001as students we experience firsthand the impact of the decisions made by our school board from academic opportunities to school climate from extracurricular activities to student well-being these decisions shape our daily lives and future success that's why it's so important to hear from the candidates who are running to serve our District's Board of Education tonight we have the opportunity to ask questions that reflect the priorities concerns and experiences of the students in our district we want to take a moment to acknowledge all the students from OE and Os that helped us come up with the questions we look forward to hearing your perspective on how you plan to support and enhance our educational experiences thank you all for being here for your commitment to our school and our community so before we begin here get started
002I want to review the candidate um response protocol each candidate will be given two minutes to respond to each question every candidate will have the opportunity to answer you can pass if you do not want to answer the question you must have the microphone in your possession before you can speak once you finish your response please pass the microphone to the next candidate we ask that all candidates be mindful of the time and respectful to one of one another's responses um candidates please introduce yourselves by sharing your name and one interesting fact about yourself hi my name is Katie Heiden I'm running for the S3 308 Board of Education and an interesting fact about me is I a seventh generational Mason in my family thank you hello everyone my name is Dr ravil polock and
003an interesting fact about me is that I'm a foodie and late at night I love to take a look at Yelp and see what new restaurants um are currently open good evening everyone my name is Brandy Robinson thank you so much for the opportunity to speak in front of the student LED Forum definitely appreciate it um an interesting fact about myself even though I am a millennial as my son would say I'm kind of ancient but I still love The Golden Girls I watch it Faithfully on TV Land I'm going to put that out there so if you're a golden girl fanatic please come see me hello uh my name is Erica C I am um my interesting fact that I always use as a get to know you is that after college I spent
004a summer in a national park in New Mexico and I got to be part of the Wildland fire crew and I actually fought Fires for two days that's there's nothing that makes you feel boring like when people ask you an interesting fact about yourself and then they all leave um I'm Dr Heather Martin and I guess an interesting fact about me that just came up at dinner earlier with some of you is that I um was in marching van for many years and met my husband there and then worked with marching bands for many years so we I already it on we will get started with our first question this one's an easy one which sport do you rock with yes Sports which sport do you rock with sorry I'm a big kid at heart
005so I heard over just conversation that Powderpuff if not not mistaken football right so needless to say I did that in high school at wanzi I am an alumni from there loved it so that and then softball those are my two uh Sports to go sure my okay I won't say favorite but I rock with gymnastics my daughter is a gymnast and I spend a lot of time at meets also basketball I'll give a plug there as well thank you I'd say the sports that I rocked with were track and volleyball in junior high and high school I learned uh that ba basketball was not my thing when I was told I looked like spaghetti on the court so you you live and you learn like Heather I was a marching band girl and I
006played for um University of Illinois so my jam has always uh been basketball and luckily my son is now playing it for Special Olympics so I'm super excited to watch him play um when I was younger I played soccer and tennis and um then as an adult I got into running and ran the Chicago marathon and now I spend all my weekends watching my son's swim meets so okay so we're going to get started with our first question just reminder you have 2 minutes to answer and we're going to be going from right to left left to right and then so on please be clear in the M and in Mike thank you so to get started first we're going to be discussing the topic of psychological safety and wellness our first question is what
007are you going to do about racial religious sexist and sexual slurs constantly used by students um well first of all I know there is a zero tolerance policy but I also know that there are a lot of things that are difficult to enforce when there are not um adults around to hear what's going on and monitor things 100% of the time so um I guess I would first of all enforce what um what's already on the books which is the anonymous reporting which is the zero tolerance policy and then beyond that just creating spaces where people can um really like live in their identities so that they can have Affinity groups they can have different groups that cater to different identities and different passions um and you know ideally create a more inclusive environment you
008you started out tough um I don't have the solution to this problem um I do think that we need to have more conversation I I know that uh you guys are all high school students and I think you could have respectful conversations with each other and I think people can learn a lot from each other um I I wish I could wave a magic wand and make everyone feel safe and com able at school but I know that that's not the reality uh I guess my answer would be that I would reach out to you guys because you're the ones in the classrooms and in the hallways um but I definitely would like to see that be changed in the district so I my response is much aligned with the two candidates prior however I
009definitely believe in the guidance counselors creating that Comm for our kiddos and even though you guys aren't kiddos you guys are high schoolers so I do apologize I have a second grader so he's my kiddo so I reference everybody as a kiddo but you guys are definitely responsible to understand you know how to communicate for yourselves and you guys do not please make sure that you guys are reaching out to someone at an administrative level or again a social worker because we do have the resources and if you do not feel like you have that resource going back to the statement of having a safe space come to the community because we want to help you and support you and um at the end of the day you guys should feel safe psychologically um mentally
010physically and all of above so we are here to support you and when it comes to again policies we need to make sure that it is enforced and more more importantly just making sure that your voices are heard when there are some areas of gray that we may not necessarily have navigated through but again we need to hear your voices to understand how we can continue to mitigate different um safety risk and so forth on I think um as everyone else mentioned obviously there are policies but oftentimes we have to understand how those policies are implemented and I think it's about students feeling heard and so when you tell a trusted adult that you either saw something in a restroom or someone said something to you that's inappropriate often times we were raised in a
011way well um there was a Saying sticks and stones may hurt my bones but words will never hurt but they do and I think that we have to take those things serious and I think that there are multiple layers to address it one from a restorative end um I think whoever who has made inappropriate comments or something that you've seen I think that they should be held accountable in terms of how do you fix it and how do we work on this collectively and how do we have a sense of understanding I also think that it is also about educating our students in terms of what you're saying that is really hurtful and helping them understand um that words can hurt and we have to be mindful I also think that is about like what
012students are looking at um I've heard that sometimes you walk into the restrooms and there are things there that are not pleasing and I think that we should be proactive making sure that in communal spaces students aren't seeing inappropriate things thank you so my Approach is going to be a little different obviously we have policies and procedures in place but I feel like we are doing the disciplinary after the action that's happening we need to ask why is this happening what's the preventative measures that we could be doing before because either it's a misunderstanding misinformation I've kind of come under the awareness that I I feel our history needs more revamping a lot of the things that we have where it's something expressed through hate it's because of a misunderstanding or a miscommunication how many
013of you think that maybe we could have maybe more information when it comes to history and overcoming these stereo ypes so then we could have more preventative measures when it comes to making sure that these things aren't taking place at school at work and at home does anybody feel like we're missing out on different things between culture gender racism can you raise your hand does anybody want to raise their hand where they feel like it needs to be changed not everyone is accounted for okay thank you so my Approach would be is not only talking with the students but our educators our committee our staff so we can make sure not only do we have policies and procedures for you guys but to make sure that everyone is reflected because a lot of these things
