Future Ready: Together Spokane IRL (in real life)

In this episode of SPS Future Ready, Superintendent Dr. Adam Swinyard and co-host Stephanie Splater dive into the transformative vision behind the Together Spokane initiative—a bold collaboration between Spokane Public Schools, the Parks Department, and community partners to reimagine shared spaces for kids, families, and neighborhoods.

The episode highlights:

• Over 200 proposed projects across schools, parks, and neighborhoods aimed at increasing equity and access.
• A focus on getting kids off screens and into real-life engagement through recreation, athletics, and outdoor experiences.
• The importance of local investment in facilities to ensure families can enjoy enriching activities without leaving Spokane.

Special guest Riley Stockton, Executive Director of Hoopfest, joins the conversation to discuss the impact of Together Spokane on the basketball community and youth sports. He emphasizes the urgent need for more court and field space to support programs like Hoop Town Youth League, which serves over 3,500 kids. Stockton shares insights on the proposed Franklin Park facility, a multi-use space near Madison Elementary that would support basketball, volleyball, pickleball, and more.

Together Spokane is more than infrastructure—it’s about building a future where students thrive, families stay local, and the community grows stronger through shared experiences.

Transcript

0:03

Welcome to SPS future ready? On this episode, we explore a bold idea that brings schools and parks together for the benefit of kids, families, and the whole Spokane community. Dr. Swinyard and I will cover a vision of enhanced facilities, equity across neighborhoods, and a commitment to our future. So Dr. Swinyard we’re excited about this and there’s a lot to it. So some of the things that we want our community to know. Yeah. Well there are over 200 projects every school, every park, every neighborhood. There's a lot of different opportunities for a pretty broad cross-section of the community. And that was one of our goals we're looking for. How do you bring the most value to the most people? How do you find an opportunity where as many people as possible can see themselves or see an experience that they're excited about and are interested in investing? We know also that our community would like to stay in our community to do the things that they love. So whether that be an awesome experience at a park, I know Manato was full this weekend of various things going on, so people love being in the parks. And then also some of our youth recreation and athletics opportunities. Often families have to travel outside the area for experiences that we could have right here in Spokane. Yeah, well, we need to keep working to get as many people as possible in our community, get them out of their home, get them off of screens, and everybody wants to do something a little bit different. Some people are into trails, some people are into, athletics. Some people are into just, you know, being in outdoor spaces and, you know, just leisure time inside of a park. So I think a huge focus has been, how do you find enough opportunities to get everybody motivated to put that screen down and get off of your home? One of the greatest parts of this to me, and something that's resonated with students that I've talked to, is that all neighborhoods would be impacted by this. So if you want to get out, like you said, and explore our community and engage in the things that you love, there will be something nearby, whether that's a park upgrade, a school improvement, or access to that cool pool. At Spokane Community College, there's something that everybody can have access to. Yeah, well, I mean, I think it makes you think about, like, why do you live where you live, right? Right. Here's the stuff. So yeah, I love Spokane. Yeah. Why do you stay in Spokane? Like I grew up here? I moved to Seattle for ten years, met my wife, and then it was when it was time to think about, okay, where do we want to put down roots? You know, we ended up back in Spokane, and it wasn't mean. It was partly job related. But also a huge factor was just what the community has to offer for a family. I mean, similarly, I lived in California for a year, and that year I put on 35,000 miles on my car because I was always driving to other places to get to, I lived in Southern California, about 54 miles northeast of Los Angeles, so everything I wanted to go to was in the Los Angeles area, and from a track meet to a session of beach volleyball to camping, at a few places that we went to on the beach in that area, we were also having to drive to, and then, like you, I lived on the west side of Washington and I loved it, but it wasn't home. It wasn't Spokane. It. No, it wasn't a place where you could go to a football game and a cross-country meet in the same day. It just wasn't possible. I love living in Seattle, too. My wife and I, there's lots of things that we appreciate about the the city and lots of different activities. But you're right. Like when you start thinking about, you know, the cost of raising a family, the traffic and just access to a lot of different experiences. You know, Spokane checks a lot of boxes. I guess that's why so many people have moved here. Right? I think about all the growth in just the region in the last 5 to 10 years. It's