00:00:04,900	Hello, I'm Tom Gerhardt, Executive Director at Dakota Media Access, and I'm joined today by Bismarck Public School superintendent Doctor Jeff Fastnacht. Thanks for letting me join you today, Tom. So happy that you're here. And we wanted to talk about the proposed 2026 bond referendum that will go before voters June 9th.

00:00:26,170	And I thought, what a great opportunity to get people informed and educated so they know how they want to vote when they head to the polls June 9th. So I appreciate you being here. Probably a lot of us have seen things on social media.

00:00:43,000	I know you've done a couple of, more than a couple multiple public appearances, whether at a coffee shop or other areas. But give us just a little bit of an overview before we go into some specific questions. You know, one thing I've heard is, you know, where did this come from? Why? Why now for this bond? That's a that's a great question. I get that commonly.

00:01:00,370	And we try to start a presentation with that too. Like how did we get to this point. Yeah. This is really a continuation of years of work for the district. They've they've had a long range facility plan for years. Different iterations of it. Updated it, kind of brought it, brought it to the new every few years.

00:01:17,330	So this last summer, that's what our school board asked us to do. They said, just update that. Let's get some community input. Let's make sure that we're hearing the voices out there. So through, through a set of, community forums, this, this last fall and then go into schools meeting with parents, meeting with staff.

00:01:33,800	We just made sure we heard them. We made some changes to it. And then brought all the the numbers, you might say the costs up to modern what we think as modern costs. Now, even though those are changing almost daily anymore. But, did that and brought that to the board and January to say, here's your new plan.

00:01:51,870	And then that was put, put in front of them is like, okay, now what's the step forward? And that's led us to now this referendum discussion. I told you, we shared, shared a little bit of my history. I went to Willmar in first and second grades. And I know that's one school you've used.

00:02:05,530	I saw a video this morning. I told you that we went way back to the 60s when the school opened, and it's just a case where things have fallen behind there, and it needs some updating. Yeah. You could. Will-Moore is a perfect example for us. So you can go to Pioneer.

00:02:22,970	You can my some just some of the older classic schools that are gorgeous. They're beautiful architecturally, I love them. They just look great from the outside. But yeah, they it isn't that they've been neglected. I think we've been taking good care of them, but it's like having a 50 year old house or 70 year old house.

00:02:40,000	I mean, they just need some TLC now and then and some of those systems that we're working and worrying about or. Yeah, floors and and paint, those are easy. But when you get into heating and cooling systems, some of those get more complex. And that's been piling up for a while.

00:02:52,370	And I did go to pioneer as well. Not to make this Tom Gerhardt trivia, but elevators are another, thing in a couple of places that, just accessibility is a huge.

00:03:09,000	Thing, right? If if you look inside the plan, one of the two of the big key issues and you hit on the one and I'll bring up the other is just accessibility, and that is first and foremost elevators, you'll see. I was just down at Prairie Rose meeting with them that that school needs an elevator pioneer and Will-Moore and those are just all multilevel schools with no real modern way to transverse between all the floors.

00:03:29,800	We heard some stories in the past where students have been carried upstairs at Will-Moore. We've heard stories of just prairie rows today about moving classrooms to the main floor of what has a staff member has accessibility issues. So we just think that's really important in 2026 to have a way to move between the floors. And the other one is just bathrooms, accessible bathrooms.

00:03:49,370	And that to us is a not only issue for our kids. And making sure that our children can go to their neighborhood school and have an accessible bathroom if they have accessibility issues. But it's also for the moms and dads and grandmas that grandpas that go to school and want to visit.

00:04:02,530	They want to go to lunch. They want to go to play. They should have a restroom that accommodates them and more and more. And we have adults that have those issues that are coming to our schools. I think, too, and maybe people know this, maybe not.

00:04:15,630	But the public school district, you have a responsibility to take every student. Absolutely. So we don't get the we don't get to say no and honestly say, I'm glad we don't get to say no. I, I love the challenge of making sure we can help every kid, every family. I love that challenge.

00:04:31,170	I've given my life to be an educator and public school. So I like that. But with that comes unique challenges. I mean, I think if you went back to times where my grandfather went to school, kids with unique special needs or accessibility issues maybe didn't go to school, they were somewhere else. Right.

00:04:49,730	And and I think the beauty of our modern public schools across the whole state of North Dakota is no, you get to go to your school that's in your neighborhood. You get to go to your town school.

