District receives Filter First grant; building committee to craft facility-naming policy

Facilities and building updates were presented to the Harper Creek board on Dec. 9, including a grant award to support air-filtering purchases and discussion of a community request to name a portion of district property after a former resident.

Facilities Director John Robinson told the board the district received $88,028.48 under the state Filter First grant program to help pay for qualifying purchases dating back to October 2023. Robinson credited the district’s grant writer and said the funding will reimburse or cover eligible equipment.

Robinson also reported crosswalk lights on both sides of a district access road are working and that the district is coordinating with the city and county to transfer maintenance responsibilities. He said facilities staff repaired a salt spreader in-house, saving about $11,000 versus replacement, and summarized building-committee discussions about long-range facility needs.

Separately, Superintendent Rob Ridgeway presented a resident request to name the access road between the high school and middle school after Matt Byrne, a deceased alumnus and longtime supporter of school teams. Ridgeway said Byrne, who died in 1999 at age 29, left a lasting impression on the community and that the building committee recommended creating a formal policy before approving naming requests. Ridgeway said Troon Law Firm can provide sample naming-policy language and that the policy committee should review a draft before the board acts on any specific naming requests.

There was no vote on the naming request at the Dec. 9 meeting; the board directed the policy committee to review sample policies and to return a recommendation to the full board.