 Hi, welcome. My name is Claire Wool. I am chairperson of the Burlington School Board. I represent Ward 6 of the Burlington School District's elected body, our constituents of Ward 6. And I am so excited to be here tonight, one to welcome back our families, public school families in the city of Burlington to all of our schools, and to share with you ways in which we want you to all be a part of our school communities. This month in September in the North Avenue News, we put out a monthly column as school board members sharing information on how you can get to know your school communities, issues that are important to you, and also community issues. We welcome all citizens of Burlington to support our school districts as they represent neighborhood communities. Tonight, I'm so excited to have with us three other members of our school communities that cross different schools based on their families. But I would like to take the time to welcome first and have everybody introduce themselves. So we welcome Gretchen, Latasha, and Kerry. And I'll let them say a little bit about each other themselves. I'm Gretchen Platt. I have two middle schoolers at Edmunds Middle School. And I have two kids at Edmunds Elementary School. And I'm on the PTO at the Elementary School. I'm Latasha. I have a daughter at BHS. And she's a junior. And I am your neighborhood friendly crossing guard. Hi. Thanks for having us, Claire. My name's Kerry Mathis. And I have a 10th grader at BHS and a 7th grader at Edmunds Middle School. And I am on the PTO there. Tonight's information, tonight's opportunity to speak to everyone was really about how we support school districts. As elected officials, there are 12 school board members. Our goal is to work within those wards that we represent. But we really rely on the families that are at each of the schools to give us a sense of support that's needed, spirit when it's needed, information, communication. As district representatives, we don't have the pulse of what's happening in each of the schools. So we want to support you. And we want families to feel a sense of belonging and well-being at each of the schools. When people reach out to us, typically we always say, you know, have you reached out to your school community and the families that go to that school? Tonight, in talking about what made you all feel welcomed and belonging at each of your schools or your first impressions, what sticks out for you as a memory where you felt a sense of belonging at a school with your children? Is there anything specific or was it, you know, a welcome back meeting a teacher, open house, things that, you know, provided you the opportunity to feel a sense of where your child spends their day and what makes up that community? Well, we've been at Edmunds Elementary School for nine years. And I just have always been impressed with the community support that everyone has for each other and that the previous PTO leaders, you know, started all these wonderful events to get us all together after school, as well as, you know, just drop-offs and things like that, a welcome back coffee, you know, just ways to bring new families into the, into the fold a bit. And that's just always felt great at Edmunds. Our first year at Edmunds, you guys had a piece of cookout. It was a welcoming back to school event and everyone was so nice. And so it just looked like it was going to be fun. And it was great. I think my interest, I got pulled in strongly and kindergarten when my eldest was in kindergarten at Champlain. There's just really great teachers and a really strong parent community. And I did a lot of gardening at the school. And then that turned into being on the PTO there and running Harvest Fest. And it grew from there. And I've been on it ever since. Great. I think that when I made a slide, I'll move to the next slide. It said, you know, who is the PTO and what does the PTO do? I can read the slide. You, you're the PTO families and community within the school. If you're a family or staff member of your school, you are already a part of our PTO, your PTO. Together, PTOs support our schools through community activities, events and fundraising efforts. There are so many ways to support our schools inside or outside during the day or after hours, regularly or one time only. Our school communities are stronger when we are all engaged. And what does the PTO do? Our PTO organizations at each of our schools are run entirely by volunteers who work to build community among families within that school community. That really does it. You know, everyone is a volunteer. I love when family members say, you know, a one time volunteer support is makes the world a difference. Modeling, you know, opportunities for your children or if you're a caregiver, when children see you invested in a community, they take pride in their school and their school spirit. Ways that we communicate out to our families, we have a district calendar, which I'll show later on in the slides that show, for example, tonight, we had, it was CP Smith's PTO night, meeting night, so they were unable to come and other other schools. But once a month, typically, PTOs get together at, and I know it can be challenging because typically, if you have children at the school, it might be bedtime or dinner time where people are, you know, need to be at home. But they have a one, once a month, a meeting at the school just to talk with the principal as most of the time present. Ways in which volunteer families, parents or caregivers can support the school, what the needs of the school are based on that time of year, whether it's