001hi and welcome to an actin tv candidates forum ahead of the town election in march this forum is co-sponsored by the league of women voters you will meet all 11 candidates on the march 30 acton ballot each will begin with an opening statement if they are in a competitive race they will also be asked a few follow-up questions from the acton-area league of women voters my name is mark ducey i'm the executive director of acton tv which serves the town acton tv is a non-profit community media center and television studio we operate the public education and government channels on local cable television we also offer all of our videos on demand at actontv.org as well as actin tv's youtube channel you can also follow us on facebook and twitter my co-host today for this candidate's
002forum is lori cooney from the league of women voters thanks mark the league would like to thank acton tv and you for providing your venue and your expertise to produce this forum before we get started i want to take a moment to give the elevator pitch for the league of women voters celebrated its 100th anniversary this past year it's a non-partisan grassroots organization fully committed to diversity equity and inclusion in principle and practice because we are nonpartisan we do not support candidates or political parties however we do take positions on issues we welcome new members now let's get started we are going to begin with the school committee candidates there are four candidates running for two open seats our first candidate tonight is benjamin blumenthal hi ben thank you for volunteering to serve your town
003you have two to five minutes to introduce yourself thank you mark and lori for the warm introduction for those of you who may not know me my name is benjamin blumenthal and i've lived here in acton for over 10 years with my wife dora neet and son aaron who's a fourth grader at the conan elementary school the reason why i'm running for school committee is that i believe that we are on the precipice of change in our town specifically the old norms that were once acceptable are no longer acceptable and as times change we need leadership that embodies that change to be there that being said having worked for state government for nearly 20 years both at the office of the state auditor and the mbta having taught in various religious schools in the area
004and now currently working in research finance in the cardiovascular department at the brigham and women's hospital i feel i bring that unique perspective and leadership necessary to form in in the form of finance teaching and research management to shepherd our community forward in these challenging times furthermore as a student in the early 80s who benefited from having an iep in the town of weston i can speak firsthand on the experiences i had in how important it is to have inclusive education that lifts everyone up as i was a benefactor of that myself lastly i'm involved in the community as a parent in my son's cub scout pack along with the acton democratic town committee along with other volunteer organizations in and around acton therefore on march 30th i'm asking you for your vote as i
005believe with my experience on the job and in the community will help serve you the citizens of acton on the school committee thank you thank you ben and thank you for volunteering to serve your town uh these are we're going to ask you a few questions and um these are from the league of women voter acton area the first one you answered a little bit in your opening statement but it is why are you running and what relevant experience do you have for the job um as i indicated the reason why i'm running is that um we are in so need of the leadership within our town when it comes to um the changes that we're seeing here in acton and with the two spots opening up on the school committee i believe that now
006is the time for change for big change here in acton so therefore i'm running on on uh a platform of you know combating racism and that comes in you know various forms that we've seen in the town and i'm sure we'll be talking about that later on in the interview along with addressing the issues with covid and then lastly where my you know wheelhouse is with budgetary issues and ensuring that we can complete the work that we've begun on both the gates and douglas hybrid school to ensure that we're on budget on time and that we can really introduce to the community a wonderful new school that will benefit not only the students but the faculty and the staff who work there okay thank you the next one does involve the current state of things
007um the school committee has had a difficult year managing the changing demands of covet responding to racist attacks on sitting school committee members and concern that our students will have fallen behind and not able to make up for losses sustained during the pandemic we'd like your thoughts on how to bring back a sense of normalcy to the students well as a parent as i indicated of a fourth grader at conan we're living through this on a daily basis in terms of trying to adjust the new normal that is right now and how we return so in terms of responding to your questions um in order regarding racism i'm concerned about the increase of racism bigotry and xenophobia here in town in particular the racist attacks over the past couple of years along with the anti-semitic
008attacks that we've seen in town have left an indelible mark on our community unfortunately and we have a lot to do to ensure that acton is truly a warm and welcoming place i think that by being on the school committee and speaking out against these attacks forcefully and making sure that folks in the town who are at the most who are most vulnerable can should know that they have a partner in the school committee with me in terms of covid um like all other parents you know i'd love to see my son return to school five days a week i believe that it's possible to do however in order to do so we need to rely on the expertise of our public health experts along with working with our school committee members and also working
009with the faculty in order to bring the kids back hopefully this year because it would be nice to see schools back in order and then lastly in terms of i believe it was the budgetary what was the final question again i'm sorry the the pandemic the covenant 19 and then we asked the people okay yeah excellent um so in conclusion i think we can bring um a sense of normalcy back by working together bringing in our public health experts working with various community organizations to continue to address racism bigotry and xenophobia in our town in order to hopefully by next year see some semblance of normalcy and to see our schools fully functioning and operational as a warm and welcoming place in our community okay thank you okay this is about the role of the
010school committee what do you believe the two most important rules for school committee member the school committee is um and what skills do you have to meet those challenges so i think the most important role is being a partner with our parent or with our parents good a partner with the parents in our community to ensure that they know that their children are being held within the best interest of the school committee and in terms of my leadership or my experience again nearly 20 years of public service leadership in both the state auditor's office and the mbta i've had the opportunity to go through and look at controlling legislation looking at budgets reconciling budgets together to ensure that you know we meet the letter of the law especially when it came to issues of equity
011at the mbta in transit ridership i would apply those same principles in that same diligence to ensure that there is fair equity uh and treatment of all students throughout our community to ensure that they get the best education possible and then lastly i believe that my leadership roles throughout the community here in acton and in my professional workplaces have allowed me to to really step up to the plate and do the work necessary in order to um facilitate that change necessary here in town great okay um so you're to the end the last question is is there something about abrsd that you would change and how would you go about doing it i think the thing that i would like to see change the most is i'd like to see the temperature lowered within the
012community as somebody who has a child in school and has seen a lot of folks adversely impacted by for example the mascot issue i believe now is the time to move forward and really reconcile with one another to me the the increased temperature that we see in the town and the the two sides fighting amongst each other really impacts our kids the most and by coming together as a community and lifting each other up um you know lifting as we climb as one of my mentors said at the mbta i believe that we really can create change within our town in order to ensure that everybody's treated fairly equitably and kindly and that to me is the most important thing that i would like to see great thank you so much for uh kicking this
