001good evening everyone um thank you so much for taking out the time to be here today it truly speaks a lot about our community's commitment to Excellence and education and the transparency and openness in values of our candidates tonight um we would like to extend a special thank you to Lauren Dr Hardis vas solunas and Julie Felder for their invaluable assistance in making tonight possible including our also our student facilitators tra chellu Alana worku Amy Z TAA Beni and lindia Zay and furthermore our profound appreciation goes out to Mrs Crossman for her compassionate guidance and mentorship which cat which was a catalyst to making this event possible and for also broadening the horizons of our government classroom um before we begin we would just like to quickly explain how we'll be facilitating the event tonight
002so each candidate will first be given two minutes to provide some background information about themselves including their education their professional experiences and organizations they're involved with um from there questions will be asked to all four candidates one at a time and each candidate will have one minute and 30 seconds to respond and facilitators will be sure to rotate the order of questions so that the same candidate does not have to answer first each time and if we have time in the end the audience will also have the opportunity to submit questions via note cards which will be passed around right now um and if an audience member has a question feel free to write your question down on the note card and we will take them at the end so without further Ado let's turn
003it over to the panelist to introduce themselves we will begin with Miss Julie BR and and we will just go down the T great thank you can everybody hear me here no no how about now okay good evening many thanks to R the Beachwood students and our community for the opportunity to speak this evening my name is Julie brow I am the mother of two boys Antonio Jr who's an eighth grader at Beachwood middle school and Michael who's a fifth grader at Hilltop Elementary I was fortunate enough that 10 years ago University Hospitals placed me at Beachwood School for for eight years I only I not only served as the athletic trainer but also the High School athletic scheduler and the district senior search advisor I had amazing o amazing honor to treat and care
004for our Beachwood students and help our seniors explore different career opportunities back in 2019 I decided to move my family to Beachwood I was already impressed and excited about the academics that Beachwood schools offered but also just as important it offered a small yet diverse Community I felt positive that my biracial children would Thrive at Beachwood schools whose Focus was already on diversity inclusion so why me as someone who has been in and around education all levels for almost 30 years but more specifically worked inside the Beachwood School District it allows for a very unique perspective that rarely presents a board of election candidate during my tenure with the Beachwood schools I built solid long-lasting relationships with our students our families our staff and administration I want to encourage strong leadership that values and supports
005the Educators put in place to teach our children this starts and ends with communication a strategic plan transparency and accountability our children's success is a direct reflection of our leaders we have an amazing staff who are passionate about our kids and work hard to provide the best well-rounded excellent education the focus of strategic plans should include empowerment a stronger communication with our staff and added focus on overall District safety I plan to be transparent and forthright with all of our community members in closing I can assure you that if elected I will continue to take amazing care of our kids our staff and our families we'll work as a team focused on goals accountability opportunity to reach the greatest levels of success as a close-knit community while subing our differenes sorry about can you hear
006me can you hear me can you hear me okay okay first I would like to thank R and all of you who took your time out of the evening to come and attend this event I am Jen burns my grandparents moved to campus Road and the rest is history my mom Shel rer graduated from BHS in 1972 And soon after raised my brothers and I right here I graduated in 2002 and now my husband Robert and I are proud parents of three children who go to beach schools Ryan Madison and Landon we are choosing to stay in Beachwood for the education and for the diverse population that Beachwood has become professionally my parents Bob and Michelle Riner started a family business in 1988 called Josh and paper technically I started working there in about the
007six grade in but in the 20 years I was on P I managed the procurement Department we procured products for 10 warehouses across the United States and handled an inventory of $350 million I also our contract negotiations with suppliers my parents sold the company recently and for the first time in 20 years I now have the time to dedicate to the school board at a time where I think my experience will be extremely beneficial since becoming the vice president of the PTO in 2018 and then for the past two years being the president it has allowed me to be highly involved with our schools and teachers and gives me a firsthand perspective of what goes on I'm already present with your children on so many levels opportunity and has allowed me to gain in-depth knowledge
008and to know what needs to be addressed as a future board member all of my strong skills come from my mother I have strong problem solving skills I'm an excellent listener um I hear people and address their concerns my Visionary approach helps with thinking ahead I work well with others and take accountability for my actions I care about the well-being and educational needs of all children and together we can elevate to the next level I Jen FS respectfully ask for your vote on November 7th and would be honored to represent our community as a board member um a school board member thank you good evening thank you R Mrs Crossman and all the students for organizing this event allowing the community to get to learn more about the candidates my name is Joseph Chan I
009am the director for the clinical child unit at uh s Cancer Center I've been in the healthcare industry for over 15 years because I find it rewarding to provide Compassionate Care to our patient while advancing the treen and cancer my passion towards my career can be translated towards my role as a school board member I believe that every student should have their um we should address their emotional educational and um and social needs and um so that they can and reach the full potential um just like many families my family and I moved to Beachwood over 10 years ago before because of the Xmen School my daughter started at prek and is currently in Hilltop in fifth grade while my son started in kindergarten and completed 8th grade within the district over the years I've
010um my engagement within the school had continued to to increase I started volunteering as a room parent I'm the coach for both of my kids di team and I am also um I was a member on the parent and teacher equity and engagement team in January 2022 I was appointed on the school board to fill a vacancy over the last uh 20 months I've accomplished we've accomplished a lot and it has been very rewarding and also fulfilling I hope to remain on the board so that I can continue to advate students and I'm committed to student achievement Intercultural awareness the safety of our school and also building connections with our students and the community thank you good evening I'm Megan Walsh president of the Beachwood Board of Education I would like to extend my gratitude
011to R and all of the students involved and staff um Mrs Crossman involved in putting on this forum I am so proud of our students um or not even voting age yet for knowing how important it it is to do something like this um with this type of Civic engagement I have served on the beach board of education for nearly five years I was appointed to Phil baccy in January 2019 and was elected in November of 2019 but I think it's important to rewind before that my husband Brandon and I moved to Beachwood 10 years ago when our boys were three and new more Beachwood because of the schools as so many families in our district do we were attracted by the diverse School community and have loved getting to know families from around the
012world beginning a prek at Fairmount through their time now NOA in 8th grade at Beach Middle School and Cooper and fifth grade at Hilltop our boys have been able to thrive thanks to our outstanding staff and the welcoming inclusive environment among their peers when I applied for the it was with my boys in mind but perhaps not in the way that you would expect I knew the experiences they had in teach with schools I knew how well each of their teachers got to know them I knew how they benefited from their teachers individualized attention and intentional action as a social worker my focus was and is on ensuring that all of our 1,481 students receive what I know my boys receive my priority as a board member is for all of our students to feel
