[SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to start with Daphne Bowen. Now Beth has been in the area for decades. She's one of the leaders of the Paracontract fight. And you can see her leading the chants at all the rallies. So go check her out. She's been a really important fight. She also happens to teach in his son, Life, which is pretty amazing. And she's a wonderful teacher that the classroom couldn't do without. So I'm going to turn it over to you, Daphne.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hello, everyone. So, as my introduction stated, I am a paraprofessional and a professor of women in school. As many of you may already know, and some of you don't know, we have been going through a contract fight for the past year. It's been a difficult fight. We have been which means the school community is not wanting to speak to us. You know, paraprofessionals are vital to the learning and growth of our students. We are there every day working diligently to ensure that these students have the proper education that they deserve. And unfortunately our patriots don't show that. Our professionals are also, they meet the demographic of the students that are in our schools. And so it's important for teachers to be able to have students that look like them, that understand them, to be able to relate to them and be successful in their journey. We are fighting for basic thing, $25,000 a year, which people with even degrees, we have degrees, we have master's and bachelor's and we're not getting paid $25,000. People that's been working for years has not had that. We make every year, at the end of June or July to know if we are going to have our job back, even though we've had a successful year with our students. So we are fighting hard, and to be honest with you, one of the people that have been at the forefront about the actual disgraceful pay that we've been getting. She has attended community meetings. She has went to our school committee meetings and spoke on two occasions. She has rallied with us and we've caught her in life there just supporting our paraprofessionals and supporting our teachers. And it has meant so much. And she's also let Dancer Mile to speak to school committee members and to let them know how she stands for this and how important it is for her and the community. And that says so much about who she is. I had the great opportunity to have a talk with her last month about this venture that she is going on. that I saw come from her was just remarkable. She believes in fair housing. She believes in the environment. She believes that we need to be able to get paid fair wages. And she's not into the whole politics of it all. And that's why I'm standing here with you today. So good luck. You have our support just as well as you've been giving us.