 Welcome and good evening. Welcome to Arlington's Candidates' Night for town election that will be on Saturday, April 1st, 2023. Candidates' Night is again jointly sponsored by Envision Arlington and the League of Women Voters of Arlington. Our program is being broadcast live by Arlington Community Media, ACMI. We would like to thank their Executive Director, Norm McLeod, Operations Manager, Jeff Monroe, Government Access Coordinator, Sean Keane, and the rest of the staff and volunteers of ACMI for broadcasting tonight's event. It will also be rebroadcast on ACMI's government channels, Comcast Channel 22, RCN Channel 15, RCN High Definition Channel 614, Verizon Channel 26, and ACMI's Facebook page and YouTube channel. It's really easy to access this broadcast. For those who are watching later, it is now just after 8 PM on Thursday, March 23rd, 2023, and this forum is being presented in person at Arlington Town Hall. I'm Patty Muldoon, and I'm with the League of Women Voters of Arlington. It's my pleasure to introduce Candidates' Night, which presents our Candidates for local office. As it has been, Candidates' Night is a non-partisan service providing information to the voters. Membership in the League of Women Voters of Arlington is open to people of all genders. Throughout our 103-year history, the League has built a nationally respected reputation for providing candidates, forums, and debates for the benefit of the voters, and for supporting informed participation and understanding of government and major policy issues. Based on grassroots membership input, the League also seeks to influence public policy through education and advocacy. The League of Women Voters takes action on specific issues that we have studied, but we never support or oppose candidates. And I invite you, if you're interested in building civic participation with the League, please sign up at our website, LWVA.com, not org, LWVA.com. Thank you. Tonight's program will include statements from the candidates and a question and answer period. Residents of Arlington have already submitted questions in advance of tonight. The questions were reviewed by a committee of League members and representatives from Envision Arlington to represent the issues of major concern to the audience. The moderator will present the questions to the candidates. So let me remind you, please turn off your cell phones or silence them as a courtesy to the candidates. Hold your applause until the end of the candidate's presentation for each office. And now I would like to introduce our much-welcome guest moderator, Margaret Copey, from the League of Women Voters of Lexington. Margaret. Thank you, Patty. It's my pleasure to be back here in person after the last few years. Thank you for attending and watching. I'd like to outline the procedure and the rules for this evening. The candidates for town offices will appear in this order this evening. Town clerk, assessor, select board, and then school committee. Each candidate will make an introductory statement with two minutes allowed. The candidates will speak in the order in which they appear on the ballot. After the candidates have finished their statements, we will have questions and answers. As mentioned before, questions have been submitted in advance. All candidates will have the opportunity to answer each question for their office. The candidate with the second placement on the ballot will be the first to answer the first question and we will continue to rotate through the ballot order for each question. Each candidate will have one minute to answer the question. After the questions and answers, each candidate may make a one minute closing statement. The candidates will speak in reverse ballot order for their closing statements. To ensure fairness, each candidate will have a time warning from the league timers in the first row. Would you ladies like to hold up the things so everybody knows where you're sitting? With 20 seconds remaining, the timer will hold up a yellow card when the time is up, a red card will be raised. At this point, the candidate should only finish a short sentence and stop. We ask for the cooperation of all candidates in following these rules so that everyone will have a fair chance. As a reminder, because the program is carried live and will be rebroadcast, we ask the candidates to speak clearly into the microphones to be heard. Due to the allocated cable TV broadcast time, we will conclude the program at 9.30 p.m. and there will be no intermission. So now we'll start the program. We will hear from the candidate for town clerk. There is one seat for town clerk for a three-year term. The candidate is Juliana H. Brazil. The town clerk's office is charged with ensuring accurate compliance with constantly changing state laws relative to the town clerk and register our voters and providing service to the general public, including running the elections, town, state, and federal, which includes registering people to vote and mailing out absentee ballots. The town clerk's office is also the keeper of vital records, births, deaths, marriages, town meeting votes, cemetery deeds, zoning decisions. The office also licensed dogs, issues raffle permits, and business certificates. We will now hear an opening statement from the candidate Ms. Brazil. You have two minutes. Good evening, I'm Julie Brazil and I've been the town clerk for nearly three years. Thank you to the League of Women Voters of Arlington, Envision Arlington, and ACMI for hosting the event. It is wonderful to be back in town hall. I'm running for reelection because there's still a lot to do and I'd like to leave things more organized for the next clerk. Elections have been a moving target for the last three years with emergency legislation and temporary rules to navigate. I'd like to establish election practices that voters can count on as they make their plans to vote, knowing that not all towns will be offering vote by mail or early in-person voting this spring. But now that the law allows it, I think that local elections should be run the same as all other state and federal elections. So I have proposed and the select board has approved four days of early in-person voting and will budget every year for a January mailing, a postcard to invite voters to apply to vote by mail. In addition to overseeing elections, I've been working to improve the basic services in the town clerk's office. In cooperation with the treasurer's office, we now allow people to request certified copies of their vital records online and start the process of registering their dog and paying those fees online. I'm working with my staff to improve record keeping systems and coordinate more closely with other departments using shared documents in the cloud. Business certificates, decisions of the zoning board of appeals and legal claims to the town for damages all flow through the office. And I want those processes to be as smooth as possible for residents and town staff. Looking ahead, there are recommendations from the town's equity audit that my office will be heavily involved with. We can improve some of our townwide systems for announcing meetings, publicizing openings on boards and committees and educating residents about how town government works. Thank you for being here and I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you, Ms. Brazil. First question. Do you think the town clerk should be unelected or an appointed position and why? You have one minute. I have recommended to the select board and the town manager and I do believe it should be an appointed position. Three years ago, I campaigned on the importance of the issue and studying it and so town meeting authorized funds to do a study and that study produced some important context and background for the conversation which ultimately rests with the voters. So there will be a warrant article this year and town meeting will decide whether or not to put that question to the voters as a ballot question on the town election in 2024. So we have time to talk about it and I'm a big believer in community conversations so that we can understand the pros and cons, the trade-offs, what voters are giving up and what I think they'll get in return which would be a more stable clerk's office that is integrated in town hall. