school. whereas the 2014 report found that california is ranked 48th for its response to child homelessness. this ranking is determined by the extent of homelessness in the state, child well-being and state level resources to prevent and address child homelessness. research and data including individual surveys of homeless youth indicate that it has lasting impact on a child's physical, emotional and academic development. they may suffer trauma, anxiety, shame, withdrawal whereas it is a holistic measure that transforms the crisis by a carefully crafted road map. this would generate $300 million, by creating a half

percent tax. whereas at least 50% of the fund must going to housing. this would pay for construction, rehab and subsidies for 4,000 housing units. it would house over a thousand families and 800 youth. 25% of the funds is required to go to families and 20% to youth. this would ensure 7 thoup thousand households get legal assistance, permanent or temporary subsidies to stay in their housing or other forms of help they need to stay housed such as help with electrical or other bills. whereas at most 10% of $30 million used for 1075 new

shelter beds, navigation center beds, as as well as help keep our streets clean. there be it resolved that the board of education of san francisco school district supports the bilal measure, our city, our home homeless gross receipts tax for the november 2018 ballot. we have speakers on this. jack rice. sam law. jordan davis. alison broman. and julie robertson. come on up, you have two minutes. please note the clock. i like saying that. please note the clock. at your one minute mark, you'll get a yellow sign. >> hi, my name is jack. i'm a resident of the tenderloin

and i'm grateful to see the work that sfusd is doing for the homeless. in light of the disproportionate barriers, i think that sfusd's support of this bill would be good. >> i was born and raised here in san francisco and i also went to public school and went to lowell. i went to lakeshore and presidio, so i'm really excited to be here today. i never thought i would be at a school board meeting. i work with homeless families and youth on a daily basis and wanted to say thank you for looking over this resolution and thank you to commissioner matt haney for introducing this. doing the work i do every day with homeless families and

youth, i've seen so many families living in their car because they can't afford to live in san francisco because they've been evicted. we've seen families living in the shelter. right now there are families sleeping on a mat in a church, and there is no showers there. and there is no case workers. and they're sharing a room with like 40 other people. and this is the state that our families and that our children are living under every single day. so we know that in san francisco as was stated in the resolution, 1 in 25 sfusd children are experiencing homelessness. we know that homeless children have lower academic achievement overall and there is 87% more likely to drop out of school. obviously, folks know that there

is a housing crisis. there is a homelessness crisis. and people want to see solutions. but nothing is going to be solved without a huge infusion of funding to actually address the issue. and we really see that our city, our home proposition c, is the biggest measure and the boldest measure to truly address this crisis. i would urge you all to vote yes on supporting the resolution. thank you so much. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> jordan davis, i'm a resident of the tenderloin and formerly homeless voter in san francisco. and i just want to say i support our city, our home and i want to thank commissioner haney for all his work on this and for supporting so many communities. i was homeless myself in adulthood and i just cannot imagine -- and it's taken a big toll on me, and i came to think,

you know, if it was rough for me an adult, how rough do you think it is for the kids? i've had to deal with a lot of things and i don't know where i'd be if i was homeless in my youth. it is easier to lift up a child than to fix a broken adult. please no more broken adults. no more homeless children, please pass this measure, thank you. >> good evening, my name is alison. imthe parent of a student at tenderloin community schools which as you all know has one of the higher populations of homeless students of all of our schools and it's a population that is hard to identify. it's not something that a child want to admit. and our children come to school

and are stigmatized, they don't have clean clothes, they haven't been able to shower. our city, our home, it is no exaggeration to say that this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for our voters to ask something major of the corporations in our city that have the most. and to give it to our most vulnerable residents. and as the representative of our schools, as a parent, i am asking you, please, support this measure. please vote for it when you have the opportunity. and show our students that you are here for them. thank you.

