 Okay, so I'm calling this meeting of the Arlington school, the special meeting of the Arlington school committee to order on today, Thursday, December 21st. We are able to hold this because of the governor's orders and everything is available on Novus. Don't share your screen because everyone can see your screen. Len, can you say hi? Hello. Okay, great. And Rob, I know you can talk. Julie, can you say hi? Hi. Okay, Liz Holman. Hi. Okay, and Mona, or Dr. Fordbork, sorry. Oh, that's okay, hi. Okay. Okay, so we have everyone, so we're going to start, do we need to go into executive session? I'm looking at Mr. Spiegel and... If you need to discuss things in executive session, you can. I know that you don't have to if you're ready to vote in public, you can vote. Okay, there haven't been any changes, correct? Correct, no changes. Okay, do people, does anyone want to make a motion to go into executive session if they think we need to do it? Okay, I'm not seeing anything, so I think we can just move on. Do we, Liz Diggins, do we need to change links or are we okay just staying in this link? We can just stay in this link. I'm sorry, you don't feel good. Okay, so now we are still in our regular session and we're not going to go into executive session, and can I have a motion to... Sorry, Dr. Holman, do you want... I'm just wondering if Ms. Keyes wants to give any updates on their meeting earlier this afternoon. Yes, please. Sure, so this afternoon our unit D met via Zoom. We did have a quorum present, and we were able to approve the... We're calling it the unit D contract adjustment unanimously. Awesome. I'll bring that to you. That's wonderful news. Dr. Holman, did you want to speak... Have anything else to say? I can say a few words about what it is that you're potentially voting on. So we, after following the successful override vote with lots of thank yous to all the volunteers and voters, we were able to reopen a negotiations with unit D. Our paraprofessional unit, we were able to come to very swift agreement in just, I think, three meetings about adjustments to the working day, which provides some flexible additional time. And also that's paid time, since these are hourly employees, and adjustments to pay that are up to a little bit over 33% for some of our lowest paid paraprofessionals. There is an adjustment. That's not the adjustment for every single paraprofessional. It depends kind of where they were in the unit in terms of their different roles, but all unit D paraprofessionals do benefit from the reopening of this agreement financially. We made sure of that, and it was a very collaborative and successful negotiation. And so we're super happy to be here with the MOA for the school committee's consideration of potential vote. That's awesome. Can I have a motion to approve the contract as amended? And have me sign it. Okay. And does anyone else want to speak to the motion? Mr. Cardin, Ms. Dexton, you worked on the negotiations? Sure. We were pleased to be able to, as Dr. Holman and Ms. Key said, we were pleased to be able to reopen this contract as a result of the override and bring our salaries up of the lowest paid workers in the district. And they will start getting the increased salary effective February 1st. So thank you to the voters and to the negotiating team for getting this done quickly, and to the administrative team as well for costing out the various scenarios that we came up with on how to structure the additional pay. Thank you. Great. Any further comments on this before we take a vote? Okay. Because we're on Zoom, it's going to be a roll call vote. I'm going on order of my screen. Ms. Giddelson. Yes. Mr. Thielman. Yes. Ms. Exton. Yes. Ms. Morgan. Yes. Mr. Schlickman. Yes. Mr. Cardin. Yes. And I also vote yes. So thank you to the negotiating team, to the teachers union and everyone for making this possible. I think it's really cool that we're both serving our teacher or our teaching assistants who are working really hard and getting them closer to the town manager 12 wages average. And also we've been able to add some time, which is going to help our students both before school, after school, and just make life at schools a bit easier too. So I think that's really great. If I can share, I have three statements from members of our paraprofessional unit that I think really exemplify how awesome this is. One person said that this raise is going to make such a difference for her family. Another said that she finally feels treated like she's just as an important part of the school as the rest of the staff. And a third person says, thank you everyone. This is so excited. I've been worrying about having to leave the district and the job and the school that I love for a better paying one. And now I don't have to. So thank you. That's great. Okay. Anyone have anything else to say? No. Okay. So I have something really quick. Is that okay? Just I think this is what happens when people work together and lead and make plans years and years ago. This has been many years in the making really. It settled in three meetings, which is, you know, a tribute to the bargaining team from the AA and the school administration and our school committee members who were there. But this has been many, many years in the making that we've been able to do this. And this is what happens when a lot of people work together for a long time and don't lose sight of what the ultimate goal is. So I'm really proud to be here for this on our last added meeting of 2023. It's a really important way to go out. And, you know, this is a school district. This is a teachers union. This is a school committee that keeps its promises to the community. And we're here doing that in the in the very end hours of this year. So I'm really glad to be here. And I'm really grateful for all the work that was put in to getting us to this point. So thank you, everybody. Thank you. Yes. And I also want to thank, I mean, it's not just the voters, but also the taxpayer payers who are making this possible. I mean, the voters helped dictate what's going to happen. But it's the taxpayers who are who are going to be funding the changes. And these are the start of some important changes to our schools. And I think everyone should know we really, really appreciate that. So, um, okay. Anyone else want to say anything? See none. Can I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Okay. Again, voice vote. Ms. Goodelson. Yes. Uh, Mr. Thielman. Yes. Ms. Exton. Yes. Ms. Morgan. Yes. Mr. Schlickman. Oh, you're on mute. You're still on mute. You're still on mute. Now I'm on mute. Yes. Okay. Mr. Cardin. Yes. Okay. And I also vote yes. Everyone have a good break and we'll see you next year.