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Brazil. Next question. What technological advances are being made in the activities of the town clerk's office? What changes are needed in the future? I'm sorry, could you repeat the question? Yeah, what technological advances are being made in the activities of the town clerk's office and what changes are needed in the future? So we have, for elections, we have been able to implement last year the electronic poll pads which replace the paper voter lists which produces accurate records. It's a little simpler to tally at the end of the night and to upload automatically to the database that the state maintains for voter history. There's lots of work. The town is, IT department is continuing to roll out programs. I know that I would like to see business certificates issued through the licensing system that's being rolled out now for people who apply for building permits just so that there's more unity in sort of the systems that people use when they request any service from the town, from any department. And I do support the work that goes into making that happen. Thank you. The next question and this will be the last one. Would you support legislation to change voting rules to allow same day voter registration and voting in Massachusetts? I actually prefer election day registration just it's slightly simpler to implement but I'm certainly guided by the legislature. They'll write the rules and I know that they're talking about it and doing the research. There's a lot of work we can do to smooth out voter registration. I applaud Massachusetts sincere effort to get everyone registered and make it as easy as possible anytime you interact with state agencies. But that system isn't perfect and it ends up flooding our offices, town clerks across the state with a lot of duplicates and that's just processing and paperwork. And so I want to make sure that I'm talking to our legislative representatives about the best way to do it. But yes, the short answer is I do support election day registration. Thank you. We'll now have your closing statement for Ms. Brazil for town clerk. You have one minute. Thanks to everyone who worked to make this evening happen and to the residents who submitted questions. I hope more people will watch this tonight. It's great to have people here in person and we'll watch over the next few days. Local elections are important. Town government has a big impact on our daily lives and I want to encourage everyone watching to get involved. Tell your friends and neighbors about the election and help them find information about the candidates if that would help them. Run for town meeting. Look for committees that are doing work that's important to you and get involved. Attend forums and hearings and share your ideas about the future of Arlington. Reach out to your town meeting members and candidates about the things you see on the warrant. And of course, remember to vote on April 1st. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Brazil. We'll now hear from our candidate for the Board of Assessors. There is one seat open for a three-year term. The candidate is Mary Wynne Stanley O'Connor. The Board of Assessors is composed of three members. Their mission of the Board of Assessors is to assess all property in the town of Arlington in a fair, equitable, and consistent manner in accordance with the laws, rules, and regulations of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the requirements and guidelines of the Department of Revenue. The Board of Assessors hold hearings with residents on questions of property evaluations, personal property, motor vehicle excise taxes, and exemptions for aged or handicapped residents and veterans. When the inspector of buildings grants a permit for new property, additions, or alterations, the assessors then make an individual inspection to determine the assessment. At the close of town meeting, the assessors determine the tax rate subject to approval by the State Tax Commissioner. We will now have opening statements from Mary Wynne Stanley O'Connor. You have two minutes. Thank you. Good evening, and I'd like to thank the League of Women Voters as well as ACMI for broadcasting this evening, and for all of you for coming out. My name is Mary Wynne Stanley O'Connor, and I am a candidate for reelection to the Board of Assessors. It is my pleasure to be able to run for reelection to this Board and to be able to serve the town of Arlington. I view it as my way of giving back in substantial part. We have a very talented group of assessors on the Board. We have Gordon Jamison, who was elected last year, who's a community activist and a business person, William Zagata, who's a licensed appraiser, and myself an attorney. We have all of the specialties and the expertise that we need on that Board to do the job that we need to do for the town of Arlington. This is a very important Board. As you heard the moderators say, the Board of Assessors is responsible for valuing at full and fair cash value over 14,000 pieces of real estate in this town, as well as the personal property. And when we say personal property, we mean the businesses that have equipment and fixtures. We are also responsible for ascertaining the value of utilities and the like, as well as car excise taxes. The Board of Assessors also was responsible for processing all applications for abatements and exemptions. There are numerous, there are a number of exemptions that are available to various taxpayers. And our office, we have a very capable and talented group of people that work in the assessors office will help the residents of this town walk through whether they qualify for an exemption by way of a reduction in income taxes. I would ask that if you have any questions about what goes on by way of your assessment or if you have any questions by way of whether you qualify for an exemption, you should just contact the Board of Assessors. Thank you. Thank you. We'll now go to the first question, Ms. O'Connor. Is my home evaluation affected by neighboring homes? I'm sorry, I didn't hear the beginning of that. Is my home evaluation affected by neighboring homes and how are residential properties reassessed if there is a nearby major redevelopment? Yes, it is affected. We have districts and neighborhoods that we utilize for determining what an assessment should be. So sales do impact what other values are in your neighborhood. So the answer to the question is yes. Thank you. The next question, if property owners believe their property is unfairly assessed, what recourse do they have and can you be specific? Certainly, they can file a request for abatement. You have to file by February 1. It is not enough just to file an application for abatement and say, I think you assessed my home too much. That is not enough. You have to have objective evidence, such as an appraisal, such as a list of other homes comparable to yours that we can look at and use as a guiding point. It is not enough just to say I think I'm overvalued. We have to have, you have to put together a case and present it to the Board of Assessors. Thank you. And the third and last question. If a homeowner refuses access to their home, how is the home evaluated? If a homeowner refuses access to the home, we use whatever information that we have, comparable homes and whatever information we already have on the property record card. There is a danger to refusing to allow access to the Board of Assessors to inspect your home if you file for an abatement and you have not let us in to see your home and inspect your home, your abatement as a matter of state law is denied. So there's a downfall to doing that. Thank you. We will now hear closing statements from the candidate for the Board of Assessors. Ms. O'Connor, you have one minute. Thank you all for coming out this evening and for listening. Let me just say if you have any questions about your assessment, how to file for an abatement, how to file for an exemption, what exemptions you may qualify, particularly seniors, please feel free to reach out to the Board of Assessors and to the office and the board will help you and the people in the office are very helpful. Thank you. Thank you. We will now ask the candidates for select board to approach and I think we should give these to candidates again. There should be a warm welcome. Are they going to be bringing questions off? It's all here. I thought, that is a lot simpler, yes. Oh, thank you. I'll ask them. Feedback to Henry Sheeve. I don't think so because I don't have anybody on the right. We don't have- We can figure out how? Yeah, we don't have volume control here. They'll have to be done by ACMI. Is that any better? Okay. Thank you. We will now hear, I'm getting feedback. This, no, it's not that one. Which mic is it? Everybody's off? Can you, you can try, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I think we've got it. That this one is on. One more, I see the green one. Maybe it's ours. I can't see the turn off. I think it's mine. Ready, I'm going to take it all off. Why won't you go off? It doesn't stay off. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's not staying off. And maybe I'll point it away from, yeah. Oh, it's the- Kathleen, one, two, three. Hello, testing. Hello, testing. Is that better? Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you, Jordan. We will now hear from the candidates for select board. There are two seats open for three-year terms. There are three candidates. Leonard Tyrone-Diggins, John D. Leone, and Diane M. Mahone. The five members of the select board serve three-year overlapping terms. They act as the town's executive branch to formulate town policy, ensure compliance with state laws, and administer many town meeting decisions. The board appoints the town manager to be the professional manager of town services and departments, except for the schools. The select board members also serve as the board of public works and the board of survey. Subpile the warrant, grant licenses and permits, appoint election officers, review budgets, and settle claims against the town. The members announce all elections, attend hearings at other town functions, and deal with traffic and safety matters. We will now hear an opening statement from the candidates in the order in which they appear on the ballot. The first question is Mr. Diggins. Mr. Diggins, you have two minutes. Thank you. I love Arlington. I do. It's a wonderful community, but sometimes it can drive me crazy. Just a little bit. Just as we love our... Testing one, two, three. Okay, sure. Sorry, start. I love Arlington. I do. It's a wonderful community, but sometimes the kid drives me just a little bit crazy. Just as we love our partners, parents, and children, sometimes they drive us nuts. Most of the time, we are our own worst critics. But you know what? That means that we're trying harder and not resting on our laurels. For example, the fact that we strive to be more diverse and inclusive says