013that they belong and beach with schools that each of our students feel that they can show up as their authentic selves because when this happens they are best able to learn and Thrive this evening I hope Josephine Chan and I earn your vote as an endorsement of the direction of our amazing District thank you hi starting off with the first question of the night how has your education prepared you to guide the education of our children and we're just going to go down the line starting with Miss bro thank you thank you yes I started my education at the University of Wyoming um I have been an athletic trainer for almost 30 years and have worked with education and students for the same amount of time um I went from there and I did graduate
014school at a Alabama A&M which is at HBCU down in hille Alabama and then I took a job up here at Cleveland State as an assistant ethic trainer working with wrestling one thing that I can say is that um part of my job my everyday career is to build relationships with student athletes with students so when I was at Beachwood not only did I work with student athletes but I also took on many roles where I was able to engage with not only the staff but the student body as a whole I really really felt like um I wanted to engage with the with the seniors um and help them engage in their uh senior Endeavors and their careers uh past this my career has allowed me to really get to know students athletes and
015uh and support them in in anything whether they're down whether they're up um whether they're trying to figure out their path um I'm always asked those questions so that's what I have for you hello so my education is I graduated from M High School in 2002 College just was not the path for me um I received my post high school education by working in a senior role at a company with hundreds of millions of dollars in Revenue I'm eled to the board I want to make sure that we support our students on all paths what whatever it is that they choose to do so for me it's not the degree that I think um could help shape but it's the journey that I took um in order to obtain the degrees that I have so
016the journey helped me develop my communication skill my problem solving skills and also collaboration skills to work with others uh in order to acheve the goal now what I think is really important from my education experience is back to when I was in elementary school I was one of three Chinese students in my elementary school that was rough I didn't feel like I was accepted I didn't belong I felt isolated people didn't understand me it was a hard time growing up and it was hard for my parents because they also didn't fit in they didn't speak the language so I think that's what I can bring perspective of someone who didn't feel included how do we help the district make sure that we build an inclusive environment for all of our student so they don't
017feel what I felt growing up thank you my educational background is um I'm a public school kid um I attended met Public Schools K to 12 um and learned a lot there about uh what I was looking for reflecting that learned a lot about what I was looking for for my own kids in education um Menor is a extremely homog genus community at least was then it's changing a little bit but um so I was looking for something different for my kids I wanted them to uh attend school with kids that were not like them and and learn about different cultures and religions and um the way that people experience the world um so that was very formative for me um I went to Indiana University uh for college and got a degree in Psychology
018and a minor in business and then I came back to Cleveland uh for my Master's Degree at Case Western Reser University um as I said in my introduction I'm a social worker and that informs everything that I do um I am very passionate about my career I'm very passionate about people um being able to be themselves um to feel that they belong um and that that is what I bring um every day to my work thank you I'm now starting with Miss friends and going down the table what differentiates you from other candidates in work board members here today thank you um I think that my work experience differentiates me from all the other candidates here I worked in a Fortune 500 company I spent countless hours managing people and helping them get through their
019day-to-day objectives and meet their goals weekly and monthly um I'm also the president of the PTO currently I am in the schools on a regular basis some of the kids have even asked me if I'm a teacher which I always have a little chuckle to that um I'm at you know I go to most every home football game and any other um you know activities that my children are in um they're in three different schools so that brings me you know gets me involved in many different ways thank you so for me I think what makes me different uh is what I just referenced my experience back when I was younger um I'm very complient about um making sure that you know new families new students they feel included they understand what Halloween is when
020I was young I didn't get to dress up for Halloween it was awful um I didn't go to prom CU my parents didn't understand so again I think that makes me a little bit different because I can provide a perspective that you all some of you may not know um and then my work experience um I'm I'm responsible for over 150 employees uh in my team 400 trials and it's life re death for our patient so I have to be a good leader I have to be a servant leader I have to listen to my team because I don't know everything I have to be open to their perspective because at the end of the day my goal is to make sure that my patients are taken care of and that they have a quality
021good quality of life um so I think I can trans for that as a school board member because we may not all have the same uh perspective and we need to listen to each other and learn from each other I would say what differentiates me is um experience as a board member um currently the longest suring member of a board of five with nearly five years on the board the last two as board president and um so just having those relationships um working with our Administration being presid and at many events um in the last two years um under my leadership we have each building and so we show up at those buildings and um are there who engage of parents um attending the affinity group events um things like that I've also been really
022committed to um professional development as a school board member attending uh Ohio Schoolboard Association conferences trainings webinars um to learn how to be the best member I can be um okay I'll speak very loudly um so I think that I already touched on what brings me unique experience to the board is that I actually worked within the district for eight years I worked hand inand with the administrators the staff the teachers and the students it gave me an Insight that most people don't understand like I was able to work with the I work with the superintendent I work with all the administrators in all the buildings um that is the biggest thing that I bring is a is a true understanding of what our staff needs what our teacher needs what our um what our
023principles and our Administration need is support the other thing that uh kind of stands me out is just my leadership ability I have long in my career been told that I am a good leader that I understand the problems that present to me and that I take a moment to listen before I speak I listen to every side I want to understand where everybody is coming from before I open my mouth and make a decision I think that that is something that's unique I think that sometimes people are really one side or the other but I really really want to hear what everybody has to say and find a mutual real thank you um starting with Dr Chan if you have chosen alternative educational paths for your children such as private schooling uh how do
024you justify these choices while serving on a public school board and do you think this is a reflection of your confidence in the abilities of public schools and a reminder you don't have to use all your time thank you sure so let's first address that my son does go to private school so he started in kindegarten like I said and finished Middle School and he received a fouryear full scholarship full tuition Mar scholarship at University SCH and um first I want to also thank the school um they developed him they nurtured him and allowed him to beat out over hundreds of applicants so I really do thank for that but ultimately it was his decision it was Even's decision and as a parent always support the child that SCH and um do I but at
025the same time my daughter I believe in our school I do believe in public school system I GRE up in the public school system so Jan is in the public school and um we love being a bison even still um remember everything and and he's so thankful for everything he got um while being at the detri uh school so um I think it's a it's a decision and has nothing to do with whether I have confidence in our district or not think I'll e a lot of J shared I feel um that her boardsmanga school um as I said earlier my kids are in our public school system um I don't that would change so um I have kind of an opinion on this as well um I feel that you know if you're going
