001Philadelphia um has been a big a big huge part of seeing them grow and explore and learn to be the people that they're becoming so that they can take those kind of things home with them and hopefully especially the day that we're living in now some diplomacy and some good memories of the United States so when they get old enough to make those types of decisions they think of us in a positive way. The last thing I wanted to offer is my personal appreciation for Wateroo. Like I said, Professor Ber, you've been amazing. Just this being able to um call you at any time, no matter what time of the year it is, emergency placements, and you've just stepped up and have allowed our students in here, and I personally want to thank you for
002that. So now I have to read the big letter. So I'm sorry, guys. So on behalf of IC says, "I want to express our deepest gratitude to Waterl High School for the outstanding support of cultural exchange and international education. Your dedication to welcoming exchange students and fostering a global incentive environment and made a lasting impression on both our students and our communities. Through the commitment to providing a supportive education, making the academic setting, and embracing the diversity that exchange students bring, you have created the atmosphere where young minds can grow, learn, share, and share their unique perspectives. Whether it's through the encouragement from your teachers, the involvement of your student body, or the leadership of your administrative team, your school has exemplified the true spirit of global unity and collaboration. In recognition of your exceptional
003efforts, we are honored to present you with this special award and a token of our appreciation. Your partnership has not only enriched the lives of our students, but has also helped meaningful connections across the cultures. Thank you for your continued dedication to international student exchange. We look forward to many more years of collaboration with room high school and you extend to your staff, to your faculty, to your students and unwavering support. So, Mr. Roger, if you'd like to step up here with me on behalf of myself and like to present this to you, I'll turn this over here. Here we are. Now we get out of the picture. Thank you. Did you [Applause] want your Thank you for coming. Thank you so much. Okay, thanks so much. We appreciate you coming tonight and uh recognizing
004the fine effort of the school district and Tyler and and that's really nice. Um, okay, Liz Barton, I want to give a PTO update first. So, we had our rolling out the red carpet dance for prek through sixth grade girls. It was super successful. We had 120 girls come. We had dinner, dancing games, crafts, glow sticks. It was really great. Um, for the boys skate adventure, it was less well attended, but for the folks that did attend, we did get really good feedback. So, we'll adjust and probably try something different next year. Um, yearbooks are in and we have extras. So, if you talk to any families who missed ordering, you can send them our way and have those. Today, PTO members delivered part two of the teacher wish list request totaling $1,023 worth of
005classroom materials and supplies. And we were also able to supply um gift card to Mr. Nolles so he can pick out his own art supplies instead of trusting us. Um we secured farmand coffee trailer to come next week to thank our teachers and staff. Um it's a bit of a delayed teacher appreciation, but we're excited to have them back. We secured Eerie Street Kitchen to bring their food truck and make fresh French fries for all of our prek through sixth graders at field day. And we're still working with Miss Kizer and Mrs. Couns on additional field day needs. And then last night we helped our art teachers with the raffle during fine arts night and we ran a concession stand in order to raise the art. So that's PG. And then I just have other
006stuff. Um this is in regards to items D, E, F, and G on the agenda. So when the agenda was first posted, it didn't mention the word stipens or dollar amounts or anything. And I thought this was odd because dollar amounts were usually on there, but just last month items I and J were stipens for teachers. I went back through some past meeting minutes and in September of 24 there was the language statement and the specific amount. Um, so it's typically on there so I thought that was weird. Um, and the supplementals are always on there. So I was curious why that was different and I asked and then today the agenda was posted again with the word stipen in the amount. Um, is this because we we questioned it. I talked to two other
007committee members. Maybe they questioned it. Um, or was the plan kind of just to do this without anyone noting anything? Uh obviously Mr. Ballinger's new role of athletic director is a new responsibility, but based on principal reports that I've been listening to through the last year, the title of at least one principle on our website and our general understanding as a community, the responsibilities to be existing responsibilities. I reached out to all four board of education members and asked specifically with the exception of item D, are these roles u work administrators are currently already doing? One board member called me and indicated that yes, these were existing responsibilities. Another board member told me, quote, "Uh, I guess they are. They are already doing these jobs, which is why we would like to include a statement