outside help, gardening, green up, or, you know, social events for the children that are after school hours that faculty and staff have gone home for the day. When we talk about those monthly commitments, are your meetings, is their Zoom capabilities, Kari and Gretchen, and has attendance? I know, since, I know I'm talking about post COVID, people, we were out of school for almost, seemed like two years, a year and a half, families moved on to other schools, or some say, how was the rebuilding, did you feel like people, you know, once you put the word out that we're starting up again, how has your attendance at meetings been? I would say it's it's gone down a lot, but we do offer a hybrid of a virtual meeting and in person now. So a few people show up and then a good handful will tune in. So I guess we're lucky that we can still do that, I guess, because it makes it more convenient for people who aren't able to attend in person. I'm just gonna, yeah, I would say we're definitely still rebuilding. I think Edmunds Elementary has always had a really strong PTO and I think COVID did shift that. But I feel really like we're in a better place this year going into the year as far as we have our meetings on the calendar, they're going to be Zoom or in person, we're going to try out having them right after drop off in the morning some of the time and see if that helps, you know, some more people attend and then maybe alternate between a morning and an evening, but also have the Zoom option. I think one of the big things is trying to get the word out that it could be 15 minutes of someone's time that helps or you know, or you could be like me, whoever I'm running around all the time, but not everyone has to do that level of participation to really help. And that's a big part of I think having more people involved, more families involved is knowing that it can be 15 minutes. It could be doing some work on the website or our calendar of events and things like that. But it can also be helping to run a grill at a barbecue or lots of different options. That is our goal in highlighting how families can get involved as school board member and former, you know, not, you know, former PTO volunteer, whether chair, you know, being the chair of the school board or helping out as chair of the PTO. Again, one time events or continually showing up at meetings. But I am so happy that COVID brought us the Zoom alternative because having never used that medium, I always felt it was it was incredibly challenging and switching from morning meetings or night meetings just to get together. Even the consumption of work life balance and reading emails was exhausting to families. So how do you engage them? And how do you reach out to them? And how do you communicate to them? So I will go through the next slide is again, just letting people know slowly but surely it was in the North Avenue news. We're going to list it on our website. Excuse me, each of the web schools website does have their contact information. So we start alphabetically with Burlington High School. It's called Seahorse Pride. It's a Gmail account. And those are your Burlington High School Seahorse Pride PTO volunteers. Next is Champlain Elementary. There are many more Champlain Elementary leaders, but Buddy is the go to and that's the way you can get in contact with Champlain Elementary. And again, in the drop down menu of each of our schools website, it will say, you know, PTO click on PTO and typically even if some of the information is outdated, we're we're trying to make sure that all these email addresses are way where you can get connected. CP Smith, speaking with these great group of people again, they have their meeting tonight. So excited that they are in the process and have successfully reorganized after COVID with a strong cohort of volunteers. Next, Edmunds Elementary Gretchen is here. We have Kim and Irene. Thank you for your support. And again, it's another example of it's up to the parent volunteers to create email addresses or best ways to get in touch with people because we're all in this digital age. Next is Edmunds Middle School. Thank you, Kerry, for being here tonight. And I know Connie as well as Rebecca are, we're so grateful for their volunteerism and leadership at EMS PTO. Hunt Middle School, Marcella, Marcella and Christina. Again, seeing the transition of people like Christina go from essay to hunt, we are so excited for Hunt's new leadership and for their PTO. And they included two ways to get in touch. One is a blog spot and one is Gmail for communication. Following up with integrated arts, Molly and Skunk, there are also other members of the IAA PTO community that are listed as well on their website, along with their mission statement and ways to get involved. JJ Flynn, Emily and Karen are new and excited to support the JJ Flynn School. And Emily had reached out, for example, with a lot of questions of how do we all work together potentially as a unified PTO to stay engaged altogether. So we're aware of events that are happening and potentially share resources or opportunities when they come to fruition potentially within the district as a whole. Sustainability, ways to get involved at Sustainability Academy with a great group of volunteers as well, who are supporting the school, and things like, for example, the pancake breakfast they did in the spring, that was a fundraiser served as a fundraiser and was hugely successful within the community and outreach of the neighborhood. So again, big props and appreciation for sustainability. And then as we talked about, or as I shared earlier, on