been pretty massive. I think, about to going to these other places and also traveling to other places for experiences like, we know Yakima is a really, popular place for youth tournaments. And but what Spokane has is we have all the things here, we have all the seasons. We have all the people who are cool that want to be a part of it. And then also we have a drivable community that you could go to various things all in one day. I'm always surprised when I go to other places to see their golf courses. They're not as great as Spokane. So our parks department does a fantastic job with absolutely our public courses and then the parks. We certainly do not have parks like this everywhere. Spokane is known for its parks. And then frankly, we have great schools too. Yeah. And I think that, again, is part of the focus of the study we conducted with the Parks department is what what do we want Spokane to look like in the next ten, 15, 20 years and what investments are necessary? So we have a community where people want to graduate and stay here, not leave where they want to relocate their business here, where they want to move here or come back here and raise a family. And you know, when people are thinking about where they're going to live as a family. I mean, I know we were thinking about, you know, we were thinking about schools. We were thinking about parks. We're thinking about, you know, recreation. You're thinking about cost of living, you're thinking about traffic. And if we want Spokane to, you know, achieve its potential, we have to make investments in those types of spaces. So, we do bring that type of attraction and desirability, to our community. Love sports? Spokane Schools needs officials from middle and high school athletics. No experience, no problem. Training is provided. Stay in the game, support student athletes and make a real impact. Connect with us through. Let's talk on the website to get started today. So together, Spokane was born from the realization that the school district, the parks department and a bunch of community partners all want the same thing to get kids off their screen and back to engaging with other kids in real life. These are groups focused on getting everyone out into the community, actually doing their stuff together. And one of the biggest partners, Spokane's very own Hoopfest. I sat down with Riley Stockton to chat about it. All right, so welcome to Riley Stockton. Riley is the executive director of Hoopfest. And our episode today is about the together Spokane initiative. And I know that you're, very involved in that with Hoopfest. And also, how does this connect to our engage IRL initiative, which Hooptown Youth League is one of our big, programs where we have thousands of kids participating. So we've got a lot of things to talk to you about today. That's why. I'm here. And two time guest on the pod. We don't have that many, but Riley's been on before, so that's super awesome. So tell us a little bit about how you think the Together Spokane initiative will impact both the Spokane community and the Spokane basketball community? Yeah. You know, I, I think that just provides so many more opportunities for kids that don't necessarily have them at this point. You know, I think when it comes to like our Hooptown Youth league, we're just running out of court space, right? We want every kid in the city, to have the opportunity to play if they want to. And right now, you know, with the little over 3500 kids, we're kind of running out of court space, and, we want to make sure everybody has an equitable basketball experience. So, they each have at least six games, they have good refs. They have the same courts that everybody else is playing on. So to do this, we just need more space. And I think that's the case for a lot of different sports. You know, I think volleyball's in the same boat. You know, I think what together Spokane is trying to do out a Merkel. You know, there's a lot of need for just more field space as well. And so the Spokane community has always been a huge sports community. And we just need to kind of update our facilities to make sure that we can provide, the access for the everybody that wants it like that. You're talking about the access, because when we think of the Hooptown families, they are coming from all over Spokane County. there are families who have kids competing on the north side and then trying to get to the south side for another game. We've got other things going on in town, such as cross-country and volleyball at the same time, and having more facilities, for the Hooptown Youth League and for other basketball related activities is going to really help families from all areas of Spokane you know, our goal is to make that, you know, if you're coming from meat or deer Park, you're not playing way up on the South Hill. You know, to have Central locations for people to come to. You know, it's great to be in the schools and it's, you know, we couldn't do it without the schools. But to also have big facilities, like the one we're trying to do a Franklin Park in the warehouse. And those are so vital because it's, you know, instead of two courts, now you have five. It's just so many more you can add to it. And then specifically for the one at Franklin Park, you know, you're looking at games from basically 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday. And