008for next year, same as we do for anyone taking on additional work." And one board member told me, quote, "No, these are new duties for our administrators." And the fourth board member did not reply to me. I know I'm not allowed to ask questions, but if I were, I would ask, "Which one is this? Are we compensating administrators for taking on new additional responsibilities, or are we compensating them for work they're already being paid to do?" Everyone in this room knows that we just went through a huge mess that ended up in rescending raises that were proposed by Dr. Clark. And now he's proposing these statements on his way out, which certainly looks like a way to get the raises that were rescended. I was vocal about the issue of going down to two classrooms
009for kindergarten for months based on multiple conversations with parents in the community and K3 teachers both in and outside of the district. Yet, the board, Dr. Clark and our administration insisted we close enrollment, go down to two, and use the money saved to hire a music teacher. Registration has started and we will need three kindergarten classes. Um, we've already hired that music teacher. Everything that's happened with the preschool, even if it was a sound financial decision, if anyone had reached out to parents for a conver conversation instead of just putting us on the agenda and plowing ahead, it would have done wonders in the community if nothing else just for optics. Uh any parent who has been paying attention even a little this last year knows what a mess has been. There's distrust at seemingly
010all levels. There are fractured relationships, low morale, and a sense that folks are unable to work together to move forward for our students. And it is palpable. And the board to board members, if you do not see that or do not feel that, I believe you are out of touch with what is happening within the walls of our school. Um, board members, you are able to engage with people other than Joe Clark and Brian Pusetary when you are considering what is best for our school. And just because someone has been an administrator for 25 years or on our school board for 30 years, that does not mean that they are always the person that knows what is best. Sometimes, yes, but not always. And it does not mean they get to make every decision for
011the rest of the board. Each of you has a voice for our students and for the future of Waterlue. each of you has the opportunity to move forward in good faith and let our new superintendent come in, assess the situation, and make decisions that he will be living with. Um, frankly, I cannot wait for a new superintendent, and I'm really hopeful, and I'm ready to move forward with someone with integrity to lead our school. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Um, Heather Haken. Um, again, not as well prepared as this. Um, I just wanted to say that a little bit of the same thing that she said. Um, you know, I have four kids. Two of them have already graduated. Two of them are still in the district um in elementary school. So, we still have
012a while. But, um, in at the February meeting, Dr. Clark said that he was going down to two kindergarten teachers and wanted to hire the music teacher. Um, and that there's two elementary teachers retiring, that he was not replacing one of them because of the kindergarten teacher. And then also um the he was going to hire an intervention specialist. Well, he hired the intervention specialist and the music teacher and now keeping the third teacher. So, we've hired all these people. Um are we is that sustainable? Because my kids careers at Waterlue has been let's do more with less. And now it seems that we're hiring all these people and we're extending people's hours and salaries and I just want to make sure that it's sustainable and that we're not going to be back in a
013financial mess like we were a couple of years ago. That's all. Okay. Thank you. Um Kyle Cleo, good evening members of the board. My name is Kyle Fle and I'm speaking tonight on behalf of the Waterl Education Association. We appreciate the opportunity to address you this evening, though we do so with serious concerns regarding some of the items on the board agenda. Specifically, I'm referring to superintendent business items D through G. These items are items for the principles and the assistant principles. This is especially prevalent because on March 10th, 2025, the board and the association reached a grievance resolution where the board explicitly presented the November salary schedules approved for the principles and the assistant principles and agreed to a specific salary grid methodology for the 2025 26 and the 2026 27 school years. Introducing
014statements outside of that framework not only undermines the letter of the agreement but also the sphere. If the board proceeds with these actions as currently stated, it will represent a significant erosion of the relationship between the association and the board. Once trust is broken, it threatens the stability of the future collaboration, something none of us should take lightly. We urge the board this evening to vote no on superintendent business items D through G and commit to following the agreement both parties entered into back in March. This would be a meaningful step toward restoring the integrity of our collaborative relationship. Thank you for your attention to this issue of your commitment to our students, our staff. Okay. Thank you. Uh at this time, I'll call to order the the uh regular meeting of the Wild Board