026to be on the board that your children should be in the school district I totally understand the parents decision to send their children either um for religious reasons to a religious private school or to a private school outside of the district however I feel like if you're going to make decisions for my children you feel like that's a that's a school that you want your children to go to so in my opinion I think if you're going to be on the board that your children should be in the district I think it's very important it means you're invested in the district your kids are invested in the district and listen if my kids decide that they want to go somewhere else then I will be happy to support them with that but I also feel
027like that I would thank you so um in my opinion I also agree I think a candidate should send all of their kids to beat schools and what I'm saying is nothing new it it's been an issue dur in the last couple of school board races current members of school board campaigned on this very view point I don't judge anyone that sends their kids to private schools it is their own family's decision but I believe every school board member must only be invested in the Beachwood City Schools thank you thank you for your answers um starting with Miss Walsh how can the school district and the city better collaborate on Services planning and finances to improve educational outcomes and contain costs thank thank you um the city and the schools um our entire Community benefits
028from a very strong uh partnership between the city and the schools uh from our shared services agreement which in which we change um the police forces that we have in our buildings to keep our kids safe every day with um facility usage so we allow the the city to have 18,000 hours of facility time in our buildings um and so that is a very strong partnership uh we also collaborated with the city very closely on a tax partnership uh this may uh which will reduce uh the tax bill for residents and um business owners in the city of Beach uh we have a very strong working relationship um we continue to seek ways that we can beef up that shared services agreement um and continue to collaborate um we are the city's been very open
029to having meetings um through our elementary facility planning process um the superintendent and I met with uh the mayor and council president isacon multiple times um to work through that process together as well um I feel like the partnership is very and um it will continue in that manner thank you um I would say that in the last year or so that the city and the schools have started to increase their partnership uh when I first started working at be City Schools about eight 10 years ago now um there was a big divide between the city and the schools especially when it came to the athletic fields um that's where I have the most knowledge like and you know and until I'm on the board and have more experience there I can't speak to a
030lot but what I can speak to is the fact that there was not a lot of collaboration between the city and the schools when it came to our Fields um my concern going into the new um plans with the schools was kind of along the same lines there was a lot of things that were being said that the the city was going to collaborate and help and support schools if they uh opened up a piece of land but my understanding in history so far has shown me that that wasn't really the case I'm excited to see where that goes I'm excited to see the collaboration um but right now I think that there could be more and hopefully there is thank you okay thank you um so from what I do know uh there is
031a dedicated Council um representative it's called intergovernmental relations and as a dedicated council person they're supposed to be working with the school board and City and school collaborations um I know that you know we share resources we have um school resource resource officers in all of our schools which is amazing and we have a dedicated person um you know helping to develop the program there um but again as Julie just men the athletic fields um you know since I've been here my whole life people have been complaining about how crappy our fields are since the beginning of time um even though these fields are on school property they are used by the whole community and we need help from City leadership and from the school to improve these fields this could be something new that
032the city and schools could collaborate on thank you um so I Echo what Meg said in terms of uh collaboration with the city I think as a district we're very thankful for the collaborations that we do have with the city um I think we can continue to expand the shared service agreements that we have in the city so that we um achieve common goals and share expenses um it was um wonderful in the summer when the city and our African-American family um affinity group uh together had the celebration um it was a great celebration so I'm hoping that we can have more of those uh celebration with the affinity group so that the students feels that they belong not just in the school but also within the community um other ways that I think the
033city can collaborate with the school is um Engage The Local um businesses um have them come in uh talk about the professions and talk to the kids about um their career path a different career path or maybe even inter ship so I think there's there's a lot of great collaboration going on thank you and um our next question um starting with Miss bra where do Beachwood schools need immediate investment immediate investment she's that's what she's asking so I think that we've already kind of tackled that um the immediate investment is definitely within our lower schools Hilltop and Brighton uh you know I was kind of a part of that planning I was going to the meetings um I think that we definitely need to in you know make sure that we're investing properly there but
034also we need to make sure that we're investing in our staff and our teachers and make sure that they feel supported um and then lastly you know investing in our security we are not alone we are not a bubble um we are facing the security issues that everybody is facing so I think that that is another thing that we need to look into thank you okay thank you um so yes as we all know we passed a $65 million Bond uh to basically knock down and rebuild our two elementary schools and then provide some updates to fair amount some needed updates so what I didn't mention in my opening is that for the past three years I started my own business and I do interior design so I know the the means to working within
035a budget and um I know how to stretch the dollar and make it go very far for my clients um another need that we need to address is the safety in all of our schools um I believe that we need to have a couple new safety features um I've stories that kids are faping in the bathroom in Hilltop um so if there's anything that we can do about that that would be great and then lastly as Julie mentioned we need to make sure that these upgrades are also helping to support our teachers and what they are able to be teaching in the classrooms thank you so I'm afraid we're going to have the same theme here um so thankfully our community supports our school and did Bond Levy and we are able to immediately invest
036in new Elementary facilities and with that we would be able to improve our security because right now if we look at our building it it's not very safe because of the fact the way the architect not because of anything else I mean it's just hard um the bathrooms that you're talking about you know theyve had discussion where you can handwashing station outside there's so many new facilities that we can put in with the school uh in these new schools that will address the these question um concerns that's been brought up um we'll be able to design the class from state-ofthe-art and expand our programing it's you know it's Limitless what we can do um and then in terms of the grounds we are looking forward to our community input session so that we can seek
037inputs from our community what are what we want to do to the grounds the playgrounds the fields so um yeah I think the immediate investment is the uh new facilities new Elementary facilities that we do um I think we're very fortunate in Beachwood um to have a very solid tax base and a a very uh successful Treasurer um currently but also Michelle Mills who retired over the summer after a 35 year career here um so as far as immediate investment um I I I can confidently say that um you know we're we're meeting the needs of our of our in a very prudent manner um and that we are responsive to security needs and the needs of our staff and our teachers um through a very transparent budgeting process and very transparent communication um so
038I think the areas mentioned in terms of the new buildings and and security and um you know supporting staff those are all all fantastic and I agree um but I also just want to say that our does a phenomenal job of um meeting the needs of all of our students and staff thank you and starting with Miss ferns our next question is vouchers are now available from the state of Ohio for for example Beachwood students to partially cover their enrollment in private schools with the money allocated in the per people expenditure of Beachwood Public Schools so what is your plan if the state trans trans for the responsibility of covering the cost of these schools vouchers to the be schools district thank you thank you so the state just radically expanded the voucher program the