we would have a busy all day. Right. And it's it's not like we wouldn't use those hours. So it's just it's almost a necessity. And if we want to stay up with the times and other communities and give our kids the opportunities that, you know, like a Boise or Seattle work, we have to kind of invest into making sure they have the, places to play. And we know also that a lot of our local teams, in some situations go to the other places like you talked about for those opportunities. And then we're also seeing, you know, we have an example of some tri cities teams that come here to do tournaments and run those tournaments here. So this would give us the opportunity to host those for our kids and for our local kids as well. Totally. And I think the hard part with us, you know, Hooptown and Hoopfest is, know, we wish we could do more tournaments. It's just kind of hard, with the nature of how our year sets up, where basically when it hits February, we have to turn a lot of our attention to Hoopfest. But there is, a need for tournaments in March, April, May, that we just can't provide. And so if we have these facilities and we have partners that can run them, there is no doubt that there is a need, that we can fill. And plus, you know, Spokane's so set up with, tourism and the hotels are all centrally located. It's just, it makes sense, to have those tournaments here. Let's go back to that, Franklin Park facility. So that would be located at Franklin Park, which is also the campus for Madison Elementary, which is also, just a stone's throw away from North Town, area. So it's very central. What about that spot appeals to Hoopfest? think the centrally located makes a ton of sense. You know, I think our biggest, area of need is in that area. You know, we have good facilities up on the South Hill, but we really don't have anything, basically north of I-90. Really. And so, it it will provide more access to those communities that need it. And I think the other thing that entices us about it is the, shared facility use of it. The efficiency of that. You know, Hoopfest, you know, a couple of years ago was looking to do our own facility and to have it kind of be a Hoopfest only facility, but to kind of share resources and be able to help build, with other partners, the school district, Boys and Girls Club, and to make sure the facilities used, basically every day. That's what's important to us. Absolutely. So pickleball and volleyball, would also be things that go on at that same facility. And we know that there's lack of space for those as well. So like you said before, leveraging the community support and resources with the management, with the operations that's going to benefit everybody. Isn't it interesting too, that that feels not very north to us anymore, like when we were growing up North Town was as far north as you sometimes went. Now that's almost central. That's a pretty centrally located, site. And so I know we've all had our eye on that general area and at a huge park that needs some upgrades and a wonderful school. My first school that I taught at that is older and definitely needs some upgrades. It's it's a really unique opportunity right there. Yeah. And, you know, obviously we want, you know, selfishly, I want everyone to play basketball because I think it's the greatest sport. But there's just so many opportunities with the court. Like you said, there's volleyball, there's a huge need. And it's the only a growing sport pickleball. So do kind of give that area kind of their own, five court facility, would be super impactful for everybody in that community. That would be absolutely amazing. And I know it's a project that's been on our list from the start. So it's something that we really want to see happen for sure. What other things would you add about your perspective, both as a Spokane schools kid, which is so cool. And also, just the engage IRL initiative and how you've seen that evolve both through the Hooptown Youth League lens, but also, your experiences and, and background and current professional life with kids being more engaged in real life, doing the activities that they love. Yeah. You know, coming from a Spokane schools kid, you know, I think I was extremely blessed because I had friends in my area that all they want to do is play sports. Right? And so from kindergarten through my senior year of high school, basically every one of my friends played football, played basketball, play baseball. We'd all basically play together, you know, hear someone play baseball, someone play football here and there. But for the most part, my kindergarten team, basketball, there were 3 or 4 on my varsity. Oh that's awesome. It was just so impactful. And sports specifically are so impactful to, life lessons. And there's a lot of good about sports and there's a lot of great moments, but there's also a lot of tough moments. And anybody that's ever been in the work force knows that, there's going to be good moments and there's going to be bad moments. I think sports kind of helps teach that. And again, obviously I'm biased because that's the way I grew up. But I do think that, specifically for people that we're hiring, we look for a sports background because we know they can be coached. We know they've been through some tough times at some point and they've persevered, to get there. But that's kind of where I see the engage