013forum off i really appreciate you taking the time to speak with us my pleasure okay our next candidate is kara osselman she's running for school committee cara go ahead and introduce yourself you have two to five minutes hello uh lori it's really nice to be here tonight it is really nice to be running for school committee and thank you for giving me the opportunity to introduce myself uh my name is cara osselman i moved to this community of boxborough um in 2003 with my husband at the time we had an 18 month old child and here we are uh in the meantime i have a freshman in college and two children uh in the high school so time truly does fly when you're having fun and it it has been a lot of fun um
014so our our three children went through grade school at blanchard which was just a wonderful um grade school for them to go through they had a they had warm caring teachers they had a wonderful faculty then uh they had a high degree of parent involvement and they had um and i was a class parent for much of that time and that was a real like joy of parenthood for me that was a really great time um we moved to acton about three and a half years ago we wanted to be closer to the middle school in the high school and i have to say uh that's been great fun i mean it's been a privilege to live in both box borough and cross the border into acton and see how acton lives so um that's
015i mean that's just been we've been very fortunate like that um so as i said we we had a high schooler graduate in 2020 during covid and even that was a good experience i mean the community made that a good experience so here we are with two children still in high school and um we're just we're just going along as far as my educational background is concerned i um i studied as an undergraduate in philosophy and german and history and then i wanted to start a master's degree in philosophy and so i went to the university of glasgow in scotland where uh where adam smith of the um of the famed invisible hand taught so that was a good that was a good pursuit um and it i thought i would stay there however during
016that year the berlin wall fell and based on discussions with my father and certain family obligations i decided to apply for a fellowship at the university of berlin so i did in fact do that and i finished a master's degree in philosophy at the university of berlin in conjunction with suny at albany which was my home university so once that was over i um i had learned a lot and that led to an interest in getting an mba at the university of rochester so that's where i finished my formal education with an mba at the university of rochester um after a stint in high tech marketing at a company in stuttgart i um came back to the boston area where i married my husband we had our first child and and then subsequently moved to
017boxborough and now acted so that is how i find myself here my educational experience will help me serve the community as a member of the school committee but even more important than that is my experience as a parent and um acton-boxborough has been a wonderful community and a wonderful school for our three children and i would like to give back and i would like to serve the community um as a member of the school community um and i also think based on the time that i've been here and the the issues that i have um witnessed since i've been here i mean you know there's a lot going on in the world right now and i think that's reflected um in our school and in our community and i also think that now that my
018children are a little bit older i finally have you know some bandwidth where i can actually contribute to the greater community through serving on a school committee okay thank you kara um so we uh you answered a little bit uh in your opening statement but our first question is why are you running and what relevant experience do you have for the job well the relevant experience i have for the job is the experience of living in this community for almost 20 years i mean this community has changed a lot during this time but um the fact that it remains a wonderful place to live and to put your kids through school i mean my experience is a lived experience i mean i also have a strong and robust educational background that will contribute and has
019contributed to the lives of you know the people i've come in contact with in this community but it's a way for me to serve and a way for me to give back to this school that has given our family a lot you know my kids are very happy and successful and that's in large part due to the schools here great okay um so the school committee has had a difficult year managing changing demands of clovid19 responding to the racist attacks on sitting school committee members and concern that our students will have fallen behind and not able to make up for losses sustained in the pandemic what are your thoughts on how to bring back a sense of normalcy well lori you have uh covered a lot in that question you have coven 19 you have
020racism and you have um the losses in in the time that the children are experiencing those are those are each each one of those is a large topic and a large question um i feel like you know the quicker we can get our community and our teachers vaccinated and the quicker that we can get the children back in school that is going to lead to a sense of normalcy um all three of these are extremely important aspects of your question but the losses in school time i think are what um what what many parents are struggling with right now and that's a i i would like to listen to any ideas the community has um i do not think additional screen time is the answer to that for our children i think they have been
021suffering with that and so the question remains how do we best bring them up to speed especially in um you know subjects that generally take more time like mathematics and and harder you know harder um harder topics for them so i um and i am actively involved in thinking about what is the best thing to do and i would like to work with the community in order to find a solution to all of those problems including the racism that that um this community has experienced great you're halfway there there's only two more questions um what do you believe are the two most important roles the school committee plays two most important roles the school committee plays and what attributes or specific skills do you have to meet those challenges well i think one large role
022that the school committee plays it's it's a place where everything in the community comes to the table right there are just concerns that parents have in having you know their children are generally the most precious things to them so the children come into an interface in the school in a public way for the first time so you have the um you have the issues of young children parents giving up their young children from the home into the school and then you have the problem well the issue in the high school of parents sending their their children from this long you know cocoon-like place into the greater world so you have the children coming into the school system and then you have them going out into the wider world and i think the school committee is
023the central place where you know all the topics come up you know everybody in the community needs to feel like they have a place where they can come and bring their concerns to the table and the school community the biggest role that i can play and generally the role that i play is listening to stakeholders listening to each p person or and and and their um concerns that they have and then bringing them into a forum into the public sphere where they can um be you know addressed and heard and solved lori you're muted so sorry thank you mark is there something about abrsd that you would change and how would you go about doing that boy this is a great question i mean i have not yes i would like to affect incremental change
024i would like to take each of these problems that the school has and and change them for the better i would like equity i would like inclusiveness i would like no bullying i would like a strong commitment to mental health i would like incremental change and improvement i mean large incremental change and improvement on all of those issues however when you ask me you know is there anything i would change completely no there's no like one it's not like we have any large faults that need to be changed i mean boston magazine even we're ranked number one now for what that's worth i mean it's a great community and it's a great school and we need to affect improvements and we need to affect some change but but as far as well large systemic change
025other than than say racism you know yes i would like to have large systemic change on that issue and i would like to make improvements on all of these issues okay thank you very much that's all we need from you tonight thanks for serving your town thank you lori thank you so much and please vote for me in the town wide election on on march 30th okay our next candidate for school committee is andrew schwartz thank you andrew for volunteering for your town we would like you to introduce yourself to the voters you have two to five minutes so go whenever you're ready yeah thanks lori thanks for having me thank you for inviting me to this discussion i think the work that the league does to promote voting and inform the electorate it's incredibly
