man, did I get lucky, because this child goes to Innovation Heights Academy. I just spoke to the principal recently, they had a big family event where they invited everyone. The families to celebrate the kids, and recognize their achievements.
021And the feeling in that room. I wish you could have been there. Just to see all those families just really celebrate every bit of their kid. You know? And I was speaking to the principal afterwards and I said, it is not an understatement that this school, and this set up, this opportunity to be in a small school with lots of staff that wrap around my kiddo, saved my kid's life. That is not an understatement. The fact that they see him and they care about him and they care about what's going on in his life, amazing. Those people, free flowing with hugs, support, asking how we are wrapping around our entire family, I could not have wished for more for my child. Thank you so much for having small schools. And thank you for celebrating our
022trans kids. [BEEP] Thank you, Rochelle. Our next public speaker is Patricia Bailey. Good evening. It appears it's necessary for the Highland school board to educate principals regarding the rights of the children in their schools. An elementary school principal recently wrote to parents that one of her staff was transitioning to the opposite sex, and students and staff would be asked to address this biological female employee using he and him pronouns and the title Mr. This is an incorrect directive by the principal. Compelled speech occurs when an authority figure forces those in his or her charge to articulate or communicate messages or beliefs the individual does not want to communicate. It has been proven in court case after court case that no one in an official capacity has the right to compel speech. Compelled speech not only
023requires individuals to say something they do not want to say, but also violates their right to act according to their own conscience. Children should never be asked to compromise their conscience. The adults in our schools must uphold the rights of children, and not regard children as entities to be manipulated to please an individual or an agenda. But someone may say that it's common courtesy to teach children to call the person they know as one sex the opposite of their biological sex, if that is the person's request. If an adult is convinced he or she is the opposite gender, that person surely does not need affirmation from children. Just as when someone knows they are an honest person they do not need affirmation from others. A child's right to think and act according to conscience should
024never be overridden by the wishes of others. We should never bully others into agreeing with us. Please stop compelled speech at Highline Schools. Thank you. [BEEP] Thanks. Hello. Most of you know me-- most of you-- maybe most of you know me already, but I want to talk about dual language, because I understand why Senator Heights got Somali, Vietnamese, and Spanish. That's great for Washington Heights, because I went there last year. But when are you guys going to bring, like, more dual language to the other elementary schools that are less-- not less fortunate, but have less resources to get it. To get dual language, and the families that speak different languages so they can stay tied to their language, which country they came from. Or get more languages than just those three. So a bunch of
025kids can speak, like, their home languages. Thank you so much. And with that, we have our last speaker is Annie Marie Cadbury. Anne Marie, sorry. Thank you. Good evening, directors. Has Highline Public school district expanded its well beyond its stated goals? According to the Highline Public Schools financial report, dated October 2023, enrollment declined 167 students versus projection. Could this decline be the result of ignoring parents as the primary stakeholders in their children's education? Late Sunday, January 7th, at 4:00 PM, parents of students in Miss Angela's fourth grade class at Mar Vista were informed that on Monday, January 8, Miss Angela would now present as Mr. Angel. These nine or 10-year-olds would be subjected to a real time equity lesson, including a reading of the book, It Feels Good to Be Yourself, a book about gender
026identity to justify this teacher's preference. Highline Public schools have become empowered to ignore parents, to advance a social justice ideological agenda. In addition, this void in transparency also comes across as a lack of honesty, further eroding confidence in Highline Public schools. In the 1925 Supreme Court decision, Pierce versus the Society of Sisters, Justice James C. McReynolds wrote, "the child is not a mere creature of the state. The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the state to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only." This decision is something Highline Public schools should take seriously, as their enrollment continues to decline. Thank you. That concludes our scheduled communications, and with that, we have our superintendent update. Yeah, and I think I'm
027going to turn it back to you, because I want to do one more recognition, because I appreciate Cece Newman being here tonight. And just for the record board when Cece turned in her resignation paper, I initially wrote, denied, on that paper. However she continued to pursue it. So kind of back to you Director. I just wanted to ask you if you could come up for a second, because living our promise, I couldn't give it to anyone better than you. You have from the moment I've been here, a little bit over 14 years, and we've been living the promise together. And so I just want to recognize you, and so if you could come up, and we can give you the pin. So everybody! [APPLAUSE] All right, thank you Director Alvarez, thank you board. And thank