00:05:01,270	And we should accommodate you to make sure we can we can bring you in and let you join the class with all the rest of the kids here in the neighborhood with and and that's a wonderful thing. It's a great. Thing just to go back. It just really hits me when you start thinking about the visual of somebody literally carrying a student upstairs up some stairs to get them to a second floor.

00:05:17,100	You know, I have a staff member that works for me now, that used to be a principal at Will-Moore, and he talks about, yep, I grabbed a kid and carried her upstairs, to get her to a classroom and back down two sets of stairs to lunch and then back up to her classroom.

00:05:30,070	And it's like, really? That's really how long ago was that? And that was modern history. I mean, that's only within the last 5 or 6 years. So, yeah, that's that's something we really believe we have to get address. Well, tell me more about some of the key parts of this proposed plan. Well, the first one is really deferred maintenance.

00:05:46,600	All the stuff we talked about kind of, like, easily, that that pile of deferred maintenance that falls into heating and cooling units, ventilation systems. Again, that just goes to back to a school that was built in the 50s and, and 60s that just they weren't designed with the same systems that we think of in a modern school

00:06:05,330	to have fresh air return and those. So that's that's a focus area for us. Boilers you might have seen just recently on social media. Great post about the 70 year old boiler at BHS. Hey that's great. We've kept that boiler running for 70 years. That's. Yeah. Think about think about that. Yeah. Exactly.

00:06:21,100	So that's a good thing for our our team has been doing that. But even things 70 years old they don't make the parts anymore. They don't. They just move on to something different.

00:06:36,430	So we know we have to do some updates with those big large mechanical systems and and just things, things as easy as doors and windows to improve efficiency. Just just making sure that those systems are in place. Fire alarm systems, fire suppression systems, updating those. Those are all behind in that deferred maintenance bucket. Yeah, I don't think my dishwasher lasted for six years, so I don't. Know if we can buy fridge last year for years. Anymore.

00:06:55,270	70 years is just mind blowing. Tell me about the overall focus of the bond and then, the work outlined a little bit more about that. Yeah. I mean, I think once we get into we kind of talked about the access safety issue as far as students with, with bathrooms and elevators.

00:07:13,600	I think we're also talking about just making sure, one of the things is our students are safe on the other parts of the, of the work, as we call them, line of sight offices. And again, this is about schools that were just designed at a different time. They were built at a different time.

00:07:27,230	Will-Moore is a perfect example. I mean, you walk through the front door, you probably get buzzed in. You do now you get buzzed in. But their office is kind of around the corner, down the hall and, and, you know, so you'll see that in the plan, several schools that we address that.

00:07:41,330	But, just making sure we're supporting our kids. Our kids have safe and supportive learning environments. We have some equity between our learning environments. That's important for us to, as we're building the plan out. How about some more details on some of those main focus areas? Oh, yeah.

00:07:58,630	If we, if we get into students are being supported, one of the other things that we're talking about is that equity of programing, I would want to make sure everybody philosophically, I think regardless of what neighborhood you grow up in, you should have a similar path. You should have similar opportunities in the education system.

00:08:14,270	And in Bismarck, we think of the feeders, you know, the northeast, northwest feeder, east feeder. So you really should have a similar experience. We've been really talking about trying to extend to the community that we want to make sure that a kid in the elementary schools have similar experiences.

00:08:30,270	You don't get to go to the nice schools or the not nice schools that there all have similar opportunities. So that's some of the work we're doing. But then even in middle school and high school, let's make sure that a kid at Legacy and Century and BHS have the same opportunities for the same number of physical education and health classes. And there's a disparity now.

00:08:44,700	That's why centuries on the on the plan, we want to make sure they have similar fine arts spaces. And again, that was raised by, Century parents. So if you look at the fine arts space where our kids perform in theater, you know, the, theater work, are they going to do a band concert or something like that?

00:09:00,730	It's like, it's hard to compare, the Century Auditorium experience compared to BHS and LHS they're they're wonderful performance spaces. So we inside the plan, you'll see us trying to lift Century up in that regard to make them more equitable to that.

00:09:18,700	And again, it's just about making sure that every kid kind of gets an equal opportunity to do well in the classroom and perform. That could be on athletically or in the arts. And musical kids. So Legacy's theater there, that room's incredible. The addition at BHS, which seems like just yesterday but I know was several years ago also an incredible space.

00:09:36,900	And so yeah, I can see where you'd want to bring Century up to speed. You were at Prairie Rose today. You said, is that the furthest south, of the. Yeah, I thought so, yeah. And I know population heading south is is something you want to address. Can you talk about that? Absolutely. Part of the plan is dealing what we were calling responsible growth.