IRL, really being impactful, you know, there's so many lessons that can be learned in whatever you choose to do, you know, whether it's sports or, clubs or extra curricular activities at school. But it's that engagement with other people, that you need. You know, when I look at hiring people, they have to be able to talk to people that want to sponsor us, people that want to volunteer for us, all that sort of thing. And so, we care about your skills, technology wise. We care about, you proficiency in whatever your area is. But you have to be able to communicate and, talk with people or you're never going to be successful. What a good connection to the engage early developing habits and just really cool aspects of people's personality that that can then carry them into the workforce. So this being the Future Ready podcast that fits right in to the theme of here's another reason engage IRL is such a cool initiative, because it's preparing our young people go out in the world and run things. it's just all connected. And that's really what Together Spokane is about with this initiative. So having you here on the pod this episode is super timely and appreciate your perspective on how this can benefit the full Spokane community. And I just think there's just so many opportunities, that will happen based on this. And so, yeah, I'm just hoping everything goes well and, our kids will have more chances to do more of what they want to do. Last year, we launched not only our engage IRL initiative, but we launched the engage irl.com site with our partners at Launch Northwest. So it feels like the old fashioned Parks community magazine that would come out that had all the opportunities. And you could look and see the ones you're interested in EngageIRL.com has thousands of local opportunities. You want to go on there and see Spokane School stuff. It's listed there. You want to see something from community theater? It's there. It's a really good site and good news. A lot of people are looking at it, and we want more of our families to connect, to find something to do. You can sort by day time type engageIRL.com is a great site. Now back to our main conversation with Dr. Swinyard And I. It does seem like we're in an era where Spokane is ready for an upgrade. And to me, that's what I look at this as I'm heading into my fifth decade as a Spokane citizen in a few years, and we have a lot of cool things here, but we need an invest investment into the future to upgrade things. We know that people need different kinds of facilities. The first place I ever taught at was Madison Elementary, and it certainly needs an upgrade and I love it. But it was a little older 20 years ago when I was there. So, just things like that and then thinking differently, not just remodeling a school, but how we can work together in our community, which we love to do. We love to put on Bloomsday, HoopFest, all the other things that are cool in Spokane. But now what can we do when we need to upgrade these facilities? So that that's a special one. And I know we talked to Riley Stockton about that particular Madison Boys and Girls Club multi-function at Franklin. You know, we have 58 schools. We serve 30,000 kids. We have over 5,000,000ft² of space in those schools sitting on over 600 acres. So, I mean, that's it's a huge footprint to serve all those kids and the average age of our buildings. Take a guess. What do you think the average age of our buildings are? The average age 58. So Stephanie, Mark, real quick, 40 years. Hey, that is pretty good. The average age, just a little under 40 years. Okay. Average age. And so in the early 2000s, they had a community, convening to talk about like, how do you keep up 58 schools? Like, a lot of people know, I grew up in Deer Park. And, you know, there's just a handful of schools and that community, you know, although they've struggled recently to pass the bond, you know, smaller towns are able to run a bond every 30 to 35 years, fix up their buildings and then you're in pretty good shape. Well, we couldn't wait 40 years to run a bond and fix up 58 schools like you can't fix up all 58 and replace all 50 at the same time. Like the cost in the construction industry and all that. And so they came up with this, I think, you know, really thoughtful plan of about every six years, run a bond, fix up just a few schools to replace or modernize, invest in the other schools to try to stretch their life as long as possible. And you kind of do like this very steady as you go, like one bite at a time. And it's been, it's been super successful. But the average age, we still, you know, have schools that are aging out. And we've also done like a really good job of keeping our schools in good working order, like the old SAC Julia, we got over 60 years. We got the old Glover over 60 years. Adams is well over that number. So is Madison. So we have been pretty successful of stretching out how old our schools are. What would you say to someone? And I'm saying this both as a question for myself and then for other people. What would you say to someone who says, oh no, we can't pay any more, like I can't do it? You said something recently that spoke to me as far as well, we're already paying for bonds as time goes on. So what would you say to someone who isn't quite sure about that whole topic changes? People are going to have a bond bill in the mid 2040s