026important my name is andrew schwartz and i'm running for a seat in the acton-boxborough school committee he has a proud parent of four boys in the district i believe we're at an incredible inflection point in learning and i want to help our district become a place where our kids can thrive we've lived in acton for about three years having lived previously in wall famine and cincinnati ohio and we're impressed this is an amazing area we have neighbors who were born here and who were born in other countries who span dozens of cultures and religions and who have come together to make acting a great example of what really makes this country great and our 13 year old is in seventh grade at r.j gray i've got a ten-year-old and a seven-year-old we're at douglas they're
027attending the remote learning program currently and our five-year-old has spent the past year in mommy preschool my wife julie and i have both found an opportunity to become involved in areas in our town my my wife julie's involved with the ducks douglas pto which on the board of acton-boxborough youth baseball i'm on the school councils of both douglas and rj gray and i might possibly be doug the eagle my background is in strategic consulting it really is about finding solutions to nagging problems i've owned my own businesses i've established and run innovation labs for fortune 5 companies i've been a midwife for startups i've worked in the agency world and in healthcare and financial services and entertainment non-government organizations i love solving problems and i think that the world's full of natural and artificial barriers
028natural barriers are important they're like laws regulations restrictions the artificial ones are the ones that stop us because we've always done things in a certain way they're the politics the good enoughs the always dones those need to be barreled through that experience has brought me the spec perspective on how to help communities like ours i've had the privilege of sitting on boards for ohio valley voices and oral deaf school outside of cincinnati and ohio i'm on the board for my weekday school of preschool in lexington massachusetts and i'm running for school counts a school committee here excuse me because i want to help i think this past year has been an opportunity for us to look at everything we do with new eyes from snow days to educational tools to the role that technology plays
029in education cultural challenges outside of our schools have brought focus to inequities to hatred and racism anti-semitism and our best path to fight against those darker forces is through education i think building a safe environment for learning safe from infection safe from hatred safe from insecurities safe for mental health is a worthy goal so i'm running for school committee i want to help create the strongest district we can where our kids are able to thrive okay thank you okay so we are going to ask you a few questions these are questions from the acton-area league of women voters every candidate um is getting the same question and uh the first question is uh why are you running and what relevant experience do you have for the job you touched on that in your opening statement
030so you might answer why are you running now um i am i am running now for school committee because i think i can bring some of my experience and insight into solving these new problems your parents and administrators teachers we're all partners in creating great learning environments our job is to give the kids the tools they need to be the best people they can our schools are the center of our community they connect us they make us stronger and they build our future but when our schools work their kids get a love of learning the tools to explore their own curiosities and and the environment where they can grow in incredible ways the school committee helps create the foundation for those results i think that i can bring my experience in working against these artificial
031barriers that i mentioned earlier working through the the respective issues we have to be able to partner with the teachers the staff the administrator other parents to to create a place where it's more than just a job about budgetary reviews and policy exploration it's about setting the tone for how we together can create a district where we're all able to have our students become you know their best selves um i think that i can help in this way because of what i've done in my past and i'm hopeful to be able to help out again at this time okay great um the school committee has had a difficult year managing uh changing demands of covet 19 responding to racist attacks on school sitting school committee members and concern that our students have fallen behind and
032may not be able to make up for losses sustained in this pandemic we'd like your thoughts on how to bring back a sense of normalcy yeah a sense of normalcy is an interesting way of putting it it's not actual enormously we're not going to go back to what 2019 was the best thing that we can do is look at where we are now what we've gone through and how we can go through it cobits pushed everyone to our limits you know the safety of our educators and students they have to be our first priority falling behind's an interesting issue falling behind everyone has fallen behind from what we expected things to be but everyone's on the same path now i think that through a concerted effort of being able to understand where we are currently
033and looking at how we can plan for this next school year we can get back up to speed both educationally and emotionally we have to keep at the forefront of all of this our safety our mental health and to touch on the racism and the hatred that came through uh it's abhorrent i'm jewish i grew up in a community where i'd go to the swimming pool on weekends and i'd see the older folks who had numbers on their arms and it always crossed my mind that you know what a person in in is is not worth talking about but who they are is where you're able to build the real understanding of them and i think that everything that we can do to not only stand up to the people who are going to push
034against but also to help our kids understand the history and the the the value and the power that they have to fight hatred hatred and racism and anti-semitism and anti-religious minister anti-multiculturalism is important and i think it has a giant spot in the center of our schools okay thank you what do you believe the two most important roles the school committee plays and then if you have what attributes or skills do you have to help with those i think one of the most important things the school committee can do is help make the system work so that the parents can work the system you know our our school committee creates the environment for our school district it creates the environment through budget it creates environment through policy it creates the environment through tone it creates
035the environment through understanding the relationship between all the different parties by working to be able to create a great environment for the system to work the parents and the students are able to find their spot and use the system as tools to be able to engage their kids so that they can be as successful as possible okay last question is there something about abrsd that you would change and how would you go about doing it i think we've got an opportunity to look fresh with everything that we're doing and by saying looking fresh i think it's important for us to look at how the structure is laid out look at what we can do to create new efficiencies we've had this year when everything's been paused and we've been able to look like i said
036earlier with new eyes to how we do things i think we can take that as an opportunity to make everything a bit stronger moving forward we can look at the way that our our community utilizes our resources we look at the way that we're using tools to re-navigate to navigate around snow days and sick days we can look at every aspect of the schools are laid out so that we can create a better environment for our kids to be able to learn and thrive so that when they get through all of this and we create our new normalcy we're able to be able to live in a better world because of it we have this opportunity now to be able to innovate to be able to iterate to be able to break down the barriers
037of things that we thought were holding us back and to create a way of having a better use of all of our resources our relationships and our educational tools and because we have a few seconds a few seconds left with this question how would you start to do that i think steps would you take like with anything you have to start by understanding the environment that you have currently measurement understanding looking through doing research to understand not only what the teachers are seeing what the kids are feeling what the parents are expecting and what the you know the desi in the organizations around our district are interested in doing an evaluation of that gives you an idea of where opportunities may exist because not only are we looking at what we've been doing we look
038at where we are have some white space to define inside that white space we can look at additional tools policies processes what have you that opportunity to express what's going on outside of what we've already been doing is where the opportunity can really foster looking and see what other districts are doing whether opportunities have hopped up for other groups allows us to be able to play in that same space and then to create a plan as we go into perhaps this next year to look at what we can learn from what's gone on this year to take the best of what's happened here to take the best of what we had before merge it together to come up with something that is new and effective for our kids because ultimately that's the story here we're