00:09:55,600	If anybody drives down South Washington, you're going to over to your left and drive. To your left and say, wow, there's a lot of new buildings down here. And so, there was there's some growing population pressure on Solheim, Moses Myhre, that South Division.

00:10:18,170	So we know at, at Prairie Rose, they have a portable Moses has three portables, so high mass portables. We know looking at our recent demographer, a report from RSP, that population is not really going to change. It might just grow slightly. But we know overall elementary division's probably going to get a little smaller over the next five years.

00:10:36,530	So it's like it makes no fiscal sense to build a new elementary school to deal with some of that growth planning for even more growth on the South side. But we definitely know that, okay, these schools are not going to get much smaller. Let's build them for what they are. They've been that way for years.

00:10:53,530	So let's do some strategic additions on to Moses and and Solheim to make sure we can accommodate the kids already there. And in many of those schools and some, some of our older schools also were doing some additions of what we call multipurpose room spaces. And, that's just to accommodate the the schedule of elementary schools between health and P.E.

00:11:11,100	and lunch and all those things that drive an elementary schedule crazy during the day. And we didn't talk about this ahead of time, but, just listening to you and from other things, I know, like you're talking about population growth, school enrollment down the road. I mean, you guys are looking at big pictures all the time. Oh, yeah.

00:11:29,600	I mean, when you have, what, 13,800 some kids and we're we're looking at developments. And the beauty of RSP helps us with that. But we're looking and have good partnerships with developers of where are you going out five years from now.

00:11:45,100	What's your vision ten years from now? And that's not just South Side where of good partners on the South side, but the northeast has some developers pushing out the north as those it's just right now the big pressures on the south side. And we know we have to deal with that. That's why we're kind of targeting that that area for elementary room or elementary expansion. Yeah. Well, I suppose you get this question a lot.

00:12:01,730	I think I think about it and especially when you think, oh, referendum, but, you know, the impact on the taxpayer. Oh, so I know you've done a lot of work or your staff has done a lot of work there to the school board. What can you tell us about let's just use me as an example.

00:12:15,870	What kind of impact is this going to have on on my taxes? Well, let's just begin. Mean nobody wants to talk about paying more taxes. I'm sure either Tom or I don't want to pay that either.

00:12:30,900	So, I mean, I'm just to be respectful as I, I just want to be respectful that we pay taxes are always tough discussion. Right. But it's always a to me it's a value discussion. What are you getting for that tax? I mean it doesn't matter if the fire department police department what am I getting for that that benefit. So we've we really prioritize the needs inside that long range facility plan. Okay.

00:12:46,630	What's the most important? The most important? That's what got us to what we proposed. The board we're going to keep we're going to deal with some of the low priority areas, which I can talk about a little more, but, 127 million is kind of a big chunk of work that we need. A 20 year bond 20.

00:13:01,500	I didn't say that I should have given that perspective, but 127 million, okay. 127 million over 20 years. What we're saying, what we're calculation is that's 10.

00:13:16,530	84 mils if you apply that to your home, if you look at the top of your tax statement, the big number on top, that says what your true and full value of your house is. To make it simple, we just said for every $100,000 a true and full value, it's $4.07 a month. $4.07 a month per 100,000 100,000. So $2,000 house. That's 814. Just keep doing the math. Whatever the value of your home is.

00:13:34,470	Right? I'm not very good at math, but I couldn't even do that one. So I mean that just to me. And I'm not trying to, to, to, cozy up to this issue, but that seems pretty palatable. When we compare it to other districts and we've kind of well, in our community presentations, we do share that with the audiences.

00:13:52,530	Here's six other class two way schools that have recently had to do referendums. Well, let's talk about a comparison. I see your graphic. Yeah I was going to ask you. Okay. It's like perfect to read my mind. But we do look at that because I think that we have the benefit of a wonderful community that's growing. Thriving.

00:14:10,230	I think the mayor talks about a thousand new residents who we're coming at you Mark. Right. So we're getting bigger. The school is going to get bigger, but when you have that, you have a growing tax base every year. So, yeah, when you're talking about 127 million over 20 years, $4.

00:14:27,800	07 per 100,000 are true and full, and then you compare it to compare it to Mandan. And I was in Mandan when we passed. That's right. Okay. That's $9.92 for and that was a 20 year bond as well. So considerably twice as much as we're asking for in Bismarck.