>> my name is julie, and i'm a parent at redding elementary. as alison mentioned, we're also a tenderloin elementary school with one of the highest rates of families in transition in the city, i think we're the 6th highest with 11% of our families in transition. that means that in each of our classrooms, there is 2-3 children who are experiencing homelessness. and a couple of years ago, our family befriended another family in the midst of homelessness and it was eye opening to see first hand and have her share what they were going through. they were up at 6:00 in the morning to get out of the shelter and had to be back by 6 p.m. she was lucky to move from that to a 3-month bed that are restrictive rules about when she could come and go. she was doing appointments day

after day at organizations, community based organizations to try to qualify for longer term beds. she got a 6-month bed and during the appointments, she had to bring her children with her to show he was eligible for family housing. or just because of pickup dynamics, she would have to take the kids out of school. she had one child in marina and another in drew. her children missed a lot of school as well as her daughter being bullied for being homeless in middle school. she found affordable housing, long-term housing, but we lost her, she had to move to sacramento to do that. as a tenderloin parent whose kids are friends with experiencing homelessness, i want to ask the school board to support the measure. market street has gotten a tax break and we're asking them to

contribute to our schools. there are people with means in the city, who as individuals have interests in contributing. we ask you to support this measure to tax those corporations and make sure our families have homes. thank you. >> president mendoza-mcdonnell: questions for comments from the board? commissioner wallson. >> commissioner walton: thank you, president. one, i want to thank my colleague for bringing this forward. as a strong proponent of our city, our home, understanding we all have to play a role in addressing the homeless crisis that exists in our city. this is one of many ways we're going to get families housed. people off the street and into the services and get them the support they need. i support this resolution and again, i want to thank commissioner haney for bringing this forward. thank you.

>> commissioner norton: so i am still putting -- formulating my position on. this i'm going to need to vote on it over at the federal committee next week. i understand the mayor is working on the impact of the measure. that is why i voted against suspending the rules this evening. so i'm going probably -- we don't abstain here, so i'm going probably leave the room because i don't know yet what position i'm going to take on this legislation. i certainly support homeless families in our district and would like to support this, but i do want to see more analysis on the impact before i take a position. >> president mendoza-mcdonnell: thank you. others? >> commissioner haney: thank you to everybody who came out tonight to speak on the measure, especially the parents who are here. and folks from the community and the coalition for their leadership on this measure. i agree, i think it was well put this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity that we have as a

city to take on what continues to be the most devastating crisis and shame that we have as a city. this is definitely a school district issue for all the reasons that the folks who spoke tonight put so well. we have 1 in 25 of our students who are identified as homeless. the impact this has on our schools, on our kids, on our families, cannot be quantified. and is really immeasurable. we have opportunity with this measure to not just address the broader issue of homelessness in our city, but to actually address child and family homelessness. as i noted in the resolution, there is a significant part of this funding that would go to address family homelessness and it's perfectly aligned with the work we've been doing. a couple of months ago we passed a resolution formulating a new

approach to how we support homeless students, committing our own resources, potentially our own land. being really a first responder to make sure that families that are in danger of becoming homeless get the support they need and the rapid response. all the work we've been doing with hamilton families. so i think that -- i hope as a district we don't just support this, but when it passes, we're at the table, that we're making sure we're funding some of the opportunities we have in our district. all of this rapid response money to prevent homelessness to begin with, a lot runs through the school district, so that we know on the front lines when a family is about to become homeless, that we're able to connect them with the funds and opportunities. so this is, i hope, not just a commitment to support a policy, but a commitment to see it actualized, to see it work well and to see our families have the opportunity to benefit from it. so i hope that the voters do the

right thing. i know we're going to work very hard to make it happen. and i want to thank also the staff in our district who worked so hard every day to support families who are homeless and to make sure that the school district is not doing the bare minimum, but that we're fighting every way we can to support our families. this is just the next step in this and in many ways one of the most important things we can do right now to be there for our families and schools. so i hope my colleagues support this. those who can. and i appreciate, again, the leadership of all the organizations who got us to this point. >> president mendoza-mcdonnell: any other questions or comments? >> i want to thank commissioner haney for putting this forward. i have to say, i'm typically against bringing propositions that are on the ballot forward to the school board to vote on

them, because often times they're personal, or there are positions we need to take as leaders in our city. and it's always a little awkward, unless it's something we ourselves are putting on the ballot as a bond or a parcel tax. however, for this particular resolution, i am going to support it. and i'm supporting it because i do really believe that we have been making some huge investments in our homeless youth. and that whether it's the way we allocate our dollars, or the investments and the partnerships we've built with the city, commissioner walton and i have have been working closely with supervisor ronen on our overnight stay, which is something that is innovative and something no one else has done in the country. we're really excited about that. that takes leadership and