014happen because of misinformation and a lack of understanding so fixing it at the source thank you oh yeah that's right sorry go ahead our next question will be what will you do to ensure that the curriculum aligns with what we know about our country's history today and provides an inclusive and unbiased representation of what of that through teaching okay so I know maybe that was echoed a little bit in the previous question but when I went to a committee meeting the week before we are upgrading some of our novels and some of the curriculum that's coming in because before we were only fitting into one kind of agenda or one kind of stereotype we need to include all kinds of religion culture gender uh even political when it comes to that because if we just
015stick to one side we're not going to see the whole picture so making sure when it comes to curriculum not only do we have that policy and that procedure but then we also have Community collaboration job shadowing opportunities I'd love to hear more about internships and other Industries and apprenticeships at all levels for all unions thank you so as a classroom teacher as a principal and currently as a district administrator I advocate for culturally responsive teaching and essentially making sure that teachers have the materials that they need that provides um a diverse perspective um ensuring that students are critical consumers of information I think that learning should not be one-dimensional I think that students should be exposed to um our history and understand our history so that we can prevent history from um from repeating
016itself and so I think it is really important that you all are critical consumers of information and that your learning is not one-dimensional so just to add on just from my perspective I definitely believe representation matters whether culture religion and so forth on so it goes back to your voice and I also when I've had the opportunity just looking at the scores just across the board whether for high school elementary I do wonder do you guys see your yourself in the curriculum as far as what you guys are learning and as my son will say sometimes mom what am I going to do with this and those are the conversations I want to make sure I advocating for not only the curriculum but I want him to be seen in the curriculum so it is
017so important that we are making sure that each one of you are seen in some shape form or fashion and if we're not I think that's when that discussion points happen uh I saw a phrase that said we should uh be diversifying our history um and the Assumption was that we should be including everybody that has lived in America and including all of their history when I was a a kid a younger a young um we learned about Mount Rushmore but we didn't learn the backstory with the Lakota people so I think there's definitely ways that we can keep our keep the overarching history taught but also bring in those nuances the things that went terribly badly um and I think they're valuable lessons to learn um across the board um thank you the um
018the curriculum is currently there was a giant curriculum audit done um over the last year or within the last year and there were a lot of practices that need to be put in place that the district was made aware of so the district is in a place right now where they're implementing these changes and they're trying to centralize their curriculum processes and re-evaluate what it is they're teaching I think one of the best things they can do is make sure that everyone on that team that there is diverse representation on the team of people that is looking at the curriculum so that all of the students have at least someone with similar representation there um that is making sure that they're represented additionally getting community members involved getting you all involved getting your families involved
019and making sure that um that they see representation as well um yeah and I think also you know we are fortunate to live in a state where there is um there are mandates coming down from the state government about making sure that we do Implement um curricula with different histories represented so I think um as long as we continue to have diverse voices in those processes then we will be on a better path than we've been on previously okay thank you now moving on to our second question we will change topics to now physical safety and wellness so for our one question what actions will you seek wait what actions will you take to increase safe to increase the safety of students and staff and ensure that the building remains a safe place for everyone
020so one thing that I feel very passionately about is making data driven decisions so I think the one of the first things I would do as currently I am a community member and a parent so I don't have access to a lot of District information one of the first things I would do is look at the district information look at the different um incidents that are going on seeing what the trends are seeing where those resources need to be allotted seeing if it's certain buildings if there's certain um you know classrooms populations things like that so that we can have the targeted supports we need um and then just go from there this is another tough one for me uh um I my son frequently complains that he never can get into the bathroom at
021the high schools because they're either closed or there's weird things going on in there and he doesn't want any part of that um I think that uh a solution might be to have more staff available to monitor those times those passing periods to make sure that things are going the way they're supposed to um but like Heather said I I as a community member I don't really understand the full grasp of the problem so I can't really come up with a good solution but I think hearing from you guys would be a first step uh where you don't feel safe why you don't feel safe and um start there and then um uh get information from the the Educators to find out where we can make changes so in regards to safety I would definitely
022like to see more Dean assistance uh especially at the high school level um from what I gather and again having a ninth grader that goes to OE I hear about the things and also I'm that nosy parent that wants to hear so I'm kind of ease dropping in the conversations um by a phone or FaceTime but I say that to say um I have heard unfortunately that some kids are able just to walk out of the school and matter of fact my oldest as I was picking up him up for an orthodontist appointment and he just walked out the do I'm like hey isn't there a protocol what have you he's like no Mom you just walk out I'm like but I just don't recall back in my day as he would say where we
023could just walk Outdoors so when it comes to safety just from that particular example I would want more safety as far as who's at these doors who's making sure that you guys have um the protection that is needed in each and every school so when it comes to um safety security and just feeling safe that should be number one priority for us as board members and just moving forward because you guys should have that safety lens similar I think it's about taking a look at data um clearly this is probably a question because there are times when students don't feel safe and so I think the the question should be posed when don't you feel safe what makes you feel unsafe and then even asking what are some um Solutions right relative to being to
024feeling safe oftentimes you can anticipate um during passing periods there may be something that may take place and so are there more times throughout the day that you are vulnerable as students and I think as adults we should know those times and we should be proactive to address that also there is a need to have just um ongoing uh safety drills relative to just um different things that impact our schools within Society I know that there are certain safety drills that you all do have but how do we rev that up how do we make that more meaningful and how do we make that a bit mechanical so that we can respond appropriately if necessary but again I would definitely take stock in student voice to understand at what point throughout the day aren't you
025feeling safe and exactly what behaviors or um situations when you don't feel safe thank you so I always like to do what is called hard conversations at the end of the day when we're having safety issues or bullying or mental health it's because things are either bad at home or because we're struggling as students in the school our ratio when it comes to counselors per student I know is really high for you guys and it's even harder to have the time to always talk with your social worker you know there's so much of our student population and not enough when it comes to our staff and the people who provide the services my thing would be is what preventative measures could we do to better serve you if there's struggles at home or if there's