a lot of good things about us, and it makes me very proud to be a resident at Arlington and to be a member of your select board. As I asked you to elect me again, I think of how we can build on our accomplishments. Well, for one, there's the equity audit. It was gutsy of the town to do this. Whether or not you agree with the findings, the recommendations provide good food for thought, and I want to support the staff and residents in the effort to transform many of the recommendations into actions. With the desire for even more engagement, I certainly welcome the creation of a community engagement team as recommended by the equity audit. It will complement other engagement efforts that have been undertaken by Envision Arlington. I want more people to become aware of how their local government works because knowledge is power. I hope that as we get the young Arlington Collaborative up and running, it will empower more youth and young adults and that they will take civic engagement and community building to another level and in ways that perhaps we haven't even imagined. When it comes to more housing and more affordable housing, as we endeavor to modify our zoning so that we can become a MBTA community, I will support policies that move us beyond just allowing three-family housing by right so that Arlington can build more housing of all types, but especially for those with low income for seniors and for young people who are at the start of their lives as independent adults. So let's keep moving forward. We may disagree about the exact path to take and the speed at which we make progress, but let's not argue in a way that causes destructive divisions, but our differences spark the creativity and innovation that will lead us to be a more vibrant future and please allow me to be a part of that future as a member of the select board for three more years. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. The second candidate is Mr. Leone. Mr. Leone, you have two minutes for an open statement. Thank you very much. I made the decision to run after many supportive discussions with my wife and my family. I was raised in Arlington as were my children who attended Arlington public schools. My interest is running, is based on 29 years of actively serving in Arlington town government, the last 15 of which was as the moderator, and observing the large and small decisions that have delivered us to this point. That experience and the role also gave me an excellent window into the operating dynamics of our town over several generations of committees, boards, town managers, and select boards. The select board is responsible for setting short and long-term town policies. Arlington has done very well over the last 25 years as evidenced by our AAA bond rating. This was achieved through a combination of short-term management and long-term planning, and prudent financial oversight. But our success is not guaranteed. My concerns are the policy decisions facing our town and the board. It's time to reassess and set our priorities and decisions making for where we want to be in five to ten years. As we emerge from the pandemic turmoil, I believe it is time to focus on planning, and that is imperative and crucial for maintaining a sustainable community for both new and old residents alike. I will ensure that long-term planning, thinking, and policy decisions remain squarely on the table of the select board. I will bring an energy and a direction of purpose to the select board that is seriously needed at this time. I have been and will continue to be with your vote, a listener, a friend, and a voice for all Arlington residents as we work together to make Arlington the best it can be. We can do better. Thank you. I'm John Leone. Thank you, Mr. Leone. The third candidate is Ms. Mahon. Ms. Mahon, you may have two minutes. Thank you. Good to see you in person. Hi. I'm Diane Mahon, and I'm a candidate for reelection for Arlington's select board, and I respectfully request one of your two votes. I have had the privilege of working for you, the residents of the town, as a select board member, and also a town meeting member. I have been proud of my record and service, and I am just as excited as I was when I was a first time candidate. Arlington is a great community due to the involvement of its citizens in our communities to continue to grow and adapt with the issues before us. We are facing many challenges, and I hope to continue to work towards solutions as a member of the select board. I have learned one of my best qualities as a select board member is to really take the time to listen to all of our residents and always keep an open mind to finding solutions and re-examining to find the solution. I am seeking reelection to the select board as it has been a longstanding passion of mine to help all of our residents in the town. My number one job has been and will continue to be constituent services in the wide umbrella that encompasses. I've always tried to make Arlington's local government understandable and accessible to everyone. There's no issue too small or too complicated that I will not devote all of my energy to help resolve. I want to continue working on the important issues facing Arlington, such as climate change, climate resiliency, the preservation of the Mugar wetlands, restoration of a clean alwai brook, housing and affordability, transportation and public safety, and funding for our schools are a few of the challenges before us that I am committed to continue to working on to find the right solution for everyone. I love Arlington and hope to continue working on these and many other issues as a member of the select board to continue to make Arlington a vibrant and welcoming place to live and again respectfully request one of your two votes for select board in the town's annual election. I seriously thank you for listening and your consideration. Thank you, we'll now move to the questions. And the first question we will start with Mr. Leone. The question is, what are the top three to four town issues and how would you address them? Mr. Leone, one minute. Thanks. Well, there are several issues that are facing the town right now. We have the town manager hiring process which we are reduced to one candidate at this point. I think at this point we are going to do an interview on Monday for that one candidate. I think at this point we may also have to restart the process in order to get a full fair field. But I'm not sure how that's going to work. The other issues facing the town, we have the MBTA and the cut in services which we have to get those services back. We pay $3,200,000 a year to the MBTA and we must get the services we need for our residents so that they can commute to and from work and we can get our children to and from school because they do use the buses. We have problems with the natural environment right now. We are using, they're still in town, the SEGARs, the anti-roadenticides that are killing our wildlife. And we have to take care of that as another issue that we must deal with as quickly as possible. Thank you. Ms. Mohan. Thank you. One minute. Four issues, financial budgets to town and school, climate change, climate resiliency, MBTA Communities Act and our assessment as well as the diversity, equity and inclusion DEI process that we're going through. For town and school financial budgets, these are very important and as a member of the board, I have been serving as my chair, Mr. Diggins has on the long range planning committee with my colleagues on the school committee and other boards. And we plan five, 10, 15 years ahead but in the short term, five years ahead. And it's very important to me that we're very judicious with the funding that our residents give us but that also we continue to provide the services that the town of Allenton residents have come to seek from their town and school. And I'm hoping on number two, three and four, there might be a question that let me go into that. But the diversity, equity and inclusion, I do want to say Jillian Harvey, our director, pointed out Allenton has taken the lead in all the municipalities in the state on that issue. Thank you. Mr. Diggins, one minute. So the first is really the override. The second is the town manager search. The third is immediate communities and related to that is new growth, creating new growth. And so with the override, we are, as my colleague pointed out, working with the long range planning committee to determine the amount of that override and the duration for which we will commit to not having another override. Along with that is a whole notion of new growth. I mean, if we can generate new growth, that could potentially decrease the amount overrides and also the frequency at which we need to do those overrides. Of course, the town manager is the most important element. I mean, one of our most important responsibilities, we are in the process, as Mr. Lowney pointed out, of getting ready to do an interview on Monday. The process has been carried out the way it should have been. Thank you. The next question, and we'll start with Ms. Mahan on this one. Are you satisfied with the enforcement of town and zoning bylaws? If not, what measures would you take to correct any problems? Thank you for that question. Am I satisfied? Yes. It's something we need to work on and we can certainly borrow from Mr. Leone do better on. Also, yes, and I give credit to town meeting and our town meeting members and my colleagues there that really have followed this process along in terms of enforcement. We vote in bylaws, but then also sort of as a watchdog, watchperson group to see that of how they're