Dr. Mark Madson sits down with Parkland High School Principal Mr. Nathan Davidson and Director of Facilities & Operations, Mr. Arthur Oakes, to discuss the expansion project that will break ground in March 2026.
The PHS Expansion Project includes:
• 30 Classrooms
• 16 New Science, Art, Engineering, Robotics & Food Labs
• 2 Enclosed Outdoor Courtyards
• Media Center Makeover
• Improved Building Flow
• Expanded Office Space & Cafeteria
See pictures and more information at https://www.parklandsd.org/about-us/vision2030
Audio Transcript: PHS Expansion Project
Hello Parkland, and welcome to the Superintendent Parkland Pride Podcast. My name is Dr. Mark Madson, and I'm Superintendent of Schools for the Parkland School District. All right, we're about to take a big step here at the high school, something we've been working on for several years. And so, early in the spring of 2026, we hopefully are going to break ground with our expansion and renovation project. And I'm sure many of you have heard a little bit about this component of what we call Vision 2030. And so again, it's been several years in the making, and I'm certainly excited to actually see real progress. And so on this pod today, you're in for a special treat. We have Mr. Nate Davidson, who is our High School Principal, along with Art Oakes, who's our Director of Facilities and Operation. And these two gentlemen have such a wealth of knowledge and experience and will be providing us some some great insight into what we're about to see, but also how we got to where we are. And so they've been working tirelessly over the past two years in design, planning, and on top of what would be considered just their normal day-to-day jobs. And so, you know, we're we're eager to to get things going and get started. And, and I know the students are and the community, so we'll figure we'll take a little bit of a deeper dive to talk about what we're about to to go through and, and hopefully answer some questions people have along along the way. So, so how about if we get started?
First thing I'm going to do is have our guests introduce themselves, maybe just just name and, uh, what your role is, um, and and how you basically got to the spot that you are.
Nate Davidson: Good morning, Dr. Madson. Thank you for having me on. Nate Davidson, High School Principal. Uh, 24, 25 years in public ed. Last four here at Parkland High School. Prior to that, uh, Whitehall High School Principal for six years and a smattering of other districts within the Lehigh Valley prior to that. Uh, I'm incredibly excited about this project and to talk to you about it, as we've spent, uh, you know, almost the last four years working on, uh, the vision, the ideas, the the concept behind it, to the point now we're in a couple of months, we're going to be breaking ground. So, really excited about this. Very nervous about it as well because of all the disruptions that it may cause, but, uh, hopefully those will be minimal and we'll be able to work with Mr. Oakes and his team and and really not impact the educational experience as we move forward. But, really excited about the project and to get started.
Dr. Mark Madson: Great.
Art Oakes: Good morning, Dr. Madson. Arthur Oakes, Director of Facilities and Operation. Um, been here little over two and a half years. In public education, almost 20. This is my third district. A big project here that we're undertaking here at the high school. I'm not nervous at all. This is, as you know, construction projects always go smooth, effortless, and it's going to be flawless. Going to be a lot of fun to get this thing going.
Dr. Mark Madson: Great, great, yeah. Art, you, you know, you've been here, um, almost the day that you came, um, I probably in the first conversation we had, we talked about Vision 2030 and a high school project. And so you kind of hit the the ground running with this. Uh, what, what, what are you right now, kind of like your overall thoughts of of what we're heading into?
Art Oakes: Yeah, exactly right, Dr. Madson. When I, when I came on board, it was clear that Parkland made a decision, it was going to be One Parkland, One High School. Um, and that, that was very clear. So, as soon as we got through that process, we decided to look at the at the high school as a whole, holistic approach. How can we make it better? How can we make the room for the teachers, the students, the enrollment that's coming? And it was really just, you know, as you said, hit the ground running, working with Nate and his team, figuring out what the high school needs, what it doesn't need, what it's missing, what it's lacking, and how can we improve it within our budget. And, and I think we've come to a place that we're really excited for.
Dr. Mark Madson: Great. Great. Yeah. All right, we're going to we're going to get into process and steps, um, here in a in a minute. But Nate, how about if for this? So, how, how long did you say you've been in public education?
Nate Davidson: Uh, 24 years.
