my name is richard ellig. i am a proud retired teacher and also a hard working parent. last night, i attended an arts education town hall at burton high school. i came away from the event with two major realizations. first of all, i released that -- [inaudible] >> -- in the summer of 2023, five years from now. just as importantly, i realized that in the interim time and in the future beyond, arts education, especially in the elementary schools needs to be strengthened and constantly reinrigorated. i have a strong conviction especially during this time of staffing shortages, we need our most talented educators of all disciplines working directly with students in the classroom. ideally we need arts instructors in all our elementary schools. the quality of arts education is woefully superficial and under emphasized in many elementary schools. to truly 'em bed arts into curriculum, each arts educators would work to implement and of the ommize an art curriculum for this will schools -- and optimize an art curriculum for schools. they are not exclusive of each other, and dese