039not doing this i'm not involved in this because i want to you know get my name bigger or to be more prominent in the community i'm doing this because i think i can help express the the the needs that we have inside this district to make it better for our kids so that when my kids go off to college and they're able to build families and they have kids of their own they can look back on the tools they learned to use while they were at a b and become more successful all right thank you very much andrew thanks a lot pleasure thank you our next candidate for school committee is danny fang zhang she is going to give us an opening statement so danny whenever you're ready you have two to five minutes uh
040self introduction like telling the our audience who i am okay yeah my name is danny and i i was born in china came to the u.s in 2002. i remember that it was a christmas eve when my airplane took off from beijing and i came here with my husband my husband at that time was hired as a research scientist at university of illinois so we lived in champaign-urbana illinois the campus of university for six years my two children were born there and before that yeah after that we moved to texas houston and lived there for 19 months then we finally settled in massachusetts yeah so this is uh how yeah this is uh tennis year when i am in acton and yeah my before i came to usa i worked as an editor a text
041chinese textbook editor in beijing um i worked for five years and uh after i came to usa i dedicated i dedicated 16 years or five years to my family raising three kids starting from yeah hours or four years ago i gradually returned to work i gradually returned to work starting from contract work contract job at the community and community interpreter mandarin to english i also worked for lakia hospital yeah as a medical community a medical translator and interpreter part-time right now i'm looking for a full-time teaching position i would say myself a dedicated educator when i was in china i i was a teacher and then i became an education material etiquette editor and i homeschooled my kids for two to three years and right now i just accomplished my second master's degree at mass
042at brandeis university teaching chinese at college so i'm already back to yeah back to society and see what i can give i would see myself as a passionate in defending democracy the reason why i came from a country without democracy and that that's a whole reason i come to usa okay we have the heading question yeah no so um why are you running for school committee and what experience do you have relevant experience you have for the job yeah as i mentioned in my opening statement i i taught chinese in china and i worked for educational publisher and i homeschooled my kids and i also yeah occasionally volunteered volunteers at school my kids school so kind i i really in my life i see how education it is in shaping our society in through i
043say bringing people out of poverty and also i would say education in my perspective education helps in shaping uh democrat democratic society yeah i feel it is my calling to how to say to to join this campaign to get participate in decision making and in the society school education is such an important part in every resident in every family that living acting so i came from china and it is our tradition to emphasize and value education okay great our second question the school committee has had a difficult year managing the the changing demands of covet 19 responding to racist attacks on city school committee members and concern that our students will have fallen behind and not be able to make up for the losses sustained in the pandemic we would like your thoughts on how
044to bring back a sense of normalcy i have three kids yeah why is in middle school why is in elementary school in fifth grade and the second one is in ninth grade the third one actually i i think my oldest one is in 11th grade so i see to myself that children are facing stress to deal with you you know you know different learning mode which they have never faced before and uh especially it is especially difficult for my youngest child the fifth grade the one who is in fifth grade yeah she is we full yeah for in the past we always restrict her time her screen time right now she because she she had to spend i'd say five hours four hours a day yeah as a part of regular school time and after
045that at her regular school time in front of the screen and she doesn't realize sometimes she doesn't feel really feel she is learning or she's at school she feels like yeah the virtual school kind of i should detach her i can see that detachment from real learning and my oldest kids the kids are in high school are doing better so i strongly yeah advocate school go back to normal as soon as possible okay thank you uh what do you believe the two most important roles of the school committee are and what skills do you have to meet those challenges to be honest i have never participated in social organization or institute before and uh i haven't i i would say i have an expectation for school community school committee and i have my own vision
046of what it should look like and what it should do how it should function how should should help to bring our society a better place um i would say first yeah my understand my my ideas myself might change as i all be modified after i actually participate in the discussion of the committee meetings but right now i will stay as an outsider of school community member of the school committee i wish yeah school committee can help in shaping the community and how in integrated parenthood's involvement engagement in decision making it it it acts like a i would say a channel a communication channel can do it yes i connect with parents students and school teachers and administrators we have all the ears open and listen to listen from them this yeah okay final question is
047something about abrsd that you would change and how would you go about doing it um as we all know acton-boxborough especially acting is a town has a diversity of cultures and according to my i just looked at the demographics of acting i realized 25 percent asian population takes 25 percent that's a quarter and uh how many languages the more than five languages speaking are spoken in our community on the copper chinese and what else indian and russian korean parties french african languages japanese and there are some vietnamese hungarian and polish spoken in this community i would like to see you to understand to see deeper more meaningful cultural integration building in this society not skin deep like a like like like skin deep like sterically sterical stereotype of chinese eating dumplings american japanese native sushi
048i really want to see it goes deep and set roots in our community okay thank you very much danny that does it okay so danny was our final school committee member again there are two positions open and there are four candidates andrew cara ben and danny and it is a three-year term so make sure that you get out to the polls on march 30th okay we are going to move on to board of selectmen candidates now we have two candidates running for one position it's a three-year term our first candidate today is fran arsenault and hi fran if you could just introduce yourself to the acton voters you have two to five minutes hi there um i have have been an acton for quite some time uh i've been a volunteer and an engaged citizen
049the entire time i've lived in acton starting with volunteering in my daughter's school school when when my children were young i now serve on the historic district commission and on the steering committee of racial justice for black lives racial justice for black lives is a local a local racial group that formed after the murder of george floyd being a part of this group has helped me learn and grow as a person and a community member it has also made me recognize the work we have to do as a community to denounce racism in our town i've i've learned a lot about my town standing on a corner racial justice for black lives is currently working to find better ways to assist community members i can't stress enough how being a part of this group has
050been such a positive and personal learning experience and i am passionate about making acton a welcoming and safe place for all residents i'm running for the acting board of selectmen because i have a diverse set of skills that i've developed in my years of volunteering attending town meetings and board meetings and also as a realtor i chose my career because of the things that are very important to me which are building relationships helping people and creating community being responsible for helping individuals through the homes home selling or buying process can be very intense intimate and a complex process in a very short period of time you are listening advising and learning about an individual's an individual specific needs and wants negotia negotiating on behalf of those individuals and finally delivering i know how to get