Dr. Mark Madson: Okay. So 24 years, and I, you know, three private schools as well, so technically 27. Overall in education. So, I know for me sometimes I think about it this way, uh, maybe not as much for Art, because that's kind of his background, but did you think you would be sitting in a position like this where, okay, you're a good portion of of your day and your time is built talking and exploring, um, building projects, construction projects? Was that in your background at all?
Nate Davidson: It was not. Uh, you know, as as as a former social studies teacher, you know, I I really, really enjoyed as a college student the content and studying history, and then working with kids and teaching and educating. Uh, never really thought about budgets and construction projects and engineers or anything like that. So, it really is fun and and I I'll take all the nervousness from Art and, and I know he's joking a little bit, but, um, there's a lot of anxiety in these types of projects, because it's certainly not our comfort zone as educators. We don't grow up around construction and engineering and things like that when we're in the classroom. So, um, it's a a new day, really, every day when I come into these meetings, because the things shift and move and and it's just not a world that I'm totally accustomed to in education. We're pretty pragmatic and day-by-day and and in construction and engineering, the things can change pretty quickly. So, it's it's definitely a learning experience for me as well, which is exciting because it gives me a lot of opportunities to see and do things that I haven't been able to do in the past. So no, I I never anticipated this, but I'm I'm really excited about it and I enjoy it.
Dr. Mark Madson: Yeah, and in between, with all your free time that you have, you know, being the high school principal of a building that has 3,300 students in it, um, I'm sure it's easy to to fill your downtime during the day with some of these things. So, we're going to talk a little bit about process and and how we got to kind of where we are. So, before we do that, let me just, um, give the audience a little background and then you guys can kind of take it after the background. So, Art had mentioned, you know, when he came on board, we already had a few decisions in the district that were made. Those decisions came from a feasibility study that we did when we were really, um, from a K-12 perspective, we were looking at enrollment. We know that Parkland School District continues to grow. Uh, we built, uh, most recently a couple elementary schools. We did some some addition renovation projects at some of the elementary schools. And so those students, uh, over time, we see that our pressure points were, uh, indeed the middle school and the high school. And so the feasibility study basically just kind of cemented our thought process that, okay, we we really need to do something with our secondary enrollment. And then fast forward after that, uh, about a year and a half, once that feasibility study was done, we get to the point of where some real decisions by the board were being made in terms of, all right, we're looking to expand the high school instead of trying to do a ninth grade center or an eighth and ninth grade building or potentially even go and build a second high school and split the district. And so, you know, in the end, uh, the decision was made to to add on to to what's already a very large high school. And then that's when we bring in our our teams to say, okay, that's the decision point. And now how do we, how did we get to where we are now, where we're about to put what we call, uh, put a shovel in the ground in the spring? So, if you guys could take us through a little bit about, you know, process, steps, getting teacher, students involved. You know, we have an architect team, we have a construction management team. Um, like how do we go from, hey, all right, we need to put an addition on to this building to now, like, the the design is ready. Uh, we're about to to go into a bid a bid phase, um, and start construction pretty soon?
Art Oakes: Sure. I'll start with the the first and easiest step, uh, at the moment, because we have Alvin H. Butz as our Construction Manager. They were on board with us prior to this project with previous, uh, construction projects. They were solidified to help us through Vision 2030, so that was the easy part of the the process. The second thing we did is we went out for an architectural firm search, and we did a pretty extensive interviews, I would say, with the board, um, with some of the stakeholders at the district. And, and we decided to go with Alloy 5 Architecture Firm out of Bethlehem. They decided to partner with us. We partnered with them. Um, and at that point, we then sort of meet with Nate and his team, start to develop a survey, develop a, I'll say, an end-user meeting schedule and agenda. And we basically that end user is is Nate's entire administrative team, his whole his teaching staff, everybody in the building. I think we even did a student survey: What would you like to see as a student in this building? What's the building missing? What's it lacking? And how can we improve it within our budget? And, and I think we've come to a place that we're really excited for. That's step one, and that was like 50 plans ago. So, as Nate said, it changes all the time. But that was a that was basically our starting point for, hey, we need to add on to the high school to make this right, and this is how we could do it.
Dr. Mark Madson: Great. And so Nate, from your perspective as building principal, uh, Art mentioned, you know, there are a number of end-user meetings, examining, you know, the needs versus maybe the wants, knowing that, uh, you know, the the current building is actually a little bit too small for the current population. And so now we have the challenge of, okay, we're adding on, um, for that that growth potential that we're going to see. So, from your perspective as building principal, what were some key key components of that process?