enforced. The zoning bylaws really are sort of a hot topic, whether it's new bylaws in terms of enforcement, whether it's the MBTA Communities Act, whether it's just a person who's coming in and wants to start a business or perhaps build on a piece of land and they have to begin that process of zoning, zoning bylaws, special permits, variants, et cetera, so thank you for that question. Thank you. Mr. Diggins? I'm sorry, I kind of figured out a little bit of the question. Can you repeat it for me? Sure, please, I could repeat the questions for any of you at any time. Okay, great, thanks. The question was, are you satisfied with the enforcement of town and zoning bylaws? If not, what measures would you take to correct any problem? Okay, well the extent to which we enforce bylaws or any law in the town and state and nationally it is a function of how much it costs to do it versus the effects of breaking the law. We sometimes have bylaws made that are just not enforceable, at least by the amount of money that we're willing to spend to enforce it. And so I feel that any bylaw that we aren't holding or following strictly, well I think we should really reconsider whether or not that is a good bylaw because I think almost by definition that tells us that maybe the requirements of it are too stringent or certainly something that we can't enforce because we're not willing to spend the money to do it. But overall I'm satisfied. Thank you. Mr. Leone? That's a yes or no answer on that one. We don't always enforce all of our zoning bylaws. The building department as we know has had issues with permit issuing and enforcement over the years. The ground meeting has been on this issue for many years requesting and asking why these bylaws aren't zoning, the building codes and bylaws are not always enforced. There's been state ethics investigations of the building department and the head of the building department. This should have been something that the select board was focused on or knew about. For me as an average citizen knew about it. The select board should have known about it and called the town manager at the task to find out why bylaws aren't being enforced. Whether it costs money or not to enforce a bylaw, town meeting passed them. They should be enforced. If town meeting doesn't like a bylaw, then a citizen can bring a warrant article to get rid of that bylaw, not just ignore it. Thank you, Mr. Leone. The third question now and we will be starting with Mr. Diggins on this one. Arlington is facing diminished amounts of wooded space essential for healthy habitat. How will you balance the need to protect our public habitats with the desire for more recreational space? Mr. Diggins, one minute. Thank you. So I guess I have a little issue with the premise because my understanding is that we're not really losing any of our protected open space. So if there is open space that isn't protected, that is being developed, well, I think it's really up to us to determine if the town wants to buy that property, meaning in order to make it protected open space. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Leone. May you repeat the question for me, please? Sure. Arlington is facing diminished amounts of wooded space essential for healthy habitat. How will you balance the need to protect our public habitats with the desire for more recreational space? Open space or wooded? The question says wooded space. Wooded space. So we're talking about forested land or land that has natural tree growth on it. That's our healthy habitat that we have to protect for the small amount of wildlife that we still have in Arlington. But a lot of this land, such as Monotomy Rocks Park or Hills Hills is being used for recreational purposes. We can develop that land as well as maintain the natural character of it. And then that's up to the Conservation Commission to guide that process. But it does require a lot of public input. And what are the different various committee constituencies in the town want and what can we do to keep it? It is very important to keep our natural wooded space for our, we like wildlife, we want to keep wildlife. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Mahan. Thank you. As someone who's been a long time advocate for our open spaces, for our wetlands and also for those who use our open spaces for recreational, passive or active use, I'm very well versed with this. And I'm also well versed that there are different constituencies that come into that with what they want. Sometimes they come in saying what they don't want and I say that's fine too, but let us know also what you want. And I'm very proud that Arlington has a process where there's always a series of public meetings. I take great guidance from our Conservation Commission in terms of them helping us preserve the wetlands. And one thing I do that you have to do on the select board and probably any Board of Commission is every situation is unique. Every situation has to be looked at from top to bottom. And the number one thing should be preserving and making safe the very limited public habitat that we have here in the town of Arlington. Thank you. Thank you. And the next question we'll be starting with Mr. Leone. What strategies would you use in your oversight role to ensure that public properties are properly and promptly maintained and preserved and how would this maintenance be funded? One minute. Preservation and maintenance of the public properties is going to be handled through the public works department. So we would want to have the public works director give us reports through the town manager because everything would go through the town manager which is why we need a good capable town manager. And those reports would give us periodic analysis and outlooks of the property whether it's being overutilized, underutilized, whether it's being, needs to be laid fallow for a while so that it can recoup. And the funding is going to come from the budget itself, Parks and Recreation Department budgets and also the long-term capital plan budgets. And if we can, the CPA budgets for Community Preservation Act budgets for some of the parks. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Mahone. Thank you. Just to sort of carry on with what Mr. Leone was saying about the preservation of our public properties, how we maintain them and how we pay for them. That's a situation that's really very unique to Allington and it changes as the times change. In terms of how we preserve our public properties thanks to Mike Rademacher, our Public Work Director and everyone who works under his department, Tudelich, they're always thinking and being innovative in terms of not only finding the best, most cost-effective way to preserve our public properties, but also keeping in mind votes that the town meeting and the select board have taken in concerning green energy, clean energy, net zero goals. And the other thing I just want to really put a shout out, we could not have some of the properties in the condition they're in if we didn't have the neighborhood groups, sports groups, other volunteers who give their time and sometimes their money and resources to help fund and keep those properties in good shape. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Diggins, one minute. So there are public properties and also our facilities. One thing that was created back in I think 2017 was the facilities department to help track the condition of our facilities meet and they have a process by which they can develop an index to tell you the condition that those properties are in and the extent to which they need maintenance. That can also be applied to our public buildings. And so I know that Mr. Rademacher is doing a great job. He's probably doing something along those lines. To the extent we need more money to maintain things better, we as a town have to decide what our values are and how we're gonna pay for them. Because anything above our current spending, anything above our current spending is gonna require that we pay more when it comes time for us to do an override. Thank you. This will now be the last question before we go to closing statements. And we will be starting with Ms. Mahan on this one. What ideas will you bring to the board to help plan for and fund pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements in town? And what would you do to ensure that such plans are implemented in a timely manner? Ms. Mahan, you have one minute. Thank you. This is where also I'd look to the partnership that the select board has through the town manager with the planning department and Claire Ricker. Allington, I know I was there from the very beginning with the Allington Bicycle Advisory Committee with Scott Smith and Paolo Maranelli. And I've really seen it evolved over the year where in terms of paying for these improvements that are needed for pedestrian and bicyclist safety has now really grown into the planning department, the town applying for a lot of grants through the state through mass works. And that's why it's so important for us to really get the work done on adopting the MBTA Communities Act because that will help us kind of position us towards the front of the line. If we have that, which is state law, it's not a choice. It's something we have to do. And the partnership of town funding and state funding is gonna make those projects happen. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Diggins, one minute. Yes, so I think in the connect Allington plan one of the elements was to create local transportation improvement program. And I think that can help us as a community and you determine the priority by which we want to do various types of safety projects and any kind of transportation project in town. I think it would be good for us to work on doing that so that we can have that community conversation because I keep coming back to this. Our budget is our values. And if we want better things, we want more things, we have to be prepared to pay for it. And so I think we have the community conversation about what we want. I think it makes it easier to make the case to everyone that this is what your money is going for when we say to folks we need to raise more money. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Leone, one minute. I think as a select board, we would have to work with the Allington Bicycle Advisory Committee everywhere around the Allington Livable Streets group as well as the business community to determine what exactly we're going to be able to do to make our corridors safe for bicyclists and pedestrians, frankly. We have had various accidents involving pedestrians and bicycles and I think the town has been too slow to act to make our intersections safe. So we have to use capital planning money to make some of those improvements. We should redirect our funds to those issues and we can, of course we can look for grants from the state and the federal government but we have to make some quick decisions in order to get our streets to be safe for our pedestrians and our bicyclists. Thank you. Thank you. We'll now move to the closing statements. They will be in reverse order, reverse ballot order. They each have one minute to speak and we will start with Ms. Mahone. Okay, thank you. And thank you to the League of Women Voters and Vision Allington and ACMI. Everybody in this room has been one of those people involved in an effort and you know the bodies behind those thank yous and I mean that sincerely and it's so nice to be back in the house to see everyone in person and thank you all for watching from home. I hope you've gotten a sense of, if you haven't met me, if you have, bless you, that this is a job that I really love. This is a job that I've committed a good part along with my family. I could not do this without my family but it's something that as much as I give in, I get twice back, I really believe strongly in citizen involvement, engagement. So I hope I've earned at least one of your two votes. Well, I can't get both of them. So I hope I've earned one of your two votes for Select Board and please go on to any questions here tonight. Arlington.ma, Arlington.ma, don't listen to me. Go on the website. Thank you. Mr. Leone, one minute. I wanna thank you, I wanna thank ACMI, the League and Envision Arlington for putting this on. As I stated, my concerns are policy decisions facing our town and the board. The Select Board is responsible for setting those town policies. They should listen to input from our committees, departments and citizens but in the end it is the Select Board that ultimately has to stop studying issues and make some policy decisions now and for the future. We are to crossroads. There is a sense that some priorities have drifted and that the hard decisions are not being made. With your vote, I will work to make the right policy decisions for Arlington to preserve our momentum and sustainability both economic and environmental and I will bring an energy in the direction of purpose to the Select Board that is sorely needed. I have been or continue to be with your vote, a listener, a friend and a voice for all residents of Arlington. We can work together to make Arlington as best that it can be. The first step is to get out and vote on April 1st. I respectfully ask for one of your votes. Thank you, we can do better. John Leone. Thank you. Mr. Diggins, one minute. Thank you everyone. The theme song to my campaign is I'm so excited and indeed I am. I feel that we have a lot of positive momentum on the Select Board and I want to continue being a part of it. When I think of Arlington, I think of all of us. We are the ones who are making great achievements and setting the stage for even greater advancements. I certainly have priorities but I am more animated when I hear your ideas for developing policies and plans that are aligned with my priorities. I'm also excited because I learned a few days ago that my outreach to unregistered voters touched one person who recently turned 18. My campaign's postcard was the first piece of political mail that was addressed to him and he was reminded to register by the 22nd. I'm elated that his first vote ever will be in our town's election. We often say that one vote can make a difference and I can sincerely say that knowing that we are getting out at least one more vote has made a big difference for me. It's motivated me even more to seek a second term and to continue my efforts to make positive differences one person at a time, step by step. Thank you. Thank you. Will the candidates for school committee please come to the stage. I would like a water to do. Thank you. And do you have your name tag? Yes, I do. I wanna keep it upside down. That just confuses us all. Thank you. Now we will hear from the candidates for school committee. There are three seats open each for a three year term. There are four candidates. Paul Schlickman, Elizabeth R. Ekston, Laura B. Giddelsen, and Jill Kristen Krajewski. The seven members of the school committee serve three year overlapping terms. They set policies for Arlington's public school system and appoint staff to implement these under the state laws and the policies of the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The committee appoints a superintendent as chief administrator of the school department to make recommendations on personnel and programs. The school committee is responsible for the school department's annual budget and represents the town in collective bargaining with the teachers. We will now hear opening statements from the candidates in the order in which they appear on the ballot. The first candidate is Mr. Schlickman. Mr. Schlickman, you have two minutes. Thank you. Hello, my name is Paul Schlickman and I'm here to ask for one of your three votes for school committee in the annual town election Saturday, April 1st. I have 37 years experience as a teacher, central office administrator and principal. I serve four years on the Minuteman Regional School Committee and 17 years on the Arlington School Committee. I'm a past president of MASC, the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. I'm running for reelection because I want to continue to be part of our excellent team. It's an honor and privilege to work with my outstanding colleagues on the school committee as we work to provide an excellent education for our children. We have met many challenges in the past three years. We reopened our schools as we emerged from the depths of the pandemic. We hired a new superintendent who led us through an excellent visioning process and we are adopting a new five-year strategic plan. We opened the first two new wings of our high school another couple of years till it's all done. But we can't rest on our laurels. There are significant challenges on the horizon. I want to thank ACMI, the League of Women Voters and Envision Arlington for this opportunity to join my friends on stage to talk about the future of Arlington schools and our vision for making our schools even better. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Schlitman. Second candidate is Ms. Ecksten. Ms. Ecksten, you have two minutes for opening statement. Thank you. Hello, I'm Elizabeth Ecksten. Most people know me as Liz. Thank you to the League of Women Voters and Envision Arlington for hosting this debate and to ACMI for broadcasting it across town. I'm a mother of two, a public school teacher and the current chair of the school committee. I'm running for reelection because I am proud of the work we have done over the last three years and I want to contribute to the ongoing efforts to improve our schools. We reopen the schools during the pandemic. We have a fantastic new superintendent and have opened the first two wings of the new high school. We've laid the groundwork for the next five years with new vision and mission statements and a strategic plan. Realizing our strategic plan will require both experience on the school committee and the practical knowledge that comes from a classroom teacher. The four strategic priorities will require thoughtful planning, careful analysis and fiscal decisions. I want to continue to work on communication. We need to focus on making our schools more welcoming for families whose first language is not English and to improve outreach and communication to those just joining the schools either in kindergarten or when moving to town. We need to support competitive pay for our teachers and paraprofessionals. Arlington offers an exemplary academic and social experience for its students and families while our teachers are paid 5% less on average than comparable districts. I know personally how important it is for teachers to feel valued for the work they do with our children every day. I will use my experience both on the school committee and as an educator to ensure we can continue to recruit and retain a high quality staff while keeping our tradition of responsible budgeting. All of this work requires a calm, steady hand, a thoughtful consensus builder and a good listener. That's who I am. I am proud to be a member of the Arlington School Committee and I want to continue to serve our community in this capacity. My name is Elizabeth Exton and I respectfully ask for one of your three votes on Saturday, April 1st. Thank you, Ms. Exton. Our