015of Education. Roll call, please. Mr. Yes. Miss, yes. Mr. Aken, yes. Mr. Wind, yes. Okay. Can we have a motion to uh to adopt the listed agenda for tonight's meeting? Second, please. I'll second. Roll call, please. Yes. Mr. Moon, yes. Mr. Hicken, yes. Mr. Bruce, yes. Motion passes. Okay. Um, couple items to to wanted to mention tonight. Let's start out on a positive note. Um, want to congratulate uh, Scott and our treasurer's office for receiving the auditor estate award. It's excellent. Really appreciate that. Uh, you want to talk about what it takes to achieve that award, Scott? Uh, just do the right thing as often as you can and make sure the books balance at the end of the month. Great. Thank you very much. So, that's a nice thing. Not, you know, that's not
016uh, I don't know what percentage of of schools in the state receive that, but it's not certainly not uh, not a lot of them. So, that's quite an accomplishment to to Scott as well as his his rest of his team. So, congratulations there. Um, also, uh, let's see. Kind of updating, uh, with our with our positions. We, uh, as you'll see on the agenda tonight, we're going to be hiring our our next superintendent, uh, Frank Frank Gant. He's here this evening. So, please, uh, say hi to Frank. Uh, we've concluded those interviews. uh quite a bit of time together the board here the last couple weeks. We are going to proceed to the second round of interviews for shared services treasure with Richtown. We had a meeting last night at Richtown and uh this meeting
017will be the next round of interviews will be conducted here when next Wednesday. So uh um so everything's going well. Uh boards are collaborating very well. It's nice to see and uh and we hope to be able to have a a treasure po picked out as soon as possible and we'd like to have as much overlap with Scott as po as we can. So, um, so with, uh, with keeping in mind the shortage of shared ser of treasures out there right now in the in the in the in the state of Ohio, it's, uh, it's really nice that we can be hopefully we can be able to fill this position and get somebody that we're with the two of us working, the two districts working together, we'll be able to compensate them and keep them,
018uh, at a level where we can keep them around for for a significant amount of time. Um, let's see. Uh we are uh we have not started board member interviews for to replace uh uh Miss M Zachariah who as you know moved out of the school district unfortunately. So that is going to be held we well you know we're together we've been together every night and our meetings are you know till 10 o'clock 11 last night we left FZtown at 11 after 11 o'clock. So um we're trying to find some time to do that. we have to have somebody in place by the 30th. Uh so we will certainly will do that. Uh we're going to talk about that and and hopefully we'll have a date set and we'll be contacting those people that uh
019that that were so graciously applied and we thank them and we really appreciate that. Uh let's see. We uh we need to set up I I am not going to be here for June the June board meeting. I can't I uh I'm I've got to be out of town for business. So you you're more than welcome to have that meeting without me. That you would not hurt my feelings one bit or you're certainly welcome. We can change the date. The only really I'm I'm booked up for the basically for that week than the next two. So if we were going to move it, we'd have to move it forward. So um it's up to you guys. Someone available for that week as well. Our normal board meeting. Our normal board meeting. Okay. So it looks
020like just do the f the week before then on Thursday. Yeah, that's the No. Okay. Okay. Is that good? Can you make that? Uh um yes, I can do that. You can do that. June 5th. You can do that. You can make Okay. What's the date? June 5th. June 5th. Okay. Okay. And our interim superintendent, will you be able to make that date, buddy? June 5th. You're good. Okay. So, um, so we're good to go there. Let's see. We got the superintendent Scott June meeting date. Uh, please take a minute and visit the art show. I I came early to do that. What a what an impressive for somebody who has no artistic talent whatsoever. That's really impressive. And congratulations to the art teachers and and the job that's done there. And then also tomorrow
021starts the play for Matilda. It's been a few years since we've had a play in the district. and uh just thank everybody who's who's put so much time and energy into that and and it's really exciting. I personally love to watch plays. So uh we'll be here. But uh thank everybody for that. And I I I don't want to get into a big exchange, but uh I never received a phone call uh a voicemail or a text or I'm sorry, an email or a text from you, Liz. Uh yeah, I you're welcome to look through my phone with me during the unit break, but it is not there. I looked. That's why I was looking when you said that because you know me, we don't always agree, but I always reply. You usually reply. I