00:14:47,170	And then I point people to Valley City, Valley City on the screen as well, because, many people will say, well, let's go to the legislature and let's there's, there's legacy fund money to do this for schools. And it's like that that's been talked about at the legislature, but it's also been like that that help hasn't come. They said this is a local issue. School buildings are local issues.

00:15:03,800	So, Valley City went back to their voters in last spring to say, we got to do this ourself. And if you look at that tax impact, that's I'm going to not get the number right. But I know for a $400,000 home in Valley City, that's about $1,200 a year, tax impact.

00:15:17,530	So when we talk about doing this, this work in Bismarck, again, I know people don't want to talk about new taxes. That's hard. But I think we can do a lot of good work for our schools and our community and our kids at a much easier impact per taxpayer than most of these schools can.

00:15:32,800	And we're the largest public school district in the state. Where West Fargo is creeping up on us. But we still are number one. Yes. How can we? I guess I've seen this on social media. I've had other people ask and just kind of reading around knowing we were going to do this.

00:15:48,070	A lot of people want to know, okay, let's say, let's say I'm a, you know, I'm going to support this. How do I know this isn't going to pop up again in five, ten years? That's that's a great question. I've had that on several of the forums.

00:16:04,170	I think people want to either look in the past, they look forward like, how do we stop this from happening again? And I think it takes good planning. Part of the part of what I've been trying to articulate is some of the plan is not part of what we're asking voters to approve.

00:16:16,870	If you look at our long range plan, there's some work in what we call the green categories, the lower priority ones that I think there's about $13 million worth of work in there that we've said. That's what we can now our our normal expenditures, 5 to $6 million a year in maintenance with our building fund and some general fund dollars.

00:16:32,100	Okay, we can get on top of that problem. We can help continue to be good stewards of our facilities and our dollars to to. So this doesn't become a problem 25 years from now. We we're just coming to voters now because we have to get on top of the bigger problem.

00:16:46,270	And and that's what we're asking for support for. So I think we have a plan to stay on top of it. But I will give you a little asterisk. I mean, I think this is like having a home plan. I mean, I have a I save some money in case the washer goes out.

00:16:58,330	I save some money in case the roof leaks. Right. That's really good plan until junior runs the car into a pool somewhere. And now it's like, oh, now I got to tap into that savings account to deal with something that totally unexpected. I mean, for us, is there a lot of unexpected there can be.

00:17:14,170	I mean, I think we talked about one just recently at a school board meeting when, a young man threw a shot, put into a sprinkler. Yeah. That was that's a that's tens of thousands of dollars of repair.

00:17:30,230	And what are the be replacing a gym floor or part of it? Totally unexpected, but it's something we have to be ready for because that's what changes good plans. So let's say okay, I want to play devil's advocate for a minute. Let's say I'm just I'm not there yet. Maybe you've thought about this, but, or maybe people have come up to you and said, like, I get it, but I can't support it yet.

00:17:47,730	Like what do you say to people that are still maybe under uncertain or maybe against it at this point? I think first of all, what's what's your what's your hesitancy? If it's tax and paying tax dollars? Okay.

00:18:04,470	We can talk about that and we can talk about how we're trying to be fiscally conservative, not only in the past. I think this district's been fiscally conservative for a time where the lowest really you can jamestown's under us. But if you look at the big schools, the big two schools are populations like Bismarck, where the lowest taxing school district by far compared to the rest of them.

00:18:21,500	So I think we've been very fiscally conservative and how we're putting that tax request on our taxpayers. So okay, so now we're coming to you now. So let's talk about that. And again we can go back the slide to say we're doing this at a lesser tax impact than many schools are doing.

00:18:37,370	So okay let's that's that's one argument. If if it is the why like why now I probably would say, well do you think these things need to be repaired just like in your home, you have to replace the furnace, the boiler goes out, you know, the washer and dryer that that boiler at best, at

00:18:55,000	some point is not going to serve our kids and our community. We can either do that in the dead of winter and have it, you know, kind of go out and go out on us, and then we're in critical, like, where are we going to do school? Or how are we going to do with one boiler operation

00:19:08,270	with no backup or a really cold day? Or we plan, we deal with it now when we can do it, deal with it and ensure that we have a good learning environment for our kids. I don't think anybody wants to have a disruption in school during the dead of winter.

00:19:22,630	It really any time I think families want us to have their kids during the work day and educate their kids and those things. So it's about just making sure we have the best environments for our kids. And I know from I've been listening to a lot of the commission meetings since I started here at Dakota Media Access.