because as we add bonds on, we pay them off and then we add them on and we pay them off. That's been that steady as you go approach. I think if if this bond passes, it'll add$0.02 to people's existing bond bill. When you average out what their tax rate will be over the next 15 years, the tax rate will be relatively stable. That's key. Yeah. And so I think we always want to be really thoughtful of people's realities and the tax burden they face. And at the end of the day people are going to have to look at these 200 projects and decide for themselves personally. Is there something in there that's worth their investment because they love trails or they want aquatics or they, you know, care about, you know, hiking or they just want a leisure in their park and have restrooms or they care about, you know, more, classroom space for free preschool, whatever. Whatever the case may be, every member of our community is going to have to look at this because it is a tax increase, and they're going to have to look at it. Is is the investment worth what that individual believes they're going to get from it? I know that a lot of people are excited about some things that they see right in front of them every day, such as a field at a park. Has it been used as a baseball field for a while, or a tennis court needs repairs? Or just recently today I was trying to figure out, conflict on a football field that we could have solved. If we had lights on that football field, it would have been an easy solve. We could have turned on the lights at 6:00. It's not getting lighter around here. It's getting darker because we do live in this great place with four seasons. But things like that, those, those stories about how it can impact and we can't just make assumptions that those things are going to happen. We need to continue to be current. And I appreciate that throughout this process, we've been really listening to what people want. You know, the park did a pretty significant survey. The school district, we've done a lot of different engagement and surveying, just to be really clear, what people want. And I think in a lot of ways, like is amazing in Spokane is we're behind in some areas, like, I don't know. Yeah. We've stalled somewhere. Yeah. And when you think about all weather fields with lights, well, when you look at. Such a luxury before we started talking about it. Yeah. But when you look at Seattle or you look at even Tri-Cities, I'm sure you saw it in California. Yep. There. I mean, all weather fields with lights where you can lengthen the day and get into the evening and keep having people be active. It feels like that hasn't been a focus for our community. And with how many kids and adults are participating now in these activities, just great. We just don't want to turn people away, right? And people want safe places. So lighting places up, lighting fields up would be something that helps with that. I was at, an event in West Central the other day, got done with the event, came out of the building. It was actually the West Central Community Center. And I know it well. I've been there a few times. Easter egg hunt. Yeah, yeah. And and walk it out of there. And, you know, the park's just right there. And it was like I consider it like past dusk. Yes. You know. Yes. It's getting pretty dark. Right. And I look over and like there's a youth sports team out practicing. Wow. Like in the complete dark. And it just it feels like we can do better for our community. It feels like if we work together, if we partner, we brought in almost $15 million of private funds. That's why I say is at the table who first is at the table. Like we have these great partners. Everybody's coming together to say, okay, in Spokane, is there a different way other than having tons of teams in a space at one time, or having them practice in the dark, like there's got to be a better way? I was talking with someone the other day about this initiative and about our inaugural focus, and she said, I don't know if everywhere could do this. And I said, you're right, Spokane can. Though we can. All the things, all the entities that you just named coming together, that is Spokane. Not one person runs Bloomsday, not one person runs Hope Fest and all the other cool things we do. I mean, not one person runs the Greek festival and all the other things that go on in Spokane. So coming together is also very Spokane. Download the SBS mobile app to your smartphone and get important updates from your school and the district, and find breakfast and lunch menus too. You'll also be able to communicate directly through the mobile app with your students teachers through rooms a new two way communication tool that many teachers are using this school year. Search Spokane Public Schools wherever you get your apps. Engage IRL is getting record numbers of kids involved in clubs, sports and activities. That requires actual spaces for kids to do their thing, which is where together Spokane comes in. But what does all this really mean for our students on a personal level? We caught up with three very different students who are all being positively impacted by our focus on providing opportunities to engage in real life In an era where many young people think they connect more easily online and in person. Now some students are rediscovering the power of real life engagement. I mean, come on, Dean. From