Nate Davidson: Well, I think going back to your question before, you know, the process has been, uh, incredibly open, and and we've appreciated at the high school, the school board's willingness, the executive teams and and your willingness to kind of let us muddle through some of those options. Uh, we had talked about a freshman center. Initially when I came on board, there was talk of an 8-9 building. Um, and we really looked at not just construction, but what was best for our students, and that came back to academics. So, we worked closely with our, um, teachers, with our department leaders. We had an academic committee set up with, you know, upwards of 30, 40 teachers that took on different, um, topics to research and to study different schools within the state to see what they were doing and to see if we could pick off some of the finer points on their schedules, their how they do lunches, how they do different things, um, so that we could come up with something that would fit within the Parkland mold, because we feel like we're doing a pretty good job here at the high school, but there are certainly areas where we can improve. And, and obviously, as you mentioned, one of them is space and size. We are at 3,300 kids, and the building is built for fewer students than that. So, we needed to grow. We went back all the way to the plans from the original building to see what sort of options there were for growth. Um, so we, you know, finally landed on a place where like Art said, it was One Parkland, and it was a a decision to keep all of the kids up here. Uh, and that was made for a variety of reasons, but academically now, we're tasked with creating, um, not only the the construct, or excuse me, we're working on the construction project, but we're also constructing a new world for our academic approach to schools as well, which is college and career readiness, workforce readiness, and doing some things with our dual credit, um, students. So, we're really working on building that as well. So, there's sort of two construction projects at the high school right now: one is the building project, and one is the academic side. So, how do we have this nice brand new addition in this new building, and what are we doing academically to make sure we're preparing our kids for the future?
Dr. Mark Madson: Yeah, definitely. And, and I think I failed to mention that in the beginning that, certainly, you have this piece of of of kind of helping manage the construction projects that we're about to go under, and, you know, from everything from what what's the building going to look like to, you know, where's the staircase going to be and and what finishes, but really, probably your work even more importantly as the building leader has been working with your team and your teachers and your staff, um, and even students on, all right, once this construction's done, what's actually going to happen inside the building? So, you really have two major things that are happening on top of, you know, running the everyday business of the building.
Nate Davidson: Yeah, absolutely. And and that's, you know, I I mean, I guess both parts are equally stressful. But, uh, the academic piece is really what, you know, my team and and and the staff are are focused on, and and we have it's not a secret. We have a great staff here. We have a great administrative team. Um, so they've really come up with some ideas and some approaches that we can, um, look at and review and and try to implement for the future. My team's meeting with Tom Murray right now, um, who and they're going over some things as well to try to mimic some of the the great programs that are going on, not only in Pennsylvania but throughout the country, and to try to steal some of those ideas, for lack of a better term, and and implement them and Parkland-ize them so that we can give our kids a leg up, whether it's workforce readiness, whether it's college and career readiness, or whether it's just preparation for life. Um, those are the types of things we're focused on beyond just administration in the high school building.
Dr. Mark Madson: Yep, yep. All right, Art, um, sometimes I when we when I talk about this upcoming project and other school construction projects, you know, people will ask, "Well, why isn't why is it take so long? Um, you know, you've been talking about it now for two or three years, and, and yet we haven't necessarily have a lot to show for it," or, "Why is why is it so expensive? I I we could do that privately, and it would be a lot cheaper." Can you maybe just give a a couple, um, pieces of information to share with the audience of what what's the difference between like a school construction project and like a private construction project? And what are some of the parameters that we have to work through?