039funding burden is currently on the state and not on the schools if that funding burden shifts to the schools this will cause all of the impacted uh sorry um since we have a large percentage of our students attending private school this will cause all of the impacted school districts to probably have to raise taxes thank you so as Megan said we're very thankful for Michelle Mills for her um physical stewardship stewardship along with the Administration staff to continue to be financially responsible and really stretching out dollars and making sure that our needs are met um so we're going to continue to make sure we are being responsible but at the same time I'm not naive right our revenue is flat maybe it'll go down because of the vouchers in the future and our expenses continue
040to go up because of inflation so at some point we are going to have to ask um our for a levy and um thankfully our community um is very supportive of our school because most of us move here for the school so we will do the right thing and we will um support our schools but it's naive to think we're not going to have to ask for help I agree with Josephine um I'll also add that I think that um the voucher uh policy is just one of the many um attacks at the state house um on public education and um we are very as a board to be informed of what's going on um at the state level and what the impact will be here in Beachwood um whether it's um anti diversity educ
041equate inclusion bills or anti- lgbtqia plus bills um we have a board legislative later on um we also um receive frequent updates from the Ohio School Board Association to be monitoring um what the impact of State legislation is on our district um and so the voucher program is just one of the many things that is harmful to all public districts um again we're fortunate here in Beachwood because we won't be as impacted as many um other districts would be will be um because their um funding base is not as as solid as ours um but that is something that we pay attention to um and are actively um working on um advocating at the state level thank you um I want to touch a little bit on what everybody kind of spoke about you know
042I had a long time to work with Michelle Mills and you know her being very fiscal responsible was so beneficial to our district I think that you know in herstead we've replaced it with another Treasurer that is also very on his p's and q's and I think being a Treasurer in The District in any district is a very hard task right like you have to really understand what's going on at the state level what's going on with your schools what's going on with the taxes um and now kind of what's going on with these vouchers I admittedly don't know a ton about vouchers right like we don't have a ton of that in Beachwood I do know that the schools that are doing um not as well in the state rankings tend to have more
043people move in for those vouchers so I would say that as long as we're keeping up with our school district and we are paying attention to what we're doing the voucher should not affect us quite as much as we think it would thank you thank you our next question will be what are your plans to improve the variety health and freshness and affordability of school lunches particularly for elementary students um Dr Chan we'll start with you that's a good question um so I'm going to start by saying as a school board member um our role does not manage the day-to-day activity of our schools so I'm going to have to rely on our district leaders uh rely on Miss Lucy uh to ensure that we are providing healthy lunches to our students um and we
044would hear a presentation we would ask questions and help the district make the right choices um one of the benefits of our uh new Elementary buildings will be that they'll they'll both have kitchens where lunches can be prepared for those students um on site in the building so we're very excited about that I think that opens up some opportunity um especially for our youngest Learners um to have uh you know healthier and more fresh options there um as far as um throughout the district um I wish I had kids that would eat a school lunch um there no commentary on the school lunch I promise I just have really lucky eater children um my husband would love not to py lunches every day um but I do think that um it could certainly be an
045option to hear from students about um what kind of options they would like to have and work with um Mrs Lucy de on um you know sourcing those options and um opening that up as Josephine said it's not in the perview of a board member per se but we would certainly be in support of uh hearing from students U what they want and um figuring out ways to provide it yeah so I'm going to Echo a little bit of what Megan just said you know my kids uh would would rather have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every single day I don't I don't really understand it um I do know that my older son is in middle school and he brags about the fact that he gets certain things at the middle school level
046that Michael does not get at the at Hilltop Michael is inherently a picky eater he has been eating a peanut butter jelly sandwich every single day since he was in preschool so I don't have a lot of insight on what would you know entail with in regards to the lunch I think that both my boys when they do have school lunch they enjoy it I think that it's something that would like they said it would be brought to our attention we would review it but ultimately that's the decision of the district thank you I guess I'm gonna kind of say what everybody said um so as a parent we were sent a survey last year by Lucy um to fill out to ask the parents what the kids with like for their school lunches unfortunately
047I never heard a response back to to that so I don't know where that went um if it went anywhere but I would love to follow back up with that um so taking that a step further I would definitely provide the students with a survey so they can tell us exactly what they like I've been a lunch helper at brighten and Hilltop for the past couple of years and I know the amount of food that is thrown away that they do not eat they don't like it whatever the reason is and I know when they come off the bus they are starving so there has to be a better way to accommodate what the students like and yes Brian brags about what they get at the middle school versus what they get at the elementary
048school thank you um starting with Miss Walsh um how do you think the beach city school should address anti-Semitism especially in light of the situation during the recent Brooklyn football te um thank you for the question um I I think that it is really important to address any um anti-Semitism uh whether related to the Brooklyn incident or what's going on around the world um right now um it's so important that it's addressed right away I think we do a great job of helping our students to understand you know if you see something say something and and all of that but I think what Brooklyn taught us is that we need to be able to operationalize that for our kids and help them to say like this is what you say this is what you do
049so when you're hearing it you know go to your coach or go um to a referee or go some you know talk to somebody and and really say something and so um our response to that incident was to work very closely with the Brooklyn Administration um and I think that was very effective um we also uh reached out to um the CDC and will be again enriching that training for all student athletes in the in the CDC and I think what really is important too is that we show up for our students that were there for them um these are difficult experiences to have as as children um and doing you know playing a sport that you love and so being able to be there for our kids and focus on them listen to what
050they need and the support that that they need to get through these types of incidents that unfortunately are occurring you know year after year with our yes so again I'm going to Echo a little bit of what she just said um you know i' I've been involved with Athletics here at Beachwood for the last eight years and that you know what happened the other day at the football game is not new to Beachwood I've seen it in all the sports I've seen how the kids react I see how the parents react and I see how the administration reacts and what I love most is that the administration really knows knows how to tackle those issues They Don't Let It Go by the wayside they um address the administration of the other schools they make sure
051that they talk to the coaches they talk to the kids um I've seen that whether it's um anti-Semitism or whether it's uh racism whether it's using any kind of language um it's been across the board for the whole time and I think really getting the kids to understand that they are supported here why that is not okay and that they can't speak up and say something if if they feel uncomfortable so thank you so again uh the Brooklyn um football game at the home game here at Beachwood there was also another incident that I don't know people aren't really talking about um there was a a a student from the other side that came over to our side and was threatening some of our youth football players um so that is again when you would