028you, Cece, for all the years of service you've given to our district. Gracias. So you want I just want to superintendent's update. Just welcome everyone back to the new year. I hope everyone had a restful break. I know we're in Wednesday, but already feels like we're two weeks in after being back for break. So I also want to just say that we have posted our strategic plan dashboard on our website. It will help us to monitor our progress toward our strategic plan goals. So if you go to our strategic plan site over on the right hand side, there's three tabs you can actually go and see the dashboard and we will be doing live updates whenever we have new data. So that's a new feature that we've added. I also just, we have continuing all
029of our staff sessions and this week we're at Raisbeck, Marvista, and North Hill, and we have now visited 22 schools. So really getting grateful to Highland Education Association, Jeff Binns, for going out doing the visits. We've been learning a lot, and we're getting that information, we'll be sharing that out with our community. In addition, I also just want to make a statement because as we visit all of our schools as part of our superintendent all staff sessions, my presentation includes a slide that identifies ways that we need to make some budget reductions. We also need to make investments. We need to make investments in our strategic plan goals, and our equity policy implementation in order to continue our work to be an anti-racist organization. I also want to thank our school board for adopting strong
030equity policies that reflect the voices in our community. Our policies codify our values and beliefs and guides our work. Over this last week we have had some concerning feedback about the protection of our transgender community. I spent part of the day reviewing the required employee training on the topic of making schools safe and inclusive for transgender students. Our training and our policies reflect state laws that protect staff and students from discrimination and harassment. Policy 2133 commits us to encouraging students to accept and respect themselves, and to treat others with dignity and respect. An education that includes greater appreciation of and respect for human individuality. It is important to be respectful of all students and staff. That means avoiding stereotypes, using language that is sensitive to the identity of others, and being respectful of people you
031may not understand. Everyone has a right to be respected. All students and staff have the right to be respected. All students and staff have the right to attend class and do their jobs in a positive environment that is built on respect. Regardless of your own personal beliefs or experiences, our job as educators is to ensure all of our students have safe and equal access to education, and all of our staff have safe and respectful environments to do their jobs. I know not everyone in this room agrees with our policies, our values, and our state law in this arena. However I ask for everyone to be respectful and ensure a safe environment, as we are all members of the Highline community. Promoting fear and disrespect toward any human being is unacceptable. I stand by our strategic
032plan, and the work we are doing to create a culture of belonging in Highline. Our goal is to create an environment where all are welcome, valued, and safe. That's all I have tonight. Thank you for progress. [APPLAUSE] Thank you superintendent Duran. And with that we're going to move to school board reports, legislative reports. Thank you, Director Alvarez. In regards to-- I forwarded you guys email on last Monday where our board presidents and legislative representatives were starting our 60 day executive session. In your email it shows all of the bills that are being listened to. So if you guys take a look at that email and share with our legislators of what our priorities are, that would be greatly appreciated. So that's it for the ledge update. Thank you Director Van. And with that, we move
033to director reports. Director [INAUDIBLE],, any reports? Yeah, first I want to mention Evergreen High school students volunteered along with former Seahawks player Doug Baldwin and baseball star Bookie Gates to hand out food boxes to our community. Vault 89, which is Doug Baldwin's organization, led this campaign and United Way provided the food boxes. So that was amazing, and I think a great opportunity for our students to give back to the community. Another thing to mention, White Center Heights Elementary, I don't think a lot of people know, have a resource center which is open to anybody in the district. It's not limited to White Center Heights. It's actually open Thursdays 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM, and Fridays 2:15 to 3:45 AM. They have everything from clothing, household items, toys, books. There's even a food bank which has
034fresh produce every week thanks to White Center Food Bank. And a lot of the time they have so much produce that it ends up going bad. Shoshana Cohen put it all together from scratch and it's actually-- she got a grant for it, and it's now being taken over by the PTSA. So great opportunity. If you or anybody you know needs any resources, please stop by. They also help with resume writing, they have language classes. Yeah, and that's all that I have. Thank you, Director Tilden. Director Petrini? I swear, my thing does not work when I push it. Well, I had the opportunity to visit Valley View Early Learning Center today, and meet with principal Kimberly Nelson. And I was accompanied by our chief academic officer Jennifer-- did I spell your name? Is it Vernique? Vernique.