our website, this is the first year that our calendar and handbook is digital. So for those of you who are tech savvy, you can download the calendar and keep it in your you know, your desktop or come to our school community as well and pick up a hard copy of the calendar. So the hard copy is still there. People love still the hard copy to be able to circle dates that are important to them and their family. But that this calendar is available online through our bsdvt.org. Click on calendar and it'll come up. I'll give you an example of all the numbers. It has every number imaginable old school number that might not be saved in your phone that you might want to. Moving forward, I took a snapshot. So some of the information is condensed, but it has names and numbers. And I like the names because sometimes you don't know who to reach out to if you're trying to contact someone in the district. And this is a sample of the calendar as it exists with PTO information event, open houses, parent teacher conferences, district days off. Again, hard copy can be picked up at everybody's school that they attend. And also this is online a month by month listing of events at our school. And I can go back to, you know, focus on families outward communication. How do you feel as a parent? What what ways do you like to receive and get you know, communicate out? What is the most effective to you? Is it, you know, I would say it's not the paper in the backpack of your child? Or is it, you know, texting? You know, we do a robo calls. You know, school newsletters? Are they timely? Are they weekly? You know, what has felt good to you? Or how do you feel involved? Where do you get your information about your schools? I think all of the things you listed help. I mean, especially being on the PTO will say, Okay, well, not everybody's reading email anymore, frankly. And so we'll say, let's put something in the backpack again. And then we'll get kids, you know, running out of the building like, Oh, I have this paper, I have to show my parents. So I feel like there's, you know, all of those have been ways that we've gotten to more families and made sure people are involved. And I think I with my kids get all the different, all the different avenues to get information. So Tasha, I would say emails. And for me, a familiar name gets my attention when I receive an email. And then I zoom in on what is going on and go from there. Email. Okay. I would agree with email. Yeah. And also the robo calls are helpful. If you're busy, or the grocery store or something, and you're not always checking your email. So having those both is helpful. And as far as PTOs go, I think monthly newsletters are really helpful, sending out to the families. And we rely on social media as well. Great. And have you had any I know, certain welcome back, we're only this is our, you know, week and a half into the the first week and a half of school, right? Or to almost two weeks. How has the welcome back? Did you have your events or were things postponed? I know Champlain had, I know you're not a Champlain anymore, but they had their Harvest Fest Friday before the rain, or during the rain, they got a little, a little wet. But and we postponed our barbecue. Yeah, and then it started the downpour at quarter of seven. We thought, okay, thank goodness, we're gonna make it happen at a later date, though. Great. And how do you feel as three parents within the district? Do you feel informed by the superintendent updates? Do you feel that those are timely? And how I shouldn't ask? What is your take on our response feelings about our communication out as a district? I feel well informed. Yeah, I think, yeah, I think I really appreciate the emails with all the information as far as you know, the high school projects, where the district is going with curriculum, all of those things are I think are are out there in the emails that Tom sends and I think they're great. You're gonna say something? Yeah. Yes, I appreciate the emails and the letters from the superintendent. It makes it's like more personal. It's like, when you get that email, you have to listen. You feel it has some weight to it. They're not so many, but they're once when it's needed. So it's not a weekly update to the community. It's, it's, you know, we do it through Front Porch Forum. If you're not a BSD family, you get it from the superintendent plan. Again, if you're if you have a child in the public schools, the greater community receives it through Front Porch Forum. And we do receive a lot of queries or inquiries from citizens who want to know more about how we're participating in a way what you know what's going on within the district as it comes to you know, again, depending on each month or timing, whether it's budget related school project related curriculum related. But I am I'm happy to hear that you appreciate and you they're informative to you because that's our I mean, communication. We all talk about that. But knowledge is power. And it really does support even though we live in a big city. If everyone has concise messaging, you know, we're we're doing our job. Well, you're well informed. And when people used to say, well, I heard and I would say like, let me know who's who's saying that so I can, you know, let them know where we're at or what what the reality is. In your opinion, being, you know, is fundraising necessary? Do you feel like in order to do your events, you you don't just explain to the public, you don't have a budget. So anything you do, you know, supports the school or how do you how have you in the past done fundraising for your PTOs? I