Bridgeport Exempted Village School District superintendent Brent Ripley looks towards the future of the district with the “Bridge” facility being built behind him.

BRIDGEPORT — After seven years as Bridgeport Exempted Village School District Superintendent, Brent Ripley believes that he has found his “home.”

Ripley graduated high school from Lakeland High School in 1990 and then attended West Liberty University where he graduated in 1994 with a degree in instrumental music.

He then spent 23 years working at Harrison Hills School District where he served in a variety of roles.

“I got my start as a choir teacher. So I’ve always been dedicated towards getting groups of people to be able to work together, and this is really no different,” Ripley said. “I was choir teacher, high school principal, middle school principal, Director of Transportation and buildings and grounds director at Harrison Hills, where I was part of that building project up there, and then coming to Bridgeport, I truly got the job because of all the experience.”

He added that he’s spent almost 34 years in education, which has been a great road.

“As a choir teacher, you get to build kids up,” he said. “You’ll get them young and a lot of those kids would stay with me for five, six years in choir and we got very good. We were performing for the state and Pirates games and all over the community, and that’s where the community aspect came in. And we were at 30 to 40 different concerts one year for the choir, and it just snowballed.

“That’s what life is about – just being able to give back. I’m a man of faith and we don’t live our lives for ourselves. You live it by giving back to others.”

Speaking of giving back, the district is going full steam ahead on its multipurpose facility – The Bridge – that will provide College Credit Plus courses to students and courses in evenings to adults who are looking to change career paths.

The 31,000-square-foot facility is funded through a $13.8 million Appalachian Community Innovation Center grant.

“We’re very frugal here at Bridgeport with our money. We take calculated risks that are good for students and staff, but we’re very budget conscientious, we’re taking care of public money, and take that very seriously,” Ripley said. “We hit the lottery for the school district and for our students. We worked hard for them.”

The new building is slated to be open by August, but Ripley said the district has until October to be open.

Curriculum director Leslie Kasanovic added that the new facility will have programs for EMS and EMT, phlebotomy, surgery technicians, engineering robotics, possibly coding, unmanned aircraft, veterinary assistants and pet grooming.

“We’re also expanding our College Credit Plus offerings so the beauty of that is you can be in high school and take college credit,” she said. “It’s free to the students and the students’ families. So you can, if that is your pathway to as you go through graduation to college, which gives you a leg up there as well.”

The Bridge got a big boost last week when the Lansing Sportsmen’s Club donated $99,999 for the walking track to be located on the second story of the facility.

In addition to the walking track, the health and wellness area will have golf simulators, pickleball court, a community room available to the public to rent for events, coffee shop, basketball and volleyball courts, full size kitchen and a lounge.

Ripley said that a daycare provider will be in the facility as well.

“T.E. Learning Center is coming in to run that, and we’ll be able to link those kids directly into our preschool when they start school. Because there’s a lot of working families that are looking for full day daycare, or people that want to come get a workforce credential at night, they may need some place for those kids to go while their mom and dad are off learning,” he said. “We’ll also have WVU Medicine running the medical clinic two days a week and that’s for students and community members. There will be a dental clinic and we’re close to finalizing a partner on that. There’s going to be mental health support and parent resources out of that space as well. This facility is, again, it’s not just for our kids here. It’s us flipping the script on what we can do for our community rather than just asking for levy money or how we need help.”

He added that there has been a misconception that a new levy or additional property taxes will be paying for the new facility.

“That’s not correct at all. We hit the lottery in more ways than the initial $13.8 million grant and we’re going to keep going after funds, so this doesn’t cost anything for our taxpayers. It’ll just be on the district’s dime,” Ripley said. “I think that this is going to change the way that the Ohio Facility Construction Commission designs schools from here on out, and we’re just happy to be one of the forerunners. And I know the product that we put out there. It’s going to be by the team and for the kids in the community.”