051things done if elected to the board i would bring listening skills empathy and the goal of offering all community community members a seat at the table i also think the town governing body should be a reflection of its community and be made up of men women and people of color a diverse collective body of members making decisions and creating policy as a team that that's why i'm hopeful for acton's future with the newly formed commission uh the diversity equity and inclusivity commission that has been charged with a task of documenting racism in actin i have attended most of their meetings since they began and attending these meetings has given me the appreciation of the hard work that has been placed on the black asian and people of color that are working so hard on this
052commission the work is ongoing therefore this commission should also last more than the one year period it has been granted um part of the campaign process that i have really enjoyed has been meeting with community community members via zoom we've been hosting meet and greets which has been a great way for for community members to learn a little about me and and for me to learn about issues that are important to a wide variety of actonians and and some of the topics we discuss are um you know concern about the kmart parcel and as you all know the k the kmart parcel has been empty for almost a year and the mcdonald's space close to 13 or 14 years and as a board member i would take filling that space seriously and fill it with
053something that meets the needs of the community what i've heard from community community members is a longing for a gathering space such as a community center from others low-cost shopping and some folks express the idea of mixed-use buildings lower level for retail with housing above and in in addition to the kmart parcel we need to focus on all the other empty storefronts in town um we need to find creative ways to determine what's important to the residents and to figure out ways to attract businesses um currently i know that an asian market is going into the old willow book space which i think is a great use of that space and we need to bring more special tea shops like that to town and i know affordable housing is also a hot topic as a
054realtor um i know that developers benefit greatly from building 4db developments and under the 4db law they they're able to skirt local town zoning to create developments under the guise of affordable housing which results in developers making a huge profit on the units and houses that are not so affordable for many people another another issue that's talked about is climate change and there are many ways to address the climate emergency many strategies and tactics are already being engaged by the town including reducing the human impact of fossil fuels and and material waste i fully support the long list of projects that acton's green advisory board is promoting and i fully support the acting climate coalition's efforts to slow stop the increase in natural gas use and in closing being on the historic district commission shows
055my commitment to preserving acton's rich history my passion for working against racism and other current issues illustrates my commitment to working with the diversity of actonians who live here i humbly ask for your vote to serve on the board of selectmen so i can be part of moving acton forward to meet the challenges of 2021. thank you okay so our first question uh uh you is why are you running and what relevant experience do you have for the job i think you explained your experience pretty well but i think it would be good to address why you chose to run for board of selectmen right now so i chose i made the decision specifically um watching the board form the charge around racism in actin i think that we need to have much more progressive
056ideas and aggressive work towards denouncing racism okay um our second question kind of is a little bit about that the selectmen have had a difficult year managing changing demands on covid19 responding to racist and anti-semitic incidents and addressing the needs of the community facing financial challenges we'd like your thoughts on how the town moves forward out of covid the racist incidents and the financial challenges how do we move forward united so i think that um once the pandemic when people start getting vaccinated and and i think covid maybe eases up a little bit i'm keeping my fingers crossed i think that will remove some of the anxiety and stress um i think the the deic has been handling they have a full plate and are working for the town to tackle um you know um
057documenting racism in town and i think that will be a big help um and also the financial struggles of people in town um as far as um i don't know i know that there are some sort of um tax relief programs for for elderly folks which can be taken advantage of um and i know that the the current board has done a great job with grants for businesses in town so hopefully we'll slowly move out of the the fog okay great um you listed a lot of priorities can you like name a couple that are your top priorities and how you are going to go about implementing them just briefly my top priority is um if i were elected i would work with the deic um and continue their charge they were they're only charged
058for a year and i think that this is something that should continue um i think that um you know working with a town on racism is ongoing it's almost never-ending um and educating maybe having forums um the deic is working on a survey for the town which will be great data to gather that really is one of my top priorities along with bringing businesses back to town and finding creative ways to do that um i've been ducking into various meetings which is so easy to do with zoom and you know the economic and development committee has great ideas i think people are really centered around kmart so it'll be interesting what comes out of that yeah okay our next question is about kmart um now that kelly's corner project is all but approved what is
059your take on the kmart property how it should be used and you you kind of mentioned what you what you thought would happen so i guess i would add to that how would you attract those businesses so i think the community has to figure out what they how they want what they want to do with that parcel i mean it's not owned by acton stop and shop owns the parcel so we don't have control over it i think that like i said earlier community members have have opinions and it would be great to have some sort of formal survey to see what people feel about that um and i know that uh for for having housing or even mixed use housing with retail on the bottom the zoning would have to be changed for that
060parcel yep okay thank you okay last question how would you balance the desire to preserve the rural character of acton and the acquisition of open space with the need for affordable housing and expansion of racial diversity in town so this is the million dollar question [Laughter] i've spent a lot of time um being frustrated by the um uh the building that's been going on um as far as uh you know houses from the 1700s being demolished and six houses go up in its place and i understand the need for affordable housing but i also uh understand that um there is a need for even more affordable housing that that's offered um under the 40b statute i think that possibly looking into the reuse of buildings and and maybe making multiple units in one dwelling is
061an option um i i even think that maybe the town can get creative with some sort of condo buy program where they would buy lower you know lower costing condos to add to the affordable housing stock i know they the town doesn't like to um i heard them say they don't like to be landlords or own properties but they've certainly bought parcels way beyond the cost of what buying a few condos under two hundred thousand dollars would cost okay that does it thank you much thank you so much fran for volunteering to serve your town thank you so much for having me okay our next board of selectmen candidate is a current or of selectman john benson thank you for joining us today we would like to have you give an introductory statement and you
062have two to five minutes so whenever thank you lori so i wish to thank the league of women voters act in area and act in tv for co-hosting this year's candidate forum for the 2021 town election it's a tough time to be an elected official we are working our way through the second year of a pandemic and coming to terms with the sensitive and complex issue of race the uncertainties of daily life continue with the hope we will be in a better place this time next year we owe thanks to our municipal staff and first responders whose work has continued unabated and many have seen their duties increased we owe thanks to our teachers who've adapted on the fly and done everything possible to maintain acton's excellence in education and we owe thanks to our
063residents who through the first two quarters of this fiscal year have allowed us to achieve a 99 real estate tax collection rate which accounts for 92 percent of our municipal revenue the board of selectmen served the entire town and not just the people who voted for them or those who agree with them so an essential quality of an effective selectmen is coming to the position with no personal agenda an open mind and a bill and an ability to work with fellow board members much of the work involves balancing interests making trade-offs and reaching practical solutions for real-life community needs take for instance the issue of limiting development here we must consider the importance of making housing available that will serve individuals at different stages of life and with diverse financial means while at the same