Art Oakes: Sure. Um, one of the biggest drivers of the length of time is is what's considered land development. Anytime that you're adding on to a piece of property, piece of earth that is not occupied currently by a building, it's called land development. Even though we're doing an addition, excuse me, I think some of the things that are important to remember is the economy or the scale of the size of this addition. Although it's an addition, it's 90,000 square feet worth of an addition, which is very similar to our elementary schools. So, we're basically building an elementary school here at the high school to to accommodate the students that are already here. Um, so that size of a project takes about 18 months from start to finish just in land development. So, as soon as you put the first application in to the township and say, "I want to build an addition," till it gets through all of the processes and needs that, you know, whether it's Lehigh County Conservation District, the highway occupancy permits, or any kind of state requirements, township requirements, code review, all those type of things, it takes about 18 months. During that 18 months is when we take the time to make sure that we're getting the project correct. So, that's when we work with Nate and his team, and we say, "Is this are we building what is the best model for you to educate the students going forward at Parkland?" And as he said, he's rewriting the academic book at Parkland High School. We want to make sure that we're accommodating the building to to work with him. It's supposed to be in conjunction. We're not just building a classroom to build a classroom, we're building the future of Parkland as well. So, working those two things out, that's where it comes to about two and a half years, um, to to take take for fruition to come come to actual getting a shovel in the ground. Um, and the other component of this, just the financing component. It's it's a lot of dollars. It's uh, $68 million here at the high school for this addition, and that means tax dollars, that means money that's allocated for construction and not for something else. So, making sure the board is familiar with it, make sure the public is familiar with it, everybody's on board, everybody wants it. And I think that's one of the important things here at the high school with this project. We did get the public consent. Everybody seems to be on board for for this project and and wanting it. We had a during Nate's open house, we had, uh, you know, sort of the pictures up of the construction project, and the public came through the library. Overwhelmingly, it was it was very positive. They were looking forward to happen. And that's just what takes so long. And the cost-wise, it just really comes down to building materials. When you're building your house, you're usually building with wood, a little bit of stone, um, some drywall, but in a school construction project, it's steel, it's metal studs, it's high temperature resistant materials, it's fire safeties, it's ADA accommodations. All of these things cause make that cost go up compared to like a residential project.
Dr. Mark Madson: And can I can we as a district just pick whoever we want to to actually build the the building?
Art Oakes: We cannot. So, the other part of that is is basically school procurement rules and also school bidding requirements that are part of PA school code. And that says that anything that's basically over $22,000, we have to do what's called a public bid. When we do a public bid, we also have to do something that's called prevailing wage. Prevailing wage is set forth in that so all bidders are bidding equally. So, for instance, as you referred to, we can get something done privately. In a private sector, you can you can pay your workers $10 an hour, if you want to, and then you have the union scale which say pay their workers $40 an hour. Well, prevailing wage is there is designed to equalize that out. And by prevailing wage, it's basically saying that you, if you are doing something under public works or public money, you have to pay those contractors and those those people that are doing that work that salary at a minimum. You can always pay them more, but that's the minimum. That's there to equalize that sort of, uh, discrepancy out from one contractor to the other.
Dr. Mark Madson: Okay. Great. And, and just last thing about the process on that side, what drives the project? Is it will it be the budget or the needs or both?
Art Oakes: And this particular case, it it could be either or. It's really set up by the executive board or by the school board that decides what we want to do. In this particular case, we had a budget that we knew that we could afford, and we built to that budget. Um, sometimes you have to set the budget based on what you need, but in this particular case, we had a budget, and we made choices along the way to make sure that we can achieve everything Nate needs to achieve in this building, and we built to that budget.
Dr. Mark Madson: Right, okay. And when you say, I'm just so that I'm clear, um, that we can afford, um, you know, through the financing team, you know, that we don't have, as you would at home, you know, this amount of dollars in the savings account, right? We're going to we're going to borrow a majority of of of the funds needed for this, and then that that that those payments get spread over time, similar to to like a mortgage. And then we have to make sure that we're properly budgeting that additional dollars, which is called a debt service line. Um, so if we're going to borrow money over the course of time, um, that's going to increase our debt service line by X amount of dollars for the next so many years. And that's how, um, you know, schools usually do it. If it's smaller projects, we may have, uh, some of that cash on hand to be able to use, but normally something this big, uh, schools will have to to borrow for. Um, Nate, what would you say? I know, you know, um, not totally in jest, but a little in jest in terms of being being nervous, but what would you say is like, what what are you most excited about for this project?