022always reply. Yeah. So, I didn't get it. I don't know. I I don't know. So, I certainly would have replied. So, uh I think you know we have a we we agree a lot of times. We don't agree sometimes, but we have a mutual respect. So, I would always reply to you. So, I if something happened technology from a technology standpoint, I apologize, but uh yeah. So, um I thought I may have missed it. That's why I'm looking through my phone because of the all the all we've had this week. The volume of the last several weeks has just been overwhelming. So, but uh that's good. And um I think that is make sure I hit my everything on my list and we're good to go. Okay. So, uh we're going to move on to
023the superintendent report. All right. Well, uh today's bittersweet for me. Um, I I would be lying if I didn't say that I'm really excited that STRS made a change that benefits people like me and allows me to retire. But I have loved my time uh here at Waterlue. When I signed on and you guys brought me in last year, I thought it would be for um several years with an opportunity to stick around even longer past my retirement. I I do want to thank the board. You are an outstanding board. very thoughtful decision makers. I know what you're all what you do is always in the best interest of kids. Uh and you um do what I think all good boards do, which is you are absolutely comfortable disagreeing, but you're still friends at the
024end of the day. So, I I really respect that. I want to thank Scott, great teammate, wonderful steward of public dollars, winning the award. It's fantastic. I wish you all the best. Uh Scott, as your career uh continues, I know you're going to be just a wonderful treasure for a long, long time. Um our principles, um everything our principles do is for the benefit of kids and families. And I I've been doing this job for 33 years, and I think this is the best group of principles I've worked with, and that's saying a lot because they're so young. Um they they absolutely do what's best for kids. Um, and I can't say um how much I've enjoyed working with you. Um, being colleagues, but also being friends. And I I urge you to continue fighting
025the good fight to do what's best for our children. U Barb and the maintenance department, the cafeteria. Um, Barb and her crew is so good. I've never been in a place that takes so much pride in clean, safe facilities and healthy meals. And I couldn't be um more grateful to have worked with them. Tim and our bus drivers, they have persevered through hardships this year, through staff shortages, but they always do whatever they can to get our kids to school safely. And I I thank them for that. our aids, our secretarial staff, they are always keeping kids engaged and safe and on time and uh places where they're supposed to be and all of those sorts of things. Our teachers are incredibly dedicated to all we have uh teachers who um uh were born here,
026went to school here, and and remain here, and they absolutely are dedicated um to to being here. Kyle is a great um union leader. He does um everything to serve his teachers. He fights relentlessly for teacher causes. Um and it's been a pleasure. Um again, although we might not always agree, I think um I really enjoyed having the the collaboration with him. D of course runs this place. We all know that. She works untold hours finding subs, covering classes. She puts up with people who forget or who refuse to enter their absences. Um, she has tons of institutional knowledge and, uh, Frank, you're in a great spot with the right there on your right. Well, actually, she's in a great spot with you on her right hand. Make sure you know, um, who's in charge
027there. Um, I am meeting with Frank on Monday. Um, he's going to have access to all of my files, all of my emails. I will do everything I can to um, provide you every resource you can to be successful here. Um, and I I'll give you whatever insights you ask for um to continue moving this place forward. It absolutely is a wonderful place. We have such um good people here and they they deserve the best. Um my opinion is we've had a lot of successes um in in this short year together. I am most proud of a music teacher of expanding our music program. It's it to me it's sinful unconscionable that we did not have elementary music. I will never apologize for bringing music back to the district. And also the drama program, which
028was really nothing more than me saying yes when we had a um a a community member, a spouse of a teacher who said we should have drama and I said absolutely we should and she took the bull by the horns and the show will be tomorrow night. So I hope you're there. We're going to have a destination imagination team uh next year funded by a donation from a community member. Um we've received more than $50,000 in grants this year. Um, we also have a million, well, not quite a million, $990,000 grant that I fully expect the district will be approved on in September or October that will provide brand new technology throughout um, the building. I'm very excited about that. Um, some of the things that go on behind the scenes that people don't see,
029we've updated our emergency operations plan. Tedious work, incredibly necessary. We hope we never need it, but we know that we're prepared. uh uh if bad things ever happen to our schools. We have this life discovery program coming that's um it's a program that is funded um by the ESC. This is going to save our district more than $70,000 a year for the next three years because we said yes and we agreed to a partnership with them. We have afterchool child care coming next year uh to Waterl for the the folks who are working and need that uh service. We have a new all call and student attendance system which is going to um make things much easier and much clearer for our secretarial staff, much easier for parents and safer for kids because we'll be