026struggles at school that are impacting both because it's it's more than data you guys are people and if one reflects the other that's how these things happen so whether it's creating different groups whether it's having you know different mentors in the community to help out with different Services I know our district dist has certain policies where when students are in school if the problems aren't happening at school then they can't always intervene but I want to let you know that I want to serve people both from home and school if you're struggling because both matter moving on to our next topic this relates to cell phones with the possible Banning of all cell phones and schools how do you plan to ensure School safety and fast communication during events such as lockdowns when children are
027unable to contact their parents so I know that the cell phone ban is in place because I have kids that are in the district as well where they're being taken away I think making sure that you know we're being receptive to the fact that we could be having family members that are having surgery or have an illness or there's something coming up where you need to go somewhere or lockdowns we need to make make sure that you guys have access to your phones to let your parents know that you're safe and that everything is okay being receptive to that nature but I I've been a part of different Summits and Expos if you always have your cell phone out in front of you what that tells the person next to you or the person who's
028teaching is that you're not their Prime Focus that's not you know you're not going to be fully aware or paying attention to the same level but when you take your cell phone and you put it down in way that shows them that you're they are your number one focus and that they have your full attention it means something so just know we will be sensitive to all of those life situations but taking our cell phones and putting them away whether we're in education or the workforce shows so much responsibility for your guys's generation so thank you I think that it's definitely a complex topic I see it from the perspective of an building administrator and then I see it from the perspective of a mom and wanting to know if my daughter is okay right
029and so that being said I think the district has the responsibility particularly if there is a lockdown where they are rapidly responding to parents to let parents know that children are safe and I would advocate for okay what is the response time and how do we put systems and structures in place for that to happen also where are the phones right are they in the book bags like what is the expectation if there was really an emergency or if you needed access are they locked away so there are a lot of different things that we would have to think about in terms of access are there times of the day where students are able to use the phone I know when I was in high school I had a job and so maybe I wanted
030to check in with my job um again you might need to check in if you participate in after school um events and so we would definitely need to Define time spaces and appropriateness when perhaps you could in fact have access much like Dr Rell said this is definitely a controversial topic and I say that because your generation is definitely techsavvy and very smart as far as if we say you can't do something or can't have something typically you guys find another route and I say that respectfully because again I have a high schooler um so with that I do believe there should be a balanced approach as the two candidates prior um did speak about in that balance approach again going back to safety can we make sure that you guys have that connection or
031that line to your parents should there be um a protocol that needs to be addressed or you just may have that moment where you need to reach out to your parent or parents um and you guys should still have that access so I think when it comes to the whole cell phone um there should be a little bit more discrepancy but most importantly everybody excuse me everyone should be aligned to what those discrepancies are as far as you know when it comes to safety or far it comes to certain situations where you meaning where you may need to have access to your cell phones I've thought a lot about this one um I'm on the side of the phones need to be away during class I I take a class right now at the wans
032Community College and if my phone is anywhere near me I'm immediately taken out of the class and I'm not concentrating on what the teacher telling me so I feel like it would be uh very beneficial for just education in general for everyone's phones to be you know in the little pocket in the room um I know that there's going to be exceptions to that you know kids who have diabetes who use their phones to monitor it uh things like that I also think that I came from the generation where we were told to come home when the lights went on and um so I'm not I think we've lost track of what's constitutes an emergency I think that um we all went through school without having constant contact with our parents and I think that
033that was kind of a good thing because you're kind of on your own and you were in a safe place your teachers would you know do anything that you needed you know if you need to be in contact with your parents then you can call them but I think there's uh I think as a society we've become very we have to know things instantaneously and I think in a lot of ways it would be better if we went back to the old ways where we're not in constant contact with everything and that way we can focus more in the classroom um they've said that uh during uh lockdown events that you know phones dinging and beeping and vibrating can also draw attention to a classroom so I think that it would be better to have
034them all put away um I kind of echo what Ravel said earlier about having kind of mixed views on this as a parent I do like knowing that my kids can contact me if there's an emergency as an educator I know that phones can be a distraction um I'd be curious to see what a ban looked like if it was it stays in the locker it stays at home it's in the little like shoe organizers in front of the room or whatever um so I think that would be one thing to consider is what what that actual band looks like um another thing to think about would just be you know like some previous candidates have said having a space where it's okay are you allowed to have them in study hall um are you
035allowed to have them at lunch and then beyond that just making sure that communication is quick and transparent from the schools so if there is an incident not only do the parents know right away but you all know that your parents know right away so you have that kind of security and then we also know and I will tell you when there is something that happens like as soon as one of you text your parents it's on Facebook like instantly and so then the whole internet goes crazy I see everyone like over the age of 17 nodding right now um but the internet goes nuts and um and it causes a lot of anxiety on RN so I think if there are streamlined communication methods so that you know that that we know you're okay
036and that we know what's going on and so that we know exactly what's going on then that will help a lot as well would you like an opportunity to respond to this question okay the question is with the possible Banning of all cell phones and schools how do you plan to ensure school safety and fast communication during events such as lockdowns when children are unable to contact their parents please speak loudly and clear and you have two minutes all right well first of all my name is Jim martyr and I want to apologize to all you for being late and I have no excuse and I'll take my detention after class so um so the question was about cell phones in schools um so I know they've been discussing it in Springfield I actually don't
037agree with Springfield I don't think they should be dictating to us and sd308 or any of the school districts around the state on what we should or shouldn't do with respect to cell phones I really think it's more of a district question and I also think it's more of a teacher question is are there appropriate times in class when you guys need them and when you don't need them and um I'm I'm really for empowering the teachers and the staff and to to decide when it's appropriate when it's not um next thing is I would really like to say that for the most part we probably don't need them in classrooms but if there is a rule in a policy that we would make as a board and as a school we would hope that
038and we would expect that all the students would respect whatever that policy is okay thank you so now we're gonna be moving on to our next question which is a new topic is extracurricular extracurricular activities arts and stem so our question is how do you plan to support stem education in Title One schools where funding has been cut for stem stem related classes and clubs start all right so I'll start on this one so stem is great um I I was one of those students that really likeed science technology I have my degree from Purdue University um in industrial management which is very similar to industrial engineering and I I really will do everything we can to support that I I would see no reason to make cuts we have a $356 million budget do