courage. and i think this ballot initiative drives home the need of so many families, which is unfortunate. and this adds to the $30 million in private funds that our late great mayor lee supported and raised monies for and made a commitment to ensure that those dollars are allocated first to our homeless students in elementary school. so he really prioritized the need for paying attention to the homeless youth in our school district. so what i know of our city or home, it speaks to many of the issues that we talk about on a regular basis around homeless housing. what i do appreciate about this, too, it speaks to behavioral health services. that's not for the adults only,

but the children. i have a hard time bringing forward propositions on the ballot, but i think this will deeply impact our students and the idea that we can kill a high school with the number of young people in our school district that are suffering from insecure housing is shameful. and whatever we can do to help prevent that in the future and to make accommodations for those experiencing homelessness now is something that i think we all need to stand up for. with that, if there is no other questions or comments, roll call, please. >> mr. cook? mr. haney? yes. murase yes. six ayes. >> president mendoza-mcdonnell: thank you, all, who came out to speak on behalf of this measure.

we look forward to working with you on this. next item is section l, board member reports, standing committee. we've had no meetings taking place since the last school board meeting, our regular board meeting, so we don't have any reports on standing committees. board delegates, membership organizations? anyone have anything, anybody went anywhere over the summer? for any of the committees? any other reports by board members? >> commissioner murase: i'm sorry, i did attend the csba leadership institute in july, where jim ryan presented on our algebra -- our math sequence and some of the stunning results of moving the 8th grade math requirement from 8th grade to 9th grade. there is a lot of buzz in how san francisco was able to decrease the failure rate in algebra from 40% to 8%.

including among subgroups. so it was great to see him. one of his last responsibilities with the school district, because he has since moved on. but it was really -- generated a lot of interest by other school districts. >> thank you, commissioner walton? >> commissioner walton: thank you, i wanted to shout out two things that happened over the summer. shoutout to bayview with the leadership of the bayview cohort, educators, principals, parents, and everyone who wants to see our school succeed in bayview. got together to get personnel excited about the upcoming school year. there were trainings, speeches. superintendent participated and a lot of leadership in the district. we're excited about going into the school year. i want to thank the leadership

of the cohort for bringing the school personnel together to get everyone excited and really get to know the community they're going to be working in as we get ready for monday and the start of school. i also wanted to shout out our college and career department for the work they've done over the summer. a lot of things have happened that have increased opportunities for our young people in terms of connecting them to opportunities outside of just regular academic curriculum over the summer, so we increased pathway programs and opportunities over the summer. more of our young people are participating in internships across various sectors of employment. i'm excited to see that work has been increasing every year. and that is continuing. i want to give college and career a shoutout as well. and thank all of our school personnel, faculty and everyone working hard over the summer, still providing experiences for

our young people when i know -- when you work all school year with young folks and then turn around and put in the work over the summer, we appreciate that, thank you. >> president mendoza-mcdonnell: thank you. vice president cook. >> vice president cook: i was also going to shoutout to folks at bayview. commissioner walton stole my thunder. >> again. >> he has a habit of doing that [laughter]. i think it is a great model that i hope we can do more of across the city to get people together, excited to get back into the school year. i would like to see it for the schools in the western addition, students in that area of the city. they suffer the same challenges that a lot of the students in the bayview do. thank you for the leadership making that happen. i heard great feedback from a number of administrators about

the institute. i want to acknowledge dr. matthews and his team for putting that together. i know people worked hard, long hours to get that off the ground. i wasn't able to attend because i was not in the country. but you were all working hard and i really appreciate that. and i'm excited about the year ahead. finally, i just wanted to briefly -- about another loss that we had. i wanted to briefly acknowledge nia wilson who was tragically taken from us due to an incident of violence on one of our public transit lines on bart. she wasn't a member of our school district, but a member of the bay area community, one of our children. and i'm really focused on, i think we all do believe in keeping our children in safe. so i wanted to say her name.