middle school cheer squads to cross-country meets and neighborhood soccer fields. Students are finding that joining activities after school isn't just fun. It's transformational. Those are my babies. Hi, babies. Lashay wafers home used to be a bit chaotic after school. She's a mom of three, energetic boys choir Ty Leake, junior and OSHA, all students at Grant elementary. But this year, something changed. It definitely helps calm down the home when they get home and they're wore out. They're definitely wore out, so it's the best feeling. I highly recommend every child to get into sports and get active and touch grass. Have fun. All three boys joined cross-country. It started with a simple conversation. I came up with the idea of saying, let's get our kids into extracurricular or let's get them active this year, because we've been living in a time like we're just locked in the house all the time, and they're they're rowdy. They like to do stuff. So sports is the next best thing for them. But it's not just about burning energy. Lashay says it's also made a big impact on her sons in school. They've been more focusing in school. They are actually eager to go into sports after school, and they're listening more at school, and they're even they're even wanting to help even more with their futures. They're more intuitive and helping more. And it's that's changed quite a bit. So I'm very proud. Seventh grader Evelynn Esposito has also seen the difference that comes from getting involved at Flat Middle School. She's part of the cheer team and student leadership. You can get with a buddy and give your speech to each other, and she's running for head of house. I feel like it gives me something to do, and it helps me build relationships with people who like the same things as me. We can build a connection there. Last year, Evelyn wasn't in any clubs. This year it's a different story. I wasn't really involved. I would wake up and I'd go to school and it would just be a school day. But now I wake up and I have something to look forward to. Okay. You're with us. You're with. Us. These activities also teach her real life skills, time management, collaboration and leadership, and most importantly, how to be present. We were like, planning out stuff. We're like writing stuff down on this paper. We're brainstorming, sharing our ideas. We're like connecting with each other.(speaking Swahili) We spoke with Ibolecho Ponga, an 11th grader at Rogers High School, with the help of an interpreter.(speaking Swahili) Ibolecho came to Spokane from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He says soccer helped him build not just relationships, but confidence too. When I arrived here, it was really cool because I was welcomed by friends from Democratic Republic of Congo. After that, to me, showed me everywhere and mostly to go to Gonzaga. I've got invested to play soccer cause our community came there. Soccer became his support system. Because we're not. Whenever I'm playing soccer. I meet people I don't know. Yeah. We start by knowing each other for a short time. Austin Johnson is an engagement navigator at Rogers and has seen that transformation firsthand. I think it's everything. I think sports is one of those things. It's a universal language. Even if you know you don't have the same tools to communicate. You can communicate through the play. And that's something that Ponga gets to do every day when he's playing soccer here at Rogers or here in the community. I just think it's everything for helping them, you know, establish roots and build connections when, you know, they might not have all of the tools that others currently do. Whether it's three brothers racing on the field, a young leader cheering with new friends, or a high schooler defending his team and his identity through soccer. These students are discovering that connection doesn't come from screens. It comes from showing up in real life. Now back to our main conversation with Dr. Swinyard. if we're going to continue to keep pace with other commitments, you know, you look around other communities like this isn't a secret that we have just figured out in a, in a, you know, in a bubble, like when you look around the country that like, these are the types of investments that people are making. They're making investment in recreation. They're making investments in youth sports and adult rec sports. You know, it's. I think we were looking at a 26 court basketball tournament recently, and that was in Ohio. And we thought, wow, where'd they get that land? Right? It was amazing. And you saw people of all ages. You definitely saw that there was a basketball tournament going on. But it was a cool place. Had a lot of parking. I noticed as well. So it was a cool place for people to come together. So I think what I'm, what I'm really appreciative of, the work that went into this study was it's not just about ball sports. It was really the north star was how do we get as many people as possible out of their homes and off of screens together in real life, whether you're a senior, an adult, a kid, art and culture, aquatics trails athletics like it doesn't matter what your interest is. We've got to get people off of screens. We saw our community come together last week at a middle school football game. That was awesome. Over 1200 people. Yes, that was amazing. Is that was the final count was?