039you guys aware of that it's a lot of money so um and I think we just need to make good choices about what we do with the budget that we do have and you know all the opportunities stem you know there are other places I think we need to expand opportunities so stem I think trades I think all these other things um but definitely um keep those things funded and make sure we have them thank you uh so mine would be an approach is how can we make sure that we maintain these extracurriculars whether it's Sports whether it's stem whether you know it's Hands-On it's culinary it's music art you know we're going to have to get to the point of do we need to think about different fee allocations um I know when we
040think about sports and we think about traveling Sports it's been different uh from a district level to traveling teams and so do think there's a bridge to Gap there that could better serve some of these areas where we're not having enough funding we also need to take this step up when it comes to our media marketing and Community collaboration I see things being shared on Facebook but I feel like the content that's being posted is from the adults that are older I don't feel like the content is always relevant to either the curricular or that it's actually the student doing it would the students be able to let me know do you guys feel like you have enough involvement when it comes to media marketing for sd308 could you raise your hand if it's a
041no okay okay thank you thank you for sharing and so I think if we could have a better communication between people that are relevant to your guys's age group and then the adults that are looking at it we could bring more collaboration we could find find better ways to bridge these gaps where students could be doing the marketing taking on different aspects with stem and curricular so then that way we can make sure we're how do I I forget what the word is but you're you're self-reliant you're sufficient so even if the funds do fall through on certain federal programs we know we can maintain ourselves from the inside because we're self-reliant we're not always relying on all the federal funds and that's one of the best things we can do as a strategy to
042keep going thank you so when I think about um the potential loss of perhaps um title funding and specific to um specialized programming um specifically after school programs that students need I am we all have to be mindful that at least 80% of our budget goes toward um staffing needs uh that being said though irrespective of that I've always been an educator who is extremely student centered and I've always removed barriers to ensure that our students have exactly what they need there are a number of missed opportunities that we potentially could explore such as Partnerships if there is some lack of funding Partnerships with universities who offer you know programming and they'll come in and essentially do some of those programs for free you also think about grant opportunities I definitely you know um I
043definitely advocate for us um exploring that option and um pursuing grant opportunities or any other Community Partnerships I think that that would be amazing for us to have Community Partnerships that come into the school um it gives you different insights in terms of uh career Explorations especially when we think about stem so I definitely be pretty creative and think about how these opportunities open up options for just extending our reach as a school district so I would also like to Echo what Dr Rell did just speak however um going back to the community myself as a parent I definitely want to see stem continue along with extracurricular activities and when I do think about different areas that may be defunded based upon Federal I also think about what other opportunities can we all collaborate together
044whether again grants as Dr Rell mentioned because there are a lot of grants that we have yet to tap into and then I also think about just being a professional in a healthcare space are there opportunities for us to connect with different companies and employers that are within our community to see if there are are funds that they are willing to contribute so we definitely have other opportunities for allocations when it comes to our school but most importantly just making sure that you guys do have access to extracurricular activities and activities that will continue to empower you guys um for your path forward I have a lot to say on this one so I'm going to talk fast uh I um my degree is in geology so after um College I was I worked in
045construction and I was almost always the only woman on the job sites and I would love to see more girls get into science related fields uh I think we could bring in um uh career professionals that are out there now um we live in a very uh technology centered uh area we've got argon and fery and I would love to see us do more Partnerships with them and encourage everyone to get into those um science Fields because we need them um I would love to see us uh expand some of our offerings in the extracurricular World um my son is in fencing but we don't have any fencing clubs here they just started one Ina so it' be cool to see something like that um my other son does special Olympics and I would love
046to see us maybe field a unified team which means we're taking jened Piers with um the special Olympians and they play together on a team I think that would be cool as well and I was talking to a parent the other day about um environmental issues um encouraging more recycling composting those sorts of things I was thinking we could collect all the binders that everyone destroys over the school year and rip them apart and recycle their parts so that we're not throwing as much into the landfills uh I think that's I got I got it all out all right um I am going to Echo what some folks said before me but I think you know first of all if we were to lose federal funds um or any funding really for any reason I
047think you know something we should do anyway but would definitely have a greater sense of urgency in that case would be just do a financial audit and see kind of where we can save money um as it is already uh and then again really just leaning into those Community Partnerships you know some folks talked about partnering with local colleges and universities we have so many stem businesses opening around whether it's like new coding places and Robotics things and um I think just using the experts we have in our community to kind of fill in those gaps and and create agreements and Partnerships and hopefully bolster the offerings that we can provide even if we don't have the funds we need um to do it robustly within the district coming to our final question final topic
048this has to deal with future planning how do you plan to prepare students for Life After High School and what are your ideas for improving schools to equip them for the Future Okay um sorry I have a lot to think through for I uh I work in highered so I I see a lot of people on on different paths um with college and and that's not everybody's path so I think the first thing to do would really to be to expose you all to different possibilities as early as possible so that you can decide what's right for you because what's right for you might be not right for the person sitting next to you um and then you know once you've had opportunities to explore that just really um connecting you with different um different
049available experiences um can you repeat the question I want to make sure I hit everything sorry um how do you plan to prepare students for Life After High School and what are your ideas for improving schools to equip them for the future got it yep okay so making sure that you just have a path that you're on because what's right for you is not necessarily right for everyone else and I've had for the last several years I've worked in community colleges where some people are there to get a certificate some people are there to get an associates degree and leave and some people are there to transfer to a four-year and being able to see people on different paths that are all kind of using that space for a different reason has been really beneficial
050to me um so I think just making sure that not only are you informed of your options and you can have opportunities to explore them but also making sure that the people in the district that support you also know how to connect you with the appropriate resources and the appropriate next steps I think there's a lot of value in knowing what you don't want to do um I think High School is a really good time to try different things and discover what you know you don't want to do even as importantly as figuring out what you do want to do uh I think that it would be a really interesting project to have people in the community describe what their day looks like because you may think a job is one way and find out
051that it's completely different in the day-to-day activities so I think if we contacted professionals um in the community they could explain what their job looks like so that kids can get an idea of maybe jobs they've never even thought of that they might enjoy uh I think there's a lot of room for mentorship and um reaching out to the business Community to uh see if there's any connections we can make um even just a day at you know a warehous so you understand how the forklifts go and that may be one of those things where you say that is not what I want to do uh um yeah that was it so I recall growing up my dad gave us two choices I have two brothers I was a middle child um during high school