next candidate is Ms. Giddelson. Ms. Giddelson, you have two minutes for opening statement. Thank you. My name is Laura Giddelson and I am running for school committee. I am a lawyer, a mom of two, a town meeting member and an advocate for social justice. I'm secretary of the Pierce PTO, a volunteer in the school library and I serve on the Pierce School Council. I'm a member of the town's LGBTQIA plus rainbow commission where I serve on the education working group and I'm one of the leads of the Arlington chapter of mom's demand action for gun sense in America. I also co-chaired the Civilian Police advisory board study committee which resulted in the creation of a permanent commission that received overwhelming support from the select board and town meeting. Arlington schools are well positioned for success. We have a relatively new superintendent. We're about to finish our beautiful new high school and we're poised to launch a five-year strategic plan but there is a lot of hard work ahead of us. We're likely to face challenging budget conditions and we'll need to confront these with Arlington's longstanding commitment to fiscal responsibility, all the while maintaining our commitment to providing our kids with the best education possible. We're also still emerging from COVID-19 and must confront the inequities and access to learning laid bare by the pandemic. We must make thoughtful and responsible decisions that allocate resources equitably across the district. We need to support high quality professional development for faculty and staff to ensure that they are equipped to welcome, support and educate the district's diverse learners. And we need to bring new educators to the district to reflect the racial and cultural diversity of Arlington students and families. We also need to prioritize special education and improve communication between APS and families of children with special education needs. And finally, we need to address the fact that Arlington does not pay its teachers or paraprofessionals competitively. I know there is hard work to be done and I believe I have the skills and experience to do so. I look forward to joining the work of the school committee. Thank you, Ms. Gilson. The next candidate is Ms. Krajewski. Ms. Krajewski, you have two minutes. Thank you to the League of Women Voters for having this debate and thank you to the candidates for joining the conversation. I am Jill Krajewski, a teacher for 20 years, a union leader for 15 years and a parent of children who will be in middle at high school next year. As a parent, I am excited that my younger daughter will be transitioning to Gibbs. She will be able to develop her sense of belonging through the unique programming designed to help sixth graders meet friends from around town and learn to navigate middle school. As my older daughter will walk through the central spine of the new high school next fall, I am thankful for the work we did on the Build Arlington Future campaign to enable our town to have a state-of-the-art new facility. However, buildings alone do not make a school system and our superintendent and school leadership have put in place a set of district priorities that will guide us through the next five years. As an educator and union leader, I know how to successfully implement and evaluate these priorities and I will engage each group of stakeholders so that all of our children can experience the joy and excellence that our district embodies. I believe that when you work to meet the needs of each child, you ensure the best learning is happening for all of the children in the classroom. We must take a similar approach regarding our schools and our town. Schools cannot operate without human capital and we need to invest smartly in continuing to attract and retain diverse, high-quality teachers and educational support staff. We need to do this with a careful balance of salary and working conditions. In addition, we need to ensure that the schools belong to our whole community and not just when we are in the need of funding. When we build a bridge between our schools and the larger community, we can model authentic learning opportunities for our students. We can develop a shared sense of Arlington Pride and a supportive relationship that carries us well into the future. I look forward to our conversation tonight and hope to show my enthusiasm for the Arlington Public Schools. Thank you, Ms. Giddelsen. We will now start with the questions and we will be starting with Ms. Exton and then rotating. The first question is, what do you think are the major issues facing the Arlington school system in the next few years and what are your specific proposals for addressing these issues? You have one minute. Thank you. So the schools have gone through a strategic planning process over the last six months, six to 12 months. So I think that a lot of the issues have been laid out in that. From those, some that I would highlight are an instructional vision and coherence ensuring that we're teaching all of our students across all of our schools equally and supporting them. As I mentioned in my opening statement, I think teacher pay parity is another important aspect of the schools that we need to address sooner rather than later. The pandemic has made teaching incredibly challenging and we need to support our teachers. And finally, I would highlight starting to think about infrastructure as the high school comes to a close. I would like us to also start thinking about how we can support the Odyssey and bringing it to become a 21st century educational experience for our students. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Giddelson, one minute. Thank you. I think that there are a lot of important issues facing Arlington Public Schools over the next several years. And like Liz said, many of them are laid out in the strategic plan. One of the most important ones is the work we need to do to make our schools welcoming and inclusive to all learners, no matter where they come from or what kind of learner they are. And I think there are measures in the strategic plan that will help us further that goal. In addition to that, pay parity is an enormous issue, both for our teachers and our paraprofessionals. We have seen communities around us, what happens when we don't pay our teachers well enough. We're lucky in Arlington to have a really good relationship with our teachers and we need to maintain that and build on it. And then finally is communication. I think we need to work on the communication between the schools and the community and the school committee and make sure we have two-way communication with all of our residents and all of our learners. Thank you. Ms. Krajewski, one minute. We have a district goal or priority of excellence and equity. I think the first thing we need to do is really work on the equity component of that. Students must make connections to be able to learn and we need to work on making sure there are interventions in the classroom and making sure that SEL is embedded into the curriculum. We need to value all staff and part of valuing all staff is to attract staff with salary but also learn to what the strategies are to retaining staff, particularly our diverse staff that we are trying to attract with things like affinity groups mentoring and simply listening. We need to work on our collaborative partnerships and really work on listening to groups of parents in the town and ensuring that families feel belonging. As a part of that, I think we need to work on continuing to build our before and after school programs so any family who needs that type of care has the care available for them. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Schlickman, one minute. That's a lot to do in one minute. Sense of belonging for all students. There are five focal groups in our strategic plan. We need to make sure that they're all feeling a sense of belonging as well as closing achievement gaps within the focal groups that we have. Teacher salaries are critical. Over the past eight years, housing costs in Arlington have increased 56% teacher salaries have not kept pace. A third year teacher with a master's degree earns almost $2,000 more in Chelmsford, $5,900 more in Burlington and $6,200 more in Concord Carlisle. And they're commuting from outside of 495. Other districts can offer them a much shorter commute with a higher salary. Also, facilities are important. The next one up is the Odyssey. It's 104 years old right now. Retrofitting and bringing it up to standards and getting it to net zero along with the rest of our schools before 2050 is going to be another challenge for us. And of course, the lack of money is the root of all evil. Thank you. We will now go to the next question which we will be starting with Ms. Gilson. And the question is, how can the METCO program better serve its students and all students in Arlington? Ms. Gilson, you have one minute. Thank you. I'm proud that Arlington was one of the very first communities to invite METCO students into our schools. And I was really proud last week when I watched the current school committee hold its meeting in the METCO offices. I think we need to do more and more of the same. We need to make sure our METCO students feel as much a part of this community as any other students. This Sunday, there's a walk in the arboretum where you can all go and walk with other METCO families and just get to know each other a little more. And I think that we need to continue to work with our new-ish director of diversity, equity and inclusion who came through the METCO program to do all of the things we need you to welcome kids into