00:19:36,370	One thing I know things don't get cheaper either. No, I would, that's a great point to bring up. I think I, I missed that point on hitting it on my slides. So you're really good. But yeah, absolutely. I think that's, that's a point to all this work is not got cheaper over time.

00:19:52,270	The costs went up with this revision. And if we would wait two years, four years, I'm going to just really I'm going to bet that the costs are not cheaper. They're going to be more expensive. So if this is work that we have to get done, just waiting doesn't help us.

00:20:06,030	It just perpetuates a makes it a bigger problem in the future. So June 9th isn't far away. I know a lot of times you know what's going to be on the ballot.

00:20:20,730	What's the language? How is it going to read? Am I going to be confused when I go to cast my vote? What can you tell us about that? To maybe ease some of the anxiety there? I actually had a a sharing recently a story from because I ran a referendum in my years in Ellendale and I had someone come out and they after they voted, they said I voted no, Jeff,

00:20:35,230	because that was not the number you told me you were given to me, or you were lying to me. I think actually, he said. And I said, well, help me understand. Well, of course, the language that I am sharing, even for here, is about true and full value. You know, $4.07 per 100,000 are true and full value.

00:20:50,800	That's what I think. What commonly people we know our house is worth. Right. The statute requires it in taxable value. So I've challenged everybody I'm in front of like, can you explain what taxable value is like? Tom, can you tell me what the definition is? And most people don't have a clue what that is.

00:21:06,430	So, when they get into the ballot box, they see 127 million. You're going to see 10.84 mils, you're going to see, 20 years. But then on the fourth line down the ballot, you're going to see it's $10.84 per 1000 of taxable value. Well, that's where people say, well, Jeff told me it's $4.07. No, it's the same thing.

00:21:26,470	But taxable value is your true and full cut in half the 9% of the half. And then you apply the mils. Most people have no idea of how that math works. I just want to be really clear that we're talking the same thing. We're starting with different numbers, but it's the same thing.

00:21:42,270	We get to the same end point, the same sum. And, to understand that people understand that a yes is a yes and also no, there's no trick reverse questions that sometimes we say, all right. Well, yeah, I mean, and that happens from time to time. And I think people can get confused at the ballot box.

00:21:58,330	Or maybe you feel a little like, oh, I got a little shock. Get out of here quick. And so you, maybe quickly and and in the wrong way, you know, check the wrong. I shouldn't even told you how to do the calculation. I tell people at community meetings, I buy them a coffee.

00:22:14,470	If they can tell me the the calculation right now, maybe hand out coffee. Well, wait, I was going to say, you know, you know, I like coffee, so I might go home and try and figure this out so I can get my free coffee. Yeah.

00:22:25,600	You know, you've touched on this, I think, but I'm just trying to circle back and think about some key points and, and again, just kind of going to like what I've seen on social media and heard talked about is, you know, why wasn't this addressed earlier? Yeah, that's a good question. One, I mean, I haven't been here that long ago.

00:22:41,900	I'm in my third year, but that's not an excuse. I think I've got to represent the whole totality of DPS. Again, I would say two things that are running in concert with each other. You have a you have a board that's for years taken a very fiscally conservative approach to taxation and, and collecting money.

00:22:59,730	They haven't asked for it unless they needed it. And so, okay, they, they've been doing that and that we've benefited from that, all of us as taxpayers, because they've helped help keep taxation low for Bismarck residents or Bismarck Public School residents.

00:23:19,630	The other part of that is, someone said, well, why don't you just why didn't you just save up the money? And I would say, I think schools are different than me, like me as a homeowner. Right. Because you and I have a savings account. But when I put my money into my savings account, you know, before junior hits a tree.

00:23:33,070	But, I mean, when I put in my savings account, I'm saving my money. It's the money I've earned. When schools save money or I say, really, any public entity saves money, we're we're sitting on taxpayer dollars and I, I think schools one are restricted. We can only save so much 35%. So I did the math today. That's like 77 million.

00:23:52,530	So that's a lot of money that there's a lot of money still wouldn't have addressed all this. And I think if any taxpayer would look at our financials at the end of the year and say, why is a school sitting on $50 million, that is crazy.

00:24:06,100	I'd say, well, give us our money back so I can use it. Right? And then when you need something, come ask us. Well, that's exactly what we're doing.

00:24:19,600	We're saying I don't think it's fiscally prudent to sit on taxpayer dollars and just kind of languish in the and let them sit in our account, let them sit in your account. But then when we come to you, we're asking because we need your support.

