[Alexis Rodriguez]: Good evening. My name is Alexis Rodriguez, and I am your candidate for Medford School Committee. I was raised in a little Puerto Rican community in the south end of Boston when my parents moved here from Puerto Rico, and then we moved to Maverick in East Boston. I moved to Medford some 15 years ago when I met my wife, Cheryl Rodriguez, who is your candidate for city council, and I've been living here ever since. We have two beautiful daughters. One is 21 years old, and she currently lives across the country, spreading her wings and following her dreams. And we have a nine-year-old who is currently in fourth grade at the Roberts Elementary School, and she's gonna get the same opportunities as her older sister when she turns 21. I have been a financial and operations auditor for over 10 years. I've worked in a very demanding and complicated world of healthcare for Massachusetts Medicaid, Athena Health, and I currently work for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. I understand solutions that are complicated but equitable to various interested parties. As a parent that has been in the Medford Public Schools ecosystem for over 15 years, and currently in my fourth year as a board member of the Roberts Elementary School, I know how hard our educators work. I know firsthand that it is important to maintain an open line of communication where our educators and our parents can openly express their hardships with us that they are encountering when they navigate our education system. As a kindergarten parent at the Roberts some five years ago, I saw a need for improving the lines of communication. I remember raising my hand at a PTO meeting and offered to fill the then-vacant role of president. I did not get that, but I have been the secretary of that PTO for the last four years. As a board member at the PTO, I worked to improve our lines of communication. I worked to create our online presence. I built a website. I built accounts on social media, on Facebook and Twitter. And that created more involvement from parents. And today, we have such great involvement from our parent community that we have the opportunity, through successful fundraisers, to give the school computers, which I don't think is public yet. I lost my place. I have worked collaboratively with the school in helping create new curriculum nights, like the annual art show. And as a field day coordinator, I work to stay within our budget and still provide every kid in the school a t-shirt and a water bottle that they can keep with them at the end of the year to remember the Roberts Elementary School. It has been a great experience making an impact and giving back to our school. Our school committee should work with our educators to be the hub of information for the community at large. We can work towards simplifying the lines of communication. As a school committee member, I propose that each of us adopt a school and be that one school's go-to person, that instead of having a committee of people to go to, that they would have one person to go to that they can speak to openly. And that person can rotate regularly. It doesn't have to be the same person all the time. And this would give not only every committee member the opportunity to gain the pulse of every school, but it would also give every school the opportunity to get to know every committee member. And I think that is very important when navigating the complexities of our very diverse communities. So when elected, I will work towards opening up those lines of communications and building that awareness and creating a social media presence with our parents, staff, and administrators of this great community. And I thank you for watching. And vote for me, Alexis Rodriguez, for school committee on November 7.