May 26, 2026

By Sara Millhouse

You know it’s a small school district when all the kids, grades K-12, can fit in the same school picture.

“If it’s something that we can do that’s a little bit more innovative, and that can give back to our kids, it’s very much worthwhile, because we are very, very tiny,” said principal and superintendent Courtney Strozyk.

Strozyk saw a big opportunity to help build something innovative when she returned to lead “the school that raised me,” she said.

The opportunity came from an allocation of state utility tax called the Community Solar Expansion Program, administered by Washington State University Extension and largely untapped by schools. While the funding had been available for years, no one had yet figured out how to make it work for public schools within legislative requirements.

Photo courtesy of Kertis Creative

David Funk of Zero Emissions Northwest, alongside Partners for Rural Washington, worked closely with Harrington school to design an approach that fit the law and opened the door for schools to participate. Harrington’s office manager Kelli Tanke was also pivotal to Harrington pioneering the Giving Grid. 

This fall, the school cut the ribbon on a 130-kilowatt solar grid, built free of charge to the school. “We came together in our little city park, which is right across the street, and had all of our students out,” Strozyk said. “Our band played, and one of our local restaurants made mini donuts for everybody.”

The solar panels are estimated to save the school district about $15,000 per year in utility costs— savings earmarked to benefit low-income students..

Harrington is the first school to complete a Giving Grid project, but other schools are jumping quickly on board, with more than two dozen solar projects in the pipeline.

Strozyk doesn’t yet know exactly how Harrington will spend its solar savings, but she sees opportunities to help low-income students through art, technology and maybe even renovations to the district’s Depression-era swimming pool.

Photo courtesy of Kertis Creative

A solar panel was donated for use in Harrington science classes, and savings are charted on a public website for school and community members. In its first four months of operation—the darkest months of the year—the panels saved nearly 42,000 pounds of carbon emissions.

Strozyk came “full circle” to her home district after working in Seattle and Spokane for a New York-based nonprofit and as a principal for neighboring districts. When she returned to Harrington, she found a lot of things that felt familiar. Her dad, aunts, uncles and grandparents looked down at her from high school graduation photos on the wall, and her state golf accolades were still in the trophy case. “The building is exactly the same as it was in the ‘80s,” she said.

For Strozyk and community members, this continuity can be both a reassurance and a worry. “What drives me at this point, even with this solar project, is doing things that are a little more out of the box or innovative, because things are so similar to the way it was when I was here as a kid,” Strozyk said.

She wants to ensure kids learn “innovation for careers that are not even created yet” and have the tools to “just become excellent citizens of society,” she said.

Harrington is a wheat-farming community about 50 miles southwest of Spokane. “On a good day, we have about 500 people,” Strozyk said. The vibrant downtown boasts a grocery store, pizza place, vintage home store and an opera house that welcomes Santa Claus, dulcimer circles and the school band. “Harrington is beautiful,” Strozyk said. “It’s just cute, little, small-town America.”

Photo courtesy of Kertis Creative

Strozyk supports school programs that build intergenerational connections, including a community service graduation requirement and the new Legacy Leaders program, which brings community members in to read with students. “Some of our older community members love the school, and goodness knows that all of our students can use a grandparent figure or a mentor figure in their lives,” Strozyk said.

She’s proud that Harrington can be the “guinea pig” that helps the Giving Grid program work smoothly for schools across rural Washington. Dozens of other schools are now pursuing their own Giving Grid projects.

“Oftentimes, when we’re really, really tiny schools, you kind of follow suit with what other schools are doing in the area, so it was exciting to see, for our community and our students, that we’re the first ones doing this,” Strozyk said.

She could see that community pride during the Oct. 1 ribbon-cutting. “It was just neat to see the excitement as they looked over at the solar panels,” she said. “It was the first day of rain we had in months, and so it kind of drizzled on us. Then, as soon as we did the ribbon cutting, the sun came out.”

Now, that sunshine will help power savings at Harrington for years of innovation to come.