The Rapid City school board may write a new policy about naming buildings and return a $50,000 donation after board members said the decision to name a gymnasiuim addition did not go through the proper channels.

Last year, Deanna Lien donated $50,000 for weightlifting and exercise equipment for the addition to the Carold Heier Gymnasium at Stevens High School.

School officials accepted the money and named the building after Deanna's late husband, Bruce, but the name was removed last fall after objections from board members.

Those objections came to light at a work session Thursday, when board member Wes Storm said he agreed with other board members that the Lein family did nothing wrong - and that board members were grateful for the donation - but he said the board violated policies when it accepted the money and named the building without going through the building committee.

It was unclear why the decision bypassed the building committee.

After the name had been removed, board members discussed the possibility of altering the advertising policy to include naming but decided at last week's meeting to draft an entirely new naming policy that will stand on its own. But some board members don't think that's enough.

"We ought to have a clean start and give back the money," Storm said, adding that the board could then accept the money after the policy is in effect if the Lien family decides to donate again. "Our values are more important than valuables."

Board member Eric Abrahamson agreed.

"This was done in violation of our policies, and right now, we need to clean up the siutation," he said.

"The issue is that we have an advertising and sponsorship policy that we've used for years now, and it covers a lot of the day-in, day-out things like soft drink contracts," director of support services Mike Kenton said. "We've used a process … where we take signage issues through the (buildings committee), then to the board for discussion. This time, it did not go through building committee, and that's a process the board wanted to protect."

Superintendent Peter Wharton said the board is using the city's and the South Dakota Board of Regents' current naming policies as guidelines and plans to have a first draft of the new policy to vote on by the Feb. 21 regular board meeting.

Wharton said it is important to the board that the new policy "is not influenced by a contribution of dollars. We're not (going) to tailor something to what's already a possibility, which I think is important."

He said he is in contact with the Lien family, and there haven't been any decisions about what will happen with the money.

"There aren't any decisions at this point," he said.

Board president Sheryl Kirkeby said that despite the confusion about policy, it is important to note that everyone is grateful for the generosity of the Lien family.

"I just don't want to add any more insult to injury," she said.

Contact Kayla Gahagan at 394-8410 or kayla.gahagan@rapidcityjournal.com