mean, without just whether it's selling stuff or by direct asked donation or I feel like that is 80% of what we do is fundraising. Okay. Because we we do a lot. We, for example, what do you support with your support teachers and staff, we clean and stock their lunchroom monthly, we do teacher appreciation lunches. We support the band, we support the play, we support orchestra, we help get instruments, we support classroom projects, the sixth grade kid I did a rod we buy all the supplies for that the school dance. We bought the new sign for the school last year. And we also hold money for teams. We're sort of their bank, we just hold it when they need it when they fund fund raise for their classrooms, whether it's an extra a cheat enrichment project that they want to do or that they might not have school budget funds for exactly. Okay. And student led initiatives. That's great. And at the elementary level. Yeah, Edmunds were lucky enough to have this chocolate sale that we do every fall. So if kids come to your house, please buy chocolates. That's our big fundraiser at this point. And we also do no frills fundraiser, but the big one is our chocolate sales for Dan's chocolates. And that supports all the events we're able to put on, you know, whether we're getting stuff for a barbecue or having a carnival called May Fair in the spring, we also are able to help teachers if they need things for the classroom. We do. Yeah, exactly. We also do a coat swap. But sometimes if we know a specific kiddo needs something, we'll help with that. We field trips. Yep, field trips. Yep, field trips. We also do. Yeah, whatever we give a certain amount of money per child for field trips. And then the teachers can decide where they go. I also do something called math night, which the kids really love. There's this local woman who comes in with all these activities to do that math related and the kids just eat it up. We do a skate night at Letty. So we have a lot of different sort of, you know, evening late afternoon activities we do, which helps enrich our whole community at Edmunds. Right, right. And we're lucky to because our after school program at the elementary and middle school level is incredibly robust. And as well as at BHS, I know we have a new after school coordinator. But those activities, whereas students who are cross section of grades get to know other students. And I always used to say, you know, when we meet families in the beginning, always, you know, it's cool to share your families, you know, how to contact them so that you can get together because we are in a city school, our schools are large comparative to Vermont standards. You know, we have elementary schools at 300 plus our middle schools 400 plus in our high school 1000 students. So we can still create communities within that large student population. At this point, you know, focusing on families, outward communication, what we talked about organizing differentiated events, providing yearly calendars, integrated events and activities is if anyone came up and had an idea whether it was multicultural night, whether it was, you know, what they, you know, there are parameters of what we can fundraise for, do events on the school. But anything's possible. Yes. Yeah, that's great. And I know I'd like to talk about now, Latasha, your role in being the Edmunds campus, one of the Edmunds campus crossing guards. Tell me how you got into that role or what made you choose that profession in regards to being a member of the community. To get familiar with the community, you know, that's how I introduced myself, you know, to get familiar with everyone, the parents, the kids. It made my kids known because everyone knows their mom is the crossing guard. And yeah, and it's it's very rewarding. It's to have a job that's meaningful and to be appreciated. The first job I've ever had like that. Very little hours, but yeah. Sense of community. Yes. And when I mean, just out of curiosity, the age of your students are from kindergarten. Pre-K. Oh. Pre-K at Edmunds. Yeah. All the way up to eighth grade. Yes. Do we have independent folks, you know, young kids crossing and what's the majority of there are a lot of parents coming with their children? A lot of parents travel with their kids, walk with their kids, ride bikes with their kids. And where's your post? Just your name. South Willard and Main Street. Okay. South Willard and Main Street. Yes. And some of my teams, my teenagers, rather, they're pretty independent. So I kind of get them their space and I might just walk across the street with them. I might not hold the sign up. I just follow along. Right. You know, I don't want to cheat them like a kid. Right. Well, that's great. I mean, you get to see the action and, you know, through every season. And I know that how meaningful it is in the past at Edmunds. I know we did appreciation for all those that work there. And I know as we come out of COVID, even though it still is existing and affecting some of our classrooms to date, those opportunities to get together as a community and for you in your role. I know I had seen you on the news during the time, because we are still short staffed. We are as a school district, whether your student might come home and say, you know, we don't have enough substitutes or we're missing, you know, positions in our food service area as well, some academic positions as well. We want the community to know and use this opportunity that we are still actively hiring for the school year. And that we are still looking for folks, mainly in the paraeducator field, assisting families, students, excuse