Oct. 3, 2025- "This is better than Christmas!"

That was how Project SPEAR-IT teacher Tim O'Leary felt following the process of ordering and receiving $25,000 worth of HVAC equipment thanks to the Ferguson grant he won last spring.

It was so much stuff, in fact, that High School South Principal Kevin Raylman knew he'd have to move the headquarters of the CTE and pre-apprenticeship program to somewhere larger in the school, which was accomplished over the summer.

The space is much easier to move around than the program's former headquarters. Crucially, it has an exterior door so students can build and store big projects— sheds, lifeguard stands, whatever— outside. There is a lot of work to be done; the room doesn't even have power. And guess who's going to do it?

Little by little, Leary is unpacking and introducing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning components into his program. Ferguson supplied SPEAR with so much— compressors, gauges, a furnace and coils, leak detectors, scales, springs, and numerous parts and supplies. For his part, O'Leary had to teach himself the basics of HVAC just so he had an idea of what to order through the grant. Everything he's learned and continues to absorb, he's passing along to his students.

He's amped, so to speak, by the entire process.

"I want to learn," O'Leary said, "and the more I know, the more we can do to improve this program, this room, this entire school."

With the HVAC Skills Lab taking shape, and the tools and know-how acquired over prior years thanks to the United Way's support, O'Leary knows the SPEAR program is unique. It's as equipped as a CTE program can be in a public high school.

"These kids have it way too good," O'Leary joked.

One of the components, for example, of the new HVAC lab is a digital gauge that serves as a do-it-all computer. It's so modern and advanced that many old-school HVAC technicians don't even know how to use it. O'Leary had to learn how to operate it himself.

It's going to be a process— of learning, building, unpacking, trying, failing, trying again— but that's where the joy of discovery lives. One thing is for sure, however; O'Leary's passion for what he does, and now for what he has at his disposal, is infectious. That enthusiasm and joy, combined with the What do we open next? energy, has made every day within the SPEAR program and its new HVAC lab not too unlike Christmas after all.