thank you for joining us. this is a tough conversation. because i've spoken to school leaders and hospital leaders. none of them are looking for a fight with the state. none of them are looking to get funding pulled. but you and your colleagues decided that there is a more critical imperative here, the safety of the children. >> absolutely. we are certainly concerned about the safety and wellbeing of our students. that is paramount in our thoughts. and so we have mandated masking for the first two weeks of school. we begin on august the 10th. and so for the first two weeks of school we would like all students to have masks on. after those first two weeks, then we will reevaluate -- the board will reevaluate and to see if the surge has decreased or increased. and based on that, we will make