>> president mendoza-mcdonnell: thank you vice president cook. i think this is symbolic of the children we care for in our own district, so thank you for acknowledging her. so the calendar committee meetings, that's on me. and i am actually passing around the committee request, so if you could please complete that and i'll announce the next -- or the new committees by the 28th. but the board members will know before that. section m, other informational items posted in the agenda, two reports, the student assignment transfer mechanism and quarterly report on the uniform complaint. section n is the memorial adjournment. so we're adjourning in memory of linda lee and me lan, i would like to ask commissioner norton

to do the acknowledgment for ms. linda lee. >> commissioner norton: linda rose lee was with the school district from 1994. she was a gifted person and educator with outstanding leadership and impressive capacity to bring people along, including those that others doubted. linda's conflict management skills were well known. her understanding of research based best practice in education and her ability to communicate these in development and professional learning activities, as well as in written forms, including manuals, training modules was highly respected throughout california and beyond. linda was almost single handedly

responsible for the ed indications of sfusd. her impasse on inclusive education in san francisco cannot be overstated and her passion was contagious. linda began her own participation in public education as a child with a physical disability. as one of los angeles's many segregated special education centers where she was a student until 4th grade. then her father advocated for her to be included in regular class in her neighborhood school. something that was no small feat in the 1960s. in 1994, linda moved to san francisco to accept one of the regular inclusion support. as they initiated, 10 elementary, two middle and one

high school provided services in that first year and linda worked with elementary students and became full-time. in 1997 she was appointed as a content specialist k through 12. as the number of inclusive schools spread across the city, 50 preschool through high school sites through 2000, focusing on those with the severe disabilities and then broadening. they co-chaired the inclusion task force created by the superintendent in 1995. she led, wrote and was contributor to multiple state wide inclusive education efforts. linda left in 2007 and went on to leadership roles in several districts in new york. the board of education and san francisco unified school

district send our condolences to her daughter and her husband. i would like this thank dr. ann for helping put together this memorial adjournment. thank you. >> thank you, commissioner norton. vice president cook? >> vice president cook: yes. i'm going to acknowledge miss gladys scott reed who is the aunt. before i go into the official readings, i wanted to say i attended the memorial for milan, it was a touching credit to person. she was a superstar. she worked for the student

family and community support division in the community partnership office. she was a brilliant young woman who brought excellence, innovative ideas, contagious energy to all of her work. she was a generous and supportive colleague to all. her daily work, she worked with community based organizations, provided support and assistance to develop strategies to students and families. she was the innovation award hill crest elementary school, supporting the school to build a black student union. and a mentor to high school girls for success program. she epitomized the core of the values. everyone that met her was instantly impressed with her intellect and spirit. she could work a room like no

other. when she would present in front of a group of folks, she held the group's attention, put people at ease, could make them laugh and smile, even when she was telling them how to do better for our black and brown families. she spoke -- she often spoke about her beautiful son mason, about her hopes and dreams with him. mason was and is the love of her life. everything she did was for him. she would light up whenever you asked about him. and would happily share all of his current exploits and achievements. she grew up in san francisco. she went away to college and also got her masters before she came, determined to support the community that focused on education as an opportunity for everyone. one of the reasons she was so effective was the community

partnerships, was her ability to build trust and make connections, bridging multiple rolings, educator, mentor and college prep and youth clinic. she will be deeply missed. she lives on in our work and our hearts. rest in peace, milan. >> president mendoza-mcdonnell: thank you, our deepest condolences to the family. thank you for being here. we appreciate your presence. this time, we'll take public comment for those who submitted speaker cards for close session items, we don't have any. we're going to section o, which is closed session. the board will go into closed session. i call a recess

>> president mendoza-mcdonnell: justin, can you open the door? i know there were parents out there. >> president mendoza-mcdonnell: we're on item p. reconvening to open session. item 1, we're going to be voting on student expulsions.

i move approval where the parties agreed to waive the expulsion of one high school student. and where the term of the expulsion is for one year from the date of the agreement with the option to reduce the expulsion term to fall, if the student completes the rehabilitation plan and receives the support services described in the agreement. could i get a second? >> second. >> thank you. >> president mendoza-mcdonnell: roll call. >> clerk: seven ayes. >> president mendoza-mcdonnell: i move approval of a stipulated expulsion agreement where they