00:24:35,330	So we didn't talk about this ahead of time, but just are there resources or where can people go if they see this and they say, I want to read a little bit more. I want to see some of those infographics. Obviously, they can watch this on Dakota Media Access. That'd be great. Will be great. Any other place you could point people toward? Well, I think you're you're hopefully people.

00:24:52,500	Well, I don't I'm not a huge social media person, but we've been trying out the Bismarck, Public Schools Facebook page and my Facebook page, Dr. Jeff Fastnacht. Not whatever. You can find it. Have been trying to put out some bits of information that gets you the bits.

00:25:08,070	If you really want to dig deep and you want to devote some time and I would say devote some time, you're not going to be it's not one click away with there's there's just too much information right in one click. But if you're willing to give it some time, if you go to the Bismarck schools.org website, there's a link at the top for 2026 bond. And it is. Yeah, I if you're watching you can see the website.

00:25:25,600	We have everything in there from the long range plan. You can dig into it. You can see the detailed architectural drawings for some of the schools that have some architectural, you know, design work or additions or, or moving an office or something like that.

00:25:40,970	So you can see that if you want to see the deferred maintenance list, there's, what we call the rainbow sheets, the red green sheets for every school and every item that's in the deferred maintenance categories that we want to do priced out.

00:25:56,530	Just remember that the district's going to take we're going to still do the green ones, but over time we're really asking you for the yellows. The reds in the, in the referendum. So that's great. If you want to put in your there's a tax calculator on there. So if you want to see the impacts on your tax statement, you can if you want to dig into the referendum question or the election materials.

00:26:12,900	And we have a really good I'm really proud of Mr. Koontz, our PR person done a great job with building. As we get questions, we've been building out a frequently asked question that are excellent. So you can do that by theme. You can go in and dig into the questions and responses.

00:26:27,370	So I would encourage people when you have a an extra 20 30 minutes dig in there. Yeah. And some more outreach I'm sure between when we're recording this and June 9th. Absolutely. We've I've probably done 60 presentations already in some way, shape or form.

00:26:46,100	So this is becoming a little old hat, but, we were at, Bismarck High last night at a community forum. We have a community forum tomorrow night at simili, and it probably won't this won't be live by that time. But in the future, I know we have, a lot of the civic organizations, the quantities, the rotaries, the, the, the Optimist Club.

00:27:03,170	I know we're in front of, if you have a group. I mean, honestly, anybody listening, if you have a group, a church group or a coffee group, wood turners group. I saw them on the news the other night.

00:27:16,270	But, I mean, if you have any of those groups you want to add, please just call our main number, and and, my administrative assistant, Mrs. Estabrook, will schedule you in, and we'll get somebody there to talk to you. So, I mean, we're dedicating a lot of time and energy to just to help inform people. My job is really not to get you to vote.

00:27:31,100	Yes or vote no. It's just to get you informed and become an informed voter for June 9th. Yeah, that's really why we wanted to do this, too. I, I just think it's so important to give people the, the context to an issue like this and an understanding so that they can make an informed vote.

00:27:48,100	Yeah. Any final thoughts? Anything you want to pass along just to summarize the conversation we've had? And I think these are all things that affect our children and our community. And it's not only about having accessible and safe and supported learning environments for our kids, but it's also for the adults that visit our schools.

00:28:07,600	And that's during the school day or our performances. We want to make sure we accommodate visitors, but to some degree it's about after school, too. I think having good schools that represent well, that are, that allow our community to come in and use them for Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts, the rec league and stuff like that.

00:28:24,500	We're we're very busy. I mean, we're renting 130 hours of space a day to, to to purposes like that. Yeah. So we're I take very personally that this is a we are a community asset. And so we want to make sure that those assets in those these neighborhoods are kind of up to the expectation.

00:28:45,070	And so we revitalize those neighborhoods because I think there's an opportunity for young families to go live back downtown, go, let's go live in those older neighborhoods and get your family started and make our community better. So, and maybe that's not our role, but I think it is our role to some degree. Yeah.

00:29:00,630	Well, doctor Jeff, fast night, superintendent of Bismarck Public Schools, thanks for joining us. Important conversation. June 9th referendum for Bismarck Public Schools. It's, 20 year bond, $127 million. But, please get out and vote June 9th. We just want to make sure that people get to the polls, and then your voice can be heard. June 9th.

00:29:21,900	Thank you for your time. Yeah. Thanks for joining us.