052go to our resource officer and have them look into the matter I know that the parking lots were surrounded by police officers in just a few minutes um I think that the school handled the situation appropriately um I know a lot of work was done behind the scenes and parents were informed as information was available I don't think we could have handled the situation any differently I thought that it was handled appropriately um and this is why we have resource officers at every event that we have and to make sure that we utilize them if we have to thank you so just like everybody else said I think our district uh our leaders all matters um and and was did a great job managing the situation we also sent a message to our students and
053family and the community that we have zero tolerance for this kind of bad behavior um I was really proud that um our superintendent the district leader we stepped in and and took care of everything right away continued to communicate to the parents and then they continue to take it one step further how are they going to work with the school uh the other school so that they understand what they did what what happened isn't appropriate and how you know they can continue to spread the word to um to make sure that this doesn't happen again because this shouldn't happen and and um so I I I don't really have too much to add because I think everybody did a good job saying that you know we the district did do a good job and um
054and continue to move it forward thank you so um moving on to our next question according to the Beachwood School Board policies the board authorizes the administration to engage in Prior review and Restraint of school sponsor Publications and Productions to prevent the publication or performance of unprotected speech would you be open to removing the policy of Prior review specifically in student newspapers given Club advisor already review student content Miss brow we'll start with you that is a really great question thank you um you know I think it's a little interesting when it comes to free speech I think we're in a we're in a world right now where there's a lot of back and forth about what that actually means I don't think that we need to necessarily have a policy in place I think
055that if there's a review that there's somebody watching over that and that we're making sure that we're being respectful to all parties that is the most important thing free speech is really important right and um but we also want to look at does that give us the right to you know attack right or to fame somebody you know what are we using that free speech for are we using it to help are we using using it to inform um I think that that would be a question that we would have to review as a board come to some discussion about that review it and then make a vote thank you thank you so I happen to agree with what Julie said um as we know this first amendment free speech is a Hot Topic right
056now um I would just want to make sure that whatever is being published in uh you know newspapers or things like that is age appropriate so I'm not quite sure that I would take away the board policy to review the speech before it goes out thank you so free speech is a big responsibility um I feel like I'm comfortable with the current policy however as I said before um I'm always open to listen to all sides so I welcome students teachers whoever would like to have a discussion for us to review the policy let us understand your point of view why do you think it's not necessary to have this review and then we can think about it um analyze it and then we can come up with the determination as a district whether we
057need to change the policy or not um what I would add to what Joseph a um talked about is that um you know as a board member the first at least for me personally my first is with our attorney right so policy exists for a reason um so I would um you know defer to him in terms of um what is the precedent for that policy why does it exist what is what is it safeguarding against um you know do other districts use it universally um you know those types of questions um to kind of dig into that a little bit but I agree with Josephine in terms of um opening the dialogue with students and with staff um to explore whether it's serving them or not um and what what would work best thank
058you um so we'll move on to our next question some students have demonstrated concern regarding a lack of resources early on in high school about the college admissions process and how to strategically maximize their potential how would you address this issue and we'll start with misss thank you so to me um The College admiss admission process is tedious it's and very demanding and and tough on students um to go through along with all the other things that they have to do in the same amount of time I would hope that um all the students are able to be open and honest with their um their um counselor that is provided by the high school to them um schedule meetings with them as often as you can and um hopefully they take the time to get
059to know the students and are able to help you through that process thank you so I want to first thank the student who submitted this question for bringing this up so if your needs is not being met then we need to have that discussion so I encourage the student or any student to bring this concern to the High School principal maybe even to the counselor what what is deficient um what does having more resources mean let's have the dialogue again and let us understand what your needs are and so that we can provide you with the need so that you can be successful with your college application so thank you I completely agree with that I think um you know we're fortunate in beach to be very to be a small District where you know
060Rel our Bedrock is relationships right and so I hope that our students feel comfortable going to a teacher or their guidance counselor the principal to say hey um I could use some help in this particular area or if it's easier for a group of them to come together and do it together even even better um so hopefully those um Avenues exist I know that they do um in each of our buildings for our student voice to be heard um from our Administration you know from the administrator in the building in the building to help um you know plug in where those needs um are not being met thank you um I think there is a big ask when it comes to um College college adiss process right and we have three guidance counselors that work
061you know within the district they are in charge of a lot there's a lot that goes on um and you know the fact is that we may need more resources right we may need more resour resources to help support the students to help the guidance counselors to help with whatever the the problem might be you know if the students feel like that they are not quite getting supported it might just be because the counselors don't have it within their their bandwidth right so how can we support the guidance counselors how can we support that that office how can we support our students and maybe just adding a little bit more resource a little bit more support is just what we need thank you and the next question is how do we connect students with professional
062opportunities outside of schools such as programs internships and scholarships to ensure career preparedness that's a great question because I have a passion for mentoring um so anybody any students want to be in the medical field especially clinical research please reach out to me I I will take you under my way um no truly I love it um so I know Beachwood has um quite a few program we do have the EXL Tech program for the culinary students we do have the Premed program we in the summer we partner with University hospital where they get to do a lot of cool things including I believe they were doing autopsy or different things like that and also I was actually just talking to miss Lago today and she was telling me um that she has built this
063relationship with University Hospital I know I keep bringing it back to my own work um but so I I think the school is um doing a lot to try to explore different opportunities and again like I said earlier our partnership with the city um we should partner with the city and encouraged mentoring program and most importantly when I was younger I didn't know all the different career paths so what I think would be great is to bring the Professionals in and talk about um where they started and how they got to where they are I think students can learn a lot about um from there I agree there's a lot of opportunities um to enhance what we're already doing I think um you know it makes me think about what we do at Friday and
064the fature Fridays right and if families come in to share about their culture or share something about their family traditions um Cly could do the same thing with careers have parents come in and talk about what they do for work um to help um you know children see themselves as as that career um and I know an email just went out um it was either today or yesterday um for eighth grade students um you know for parents to sign up uh to share about their career there's some career days um that will be happening in the spring um so that's a good opportunity at Middle School level to um have um our students thinking about they like to do when they um are older um and I think um Josephine is right on with um
