The Highland School District received a $36,000 grant from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation May 17. Photo by Sam McIntosh.

The Highland School District has been striving to be more cost effective and efficient with their facilities over the past few years.

Projects with lighting in school buildings and boilers have been funded in part by the Washington County Riverboat Foundation. This spring the district received a $36,000 grant from the foundation to replace all three of the boilers in the middle school with high efficiency units. Superintendent Chris Armstrong explains the need, “We have one boiler, middle school boiler, that’s kind of on its last legs. They all were purchased at the same time so we knew that the other two, it was just a matter of time before they started having issues. So it was really vital that we start making improvements to the boiler system.”

Armstrong mentions how several grant-funded projects have been cost-saving for the district, “The foundation funded an LED light upgrade project for us and we had installed that in the elementary prior to the school being finished. And we’re already seeing about $600 a month savings with that so we’re excited to see the additional savings we’re going to get when we complete the project in the high school. And then the boiler project is just again, ways of making things more efficient at Highland so that those general fund dollars, they go to pay for utilities, can now be redirected toward providing better education for our students.”

The district is currently seeking bids for the new boilers.