030able to know where kids are are sooner than we are currently with the old antiquated system of people calling in and talking to a person. I know everybody likes to uh human touch, but when you're here and you see the first hour of the school day, phones ringing and people popping in, it's chaos. and it won't be anymore because we're doing this new system. Um, we became compliant with many, many state reports that had not been completed in years. It seemed like every time I turned a rock over, I found something crawling out of it and I got a lot of that cleaned up, but not everything, right? So, good luck with that. Um, updated dozens of outdoor dated board policies. So, if you went at the beginning of the year, if you went on
031our website, chances are if you opened a board policy, it was out of date. And that's all been updated. So, I think we that's a that's a lot to me. That's a lot in the in the short time that I've been here. It's not me, it's the team, right? The team is outstanding. Uh I tell I jokingly tell people my job is to sign my name and call meetings and I let good people uh do their work and um nothing but the best here. I wish everybody nothing but the best. It was a short run um but I will always bleed maroon and go Vikings. Thank you. Thank you, Joe. appreciate that. Um, and I apologize. I'm going to take go back. I'm I'm going to go back to my PR president's report. Um, I
032forgot to to uh I didn't forget. I just can't read very well with uh with from this closeup, I guess. But uh I just wanted to recognize D for uh you know we when we have interviews well first of all she is so helpful as far as getting information between the board for interviews and and times and coordination and all that kind of stuff and all the all the copies of resumeumés and all those things that need to happen. And Scott also has been very very very critical, crucial, I should say, in that situation because I can't I can't sit down at a at a my computer and email the board members. I can't do that. I can't email more than one board member at a time. So D De and Scott helping disperse all
033that information is just so great. And then every time we have uh uh interviews in, De is our guest, our greeter. And so she greets the while we're in interviewing the person, she uh inter she greets the uh the next candidate that's coming in when they get here and keeps them busy until it's time for them to go in and and shows them out and all that stuff. And and I've received so many comments uh about De and how sweet she is and how nice she is and and just a pleasure to to be around and that and and you know and and she just comes in on her own with her own time and and uh and just phenomenal. So I just can't thank you enough, D. We really appreciate Okay. Uh, uh, Tyler,
034yeah, junior high school. Sorry. So, um, there were a couple questions that floating around and some board members asked me to talk about just some GPA pieces. We're getting close to graduation and just some some talk with those sort of things. Um, specifically weighted versus unweighted GPA. Uh we do have weighted GPA for but it's a little bit different than maybe what is the typical where you award higher points um past the 4.0. Uh that's not our system necessarily. So currently if you're in a non-weighted class um there's an A+ and a A minus and it goes all the way down. Um with that um basically the weighted classes they just get rid of the minus. So it's an A+ and A and then it goes to B plus B. um all the way down.
035So, it's still on a 4.0 scale. Um it just adds a little bit of wiggle room um there in some of the more advanced classes. Um some AP classes and some advanced math and science classes have that um as part of there. So, it's a little bit different than what people would expect expect. Usually, um it's a weighted class, you expect GPA that are above 4.0. Um but that is kind of what's in our our policy right now. um with graduation. The other thing too is that currently we use the Latin honor system uh for recognizing graduates. It's very similar. It's exactly what a college would do for an undergraduate degree. Um so if you if you reach a certain GPA threshold um you can recognize on your diploma uh with cumla magnum sumu kumlad
036those being the tiers higher each time. Um there I I could get into why that is the case. basically comes from when colleges used to have um a single course of study and so there was no way of distinguishing someone who graduated with best grades and worst grades. You all graduated. Um so that was their way of recognizing it. Um we still do uh an honors dinner uh and then kids are recognized at honors at the awards night and then also at graduation when they hit those marks. Um for students who would typically be validictorian saludiatoran uh territory we we do recognize 4.0 students or so as we assume come um who are also 4.0 Now uh those kids who are at the top what whatever that cuto off is last year we had two