065enhancing our city partnership around um different internship opportunities um and just um enhancing what we're doing particularly through EXL Tech It's a Wonderful marketing program the kids that connected to so many amazing Professionals in our community um but obviously anything we can do to enhance that um I'm a firm believer myself and um you know see it they know they can be it and so showing them that um showing diversity in different roles showing um you know what is available to them is is really important thank you so as I mentioned when I kind of gave my opening is that I actually worked with our seniors in senior search and that experience was so amazing to really talk to the students talk about what their passions were talk about what they were looking for you
066know outside of school what does that mean where do you want to go what life skills can you pick up what can we teach you here that will translate out into the real world right um it's not all about you know the academics of course of course we want them to strive but we also want them to know that when they get out there they know how to handle themselves right that they know what they want to do maybe it's not College maybe it's a trade school that's where Excel Tech really comes in to play we want to support them no matter what it is and I really feel like between the academics and you know the different um classes and opportunities we can give them here in Beachwood we can um we can give
067them that thank you thank you um so basically I'm probably going to Echo what everybody else here said um I do that email went out to seventh and eighth graders yesterday um they are going to do a career days and they ask for parent volunteers um to sign up and come and talk to the students about their careers and how they can get into it and um maybe a good choice above college if that's something that they want to do um but I think we need to get more parents involved um and we should probably host a career night not only for seniors but maybe you know middle school and high school and by partnering with the city we have so many different businesses in Beachwood that maybe we can um reach out to them
068to see if they would be open to hosting some type of career night as well thank you uh starting with Miss Walsh a question from the community Comm member how do you advocate for families with different needs or perspectives from your own um I think that this is a fundamental task of a school district um we have to understand the needs of all of the families in our district um and because we are such a diverse District that um presents a welcome challenge for us um it's so important that we connect and really hear from parents and I think that we've done a really good job of doing that particularly through the formation of our Affinity groups um the neurodiversity family network was the first one that formed and I think that just the ability
069for the members of that Network to connect with um our Administration and post workshops bringing speakers um network with each other so that they have support from one another um has been invaluable um we've really heard a lot of positive feedback about that um but even all of our other Affinity groups um connecting with bringing them um literally a seat at the table um to hear from them and to hear what um concerns they have to hear what their needs are um it's it's about listening and um really investing in um Meeting those needs and uh I think we are on the right track in that regard yeah so I would kind of e Echo a little bit of that I think that um our district as a whole really does a good job at
070advocating for those with different needs um one of the reasons that people flock to Beachwood is because that we we are diverse we do look at the needs we do try to meet those needs um you know that was one of the things that even brought me here but over the years that's something that I saw while working in the district I think in order to to really understand if there's an issue to advocate for parents is to understand what what the issue is right so that has to be brought through it has to be discussed and then a plan has to be formed ultimately I think that so far that we're doing really well I think that the board is doing well I think our Administration is doing well and we need to just
071keep supporting what's already happening thank you um I'm probably going to say what they've said well um so yeah Beachwood is so diverse we are doing so many amazing things um by creating these diversity groups I heard that maybe an Israeli um diversity group is going to be forming here soon that's really exciting um so you know we just need to get more people involved in the diversity groups um people you know we see these events come out and sometimes people don't know if they are welcome to come to these events so I think that we just need to start encouraging people to attend all of the diversity events so that they can learn about a different culture um and yeah I think that the district is doing a great job um with you know
072what we're doing today thank you so similar to the candidates here I think district is doing a great job um we formed five new Affinity groups last year and we had multiple multiple celebration and they were very well attended um Everybody the dist the the community really supported uh all the celebration um I think now that it's post pandemic one of the things that we can do is to have more interaction with others when you interact with others you learn from each other so we've had like Megan said feature Friday the kids can go home talk about what they learned um today M tral organized a picnic lunch for the third graders it was so nice for me to to watch um the parents talking to other parents and kids there was so much conversation
073going on so they're again learning from each other so I think we just in the district um we we have done a great job but we can do more we can create more events for um all the families to get together and and learn from each other talk to each other um so at this point if you have any questions written down our facilitators will be collecting them um and in the meanwhile we'll move on to our next question so positive behavior interventions and supports PBIS is a model all of the schools in the district all the schools in the district currently utilized what are some examples of PBIS programs that you believe will benefit students sorry um so yes positive behavior intervention and support is a model that all of our schools in the
074district are currently using um and what are some specific examples of PBIS programs that you think will benefit our students great thank you um so this is not something like I'm not going to sit up here and profess that I know everything about everything right um but one thing that I know is that when my son was in gr School no no preschool he there was there was this kind of idea right this positive enforcement and um I know that he the way that he took on to that and reacted and then has moved through the different grades and how he handles issues is a direct result from that so I'm really supportive of it I I would be interested in seeing how we can incorporate it more I would say that between my younger
075son and my older son one had it one did not and I can definitely tell the difference some of that might be their personality I'm not sure but you know my younger one you know when he when he was going through preschool he he was able to express what he was feeling and he was able to talk about the different things so for me I can see how it work works I just would love to know more about it thank you um I believe that this program is essential to helping kids navigate through some of the challenges that they go through on a day-to-day basis in school um as far as what I would do to in addition um you know I think that the program is really good right now as it is and
076um I would be open to hearing from teachers and staff if they had ideas um on the program but as for now I really like the program thank you so at the last board meeting it was so exciting to hear the PBIS team present how they relaunched the PBIS program so it's focusing on prevention and helping students understand the expectation throughout their school day so in the classroom on the school bus in the hallway um so I encourage everybody to watch your presentation which is on the newsletter a district newsletter I believe it was last week or maybe this week um so what are examples that I think works so one of the biggest thing that I think work is the um incentives so um it's amazing what an ice cream party can do in
077the Middle School to enforce positive behavior a popsicle right um also the critic coins uh at Hilltop because they want to earn pajama day um at brighten they are getting um bison tickets so that they can win uh a chance to get a book from the vending machine so I think there are lots of examples um from the PBIS Pro PBIS program that is successful the enthusiasm in the room at our board meeting um earlier this month around PBIS was incredible um there were representatives from each of the schools each building has a committee um that has been working very diligently even through the summer on creating um the PBIS program and um the acronym that we're using is uh heard or be heard um so we want to hear right want um so that's
078part of it but it's also heard as in b so very clever whoever came up with that one but um so the H is for honorable the E is for encouraging the A is for accountable uh the r is for respectful and D is for determined um each of the buildings you know had their own autonomy to decide what would work for them um and so their committees came up with those things um the examples Josephine shared Brien really loves their song they have you know a special song um that is quite effective um they also do monthly lessons and the different characteristics um what I love most about be heard is that it's again this like actualized this is what you do right there's signs everywhere this is how you be heard on the