waive the hearing of one high school student and where the term of the expulsion was for the spring 2018 and entire fall semest semester. second, please? >> second. >> president mendoza-mcdonnell: roll call. >> clerk: seven ayes. >> president mendoza-mcdonnell: thank you. item 2 is a vote on employment contracts for unrepresented executive employee, i move to approve the contract for the interim deputy superintendent of strategic partnerships and communication at a salary set at grade m, step 9, august 15 through the appointment of deputy superintendent of strategic partnerships and communication. a second, please? >> second. >> president mendoza-mcdonnell:

thank you, roll call, please. >> clerk: seven. >> president mendoza-mcdonnell: thank you. this is the read out of the august 14 closed session. the board by a vote of seven ayes ratified the contracts. the in the matter of d.j. versus sfusd, the board by a vote of seven ayes gives authority to pay up to the stipulated amount. case number 20180210, the board by a vote of seven ayes gives a authority of district to pay up

the stipulated amount. in the matter of sullivan verse sfusd, the authority 0 pay up to the stipulated amount. the board by a vote of seven ayes pays up to the stipulated amount in. matter of con, case number 2018-1040876, gives the authority to pay up to the stipulated amount. on matters of anticipated litigation, the board gave direction to general counsel. section q is adjournment, that meeting is adjourned. good night, everyone.

>> the mayor of the city and county of san francisco. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: you know, as mayor, you go around, and you cut a lot of ribbons, and you do a lot of great things, but i've got to tell you, nothing feels better than doing what we're doing here today, and that is protecting the homes and small businesses of so many families in the city and county of san francisco. 21 units of housing, 21 families, which includes seniors, which includes children, which includes a property that is not protected under rent control. this is absolutely incredible, and to be able to do this with partners like meta, and partners like the housing acceleration program, it makes all the difference because some of us might know that the city is bureaucratic, and

bureaucracies sometimes move a little slow. and that's why having partners in the community to move these projects forward as quickly as possible makes all the difference. to be able to keep six small businesses in business with affordable rent and 21 families in their home with rent protection is absolutely amazing and is what we do best as a city. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: and i am just glad to be here, and i am glad for eli and his family. he's going to be speaking and he's going to be one of the people who's going to be able to continue staying here. they were just telling me a story how they saw supervisor safai down the street, campaigning, and they asked for his help because they aren't

under rent control, and they were concerned about losing his home, and here is a promise fulfilled because of the leadership of supervisor safai, and at this time, i would like to introduce the supervisor to say a few words. [applause] >> supervisor safai: thank you, mayor breed. i'm just going to take a minute to thank the people that are really responsible for this happening. eli and his family, i met him at the safeway, and they talked about what we're all experiencing here in san francisco, which is a housing crisis. and this housing crisis is real. every day, we get calls, every day, we heard about families that are being forced from their long-time homes. so when we have an opportunity to work with community partners and to listen and to bring a policy and a program together that really works on behalf of stablizing our community, this is exactly what that means. so i got a call on a friday from caroline from meta. she says supervisor, you're not

reading your e-mails. pick it up. and i said what's going on? and she said there's a real opportunity here. this is the first ever small site that we could do in your district. we have never done a small sites acquisition. one year ago, a little over a year ago, i stood at a press conference in the richmond where we celebrated the 100th unit of the entire small sites program. today, this is -- this puts us over 200 units, which means in the last year, we've already doubled the program in one year. [applause] >> supervisor safai: so carolina and meta called me and said this is a big push. we're going to need a big push from the housing accelerator fund. we reached out to the community partners like poder and somcan that are funded to do the work that we're standing here today. they went in and met with the

tenants. they lowered their anxiety. they said you're going to have an opportunity to stay in their home. and that's what they're funded to do. they're funded to build community and to really reach out and talk about the programs that can stablize and keep the richness and diversity of this district, and that's what this is about. this is a 12-plus million purchase, the largest in the history of the small sites program. 21 residential and six commercial. it is the largest in the city's history, so i'm proud to have the support of this mayor. this mayor has made housing her number one priority and as someone that grew up in a community that was constantly under the threat of housing displacement and housing insecurity, you will have no greater champion in city hall than mayor london breed. so i'll send by saying any of the people that question why we

fund community-based organizations, they're standing, and this is a true witness of that. the work that poder, that somcan and the work that meta is doing and the housing affordability is doing is real and can affect lives. and i'm going to call up caroline from meta [applause] >> my name is caroline feng, and i work for the mission nonprofit agency. meta's purchase of 4830 mission street is a big day not only for us, but for the excelsior and the city of san francisco. 4830 mission street marks a huge first for affordable housing. today, we not just preserved affordable housing, we actually created affordable housing. let me explain.