052we either had a choice to either well let me rephrase it after high school we had a choice to either go to college or go to the service and and my brother and I we went to college and my oldest brother went to the service however as we are all aware um with your generation you guys have so many different Pathways whether it's um YouTube whether it's being a fashionista whether it's I mean your realm is just so different from how I grew up and you guys have access to so much so I say that to say um I don't even think it should start in high school I think it should start in middle school I think that's where we should start having the conversations of where do you see yourself where do you
053want to be um and then we start driving that home as you guys continue to get into high school um and that goes back to having that guidance counselor having those conversations so they can help you navigate that landscape whether it's an internship whether to um sorry whether what Erica had mentioned as far as just um doing those day-to-day activities um regarding that particular field that you may have interest in and again I want to say it goes back to the community because we are here to support you but we need to make sure that we understand where you guys want to Pivot and have that path forward because ultimately at the end of the day you guys are the future and however we can help you that's how we should be able to do
054that that question reminds me of a conversation that I had with my son who's currently in college and I recall asking him his junior year what do you want to be or who do you want to be and he thought that it was such an unreasonable question at 16117 and it really is and it makes me think as as an educator our responsibility is to give you all of the experiences you need to be successful or to pursue your goals and even if you don't know at age 16 it is my responsibility as an educator to give you all of the experiences that your heart desires so that you can make an informed decision everybody may not want to go to college some people may want to go into the workforce some people may want
055to become an entrepreneur right after college but it is our responsibility to give you all of the experiences that you need to make decisions and let's just say after you've gone into the workforce and you say you know what I think I do want to go to college I hope that the experience you get right here in sd308 will set you on that path to even pivot if that is what you want to do well I'm in the business of helping people I really like to be able to come up with a solution and have preventative measures so I'm going to use this opportunity to just share uh wealth of information with you guys I want you to know that whether either you're going to a community college or a four-year College you can still
056take a licensing exam certification course or even do a vocational training and have prevailing wages if you're at current employers right now or you're making 14 15 16 an hour that is not going to help with some of the struggles we're going to have moving forward especially if you're going to college on minimum wage and the way you can Bridge those gaps are what I talked about with prevailing wages and just so you guys know if you guys are doing FAA if I said that correctly they are going off of 20 23's numbers and I'll tell you right now a lot of our hardworking families did not make the same amount of money in 24 and going into 25 so there's going to be hardships on different levels so I want to encourage you to
057think about different forms of Education because it could be as quick as three six nine months and you could be making 20 some dollars an hour and still going to community college or even a 4-year University so when you get out you're not going to be encumbered by D I also want to encourage you that if you have a specific skill set where you're amazing at blogging or you're great at you know social media or you're a photographer you have something that you want to share with the world you can go on Cyber Drive illinois.com Secretary of State and you can start your own business right on there whether it's an escorp a corporation they even have trademarks but not everyone is going to share this with you because they want you to just be
058going about the agenda that's put forth with encumbering students with that so thank you for your time I hope that helped thank you all right well that was that's actually a super great question um I bet you a lot of you are are kind of like it might be a Scary World out there what are you thinking about what's going to happen after it uh stop worrying about that learn how to read write and do math well and communicate because those are the four skills you're going to need in the Working World so I work I've had the opportunity to work for dozens of companies over the last 30 plus years I'm a software consultant I started out working for one company I worked for that company for 12 years um and then moved back
059to Illinois here to Togo I've been here for 28 years and from here I've traveled a a lot of places around the state of Illinois around the world there are a lot of amazing opportunities for you guys to do things lots of cool stuff out there to do um but you need to be able to do those four things read well write well communicate and do math you know I learn stuff every day I learned new stuff today I had a I had a meeting with someone from India he was at like 9:30 in his evening someone from Germany a couple clients of mine from Wisconsin and someone on the East Coast but we were working together on new stuff so there's new stuff coming out every day especially I work in the software world
060and lots of exciting things I get to see a lot of cool stuff how things are made in factories walk walk the factory line see how things are made shipped um all kinds of fun stuff and just look forward to what you can do I had no idea what I was going to do in high school uh didn't really figure it out till after I got out of college so um but but just just do the basics learn learn what you're supposed to learn right now in your classes uh listen to your teachers I took my inspiration time so we will turn it over to our students they will get an opportunity to ask the candidates questions we will limit it to three questions does anyone have a question I'll pass the mic around hi
061guys um my name is Evelyn I'm a senior atgo I had a question about um kind of like the No Child Left Behind policy idea not the exact policy so this is also regarding to cell phones so in school like we're being told we're putting our cell phones away which I completely understand I understand the knowledge behind that but as a student the thought process I have during this is if I do not have a personal issue with having to put away distractions or devices not just cell phones why am I being told to put away stuff that I can handle in class and it's not this isn't just me being like Oh I want my phone in class it's like regarding like if you're spending extra time on extra units going over explanations if
062kids are not paying attention at what point are you like subjecting the greater good to being I don't want to say like put down but like at what point are you like putting the rest of the class behind to get this one or a few students to catch back up is there a way you guys think you could combat that or help create a system to where we're not necessarily having to stop everyone to just help a few kids or is there just a way to kind of resolve this problem so I'm not sure I got the exact question there's a lot in there so I'm trying to unpack it but uh so so I you're talking about cell phones in the class and how that can be distracting and how yeah I was just
063using that more as an example yeah because um I know especially like in my experience most of my classes I have to put my cell phone away which is 100% okay I'm not like complaining about that I just don't understand as to why if a few kids are struggling from this distraction personally from my experience why is everyone being subjected to this I don't want to say punishment but I don't have a better word for it so so I'll give you a little different perspective I'm the oldest one here I'm sure by ways and we didn't have cell phones until I was in the Working World pretty much you know halfway through my working career and I look at it as and I have a grandson in high school here at o weo high school
064so um so I know what what he does and what he struggles with with that as well and it's really about the learning environment so so I think my my biggest thing on the cell phones would be we really need them off in the classrooms for the most part unless you're in some sort of a class where there's actually free time and if you've completed your work and the teachers allowed that but for the most part we need a spot where you're not distracted if if we can do that we can accomplish that in the classroom why shouldn't you be able to have it you know at lunch hour whatever I I don't see a big issue with that I can even tell you that back in the day when those first uh type of
065games came out we had them in the lunchroom when we were kids it wasn't a problem you know and as long as you didn't have them out in the classroom if you had them out in the classroom the teacher would take it away so that's how it work so I know what you mean by the No Child Left Behind Act because you're supposed to make sure that every child has the interventions and services that they need and that when you don't have enough staff or social workers or teacher aids that's how that can impact your experience in the classroom I know you guys have larger classroom sizes so I do understand that the frustration can be on different levels and that's why we really need to bring on more teacher aids more social workers because