079bus this is how you be heard in the classro in the hallway in the cafeteria um so the kids know what that looks looks like right one thing to say be accountable what does that mean in the classroom um or in those different environments thank you and all these following questions will be questions asked directly from our community members today so starting off with Miss ferns uh what do you suppose is the reason why the school's ratings have gone down recently thank you thank you so there happen to be a lot of different Publications put out about ravings um it seems like we have turned it down from our prior rankings um and we all know that that's not great um I think Beachwood schools are so amazing but I think that we could do
080better um I think one of the things holding us back is that anyone that dares to criticize is not welcome and is ignored I know that our our schools are successful because of our teachers we are losing teachers even though our compensation is competitive as any District we need to examine why this is happening and fix the problem so I want to First address um that we are not necessarily losing our teachers at a fast pace I don't want to cause any Panic here so um over the last three five years um about 30 uh students uh sorry teachers that leave the district and I believe nine of them left for a different District so first I just want to address that um but again I agree we do value teachers um satisfaction staff satisfaction
081and we definitely want to retain our staff because they do an amazing job um with our students now in terms of ranking um let's talk about us news and World Report we were ranked 55 uh for our Beach High School in Ohio but I want to point out the calculation for that ranking is a little bit flawed um the reason is there are about 100 students um that is enrolled in the Excel Tech program in the high school and counted in the denominator whereas their test scores are not counted in the numerator so you can see how the scores are ranking is flawed but let's talk about the Ohio uh report card school report card we're ranked number six and we are five star rating across the board for all categories um I see this
082um yeah I'll just build on that so I think that um there are so different rankings the methodology they use is always very interesting um whether it's good or bad or otherwise um I think what's important to pay attention to is um a lot of times things that we can't measure right um I measure you know how well of our our our students um what are they feeling when they're in our schools what is that relationship um because again when they feel like they belong here when they feel seen and heard and respected that's learn and so that's you know that's it's hard to measure that it's hard to measure how well you know you're connected with your teacher or guidance counselor and those kinds of things um but I do want to point out
083as Josephine did about the state report card um I don't see any slipping there um we've improved uh we had straight A on our state report card um our numeric score put us in six um tied for six in the state of Ohio um that's the entire dist not just Beach High School which is in the US News and World Report rankings but of all districts in the state of Ohio we tied for six and I think that's pretty darn good so I think when it comes to the state rankings and the the rankings that we get at Beachwood you know we have to take it a little bit with the grain of salt that it's given right so there all used there's different metrics that are used um and I want to be careful
084and you know not look down on our Educators when we get these rankings right like it's it's a it's a balance so what do these rankings mean for me it's about education I was never somebody that tested well right like I didn't take standardized tests well I think that our teachers are uh placed with a curriculum given by the state that has them teaching to attest to a certain SP to a certain point also within our district we have a lot of things going on right we have all we have diversity we have the Affinity groups we have all these things where we're trying to make sure that everybody feels included everybody feels safe and that everybody is getting the the education that they need so if if we don't Focus quite on education and
085we spread ourselves to thin then I think sometimes those rinking can go down but honestly I don't pay much attention to that I know that Beachwood Community is um is thinks that the the the rankings are very important I know that it's very important to our schools um and I think that as we support our teachers and our staffs that we can um increase those rankings so let's move on to our next question what are your specific ideas and plans to increase inclusivity related to all of our students IDE identities ethnicities genders and your diversity um Dr jangl with you can you repeat I I we got a little distracted I apologize I yes no problem um what are your specific ideas and plans to increase inclusivity related to all of our students's identities ethnicities
086genders and your diversity sure um that's a great question because that's what our school is about right inclusivity um so some of the things we've done um in addition to Infinity groups and a lot of things that we talked about is a curriculum review um our teachers have reviewed the curriculum to make sure that the the literature that our students are reading resembles them because if they if a student is reading a book about them they connect I know I do when I read a book and it's you know about women being successful um and more engaged I like the book a little bit more um so that is one thing that I'm very proud that our school district has done and they're periodically doing that continuously to ensure that um you know we're we're
087being inclusive uh I support all the things that we have been doing I think one idea um that has come up and I'm not sure that it's been uh acted on yet but hopefully soon is um like a matching program so like when we have families um that move to the district um let's say from out of the country um to match them up with another family that is the same has the same country of origin just to help them get acclimated um you know where do they like to do their grocery shopping where is their place of worship um you know those kinds of things just to get the lay of the land here and I think I think that could be very helpful for a lot of families as they are navigating a
088new a new place um but I think you know as has come up many times um already this evening this inclusivity um this idea of inclusivity is is so important right we want all of our families to feel that they belong here not just our kids but that parents feel like they belong we're really working hard on making our website more accessible um to various languages and having that easily translatable um so that it's um an interface that that folks feel comfortable using and reading um so again we're always open to and trying to meet the needs of all of our families yeah so one thing that I touched on when I did my introduction is that you know Beachwood is already sort of on that diversity path right like I noticed that when I
089was working here um I saw within the school district I saw in you know Athletics and as somebody who has children who are biracial you know something that that I really took to heart when we were looking at what district we wanted to move our kids to and really spend our education um I think that you know when we're looking at diversity when we're looking at the different groups that it's not only important to recognize support and promote each group but it's also very important to have those conversations and blend and blend the groups together I think that you know if if we only have the groups and it's only a separation then it it creates more of a divide I think more conversation within groups is very needed um I saw a divide within
090the student body several years ago um and it really made me sad you know I saw it at athletic events and I don't want to see that and I think that we need to do a better job about bringing those kids together I think we're doing an awesome job of making sure that everybody feels seen and heard and now I want to just make sure that all the kids are seeing and hearing all the different groups thank you um yeah so I have to agree with everybody and what they have all said um I do think that Beachwood is on the right path I do see all of this love and support that we have to give to everybody um you know a a big thing that people are talking about now is book bands
091and to me me I don't think we should be banning books I think we should have books you know available to everybody um that you know are going to help the children identify like you said an aging woman on the cover I mean that's amazing written by you know African-Americans written by Indians written by anybody with different you know um pictures in the books this is what the kids need um I think that we can definitely um be a little bit more transparent with things that we are doing open and honest with all families and um obviously we want all of our families to feel like they belong here thank you so we have two more questions before we close but before I'd like to answer one of these questions from the six of us