me, within the school community, with our food service always. And I would ask the PTOs as well, share out that information. I know I've seen some school districts post on Front Porch Forum, South Burlington or CVU, neighboring communities, listing job opportunities, also after-school help. But, you know, there are some positions at our schools that, even if you had a child, our school hours, so that if you were thinking of being, whether you're opportunity to be an at-home caregiver or a parent and you want to be present, but you are also looking potentially for some hours, we have jobs that you might be interested in. So, please, if you go to our website again, bsdvt.org, under Human Resources, there's an immediate link, you can see all the postings. Another way to also volunteer, excuse me, not volunteer, potentially have a job opportunity is some of our coaching opportunities. We're a district that, fortunately, we support athletics as well and drama and after-school activities are in our budget and we have some coaching positions that still need to be filled. I would share that we have had an incredible success rate with Burlington High School students returning post-secondary career or education to coach our schools, Edmunds Hunt and Burlington High School. That's an incredible give-back to our community because we know that coaching positions are, you know, sometimes can never be vacant or we have a high turnover, depending on the sport and the person that's been coaching, you know, their commitment to that. But middle school is a challenge at times for coaching positions. So, again, families that might want to coach their son or daughter or, you know, a child in any of those events to please look on our website, HR website, for opening and vacancies. Leadership opportunities. How, like Kerry had mentioned, getting people to help out. You were asked or begged by other family members to take it over. Is that typically, you know, when you see a family that's, you know, time commitment or do you divide it among people? You know, is it how do you share the leadership? How we operate at the middle school is different than when I was PTO president at elementary school. How so? There we just had a larger board. I think parents are more involved in elementary school and then, you know, they get busier and the teenagers get busier and at the middle school level the former PTO, they were all leaving because their kiddos were moving on to high school. But they knew us as former elementary school leaders and asked us to step in. Okay. So we just couldn't leave it hanging there high and dry. So we stepped in. Thank you. It can be challenging to get volunteers but each year with a new crop of sixth graders that opens up the pool more and great. So we'll have our first PTO meeting of the year tomorrow night and hopefully meet all those new families. That's true. You know, that's how the incoming families that are new that you, you know, can entice to be especially middle school sixth grade families who will be there for the next three years. Exactly. And again, quantity, you know, so nobody gets burnout and your volunteer roles, you know, and having, I know there are some PTOs that have presidents or co-chairs and again depending on the outcome of people that are able to support leadership roles, I see, you know, that is evident in their PTO sort of masthead of who's supporting who and communications and breakdowns and Gretchen, how is your, how did you fall into your opportunity? I think, you know, there's often emails that go out asking for help and it's different though when someone comes up to you and asks you specifically and then you think, oh, sure, okay. And then you walk away like, oh, what did I sign up for? Right, right. You can ignore an email and, but it's, it's great to have that, that face, you know, that familiar face come up to you and ask you, you know, 15 minutes or whatever it is, but I would say that's been our, our biggest way of getting more people involved for sure. And I would say, yeah, and Natasha, you're, when Seahorse Pride, you know, does a shout out for volunteer, oh yeah, it's like she said, it's certain names that I see, like if I see Nancy's name, I'm like, Nancy needs help, because it was at Edmunds too. Nancy Westbrook was a leader on the Seahorse Pride. Yeah, so yeah, I'd like to jump in if she needs help, because she's a very hard worker and for parent and teacher, yes, yes, I will come and make a donation, because I appreciate teachers. Yeah, the last time I saw you was before your post, you were dropping off a root platter for teacher breakfast appreciation for the spring. So yeah, before work, after work, you know, being cognizant that we're all working individuals in this community and, you know, time is valuable, being specific of our ask, you know, what can people do rather than, you know, can you help, what does that mean? You know, like, am I committing everything or just time slots? I know sign-up sheets, you know, sign-up genius, what a great tool for people to be able to, you don't get stuck with 15 people bringing bagels for teacher appreciation, you know, you can be specific. And how do you feel your own children with your roles at school? How would you say they're appreciative of your volunteerism, appreciate you being there or helping out? What's their take on support? They love it when I do all that. I think my oldest would like me to do more in the middle school, but I haven't quite leapt up there yet. And I think that they really like helping as well, like carrying things upstairs and, you know, just