May 12, 2026- One year ago almost exactly, High School South discovered it had won a grant funded by Ferguson and Explore the Trades to establish a new HVAC Lab for its Project SPEAR pre-apprenticeship program. Today, Rosa Dunn and Maddy Sorenson from Explore The Trades, videographer Boe Beito, and local Ferguson rep Dean Nastasi paid a visit to the school to check in on what students are learning, and how the new equipment has impacted the program.

Teacher Tim O'Leary graciously welcomed his guests as students filed in. He helped activate one of the several HVAC units the grant funded so that students could test their skills. From there, the special guests — who flew in from as far as Virginia (Dunn) and Minnesota (Sorenson and Beito) to visit HSS — interacted with students, conducted interviews, and generally had the chance to experience how their support has helped grow the mission of Project SPEAR.

The visit will ultimately result in a special video highlighting the grant and the school, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, a slideshow of photos from this morning is below.