066that means those kids in the classroom could not be getting the services that they need whether it's being pulled out or for social work and then it's a distraction to the rest of the class so I do get your perspective uh but we need to make sure we somehow help our teach teachers out because one teacher for a you know a student body of 28 to 35 like that that's not even acceptable in the daycare world so that shouldn't be acceptable at our public school so thank you for bringing that up I appreciate it so I honestly as mentioned earlier I isolate back and forth on this topic because it's a complex topic to your point if if I don't need that guidance if I can have my cell phone out and it's not a
067distraction is what I'm thinking that you're asking um it doesn't bother it's not impeding my ability to learn however my counterpart it's impeding their ability to learn um why is it that I have to acquest to the request to put away my phone is what I think that you're asking um kind of sort of yes okay yeah in general I think that there are some missed opportunities right in terms of being able to teach like digital citizenship right um and I don't think cell phones are going away anytime soon right but then from the other perspective of it I also see the loss of instructional time as well where teachers are asking students please put away your phone and then students may say I don't have out my phone what are you talking about like
068that's a lot of lost time sometimes so I see it from multiple perspectives what I can say if I was um to become a board member I would adhere to whatever the state guidance is again I definitely want some structures in place place though that when there are specific times that you would need the phone to be sure that those systems are in place I agree with the other candidates and Echo to the same s sentiments however as mentioned definitely having a balanced approach will be key we want to make sure we understand and hear your voices because there will be times where we may not understand it and that's just coming from a parent so we definitely want to make sure that your voice is continuing to be heard so with that I would
069just ask if you do see some inconsistencies please let us know um let your Administration know let your teachers know because we can't do other um areas of improvement or understand your voice without hearing your voice so please continue to speak up and ensure that we are doing the best that we can I uh I've seen a lot of studies that say that the schools where the kids put their phones in a pouch at the beginning of the day and don't get them back to the end of the day it it encourages the kids to talk to each other and like they weren't before because as soon as the bell rang they were instantly into their phone and their attention was directed there so I while I I understand your point as you're not really
070punishing everyone but I think there's a a um an opportunity to get to know your fellow students more if you're not if you're still in the classroom and not out out you know distracted by your phone um I think it would help with a lot of the issues that we talked about at the beginning with um people using slurs and name calling if you actually communicate with each other more friendly uh that you may we may see a reduction in that um if I'm elected to the board I think it's a it's a discussion that's going to continue and the board will have to come up with a policy probably but um I just just as a parent and knowing my own experience with my phone I think it um it's beneficial for everyone to
071kind of put them down and focus on what you're doing at the time I'm gonna take a different direction did you also want to know a little bit about curriculum and I was just my question was more of just like asking like if there's a better way to structure um just like specifically like taking certain aspects of the classroom away not just phones but like I feel like oftentimes in a lot of my classes everyone is being told to do a certain procedure even though it may not help everyone and that's more of my question I was just wondering if there's a way to better focus on those certain individuals who need help because I feel like a lot of times we're taking more of a generalized approach yeah no I completely understand um and
072so one I had mentioned the curriculum audit earlier and one of the issues that was identified is that a lot of the teachers in the district are creating their own materials um and and that takes a lot especially for you all your high school teachers like they teach more than one class they have several different classes and if they're preparing materials for every single class and they're teaching you during the day and they're grading everything you turn in that is a lot of time and a lot of bandwidth so um so one of the issues that the district is dealing with is making sure that the teachers know what resources they have available to them so that they don't have to spend their time creating things for everybody because that should be done more consistently
073throughout the district um and with that there will also be more opportunities for them to first of all have some bandwidth freed up to be able to do more differentiation more different things in class for different Learners and different um preferences maybe and then as well they will also um be able to identify the need for intervention a little bit earlier so it might be that those students that like you kind of alluded to there are some students that might be a little bit behind or they might have a little uh it might take a little more time to catch up and the rest of the classes maybe getting bored maybe getting a little unruly maybe wants to be doing something else or moving forward ideally those students will be identified earlier um in addition
074to that there's also a lot of um what we call high impact practices which are things like it's called Universal Design for Learning which okay I'm sorry I'll tell you about it some other time it's fascinating oh oh my gosh okay um okay Andrew uh hello my name is Andrew madano I'm a junior at ASO High School um I'm the founder and president of a mock trial Club at oi and I'm here uh representing our club today here with some of our fellow members um so both of my parents are involved in education so um the decisions that you all are and the policies you all are promoting um is something that really matters to me because I know it's not only going to affect me but also my parents um and so a question
075I wanted to ask is about mental health um I know that teachers and staff here in sd308 and in any teaching role um have to do a lot right for their kids and I know that it's a very rewarding job but that can also be a job that's you know can be taxing on mental health so my question to you all um is what specific policies uh will you introduce as a board member to support the mental health of staff and teachers in sd308 that is the million dooll question sir thank you um so I um one thing that is really um that I feel very passionately about and this is I don't know this might be the most controversial thing I say is um is teacher burnout uh teacher burnout workshops because a lot
076of times what teachers do is they have these workshops because someone in charge of professional development is like oh our teachers are really tired and our teachers are exhausted and they don't have any bandwith and then they give a training on like breathing exercises which is not necessar neily um going to fix the problem because realistically that time could have been used to organize a classroom or do some extra grading so I think what I would most like to do is engage with the teachers and find out what it is they need because in some cases it might be something like mental health support it might be something like like you know learning some practices that can so they can better support themselves but in other cases it might just be an extra hour or
077two in your classroom it might just be setting up a room it might be designating time for grading it might just kind of throwing them a bone with some of the some of the things they already have um on their plate so I would really want to engage um in the with the teachers to find out what they need um and help them however they feel would be best I'm married to a teacher uh from another school district so I understand I see it from the home perspective uh I think the biggest thing we could do to help our teachers is try to roll back those class sizes because if you think about it if you if a teacher goes from 25 students to 30 over five class periods that's an extra 25 students that
078they're now having a grade papers for and if it's 10 minutes to grade a test it takes 250 minutes and it just adds up exponentially I don't know if we're there financially but I would love to see us work on getting there to reduce class sizes uh I think that um there's a lot of misconception about teachers that they're lazy they don't work in the summer so therefore they don't deserve to be paid what they're paid I think as a community we need to uh support all the teachers because they do a job that most of us cannot do um I would love to see us maybe look into having parent volunteers come in and take some of that menial stuff that teachers have to do off their plate making copies or setting up Labs