being in the school more in a different scene, it through different eyes behind the scenes, like, oh, this is like they need help, this is how it happens, you know. Be the change you want to see in the world, yeah. For me, I feel like it's, I had teenagers and one teenager, so me volunteering shows my high schooler that I'm teaming up with the teachers, you know, to help them get what they need, so they know that I'm watching too, and this is a team. And respect factor, you know, showing respect from being on the outside, you know, and what their expectations are and their profession, you know, this profession of teaching and support staff, our schools, like every profession is incredibly demanding, and at the same time with supportive families. I would say I'd go out on a limb and be confident about, you know, my role as a volunteer over all these years and supporting the elementary, middle, and high school. Absolutely, we have an engaged city of community members positively, passionate about public education, passionate about, you know, supporting every student where they are, student-centered, I would hope that with always room for improvement, always appreciate constructive feedback, absolutely not perfect, but with the team, I believe, in the school district, at each of our school communities, helping out our administrators, this landscape is very unique right now in public education, it's being challenged on many fronts. If families feel that they can connect with the administration principal, assistant principals, the front desk, they add the first person you see bringing your children to the school, making those connections, introducing yourselves, and the PTOs being the arm of the families that make up those schools, you know, we're very fortunate. So, you know, I truly appreciate everybody's support and all of the names that listed, but also all the families that aren't names that aren't listed who do do those drop offs, help out car pools. We know that busing, we're very fortunate to be in the city, so those unique opportunities to be able to go to the Flynn, we can walk to, to go to, you know, other events, potentially walking to Echo, field trips that I know all of our city schools cherish and are expensive, but without the busing cost, and now with the shortage of bus drivers, those experiences at the elementary and middle school level are valuable, and I know our faculty and staff lean on the PTO for those extra funds, enrichment funds we call them, or had call them, and I wrote, at the end, the strategic plan, it all goes back to what are our priorities, again something that we have on our website, but when Superintendent Flanagan came to Burlington, now we're on our third year, under his leadership, we created with a task force made up of community members, public school families and students, our strategic plan starting in 2022 to 2027, and it's made up of five priority areas, and as we welcome back public school families and our community supporting us to the opening of our public schools, I wanted to focus this month and thank you with your presence being here tonight, what it means is our priority area number one, well-being and belonging, that means that students, families, and staff will experience a sense of belonging, and students and staff will feel their well-being is supported in our district, that happens at the ground up, you know, from the first experience a child has walking into a school, to their teacher, to their specialist teacher, to their coaches after school, and to their families that make up, at pick up time for the elementary school, middle school, it's a mixed bag of people, students getting in cars or not, but feeling that sense of community within the Burlington School District, and I'm sure, or maybe, you know, I won't assume, but evidence shows that when parents and caregivers are involved in their children's education, student success rate increases, and that's on all levels of academic, social, emotional, you know, again, not being in the education field myself, but learning more about it as a volunteer, these things resonate, you see proof positive, you know, showing up and, you know, kids can't get out of bed, but if there's something happening that morning that the PTO is doing, they're up before you, excited to be a part of that community and taking avid role in it. Are there any other things that I might have missed that you want to talk about or talked about meetings, engagements, fundraising that you'd want to share or, you know, ways to, things you're looking forward to in the school year, maybe that. I'm just glad we're able to have all of the events again, post COVID, mostly post COVID. It's so nice to just have everybody back together in our big, you know, like for Edmunds Elementary, our big community events that we do. We do a multicultural night, it has a new name, it's family engagement night, but just wonderful to see ever it be back in the gym and enjoying each other and getting to know new families that have come and that's just great. Great, for sure. What are you looking forward to at the high school level? Oh, the high school level, let's see. I can say this, I know you've had your children athletes since we don't have a gym. You've been very supportive as a parent as we've used UVM, gymnasium and St. Michael's and helping with us, you know, Seahorse Pride sponsored a bus to get to students from BHS to St. Michael's to watch your son's play in the finals of the basketball. You know, so things that you could say like whether might be opportunities where Seahorse Pride can help out or