092um the candidates did not have access to these questions prior to this event and these questions were chosen by a Google form that was sent in the Beachwood newsletter and so Beachwood families could give their input on what questions they would like to be asked tonight um and for our actual question how do you propose we support our children in this time of school shootings and lack of gun restrictions in the state of Ohio we'll be starting with Miss Walsh thank you um such an important question I feel like um you know every parent that sends their child out the door in the morning um that's the worst thing that you could hear or or you know to have happen and so we work very hard to make sure that all of our students are
093safe at all times I think that um our model of having a police officer in every one of our buildings um not only for uh safety from school shootings but also um just to build that relationship and and help them to feel safe inside our buildings is really important um and I think it's a big deterrent I think that um sometimes Beachwood can be a Target um or could be a Target and I think that police um presence is it keeps us very safe um I would also speak to um you know in terms of what a school board can do um you know recently last year the um State decided to let School boards decide if they wanted to arm their teachers um we responded very quickly and adamantly saying no um we did
094not want to arm our teachers uh we don't feel that that makes um our buildings safer in fact I think it makes them um more dangerous um so that's something that school boards can do to make sure that that we're safe but again um it's more of that um advocacy and that Statewide connection paying attention to what's going on at the state level um to make sure that our kids are well protected yeah so school safety is has been really important you know I was at laramy Wyoming when Coline happened my brother lived a block away from Coline um it has been in the Forefront of my mind since then safety in the schools you know it's our kids right and I you know I was fortunate enough like I like I've mentioned that I've
095worked in Beachwood schools uh we had an amazing security resource officer here that really protected our kids and I remember calling him every single time there was a shooting or something in a school district that that I thinked him for for making sure that our kids were safe I don't think it just pertains to guns it pertains to all weapons and I think that safety in our schools is important for everybody I think that it needs to be transparent I think we need to talk about it we are not in a bubble here we are not going to not feel this we are seeing it in all the districts around us and I think it's the responsibility of every administrator and every board member to make sure that our kids are safe every single day
096thank you um yeah so this might be an uncomfortable topic to talk about um but our security starts with our school resource officer I know many of us are not happen are not happy um that the officer we had for 12 years is no longer employed with us I'm concerned with how that decision was made um didn't make it any easier to understand why a change was being made as a parent um our current our new hire uh for the resource officer um has been very accommodating and every and every interaction with him has been positive so far um but I don't think that the change actually helped us um improve our safety in the schools um as the decision that the board made not to arm the teachers I wholeheartedly agree with I would
097believe that that would actually make it more dangerous um but there are still some things that I see that we can work on and I'm going to leave it at that thank you so safety is definitely a high priority for us within the district so we work with the Department of Homeland Security in regards to our security plan and it's reviewed annually we do um lots of we do safety drills and so there are lots of things in place but I agree um there's always more to be done right and I think what we should work on is mental health and communication with our students our students have so many stressors now social um Family academic and so we need to be able to um identify like see that they're under distress and try to
098intervene before it escalate into our crisis uh we need to um impr our communication with our students so that we build the trust so that they know they can come to us and ask for help again so that you know we're not escalating to our crisis because let's talk about fighting fighting is a form of um communication they don't know how to manage a problem so again if we identify that they're under stress if we build that trust and we collaborate with them to solve the problem then we can try to have a safer environment within the school thank you um and for our concluding question should be high school hire more Professionals for training students in Science Olympiad model UN speech and debate and other such academic extracurriculars start with Miss BR thank you
099for that last question sorry we got Miss uh off track there so I think that all these like extracurriculars when it comes to education and um passions that people have absolutely we should support that um I know that you know the kids thrive on that um the students thrive on it the the uh programs Thrive and um I don't know why we wouldn't support that thank you um I I absolutely agree if the need for more people um to help support the students is needed I think that we should do that thank you so I'm going to admit that I'm a little confused about like hiring professional I'm not really sure what that means but um right now we do support all the different extracurricular activities that our students want to partake in and um
100so for example the Science Olympiad last year we held our first competition here at Beachwood so we're always trying to do more I can speak to Destination Imagination because I've been doing it forever it's crazy um again we hosted here last year we had to go to another school you know I I of course think that we did a better job but that's okay um I might be biased so um if if the question is would we invest in this extracurricular activity absolutely um so I'm leave it at that thanks I I mean the biggest consideration right is go through that budget process so you know the need arises and then we evaluate you know does that fit into a budget does that make sense is that meeting a need is you know doing all
101that analysis um you know in Beach we are very fortunate to say we want this okay we're going to make it work and you know we have the money to do that um but again we have to be good fiscal stewards and so we have to look at it from all angles and try to meet the needs as best we [Applause] can hi again good evening everyone as we come to the end of this enlightening evening we like to really express our sincere gratitude to all of you for joining us in Meet the candidates night with those running for the Beachwood City uh School Board of Education your presence and participation here tonight demonstrates your commitment and dedication to our shared goal of improving the quality of Education in our school district we also want
102to extend our heartfelt thanks to the candidates who have dedicated their time and energy to participate in this important dialogue this event has been an incredible experience and opportunity for us as students to voice our concerns ask questions and gain a deeper understanding of your Visions for Beach we appreciate your openness and willingness to engage with us directly it is candidates like you who Inspire us to take an active interest in the future of our schools as student facilitators we believe that tonight's event is a testament to our community and particularly our youth's commitment to their civic responsibilities an Engaged and diverse Community is necessary for growth and prosperity this event reminds us that we are a part of that type of community Community our education matters and through the berro community alongside the school
103board we can strive together towards creating an even better future for our schools in closing we would like to reiterate our appreciation for all of you who attended today's event to share your valuable insights and Visions your participation has been crucial to making this event an sucess an exemplary school district is a shared responsibility and together we can make a difference thank you and have a good night [Applause] I just want to say one quick thing well thank you all so much I know this is kind of last minute and we really appreciate you all coming but I literally did nothing for this this was all these kids I just said anybody interested and they were like got it on it so maybe you all will be sitting up here one day like that's the
104whole okay so thank you guys you're awesome hi my name isas I was in charge of the sound system for today unfortunately it went down and I would like to apologize to everybody here especially our gas um we had a new system ordered but the lead time is extremely long and this was this was brought in by the company that we have new system ordered from temporarily and did not quite work so I really apologize for that um these microphones too are our system and they've been working great so far thank [Applause] you