035Thank you. And we had a great time just taking a look at the facilities, visiting with the children, just seeing how that's working. Having a special needs daughter myself, I was especially interested in that, and had lots of fun questions trying to picture what that journey will look like for my daughter. And also just talking about the additional funding that we just approved last month for the expansion program, and I was really excited to see that they will be able to expand those programs, expand those services to more families with needs. So that was especially a treat to go. So. Thank you so much. Yeah, we have an amazing Valley View. We could use a lot of help. So I'm so happy that we're getting help to Valley View Early Learning Center. Director Van. For
036me it's just welcome back our students and staff to the first of the year. I know my son is not looking forward to it, but he got he's been getting up every day so far and going to school. If you guys have looked at the news, it's going to be cold this weekend. So the winter weather is in the forecast this week, which is going-- which may force a change in the normal school schedule. Just, we want you to be prepared for where to get the information. So please upload your Parent Square as well as watch the news. So we will share school schedule changes on the website and social media channels. And also our awesome HR team is having a Job Fair here in February, February 10th, at the PSSC from 12:00 to 3:00,
037so any staff or friends and family that would like to come work for Highlane, please come out. That's it. Thank you, Director Van. Just a reminder, schools of choice application closes at the end of the month for many of our schools. Schools are hosting information nights this month. You can find more information on our website. And the other only exciting thing is that the first school board-- first school bond report of the year came out this past weekend with good news about the progress on our school construction projects for Evergreen, Tyee, and Pacific. There was also a report on the December meeting of the Capital Projects Oversight Committee. The members who keep an eye on our bond funded capital projects. So all community members are invited to subscribe to these community newsletters via our district
038website, or by emailing keepingourpromis eathighlandschools.org. And with that, that ends our superintendent updates and we move in into our consent agenda. So I'm looking for a motion to approve our consent agenda. Director Alvarez, just for the record, it was concluded that director reports. Yes, yes, sorry. I'm concluding the director reports. Thank you. And so with that, we move into our consent agenda. So I need a motion to approve our consent agenda. I would like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Well, Cece left. I was going to see if we can make a motion to have her contract go at the end of the school year. Change, amend it? Amend it. But. We're not going to amend it. I will make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Oh, I second the motion,
039and I second Cece as well. Yeah. So with this all in favor. Aye. Say aye. Aye. Any opposed. No. So and now we move into our action items. So we have an action item 8.1, motion to approve our dual language grant heritage. Our dual language grant and heritage language grant. Any questions or comments? Seeing and hearing none, I'll need-- I'll actually-- I'll make a motion that the Highline School Board approve acceptance of the '23, 2024 dual language and heritage language program grants in the amount of $45,000 for the dual language grant, and $25,000 for the heritage language grant in revenue. And I'll need a second. I'll second that motion. Roll call, please. Director Petrini. Yes. Director Tidholm. Yay. Director Van. Yay. Director Alvarez. Yay. This motion passes four to none. We have some excitement. The
040next action item is 8.2 motion to approve resolution 01-24 for the Trust for Public Land Conservation Easement at Waskowitz Outdoor Education Center. Any questions or comments? None. Hearing and seeing none, I move that the Highline School Board approve resolution 01-24 for the Trust for Public Land conservation easement option agreement and professional services agreement at Waskowitz Outdoor Education Center. And I'll need a second. I'll second that. Roll call, please. Director Van? Yay. Director Petrini. Yes. Director Tidholm. Yay. Director Alvarez. Yay. This motion passes four to none. And our last action item is 8.3, motion to approve contract with Musco Sports Lighting LLC through KCDA for the Sunnydale tennis court lighting project. Any questions or comments on that? This will give me an opportunity to show Dr. Duran up with some pickleball at night. So. I hear
041a challenge in the future. So we'll leave it at that. We'll have to come back to that at a later date. But with that, I would like to make a motion. We'll have to put it on the agenda so we can approve it at the next one. So with that I move that the Highline School Board approve the contract with Musco Sports Lighting LLC through KCDA for the Sunnydale Tennis Court lighting project. A total contract cost of $284,540.24, with Washington sales tax, with any minor additions, deletions, or modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent. I'll second that. I'll need a second. I'll second. OK. Roll call, please. Director Tidholm? Yay. Director Van. Yay. Director Petrini. Yes. Director Alvarez. Yes. This motion passes four to none. And I would like to just take a point of order
042and make sure that we document that we'll be adding something to the agenda around pickleball, and some kind of match that will happen. And maybe it could be televised or something, but we'll see. We'll come to that next time we're agenda setting. Thank you. We'll come with that. So we have no introduction items for tonight. And since we have no intro items, and we do not have Director Hagus we won't be able to move anything to the consent agenda. So with that I'll ask for a motion to adjourn. I move that we adjourn. I second that. All in favor. Aye. Thank you all. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for being here.