communicate out like where are these games happening or how can we help students, you know, communicate so that we have a sense of community. But you were one of those parents that, you know, let people know where we were going to be so that we had fans. Most of the kids have group checks where they contact each other and let each other know what's going on. So a lot of times they have to tell me where to go. Yeah, what's going on, right, you know, because they keep up and a lot of sports, the teams have their own little personal group chat. Right. But the season was interesting. It was it wasn't a dull moment with all the travel couldn't get bored. And it I don't know. I think it kept them. It kept them in tuned, you know, because it's like, what's next? Yeah, they had to be, yeah, because you weren't sure because it did change weekly. Yeah, so it kept available. Yes, it kept them busy. Yeah, that's true alert. So it was a maturity factor. Yes. And the weekly newsletter that the principal put out. Yes. What's up BHS. I know that too. Our district athletic director, Q on, put out that weekly update that helped out that that part is for me. Yes, that was good. Yes, true. That was good. And Carrie, how about you? Again, echoing what you mentioned, Gretchen, just being in person. And I think the big thing kids are excited about is being able to have school dances again. Yeah. Unfortunately, last year we could only have one, but hoping to get a fall one and a spring one. Yes. And I'm not on the PTO at the high school, but I do have a child there and I'm really excited about that rooftop garden. Yes. And I hope to see it someday. You absolutely will. That's a great point. We had the parking garage that abuts our downtown BHS, the top floor of the parking garage. We received a grant and we put up, we threw three BHS faculty and staff members and a cohort of students at the end of the last school year in June worked hard to put together these plant, incredible large planters with plants and picnic tables. And we had the welcome back Seahorse Pride, did the welcome back faculty breakfast up there for the first in service day. And it is the most spectacular view of the lake and fresh air and blue sky for a, you know, windowless school, many school, I know, Jory Hurst, one of our English teachers was already bringing students up there for an outdoor class. So to utilize that in the warm months is absolutely one of those things that the Seahorse Pride, the district, everyone thought in working with the city, it's a city owned parking garage, can we take some of these spaces offline and use them as an outdoor space. So thank you so much for bringing that up because that was a huge plus for our students last year. Some seniors went rogue and went up there and used the opportunity just as a breakfast before it was actually developed and we thought, hey, they're on to something if they're all going to meet up there and they have bagels and orange juice, it was perfect for us to transition. So thank you for that memory because, you know, some schools, a lot of our schools are fortunate to have great green space. I know we have a facility screw that takes care of all the and there are another, again, department in need of support and help, which brings me to just one more thing that to take care of all our screw properties and mow all our lawns and our grasses and our fields. But it does also come down to there's no budget for beautification for our schools. So it is the PTO that raises the funds that puts out potential flowers or cleans up around the front entrance. I think of, you know, C.P. Smith and J.J. Flynn or Champlain, where there is a and the Edmunds campus IAA, I know a member of one IAA built their sign as well as essays, entrance and rear garden. So we do rely on that's a lot of hard work for parent volunteers. We had a parent at Edmunds Elementary that got a grant to put in a pollinator garden at Edmunds. So we have a new one around the sign and then along the playground. So it's it's the parents. Yeah. And I remember the original playground was the parents before I had met a woman who, you know, 15, 20 years ago now had said, we put in that playground with the wood chips and and now, for example, IAA, you know, the district is supporting that new playground. But looking to the parents for all the pretty flowers and plantings around and the gardens, I forgot the woman, her name escapes me, who helped out with IAA. But I'll remember it after. But again, parent community, she was a community member of volunteer helping out with the most incredible on the anchor. Yes. Thank you, Carrie. Amazing. My role model. She's amazing. So community member giving back to our public schools and our communities. Well, thank you so much, all of you for the three of you for helping out. I think my last slide was saying, thank you volunteers and to all our public school families. You are the heartbeat, what makes up Burlington School District. I volunteer because I know other families and caregivers lean in as well for our Burlington Public Schools and our students. I just can't thank you enough. And I'm excited to kick off the September school year with CCTV here as our commissioner corner. We come monthly to you to give updates on our schools. And this one was really exciting and special to me because our PTOs are really absolutely essential. And I know our principals, our faculty and staff think the world of you because you lean in and help them and their communities grow. So thank you. And thanks for all you do. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Thanks.