079I I those are just some suggestions that I have off the top of my head so as you may see on my shirt it says you are enough and that deals truly with mental health especially in the healthcare industry we have seen the numbers uh significantly um continue to grow especially after covid so mental health just across the board whether you're a student whether you're a parent whether you're a caregiver those numbers are definitely continuing to increase whether Financial whether just different burdens that every person sometimes carries so what I would say with that it goes back to Resource goes back to community but most importantly like today we're having these conversations we need to understand where each and every person is at because we are very diverse and in order to understand your needs
080we need to have conversations much like we're having today so I definitely believe having the resources making sure that we are being impactful but most importantly intentional in each and every space so we can understand the mental health so we can make sure that you guys are thriving and of course the teachers too because without the teachers where are our students where are we as a whole and I do want to be clear when we say mental health we're talking in regards to Educators correct okay perfect um so I think I see it from multiple lends um I do lead an HR department and that being said I have to look at it from the end of the insurance and when you're negotiating insurance and being sure that you have um packages that actually address
081right mental health and teachers are able or educators are able to to tap into that from you know just from a health perspective I think from um I think when we think about what happens right here at school it is about how we are supporting teachers this is a tough job I've been doing it for 20 plus years and the one thing that keeps me coming back is when I work for with Incredible leaders and I work on an incredible team and so making sure that it is a culture that is positive it's a culture that is supportive it is a culture that sees them Beyond just the teach teacher but it's a culture that understands your human too and so how are we making teachers feel appreciated we're coming up to teacher appreciation very
082soon hopefully there are just some pretty amazing ways that we're showing gratitude and so it's not just what you're doing one day but what you're doing every single day and how you are supporting Educators thank you uh some I know that you had asked what kind of policies or what kind of plans would we bring uh if everyone doesn't know we actually have 30% of students that are a part of lowincome families and so if we're talking about classroom sizes maybe we could do something where we could bring in more teacher aids I know uh Erica was talking about how financials could be an issue but there is a place called uh it's called CPD it is a nationwide program where they go out and you work with either staff Administration teachers and they create
083certification programs I think it would be really amazing if we could give back to these low-income families bring teacher aids in with different levels of certification that could be built within the district so we're helping community and teachers so they don't feel that burnout that we're talking about and I've heard so many of you Echo how you want to have better connections with your teachers let's talk about block scheduling again I had it when I was at ohos way back when in 2005 when I graduated but you guys could have more one-on-one time with your teachers and get the extra help and services that you need and so giving back to the community certification programs and block scheduling are how I would like to better serve mental health and District 308 thank you it's so
084really good question uh sometimes difficult topic I think number one we have to keep the resources that we have in place and we have to provide them the support that they need you know as far as policy goes to me how do you improve the mental health of of a community and I I think it's you have to have a positive environment where everyone feels safe and secure so so I think it starts with that it starts with a you know a positive environment where everyone's really there to support each other and help each other and and learn so it so our our goal here is for learning it's for your success it's for Student Success and I think we need to focus on that right so opportunities more opportun how do you get there
085you get more opportunities uh that might be Athletics it might be the Arts you know it might be science for some and I think what we have to do is expand opportunities and I think we have a lot but I think only a certain percentage of the students are able to take advantage of that and I think we need to expand it more so right we also need to look at opportunities when you get out of school like um how many people are going to go to college that's great I think we have a great curriculum from that what about trades do we need to we have and I know because I have sons that graduated from ASO High um we had some good uh trades programs then but do we have enough can we
086expand there it was one of the things I enjoyed the most when I was in high school was my different trades classes I had four years of trade starting with a freshman year we had six different opportunities and then you could kind of pick from there and go into that all the way to your senior year so I think to me to me about how do you improve that environment that that you're all in it's more opportunities more focus on your success how are you going to be Su successful in the future and it's by succeeding now in school learning the most you can and then you know kind of figuring out what your path is thank you for your time we'll have one more person you can choose no you can choose um you
087okay okay I'm taking it oh my God you can just answer have her sorry hi I'm Vanessa Huggins and we're all with BSA actually and the question that we have today is about um extracurricular clubs like MSA BSA or even lasso um my question is what do you guys think about the clubs like MSA and BSA that represent specific cultures or religions and what do you guys think about like the future for those clubs and do you guys think that those clubs help our school Community okay so my question was what do you guys think about clubs like MSA BSA or lasso um that represent specific cultures or religions and how do you think that MSA or BSA or any other CLS that represent these type of things um benefit our school community and what
088do you guys see for the future of these clubs thank you okay so BSA is black Student Association and MSA is Muslim Student Association and last is La American yeah so they for all right since I get the mic I guess I'll take it first so so just as I was talking about in the last question is really I I'm all about opportunities for students um and you know to the extent that we have to abide by our US Constitution law we have to be within that as long as we're within those boundaries I think the more opportunities for for all of our students um we we should have those we should uh have opportunities to promote that and uh you know those are the things that I think really help enhance your learning environment
089so after school programs um a again Athletics sports clubs um Arts um theater those kind of things I think we need to just work what we can to make sure we have all the opportunities available to all of our students at the end of the day it's about focusing on what's going to make you successful in the long run and I think one of the things that that in the Working World and like I said I've worked in in dozens of different companies across the United States and you have to be able to meet and understand people and I work with people from around the world every day I've worked um overseas I've done all that and it's good to have opportunities where you can have social hopefully you can put your phone Downs where
090you're in these clubs too right so but we can get away from that but yes let's let's make all sure we have all the opportunities we can get thank you uh actually this is a good question so thank you for bringing it up because I did want to ask since you guys are a part of this group you know these different groups and just raise your hand if you can do you get the opportunity to be active on the platform and post relative content to what's actually going on is that happening okay okay uh just because there were a few groups that I've I feel like some of the ones that I have seen when I've gone on either the Facebook or the Instagram like hundred and some followers or 98 and I feel like
091these groups and these platforms are severely underserved but then when you go and you look at Athletics you look at Art you know you look at on music they have a huge amount of followers so this is a bridge that we need to Gap because there's not enough visibility where people know that these groups are taking place and how they can support it as community members especially when we talk about Partnerships and collaborations we need to make sure that it's out there so then the community can access it the students have access to it and there's enough resources to support these groups so let's better bridge this Gap that that really needs to be served thank you so um I remember being in undergrad and I was a part of black student union I was