Yes, 1200, 7: 32:01

00 on a Thursday. I also saw hundreds of people this weekend at Manito Park. Just doing a 5K joggers, walkers and so on. And so people like to come together to do these kind of events, Yeah. And it's funny too, like, you know, so much of life is about timing, and you know, this is just a really unique moment in time where you have a lot of people are thinking about some of the same challenges, and a lot of people are thinking about some of the same solutions. And I think that's a big reason why we have so many different partners have come together for Together Spokane. Some of it's just timing. It's just like the right time, the right moment, and people are realizing we can't go off and do things by ourselves anymore. And there's such a shared vision to get off screens. I mean, even from, people I know, I'm just going to say even my husband, he's on his screen and get him out. But when there's other things to do, he's not. And so when there's other things to do that are appealing, that are exciting, that feel good because you're connected to somebody else and there's that sense of belonging, then that's awesome. Yeah, I would say, like the two biggest things that I'm hearing out there is, you know, number one, public safety. Yep. Safety is a common theme. When we're out there. We also you know, as you mentioned, we hear about the tax burden part. And so we're trying to do a really good job of explaining people. What's the actual cost. Go to our website. There's a tax calculator there to figure out exactly what's going to cost you $0.02 to your existing bond bill for the school district. And the community safety conversation is tough. I mean, there are clearly things in Together Spokane that support enhanced public safety, but there isn't one strategy that's going to get us there as a community. And there's obviously bigger, more complex conversations happening around, you know, in public camping and homelessness and enforcement and joke about, I mean, there's all these other conversations that are going on, but those are probably the two biggest concerns, and those are all things that people have to factor in and see how this addresses those concerns and where it adds value, and also where the return on investment is. One of the things that I love about Spokane is the unique neighborhoods. So this matches that. This is why I'm so excited about this, because we have very unique neighborhoods. I could name them. I could go on and on, do episode. I like, you know, like in Seattle. Yeah. Say like, oh, I'm from Greenland. Yeah. I mean, no, there's in Hillyard. Yeah, yeah. Other than Hillyard. That’s true. But I feel like in Spokane we like people ask like, where went to high school? Yeah, I think that'll be a cool, part of this that we now have places and new upgrades that will be identified by the neighborhood, because every neighborhood does benefit, and every neighborhood has their own culture of what's important to them. We're hearing that in the town halls. We're seeing it in the energy, the various signs and so on, that are out in pockets. I'm always looking at those signs, but every neighborhood does benefit, and I think it'll enhance their identity. And, you know, it's interesting you say that. I've actually heard the mayor talk about that. A lot of like how Spokane's are growing and we're transitioning to a more of like a metro area. And how like investing in neighborhoods and neighborhood identity and neighborhood culture and neighborhood infrastructure kind of creates that connective tissue where people are like, oh, I'm from West Central or oh, I'm from you know, I'm from, you know, Indian Trail or whatever the case may be. So it's kind of a cool part of the, the evolution of our community. That is cool. Well, a lot to look forward to and Yep. The goal is just getting out factual information. We want everybody to vote, and we want everybody to have the facts, and then we know people are going to make the decision that's right for them. Thanks for listening to the Future Ready podcast. I'm Stephanie Slater. Thanks to Riley Stockton for being on the show. Please like and follow Spokane Public Schools on social media. Look us up on YouTube and of course, subscribe to this podcast to stay Future ready with Spokane Public Schools. We'll catch you next time.