064time preserving important open space parcels and planning for the impact of climate change it's no simple thing to waive all of these interests while maintaining a practical mindset in serving the best interests of the entire community but that's what the board of selectmen and town staff must do every day i have enjoyed working with the four men and three women who have been my colleagues on the board in my first term together we adopted a sustainability policy for the town and authorized the hiring of the town's first sustainability director we created a diversity equity and inclusivity commission we achieved the 10 percent 40b affordable housing threshold we acquired eight acres along piper lane to connect portions of the great hill conservation and recreation lands personally i take satisfaction in my leadership role in the outreach
065efforts to secure town meeting funding for first the kelly's corner infrastructure project in 2019 and 2020 with the massachusetts department of transportation assuming the full 450 000 appropriation in 2019 on account of town meetings 89 percent vote in favor of the article and the north acton fire station in 2019 a project dating back to the 1970s and finally the small business grant program in 2020 providing up to four thousand dollars to each of a four thousand dollars each in badly needed funds to 43 local businesses due to the pandemic first and foremost uh if re-elected to a second term i will work with my colleagues and the town manager to inform and reassure the public on the covet 19 pandemic we all hope 2021 will bring about gradually improving circumstances i also look forward to
066receiving and implementing the recommendations of the diversity equity and inclusivity commission recruiting the next generation of diverse actonians to serve on town boards and committees and maintaining the 10 40 b housing affordability threshold achievement after the 2020 census updates also overseeing the implementation of the new 2020 housing production plan and reaffirming our commitment as a town to affordable housing it has been an honor to serve the community during the past three years i am very grateful for the continuing support of many in the community and the endorsements of over 25 current and past leaders of the community thank you again to the league of women voters and acton tv okay thank you john and now we have a few questions for you they're the same questions we're asking each candidate the same questions and they
067were um they're questions from the league of women voters so the first one is why are you running for a second term and what relevant experience do you have you answered some of that in your opening statement but that's the question um well okay when i when i first ran from this with this in in 2018 um i had retired and um my my mind was still clear all of the energy was still there i in in town government you know over the years but i just didn't have the the time commitment to be to be a selectmen and so i uh you know the last six months of 2017 i sort of wound down my practice and started campaigning and meeting people and the response was was far more favorable than i thought um
068um and what has so um i've been so appreciative about is that i've i couldn't have anticipated how much i have enjoyed the work the projects we've undertaken of the results we were able to achieve the new friendships i've been able to make you know people that we've new people that we've brought into town government um so i'd like to do it for three more years and that'll be it okay had to get off mute um the second question is uh the selectmen have had a difficult year managing the changing demands of covet 19 responding to racist and anti-semitic incidents and addressing the needs of community members facing financial challenges we'd like your thoughts on how to move the town forward united well okay um you know we have got to confront um the issue
069of race i mean we the events out in in minneapolis the murder of the death of george floyd in in police custody forced the country as a whole and acted as a community to to recognize there are 400 years of of racism and discrimination and while we have been you know uh an incredibly diverse community um if you go back to say 1960 where it was a small sleepy old yankee new england farm town of 6 000 people and basically it was two roads 128 and 495 that brought considerable change to the community it brought in you know engineers first generation just many first generation college graduates and along with the teachers the young teachers it created the act the acton-boxborough school system and in turn it brought in catholics jews um indians chinese and
070it's been a very diverse community all for the better we have got to confront um the issue of racism um and discrimination on a national level and locally um it's it's it's it's the negative black stereotyping that has just remained prevalent for these many hundreds of years and um one of the this is you know my thought on other people can have different different ideas but um we have got to get and i would ask you know black parents you know in the system to come in to the school system and explain to students whether it's in classes in assemblies in small groups what the n word means what's its history why is it so destructive and i would say on the same level um and i would really i think this is where somebody
071like rabbi mike brothben could really help out on the same level make those same presentations as to what the swastika means and um the history of it and you know the murdering of six million jews during world war ii um so that's how how i would like to approach it okay thank you um what are your top priorities in acton and how would you go about implementing them well as i as as i stated before at the you know we we charge the uh diversity equity and inclusivity commission with finding problems you know posing solutions uh their report is due in the fall and it's our job to review the report uh hear further from the committee um and implement um you know those recommendations and um uh my colleague david martin you know is
072chairing that group uh the the other uh uh pieces that we we need to uh you know deal with in in in the second term um or is housing um you know we if we're if we're truly going to be a diverse community and and this goes if we're really going to stand by the notion that we are you know for racial justice and black lives matter um you know as a community we've got to make housing you know you know affordable to those minorities of lesser financial and economic means and not stand by the the old stoppers of oh this too much congestion um traffic um it's not the right size it's not in the rural character of the town that's really going to be our true test in the next um a couple
073of years and and i think we're we will be committed as a town to deal with it the uh the governor um in his recent economic development bill which he signed into law and i believe gained the support of all members of our legislative delegation um zoning changes in certain areas will be simpler a multi-family housing within a half mile of the commuter rail station would be subject to a special permit so long as 10 of the housing is affordable housing so those are the you know you know those are key things that i'd like to work on over the next three years okay great um this is a forum in actin so you knew this question was coming now that kelly's corner project is all but approved what is your take on how the
074kmart property should be used well okay we um um i i i had to there is a let me just sort of there is a developer um that um will be coming forward with a proposal um to see if the the town would have would have interest in it um as i understand it's a basically uh it's 115 to 120 units of senior living assisted living and memory care continuum of care facility and he will be presenting um that proposal um you know to the uh to the selectmen probably over the course of the next month that proposal would require a special permit you know a couple of things that are important um with with respect to kelly's corner one of the kmart parcel one we don't own it and there's little interest among the
075boards and groups in town to spend six million dollars to buy the parcel without knowing what we're going to do with it um uh um you know um uh two what we all had wanted what our vision was is you know a bunch of of a a good selection of retail stores and restaurants retail was having problems a couple of years ago the pandemic has only exacerbated it so that market um um is dead um so we're confronted with what are the realities um of kelly's corner if something nice goes in there and if i understand this developer's proposal there will be about eight to ten thousand feet of shopping and restaurants if something nice goes in there i think that would encourage a developer to get a checkbook out and perhaps buy the parcels
076across the street the midas muffler parcel the bowling alley parcel um and perhaps work with vinnie catone on the land behind it but but it's the infrastructure project and the um um uh the infrastructure project and and kmart are key pieces here okay um this is the last question sure um and thank you again for uh volunteering your time for the town and for participating in this forum thank you um how would you balance the desire to preserve the rural character of actin and the acquisition of open space with the need of affordable housing and expansion expansion for racial diversity in town you kind of touched on this in your priorities well i i touched on it in you know in some you know you know detail as an example of what you know of