092also a part of a number of clubs I was with thesbian I was also a part of amn the international so that wasn't the only club that I was a part of but I remember needing that um space because I needed to be able to relate to people who shared the same culture that I shared um who perhaps they were raised very similar to me um those spaces were really important um to be honest with you I don't think that I could have um completed college if I didn't have those spaces um it is really important that you are able to connect um that you feel a sense of belonging and so I will always advocate for any space or any Affinity space that students need whether it be something that is specific to a
093culture um if it is specific to um beliefs religious if it's specific to um extracurricular Sports I think that it is critically important that students are able to see themselves at school and that there is a sense of connection so so grow growing up in District 204 a very diverse population much like District 308 I consider you guys a Melting Pot as far as just diversity culture religion and so forth on so I do believe representation does matter everyone should be able to understand a unique perspective because when you go to Corporate America or whether you go to um just different areas and Pathways that you may decide you need to be able to understand that particular person but most importantly be empathetic and I think that's where it starts when you have these conversations
094when you're able to understand different cultures different religions and so forth on so to have these particular associations at the high school level and even in middle school I think it's fantastic I'd like to see more because again diversity is key and you will see that more and more as you continue to grow yourself uh I agree with uh some of my fellow candidates I think they're they're great programs I think that uh kids need to be in a group that make them feel comfortable and I would love to see um the groups uh talk to each other so that you guys are sharing your experiences and your differences because those are all so important but then being able to come back to your own space and uh share your experiences um yeah that's all
095I got all right um I also fully support all of the clubs that are um you know all of the clubs but also the ones tied to cultural identity um to religious identity things like that you know and I kind of want to expand on something that Ravel said she said you know she had the experience of being able to associate with people that were raised like her which was really valuable but also like you are in a time where you're kind of figuring yourselves out and I think associating with people that have commonalities but also some differences within that exploring like those differences whether it's intersectionality different immigration Journeys for your families things like that is also really important so I think those clubs allow you a space Not only to connect with other
096people who have similarities but also to kind of figure yourself out and connect with yourself and kind of explore that on a deeper level so absolutely I support them so as we've concluded our questions I will give you candidates an opportunity to leave your lasting remark upon the student and our viewers at home so you can just start and go down or on the end was rough if you don't want to you can pass you still have opportunity to pass if you'd like but this is just an opportunity for you to make your last statement for tonight no um I just want to take a moment to thank you all I don't know when I was in high school if I would have done what you're doing um so congratulations to all of you you're
097awesome um thank you to everyone watching at home hopefully there are people there um but I just want to encourage all of you to go out and vote these elections typically only have 11 to 12% voter turnout um which is really really low obviously we have about 58,000 voters in the district so I just want to take this time to not only thank you all congratulate you but encourage everyone here that is able and everyone at home to go out and vote um before the first if you are going away for spring break please make sure you vote early because election day is the day we get back thank you so much for having me uh I went into to tonight pretty nervous because I find that the questions from you guys are always the
098toughest and they cut right to the quick um I Echo Heather's idea that everyone should vote uh encourage your parents to vote um and I really see good things happening for sd308 and I want to push us in that direction um I have had a great experience with my kids going through the district and I want to continue that process thank you one thing I will continue to Echo is just making sure that your voices are being heard um throughout the campaign and even afterwards and again Community because we are here to support you no I'm not an educator but I'm a parent and I see you guys and I want to make sure that you guys are supported whether mental health whether it's understanding what the budgeting what you know what are the opportunities
099that we have I think conversations are important important but most importantly uh transparency so I do believe that will be key as we continue to move forward so everybody across the board can understand what the future looks like and how we can continue to move forward but awesomely as the two candidates prior uh to me stated please go out and vote every voice counts every vote matters thank you thank you so much for hosting this event it was really important to me I too was a little nervous coming in and I think I was nervous for the fact that this is really about you we are here because of you and what I want you to understand if you do if some of you can vote um definitely please vote um this election really matters
100know that I will always advocate for you I will do what's in the best interest of students first and also it is my goal I've spent 20 plus years removing barriers for students to ensure that they have what they need to thrive as young adults um going into young adulthood so that being said thank you so much for having us I really enjoyed this event thank you again uh for having all of the candidates here I want to thank everyone for putting the questions together and for those taking the extra steps to public speak I know it's not easy you know it's hard sometimes to stand up there so thank you so much for that and then just know that we've been speaking with students for the last 5 years we've been going around to
101Kendall and King County School so I've heard people's voices from students staff and Educators and know that your success matters to me because you guys are going to be the Future Leaders of our nation when I'm old and I can't do it anymore so your success matters in education and the workforce so make sure you get out there and you start voting March 17th and like they said spring break is right around the corner so uh election day is also on April 1 but uh thank you so much for having me thank you thank you again just like everyone else um you guys did an amazing job putting this together I apologize again I'm ready to serve my detention um for being late so I'm sorry for that um again to me there there is
102an amazing world with amazing opportunities out there for you and you know just get ready for it but uh take it one day at a time don't worry about it too much um learn as much as you can during your days here in school um four simple things learn how to read write do math and communicate and all your other subjects will will take care of themselves and you know just I love the opportunity to learn I hope you guys can do that too it's about Student Success that's our my number one priority that's you Student Success two Safety and Security you got to have safety Safety and Security it's kind of hard to have Student Success without Safety and Security three as a board member this is the job we're running for it's fiscal
103responsibility spend the money wisely that the taxpayers entrusted to us to help educate you um four is teacher empowerment I really want your teachers to be able to do their best and do their best job and have uh roadblocks removed from them and finally uh collaboration with your parents we need your parents here too we want to we want to see from them we want to hear from them we want them to know that they're following what you're doing and so you can discuss that with them so um that's that's what I'm running for that's why I got in this race and uh I'm very honored to have the opportunity here thank you okay so okay so thank okay so thank you thank you to all the candidates for sharing your perspective and taking the
104time to engage with us tonight as students we appreciate leaders who value our voices and commit to making decisions that impact our education in future we look forward to seeing how you continue to advocate for the success and well-being of all students in our districts again thank you for sharing thank you for engaging and sharing your perspectives and have a great evening okay