meta's purchase of 21 small sites in the last two years was largely rent controlled properties. in contrast. at 4830 mission street, we have a nonrent controlled property that was built after 1979. the realtors blatantly marketed this as a rare opportunity, i quote, a rare opportunity to own a nonrent controlled property. let's take a minute to understand what that means. if a speculator had purchased 4830 mission street, they could have increased the rents by as much as they wanted. in fact, we saw that happen just a year ago when 400 london street, just two blocks away was purchased. when speculators bought that property, they forced small businesses to prematurely sign rents that would triple their rents, and the small businesses were at risk of being forced out. thankfully, the residents of 4830 mission street don't have to worry about that.

[applause] >> with meta's purchase, this narcotic rate -- nonmarket rate rent controlled building has been transformed into homes for 21 families and six small businesses. like the residents of 4830 mission street, the excelsior has a large population of filipino and latino families. most of them share perspectives that want to stay in this community. it's crucial that we buy buildings like this and it's crucial to keep families like them in the neighborhood. [applause] >> we need our city, our mayor and all of our supervisors to grow its innovative small sites program. this targeted approach has now

been proven as the mayor and supervisor safai said as a major antidisplacement strategy strategy by taking homes off the private market. let me be clear, we need more money to take buildings like this off the speculative market. we need mormoney in the san francisco housing accelerator fund which provided critical acquisition financing so we could buy the building as quickly as any other buyer off the market. we need more money in similar acquisition programs like meta's own program so we can compete aggressively, and we need more money for the mayor's office of community and housing development who as an ongoing partner has been willing to scale this program with us. meta could not make this on our own. i want to thank a number of folks. i want to thank the city officials for rallying around this work. many of you came to meta,

asking how to implement the small sites program in your district. that includes supervisor safai. without advocating for this building and in your community, we would not have this district 11 building, so thank you. additionally, i want to thank the building owners, mr. omahoni and mr. sullivan. owners are often forgotten piece of this equation. in this market, our owners could have easily chosen to sell to somebody else. they chose to sell to meta as a nonprofit to ensure that their tenants could stay in the city and keep their legacy in the city. [applause] >> and then, there are partner organizations, poder and somcan, who with the small but mighty meta team, sat with our tenants to explain what this program was and answer our tenants' countless concerns

about their housing rights. our tenants can now stay here for generations to come. [applause] >> today is a day to celebrate, and let's all work together to make such celebrations the norm, rather than the exception, in all neighborhoods experiencing displacement in san francisco. so i'd like to bring up eli who has been in this building for over 18 years. he has three generations in this building. he's what we mean when we say we are rooting families in san francisco. eli. [applause] >> good morning. today is a great day for me and my family because meta as acquired and converted this building to affordable housing through the city of san francisco small sites program. the small sites program is a

project of the city. i believe the aim is to acquire buildings where long-term tenants are vulnerable of being evicted. meta has worked closely with community organizations like poder and somcan to finally acquire this building, save this building and save its tenants. me and my clan of three generations have lived in this building for the past 18 years and will be able to continue doing that because of the small sites program. grateful to the leaders of our city, for meta, especially, and

for the community advocates gathering together to make this thing happen. thank you very much. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: and i just want to wrap it up by saying that when we talk about the need for housing in the city and county of san francisco. yes, we need to move forward aggressively and build as much housing as we possibly can, but we equally need to focus on housing preservation. that's what this is about, protecting people and making sure that they're able to stay in their homes, and i couldn't be prouder of so many people who made this possible. thank you to rebecca fror bein here from the housing accelerator fund, kate from the mayor's office of housing, thank you so much, the folks from meta. thank you for one of our planning commissioners who's

here, myrna melgar, for all you do to continue to promote housing and housing production. i'm proud to be here that this is one of the largest housing purchases we've made as a city, and i want to thank supervisor safai for being in tune of what's happening in thinks district and the needs of those who are here. thank you all for playing a part, and i'm just excited about this. and i just can't even believe that we have been able to do something so amazing in san francisco. and let's continue, as was said, to make this the norm and not the exception. thank you all so much for being here today. [applause]