every school. Our kids who live in Arlington benefit as much from the METCO kids being in our schools as they benefit from being here. We need to follow through on that. Thank you. Ms. Kredjuski? I work in a METCO district as well as live-in one. And I had a conversation with my students today that extended from yesterday where we said yesterday to all of our students, we are all METCO students. And my METCO students that live in Boston asked today, what do you mean by that, Mrs. Kredjuski? And what I said to them was, we are two towns that share one school system. And we need to work to bridge that and to build relationships that last over time. I do think the walk this Sunday is a great start to connect the two communities that learn together. And I think to begin to continue building those relationships is an important goal the school committee should have. Thank you. Mr. Schlickman, one minute. Wow, this is a great topic. When I was a teacher in Boston, my principal was a METCO parent who sent her children to Arlington and the host parent community that she found here was exemplary. We need to continue to do that to make our students feel like one community. That meeting at METCO headquarters, Liz Ekston set that up and she insisted upon that and she deserves a lot of credit for that outreach. We are going to work with METCO. They asked for us to help them with funding. It is an annual appropriation in the state budget. It's not by right, it's not by formula. And this year's funding is proposed to be less than last year's. So call your legislature right now and tell them you want additional METCO funding. And we're going to work with METCO to get a resolution in front of MASC to put that organization behind the revision and the funding structure for METCO. Thank you, Ms. Ekston. Thank you. As Mr. Schlickman mentioned, yes, we met at METCO. We had our regular school committee meeting last Thursday at METCO headquarters in Boston. I think that's one example of the way that we can create an improved relationship and provide more sense of belonging for our METCO students. Some other things that I've been thinking about are ensuring more opportunities for late busing. Money is obviously an issue, but when students have opportunities to participate in the extracurricular activities that are offered in Arlington and still have transportation back home to Boston that supports their relationship development, their sense of belonging. I also think it's important for our APS community to go to Boston to build and facilitate those relationships. We took a school bus from Arlington High School into Boston for that meeting. And that's a ride that those students take both ways every single day. And it's important for our Arlington community to understand that. Thank you. Thank you. The next question will be starting with Ms. Krajewski. And the question is, what metrics should be in place to determine whether and how our schools have promoted a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment? What we wanna see is that students are proportionally participating in our programs across the board. And that includes our AP classes, our upper level classes, as well as our sports and our arts activities. So being able to look at participation and being able to look at success would be important metrics. In addition, I think we need to be able to survey our students and understand how they feel in those activities and what their sense of belonging is. So not only making sure they are participating, but making sure they feel that they are a part of the groups and that they have joined. Thank you. Mr. Schlickman, you have one minute. She's absolutely correct. We do survey our students annually and we are looking for that. We do break it down demographically. We're looking at all achievement data and we're looking carefully at achievement gaps. The strategic plan, the five year plan has the five focal groups that we are going to be tracking and you'll be able to go look through the strategic plan at the budget implications and the things we want to do to make this happen. Of course, we're gonna have to evaluate that going forward. It's a lot of work and I also think that the one group that does not get attention are second language learner families. Those families don't have the political knowledge of how things work in a school system in New England. And we need to amplify their voices so that their needs are met. Thank you. Ms. Ecksten? Could you repeat the question please? Sure. What metrics should be in place to determine whether and how our schools have promoted a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment? So in terms of metrics, I think representation, as Ms. Krujewski mentioned, in terms of participation in activities and participation in courses, are all of our students represented at all of the levels of courses that we're offering, the various disciplines that we're offering. We have a variety of surveys that can be provided where students and families are giving us feedback on whether they feel included, whether they feel like they can participate, making sure that we're communicating with those families to get that feedback from them. And I think also getting feedback from teachers around their experiences and the professional development that they're being offered as ways to support, include and ensure an equitable education for all of our students. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Giddelson? Thank you. I agree with almost everything that everybody else has said. So I'll add on to that. Another part of representation that we need to work on is representation in our faculty, so that students who are here see a faculty that reflects the cultural and racial diversity of our community and see what the future can be for them. We do survey our students on their sense of blogging and there is a lot of progress we need to make there. The most recent statistics that are in the strategic plan show a gap of 10% for black and African-American students compared to all of their students in their sense of belonging, 16% for Hispanic and Latino students and 28% for all students who prefer to self-describe their gender. These are all groups we need to work harder at and we need to listen and we need to help provide our teachers with the appropriate and wanted professional development to make our community more welcoming. Thank you. The next question will be starting with Mr. Schlickman and the question is, would you support heterogeneous grouping going beyond the pilot program for ninth grade English? If so, how would you implement its use in other subjects and grade levels? Answer is yes, absolutely. Educational literature shows that a more inclusive classroom yields better results, higher achievement. Back in 2004, when we had massive budget cuts, we broke down prerequisite barriers of teacher recommendations and high grades to get into upper level classes and the students who would have not made it into those classes succeeded and we're looking at the same kind of data this year with the heterogeneous grouping initiative. More kids taking honors work and higher achievement. The reason why it's working is the teachers wanted to do it and they were well trained so the thing is moving from the pilot, we need to go and work with the teachers who are excited about doing this in certain content areas where it lends itself so it has to be a thoughtful process but yes, it's the right thing to do for kids, it's the right thing to do for inclusion and yes, we need to move forward. Thank you. Ms. Eksten? Yes, I also would support heterogeneous grouping expanding beyond the pilot based on the information that we have seen so far. My thoughts at this point would be expanding it within the English discipline to the 10th grade. Unfortunately, the students that are in ninth grade this year were not going to see if they would have selected honors or curriculum A in 10th grade if they were in a heterogeneous group because those will not be offered for them and I am interested in seeing how students who have heterogeneous opportunities in the future select their courses and then I think that it's important to expand across the disciplines. The teachers in the English department are so committed to this work and very much wanted to have that happen and they teach 10th graders and 11th graders and 12th graders and so I think starting there is the place to be because they've had the professional development and they want to do the work. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Giddelson. I'm really excited about the values embedded in the heterogeneous, in the going towards heterogeneous classrooms but I also know that we're only one year into a two year pilot and I want to see what, I want to see all of the data. I want to see how students, what how students describe their experience. I want to hear what teachers think went well and what could go better. I know that there's a demand for more common planning time and I think that that's probably a really important thing to keep our eye on. I think it's important when we evaluate these programs to hear from all stakeholders but ultimately the most important thing is that we create a program where we can live our values and our values are that we believe that every single student in Arlington Public Schools has the potential to do the best possible work and a heterogeneous classroom is likely a way to do that. Thank you. Ms. Krajewski. I think I have a unique perspective on this one as a parent of a rising ninth grader who is able to choose to be in a class and not have to choose honors or non honors yet. So the ability for a kid to rise into ninth grade not knowing where they're at and be able to rise to the level of honors when they're ready is really important to me. I also teach in an opt in heterogeneous program and I think there are many ways to accomplish heterogeneous mixings and I think Arlington has been very smart and like Laura says, put into place a pilot. I think as a long time union leader, pilots are really important and we need to see the pilot play out and then determine what the next steps would be and who we would engage in the next steps. Thank you. The next question will be our last question before the candidates give their closing statements and for this one we will start with Ms. Ekston. Paraprofessional pay in Arlington lags behind other communities. To what extent do you see this as a significant problem for the Arlington school system? What can be done to address this problem? Ms. Ekston. Yes, absolutely. This is a problem for the Arlington public schools. It's a problem in many school districts in Massachusetts. Paraprofessionals have some of the most challenging jobs in the schools and sometimes get very limited support and then their pay is limited so they have to take a second job and they're running from one job to the other so it is very much an issue. What do we do about it? We need to increase their pay and we are working very hard on that but it's going to take a community for us to increase our funding enough to provide funding to increase paraprofessional pay across the district. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Giddelson. Yes, this is an incredibly important issue and while you may have noticed I'm the only one up here who's not an actual trained educator. I have for the last several months stepped up and become a substitute in the Arlington public schools. There was a desperate need for them. They asked parents if they'd be willing and I stepped up. Many of the classrooms that I have been lucky to be a substitute in have either had paraprofessionals in them or have clearly had a need for them. These teachers work incredibly hard and they do not get paid enough and we see all over, there was just a story today about the strike in Los Angeles and there was a story about a paraprofessional who's working two jobs. I don't want that to have to be the case here. Our kids need them. Our teachers need them and we need to pay them better. Thank you. Ms. Krajewski. I value my paraprofessional as much as any other educator I work with and I think it is really important to continue in Arlington to work towards pay equity for paraprofessionals. I think that we can do, in addition to that, we can work on professional development and pathways for paraprofessionals who want to go further in the education career to do so. There are actually great programs that line up with the state and it could be a way to also bring in more diverse educators who are looking for a way to enter the education field and join and become long-term Arlington employees as teachers. Thank you. Mr. Schlickman. Thank you. In my role as a elementary and pre-K principal, I've seen just how much paraprofessionals and teaching assistants can add to the lives of children and the Paras find a lot of love and a lot of satisfaction from the job but love doesn't pay the bills and when we were in negotiations with the paraprofessionals, it was just so difficult because of where we were starting from. We're trying to get people above $15 an hour and there were various bargaining units in the district that were scraping around and we had to push to move it up. We're not competitive against other industries. It is essential for us to budget for a significant increase in the parapay and for some of the other low-wage workers in the district in order to keep them, maintain them and honor them in the way that this community values people. Thank you. We will now hear closing statements from the candidates for school committee in reverse ballot order. You each have one minute to speak and we will start with Ms. Krajewski. Learning has been a core value in my life. Even in this short campaign, I have learned more about the town that I love. I have cherished the opportunity to listen and grow in my understanding of the needs of our community. Building relationships has been central to how I make decisions and advocate for my students and colleagues and I look forward to doing this as a school committee member. You have a choice to make. Arlington showed in 2019 that it valued public education and as a result, our school system is well positioned to move forward and strive for equity, excellence and belonging. What you, the voters must now consider is which candidate has the educational experience to move these priorities from policy to practice. I ask that you consider the combination of my role as a parent and as a teacher, along with my union leadership and allow me the opportunity to help the Arlington public schools work toward achieving these priorities. I would be honored to have one of your votes on April 1st. Thank you, Ms. Giddelson, one minute. Thanks so much to Envision Arlington, the League of Women Voters and ACMI and everyone who is watching tonight. I'm running for school committee because I believe passionately in advocating for all of Arlington's kids to receive the best education possible. Like some of you, like many parents around town, I watched school committee meetings in the summer of 2020 anxiously waiting to know what the school year would look like. My oldest was starting kindergarten. Amid that uncertainty, I was so impressed at the collaborative nature of the school committee's work and I believe I have the experience and skills to be a productive part of that work. I have seen firsthand how the ability of committee members to listen and learn from community members and one another directly affects the quality of their decisions. I have the experience needed to work collaboratively and effectively with my fellow school committee members to ensure that we support and champion policies that are in the best interest of all of Arlington's kids. I'm Laura Giddelson and I'm asking for one of your three votes for school committee. Thank you. Ms. Eckston. Thank you. Thank you to the League of Women Voters and Envision Arlington and our moderator. This evening and to my fellow candidates for a great discussion in an energizing campaign. I hope you heard tonight how committed I am to the work on the school committee, both what I have brought to the committee and what more I can contribute. In closing, I wanna remind you of my priorities. First, I wanna support the implementation of our five year strategic plan. Second, I wanna work on improving communication specifically for those just joining the Arlington Public Schools and to foster better transitions when children move from one school to the next. Finally, I wanna support parity in teacher pay. I will use my experience both on the committee and as a teacher to ensure we can continue to recruit and retain a high quality staff while keeping our tradition of responsible budgeting. It has been my privilege to serve on the school committee for the last three years and I hope the voters agree that I am the right person for this job and return me to a seat on the school committee. My name is Elizabeth Eckston and I ask for one of your three votes on April 1st. Thank you. Mr. Schlickman. Thank you. I'm running for reelection because I wanna work with my colleagues on the school committee and the community to find solutions for the challenges before us. The challenges are significant, but we are strong, smart, determined, and we will emerge with even better schools in an even better town. If you wanna learn more about me and the issues, I invite you to visit my website, www.schlickman.org. You will also find a link to the website of my friends who are sharing the stage. They also deserve your consideration for one of your three votes on April 1st. I wanna thank ACMI, the League of Women Voters, and Vision Arlington and Gordon, not Gordon, Jordan for his technical service in getting the mics working and for the opportunity to speak to you today and thanks for listening. I'm Paul Schlickman and I respectfully ask for your support and your vote on Saturday, April 1st. Thank you. I would like to thank the candidates for running for office and for adhering to the timing, schedule, and the format, and now Patty Muldoon will close the program. Patty, so many thank yous, and thanks to Margaret Copey for being our moderator again. And thank you to all of our candidates for participating tonight and for deciding to run. And of course, thank you for coming out. Wouldn't be any fun without you, and thank you to Arlington Community Media, Inc. for broadcasting the forum tonight. So once again, if you're interested in the activities of Vision Arlington or the League of Women Voters of Arlington, information's available on our websites, and I think in the back. And I should mention that a government primer previously compiled based upon six citizen corner articles published in the Arlington Advocate is available through the town's website. Candidates night has been broadcast live and in person starting at eight o'clock on March 23rd, 2023. Please visit acmi.tv for rebroadcast information. So thank you to all the voters here tonight and to all of you throughout the town. Of course, remember to vote. Saturday, April 1st, 2023. Polls are open from eight to eight. So thank you for coming tonight and for watching this forum. Has been sponsored by Vision Arlington and the League of Women Voters of Arlington. Thank you.