037this year we had four um they are the ones that are kind of selected they have the opportunity to speak at graduation um is the way at least it's been my interpretation the past two years of what we've been doing I can't speak to um past that there has been talk um I I would be open depending on what people think and you know talking with people that's if you have opinions let me know um if we wanted to and the board was supportive of going back to validatoran. Um I I'm fine with people being recognized. However, the community finds that best. Um I'm not partial to the Latin system, even though I did teach Latin. Uh but it is nice for that part, but um if that's something we would want and that would
038be something we'd have to implement with a class. We'd have to grandfather it out, right? Because we don't have the requirements in right now. Um but we could definitely start that with eighth grade class or seventh grade class, wherever we kind of go there. Um, I'm open to that if that's something that the community and the board would want. Um, prom, we had prom last weekend. Um, I just want to thank um, Mrs. Navy and this uh, Fixler. Uh, those are two junior class advisors. They are here for pretty much every single home game with concessions to fundra. Um, and it's a ton of time. I did it. I was a junior class adviser when I was a teacher at Sanduski and and I understand I understand that struggle. Um but prom was great. Um
039I think the kids had a lot of fun. Uh in recent years it's kids that sometimes will come and eat. They want to leave as soon as humanly possible. We got to call a bunch of people and say, "Hey, you know, I said okay if they leave." Um a lot of people stayed pretty much uh through uh to the end. Um it was a good night. I also just want to thank Miss Clint Smith, Mr. Shre, Miss Steel for shaper roaming. Um it it was it was nice dedicating you know dedicating their time on a on a Saturday. Um coming up like I said with graduation just a couple weeks away we have all of our senior events. So I just wanted to kind of highlight these. Uh we have our honors dinner. So that
040would be for all students who reach kumla magumad kumlad. Uh that is next Wednesday the 14th at 6. um be in the uh elementary cafeteria and bar and food services is is uh catering. So second year for that excited for that. Um the senior breakfast uh panoramic picture and capping gown launch. It's a little bit different this year. That was also with the awards uh with moving the awards to the evening. We're doing these on two separate days. So, the breakfast, panoramic picture, and cap gown walk are on Wednesday, uh, May 21st, so a week after that honors dinner. Um, we're going to start around 8. I would assume the cap gown walk will be around 9:00ish. Um, we'll do breakfast first and the picture. Um, you know, some senior will forget their cap and
041gown, so they'll have to run back and get it and that will take a little bit of time. The awards night is that next day, Thursday, uh, the 22nd at 6. Uh it is open for every senior. There's a couple things that I would like to maybe do into the future. Uh changing that, but we're going to keep it pretty much as the assembly was in the in the during the day, just in the evening. Uh simply to allow more parents and family to show up to be there. It's hard to show up at 9:00 on a on a Thursday. Um this will hopefully help with that. Senior exams are the 23rd and 27th. Uh seniors will just take those in their classes those days. Um, and then graduation practice is Wednesday, May 28th, and
042graduation is Thursday, May 29th at 7 here in the high school gym. Uh, and then as Brian, as you stated, come see Matilda Jr. I want to thank uh Mrs. Wilds and Zach, Mr. Wilds. Uh, they've pretty much, as Dr. Clark said, we kind of said yes, you know, sorted out some things and and they've ran with it. So, um, from what I've seen, everyone's putting in a ton of work. It should be a great it should be a great show. So, please come out and support them. That's tomorrow and Saturday at 7 down in the, uh, elementary cafeterium stage. Uh, and then lastly, uh, with it being Joe, your last board meeting with us, I just wanted to thank you personally for everything uh, this year. You've been a great mentor. Um, I am
043relatively new in uh the administrative game. I've learned a lot from you. Um, I've appreciated everything that you've taught me this year. Um, and also just friendship as well and I appreciate that. So, thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Tyler. Uh, about the Latin honors, we actually made that change um about two years after Mr. Wolf retired. Um I don't know exactly what year that was, but so that's been in place for probably um uh three 7 10 15 years I'll say roughly somewhere in that ballpark when when Dr. Hill was here. So at the time it was felt that he felt very strongly that that was gave colleges and universities a better idea of what for comparison and those kind of things that's yeah that kind of thing. So, and and that's and he thought
044at the time a lot more school districts are going to do that. But, uh, I personally am not, you know, it's, you know, whatever the community and the staff and and you and everybody wants to do. I have no, you know, that's that's fine. Whatever whatever works best for us, I think, but uh, okay. Uh, Julie, the elementary school report. Um, first, Mayor and I would like to welcome our three new teachers that we brought us to the elementary um my Kayla note, Katrina Johansson, and Sud Hoover. We are so happy to have them join us. Um wonderful people, wonderful teachers. Also, I'd like to note um my own gratitude for Dr. Park as well. I am not early in my