077what the you know selectmen um you know do every day we have to you know balance interests and you know uh the question of limiting development you know covers you know all of that um how do you balance need for diversity and housing both for seniors and affordable housing people who want to stay in town but downsize uh dealing with people of diverse financial instruments while the same time uh preserving opens based parcels and um assessing the impact of climate change and i think you know as again going back to you know the the george floyd death in in minneapolis it awakened us a lot and i think a lot of you know people are looking at now you know okay let's buy up open space but can we just leave it open is there
078some commitment we have as a community to use part of that space um to uh to build affordable housing and uh part of the the govern a piece of the governor's um economic development law would uh allow for a zoning change it goes from a two-thirds vote to a to a to a 50 vote to allow that type of zoning so you know those are the things we really have to think about but it's something it's it's you know a lot of people are taking one note that it's not just buying open space it's got to be coupled with a commitment to use part of that land uh to satisfy you know our commitment our obligations to affordable housing okay thank you john very much okay uh so just to remind people uh there are
079two people running for board of selectmen one position and it's a three-year term um that concludes the question and answer part of this forum we want to thank john and fran and andrew and ben and kara and danny for participating in this forum what's going to follow now is just opening statements an introductory statement and a little bit about the job for the remaining candidates on the march 30th election that are running on a post so those are coming up next hello my name is erica merlin and i'm a candidate for water commissioner for the acton water district i am just completing my first term as water commissioner and i'm running for re-election to a second term my reasons for running again are reflective of why i ran in the first place three years ago
080when i originally ran i was looking for a way to serve my community that would play to my strengths and let me use my water related skills i've been on the board for three years and during that time the water district has seen significant challenges including drought the detection of pfas and our water and the effects of the covet 19 pandemic i have been part of responding to these challenges and i am incredibly proud of how responsive our water district has been in putting forth proactive scientifically sound solutions to these pressing problems i am a licensed professional geologist and have been working in the earth and environmental sciences for my entire 17-year career for the last eight years my professional work has been entirely focused on water resources including drinking water currently my job has
081me working at the american water works association which is a membership organization that provides technical assistance and education to utilities consultants and other groups working in the water sector i spend considerable time working with our many members on issues related to how they communicate and disseminate information and i'm always learning from their successes and their failures prior to my current position i spent many years working as a hydrogeologist all of my clients were municipalities in new hampshire and massachusetts and i have become very very familiar with the challenges that all water suppliers in the region including here in acton face every day i have some volunteer experience on the wastewater side of the water world and have been serving since 2017 as president of the board of the nagog treatment facility ntf is a small
082user-owned wastewater treatment plant that serves the village of nagog woods and its surroundings the users purchased the plant in 2016 and we have been working to repair and improve it ever since serving on the ntf board has given me an appreciation for the effort that goes into building and maintaining our critical infrastructure and it's reinforced how important it is for a utility no matter how big or how small to be responsive to all of its users our water district here in acton has only one mission and that is delivering safe reliable water to everyone connected to our system i am devoted to this mission and i am very much looking forward to a second term of continuing to work for the people who live in acton and rely on us at the district to safeguard
083their precious water resources hello i'm bernice baran and i'm running unopposed for another term a five-year term on the board of the action housing authority the aha as we usually know owns and manages rental housing for families for seniors and for disabled people applicants who are already residents in the town but who cannot afford their current living arrangements are giving priority when they ask for housing i have been on the board for almost 20 years and within that time and accomplishments include building family housing on sa chimay and also has purchased housing in development such as willow central and the meadows and also has apartments which are rented to our tenants scattered throughout actin in various condominium developments currently the board is working on an important project we want to and have purchased from the
084town already a property on main street where kennedy's landscaping presently is we have a proposal to build housing for senior and disabled people on that land we will be adjacent to an upcoming dog park which will be right close to our property i'm hoping that you'll support the cause of affordable housing in acton it's been supported by this town in the past and really we are very grateful for the town's encouragement of our endeavors please remember to vote for me my name again is bernice ferran and that will be on the ballot this year thank you hi i'm joanne berry and i'm running for my third term as town moderator a successful town meeting is the culmination of the work of many people each article represents hundreds or thousands of volunteer and staff person hours
085spent gathering information including input from residents crunching numbers holding public forms and making presentations discussing and coming to consensus on the final form to be presented to voters at the annual or special session of the town's legislature town meeting in addition many hours go into planning the flow and format of the meeting including physical space technology and more recently covering public health and safety concerns i'd like to take this opportunity to thank the school and town staff including police who planned and successfully managed both town meetings in 2020 the annual meeting in june and the special session in september i'd also like to thank all the voters who accepted the challenges and came out to participate in our direct democracy my goal as moderator is to have a fair and efficient meaning it is true
086that this is an old form of governing and that it makes demands on voters that other aspects of our lives do not work schedules child care transportation and more all take energy and time that can push town meeting attendance slower on the priority list voters must be present to add their comments to the discussion and debate and to vote many have asked why there is not remote participation for this form of government open town meeting where any registered voter of the town has the opportunity to participate directly at this time mass general laws do not allow it and the current technology cannot ensure voter identification and vote security given that constraint it is my intent to help people organize their time to prioritize their participation as best they can some things have already been tried
087and others have yet to be implemented they include recording the video presentations ahead of time that are made available on actin tv and youtube these can be viewed at borders convenience the presentations at the meeting itself are brief put more articles on the consent agenda and vote them as a block these are recurring items that are not controversial individual articles may be held out at the request of voters at the meeting and voted separately this allows questions to be answered or discussion to be had before the vote on that item schedule articles within a time range and end at a designated article for the first night and begin with the next article on the second night if more than one night seems to be the best option to ensure participation on high interest articles this
088will allow people to choose if they have to between two nights and to organize their schedule as much as possible to get to the meeting however one night may be enough and that will be known ahead of time the town meeting improvement committee formed and worked during 2019 to consider ways to make town a better experience one of the most popular ideas was to have family friendly a family-friendly room with an assistant moderator video and audio that would allow full participation and for children to be with their parents when we are able to return to the inside meeting this is an idea that will be high on the list for implementation i have served this town moderator through two special town meetings held in december 2019 and for the annual and special town meetings held