Nate Davidson: Wow, that's that's a tricky one. Um, I I think I'm excited to see the final product because we're expanding. It's going to give us an opportunity to expand offerings in the high school. Um, we have crowd classes and course work that are are piled in the same rooms. It's going to give teachers an opportunity to have a home base. We have 44 floating teachers right now. This will take down that number significantly. We will have the opportunity to expand our engineering, our our stem opportunities. We'll have examples uh, classrooms where we're going to be able to do some things that we haven't been able to do in the past. Um, our our electives, our arts, our family consumer science, we're working on curriculum offerings that are going to change how we do things down in that wing as well. Um, it's going to give us an opportunity in our sciences to to have additional classrooms, lab specific to, as we have now, but um, chemistry and and physics and things of that nature, where we have teachers sharing rooms where they have to break down labs, set them back up. It's going to give them the flexibility to, um, really make their classrooms their own. Um, and that sounds like maybe a small thing for the price tag we have, but um, having teachers be able to create an environment that is, um, a sound educational environment is really exciting. And then, of course, um, the ability to just house that many kids comfortably. Um, one of the things we haven't really talked about is is is the the backlogs in our hallways and in our spaces. Um, we're creating some additional pathways so that will limit some of that, uh, congestion in our halls and in our cafeteria. So, that will be while it's not, um, maybe the top thing, uh, as far as educational impact, it's going to be nice to have our kids be able to not, you know, bang up against each other in the hallways and have a little bit more space. So, they're a little bit more comfortable. That helps from a safety and security perspective. Um, and it really just having that finished product is actually what I'm most excited about. Um, but I I think those couple of things are really, really good good options for the future.
Dr. Mark Madson: Right. How about, how about for you, Art?
Art Oakes: Um, yeah, two things. I want to just add that already, uh, our architectural team is working with the engineering lab and, and, you know, they're they're setting up a a field trip to go to the Alloy 5 architectural office to see how it's done. So, they're already working together with the teacher up there, and that's what's exciting is that even though it's for the students that are in there now, actually seeing a project underway and potentially, you know, if you if you're a freshman, if you're a sophomore, you're going to see it start to finish. Um, minimizing those impacts, when when the students start to see the building go up, and they're looking out the window, and they're seeing something created, and then they get to walk foot in it, uh, it's really exciting to see. It's it's fun to watch it through their eyes. And, as Nate said, it it's a big impact. It's a but we're minimizing that impact as much as we can, and I think that we're doing a really good job with what's called phasing of the project to make sure that we we don't impact the students as much as possible, and it's it's really an exciting time.
Nate Davidson: Yeah, Art brings up a good point, and I I failed to mention it earlier, is one of the things that's really kind of exciting through the planning and preparation to the implementation process is the involvement that the students have had. We've worked with student leadership committee. I've worked with kids at the high school. We're working with our engineering team. We're basically working with our studio to get, um, you know, progress reports done throughout the the the building construction. So, uh, there are a variety of groups of students that have been involved, I don't want to say involved in the pre-planning, but have had the opportunity to to see it and to learn why the decisions were made. And then, uh, we've been getting feedback from our leadership team here at the high school as far as students are concerned, so that they can, um, have a little bit of an input and a little bit of an impact on what this building looks like moving forward. So, we've taken their, um, advice, their criticism, um, their information, and tried to to put that into the stew as well, so that we can help, um, the experience from the student perspective as well, not just what we feel like as adults and as educators is the best plan, but certainly taking into consideration student voice as well.
Dr. Mark Madson: Absolutely. I really love how much you, um, have really taken into account, um, feedback from students and, and even students who, you know, they're they may be seniors this year, right? And we've worked with some of them, and they're not going to see the results of this. Yet, they were really vested and interested in, okay, how can we help, um, the team and and and make, uh, the future of of this high school be part of that and then actually have a hand in it. And, and I'm also really impressed with both from the high school perspective and then Art on on the the facilities side. You know, your your process, the amount of time and energy you both have put in to allow people to, uh, have a voice. Um, and sometimes that's good and bad, right? We want to have make sure that everyone can have can have some input. At the end of the day, sometimes we can't maybe put something in place or say, "Oh, yeah, that is a good idea," but whether it's a budgetary constraint or it didn't rise to the top of of needs. And that's also challenging, but, and it also takes time, right? A lot of time, a lot of energy. But you both have done an amazing job to to really, um, again, I don't think many people, whether it's inside the school community or even in our community at large, could say, "Hey, I haven't had an opportunity to to voice a concern or an idea or provide some input." I mean, I I think that, um, that that's been been done over and over again. They could still come back and say, "Well, I don't I don't like what you decided to do," and that's fair. Uh, but certainly the idea of gathering input and feedback, um, advice from from everybody has been really, um, really really important. So, Art, um, you talked a little bit about timeline. So, what when are we going to start? When do we think we're going to start? Uh, when would a kid look out their window and see action? And when I say action, like, you know, there's construction starting, trucks are rolling in, fences. What are we what are we looking for?