089inside and outside in june september 2020. if you attended any of those meetings i hope that you found them to be fair and efficient prior to that i served as assistant moderator with peter ashton over the past 15 plus years i have also moderated many legal women voters candidate forms for local office statewide office and congress i have lived in acton since 1993 when my husband and i moved here with our two small children who then attended the active modular schools i have attended every town meeting during that time i'm quite sure i have not missed any i served on the acting and acting basketball school committees from 2000 to 2006. this year's town meeting is scheduled to start on monday june 21st i hope to see you there i also encourage you to vote
090in this election on or before tuesday march 30th and i ask for your vote thank you my name is pamela lynn and i wish to thank the league of women voters for the opportunity to introduce myself and explain why i'm running for a third term as a memorial library trustee i'm a retired social studies teacher from abrhs my decision to run six years ago resulted from serving on the historic district commission and the library's long-range planning committee at that time i was focused on the experiences of high school students preservation of the gem which is the original memorial library and demographic changes taking place in acton not the normal trustee pathway through volunteering or professional library experience i was struck then as i am now by the quality of services provided by both school and
091town departments in acton with relatively modest resources compared with the comparable towns nearby in spite of the accomplishments of their respective entities it seemed to me to enjoy little communication with each other either in terms of mutual understanding or often cooperation i have found that each trustee brings a special contribution most often useful past experiences with libraries but also others with deep appreciation of acton's unique history or a broad view of the arts musical performance or the law i thought i could increase communication and collaboration with the schools particularly the high school and that has been a major focus for me since then prior to covet i was truly appreciative of the willingness of the library staff to entertain new strategies and arrangements to benefit students access to the collection and use of space i
092look forward to maintaining connections and cooperations where possible in the future the reality of my current life transition also informs my priorities for the third term it tends to elicit a laugh or a gasp when i share with adults that i spent 45 consecutive years with 17 year olds no wonder i would be a natural advocate for them but my more significant insight comes now from being acquainted with a large number of my own age mates acton's young senior citizens are proportionately the largest growing demographic group in town since my last election i have joined the acton friends and council of aging now as its secretary affording an informed sense of the needs and desires of this group during this interval i have become a member of several adult book groups two of which normally
093meet at the library but now recently by zoom i quickly found myself a co-leader of both groups providing the opportunity to think deeply about what the community aspect of the library means to individuals in our town over the lifespan two years ago i served on the committee to hire the new library director and the entire group of trustees have enjoyed watching her grow into a confident leader now supervising a generational staff staff transition working together as a team with a new assistant director she was carefully evaluating how to update library services and practices when covet hit a traditional function of library trustees is to be an advocate on behalf of the library staff program and facility in this capacity i want to give a loud shout out to the acton memorial library staff for the
094energy innovation and grace with which they have coped with difficult conditions now for almost a year at the time of the director's last report circulation was approximately 75 of what it was the same month last year think with me what that means from a staff perspective whereas a patron would bring a book to check out pre-covet and the staff member might touch it once with covid it's quite possible that the staff member receiving the request by phone or online will touch the book at least four times if not more and then when it returns it goes into quarantine and what about the patron who asked for 50 books in one delivery in order to simulate their children if you have benefited from the library's ability to adapt and to carry on during this period please
095join with me in thanking the staff when you next have contact or are able to return in person thank you very much hi my name is bill mullen and i'm running for the interesting position of moderator for the act and water district perhaps along with the air we breathe and um safe and ready readily available in potable water is really essential to our human life and growth and i believe that we should do everything we can to protect it uh and preserve this precious resource uh so if i can play a small role in this uh in in helping me ensure that the people of acting continue to get uh available abundant potable healthy water then i'm delighted to do so um now of course you people are all wondering what in the world is
096the active water district and why do they need a moderator and uh so uh the actin water district is one of those new england uh feet functions that have grown up over many many years over 100 years and the the district was formed in 1912. it's separate from the town of acton it's a separate governmental entity and it's just designed to provide water and fire protection for the inhabitants of acton um the actin water district supplies 95 of the water the town with potable water with 22 wells and they're located in akron's ground waters aquifers the governance of uh acting water district is just like the town um very similar they we have three commissioners and uh they are elected they're similar to the selectmen select people they represent the users there's a finance committee
097and all the decisions are made at an annual town meeting and just like that town meeting they need a moderator uh my old friend and probably somebody you may know dick o'brien is uh retiring uh he's only done his this for 27 years so uh i think he's okay he's probably good that he can can retire now uh he mentioned with the post was open and he asked me to run and i'm excited to try to assist the district to run smoothly and transparently so that all water users can have confidence in the district and their water supply uh a brief bit about myself i've been around town for a long time i grew up in nearby maynard i received my bachelor's degree from harvard and my mba from the university chicago long time ago
098and i've been working and living in the area uh basically since that time just some quick highlights i i'm currently serving as an associate member of the acton uh water district finance committee so i'm familiar with what's going on there and all of the important issues in the 90s i served for two terms as a selectmen i've served for about 12 years on and off for the acting finance committee and i've done a bunch of charitable and civic affairs including founding the friends of nara park that's probably my signature achievement as a board of men member friends of morrison farm and i'm on a number of charities uh as well over the years many many charities so um i'm here in acton my wife and i have lived here for a long time our kids
099will malia and leo have grown up and left the nest and they're all launched so to speak and we're very pleased about that and so i just would like to once again play a little bit of a role in helping the town and in this particular case it's focused on the most critical of issues which is how to protect our water supply we need it to live and it's over the next 50 years it's just going to be one of those issues that's very critical so if i can play a very small role in helping that by serving as the acting water district moderator i will be delighted to do so so i hope you'll vote for me now the good news from my standpoint is i'm unopposed so uh we'll see what happens as
100far as that if i don't make this one then i probably should hang it up but uh anyway thank you for giving me the opportunity to tell me a little bit about uh tell you a little bit about me and why this is an important role and i hope you'll vote for me in the next upcoming election and thank you very much that was our last candidate on behalf of laurie cooney i'm mark ducey thank you for watching we want to remind you once again that the actontown election is coming up on tuesday march 30th at r.j gray middle school mail-in voting is also an option just check the town website for instructions this forum will be playing on acton tv for most of march it will also be available on demand on the actin
101tv youtube channel and website thanks for watching you