Art Oakes: Um, so right now, we're looking at December of 2026, but it's probably going to be 2027. Oh, I'm sorry. 2027. Um, December of 2027. What we're trying to achieve is that we get in there before the the marking period change. And I think that's sometime in January, but we do we do need some transition time in there to to get classrooms fit it, get them cleaned, get them finally finally ready for students, sanitized, all that kind of stuff.
Dr. Mark Madson: Right. And, and one of the things that's pretty cool is that, um, Art, you talked about our teams that we work with. So, Butz Butz Construction Management and also Alloy 5, and actually the lead architect on this project from Alloy 5, Jamie Jamie Borts, is actually a Parkland graduate. So, you know, she's able to kind of look at this, and she's a Parkland resident, right? So, um, she's looking at this project maybe totally different than someone else. You know, she sat actually in in these classrooms, right? Knew even then some of the pressure points, some of the things that are going on. And now she can actually put some of her own touches on it. It's a pretty cool piece. But but I also know that, you know, from Butz, from Alloy 5, you know, this is something that, um, in the general sense from the community, um, people that we partner with, um, uh, they're they're really excited about this. They're they're putting, you know, not only their own time and effort, but really their their heart into, uh, this because they know, um, what a special place that this is.
Art Oakes: I'll just add to that. Um, one of the things Nate said is lower on the list, I think was higher on Jamie's list was that pathway. Being able to get around the building in time. And also Drew Hartenstine, our, uh, CM, that's going to be on the job, was a Parkland graduate as well for for Butz. Yeah, oh, all right. Yeah.
Dr. Mark Madson: Okay. Awesome. That's that's great. So, from either of your perspective, is there something that, you know, uh, that you think kids need to know or the community needs to know? Uh, we're we're about finished up here with this with this podcast. So, any final words, um, thoughts for for kids or community that you'd like them to be aware of?
Nate Davidson: Well, I I think for the community, I think it's important to understand how much time and effort was put into this to to be fiscally responsible and yet meet the needs of our students. I mean, we've gone through plan after plan after plan and cost, um, after cost after cost to see what makes the most sense and what is the best, um, way to spend the community's, uh, you know, taxes and, and, and really we've landed on this as as, um, the best way to do both to to to, um, ensure the academic success of our students moving forward and to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollar. Um, I I think that's a really important thing from our end that that, you know, that that I'm thinking that is important.
Art Oakes: Yeah, final words for me, we're going to be doing a update at every B&G committee um, to the school board. So, once once a month, it's certainly a public meeting. You're welcome to come out. Starting when the project starts, there will be a a monthly update at every committee meeting for for B&G, whatever the board decides that date's going to be with the new year, and, uh, you'll you'll get all the information you need there.
Dr. Mark Madson: Great. Awesome. Well, we're looking forward to, uh, I know it's been been a couple years in the making. So, once we actually get this started, um, it's exciting, but also definitely a little a little nerve-wracking. Want to make sure, um, you know, that that, you know, the design and concept actually is what we we see at the end and certainly, um, you know, budget has been really critical. And, and and so this is a a lot of dollars that we're talking about, and so, uh, we've really been focused Uber focused on on that, yet making sure that, hey, this is a this could be a 50 to 100 year type of situation, right? And we want to get make sure that we get it right, uh, for our kids now and and our community and our kids in the future. So, I appreciate your time this morning. I know you're you're both very, very busy, uh, and we appreciate all the time and effort you're putting into to this project. Uh, and so we certainly look forward to to seeing it seeing it start in the spring. So, thank you very much. Thank you.
All right. So, thank you once again. Please think about subscribing to our podcast series with more to come. Next few episodes, we'll talk about some different topics. We're certainly going to talk with some of our kids about cell phones and screen time. Uh, we also hope to get the chance to talk to some of our newest board members, uh, who will be coming on board with the Parkland School Board here in December. So, check it out with more to come. This podcast is supported by the Parkland Education Foundation. Please visit the district website for more information. And as always, a special, special thanks to J.R. Renner for the technical support and Nicole Magalla for organizational and logistical support. Each year, we have students create the music for this podcast. Uh, for for this episode, our podcast music was composed and produced by student Michaela Yeager in her music production class at the high school, and that's taught by Mr. Mark Figueroa. All right, Parkland, have a good one.