The Cascade School District will be able to construct a new agricultural learning hub after receiving $190,000 in Oregon Department of Education funding.
The career and technical education revitalization grant will give a big boost to the district’s ability to weave agricultural education through every school in the district, officials said.
“We are very excited about this grant and what it will do for our students at Cascade High School,” district communications director Gregg Koskela told Our Town.
The planned Agriculture Learning Hub represents “what we call our entire vision for Agriculture Education (AgEd),” Koskela said.
“It includes high school classes, FFA, as well as connections with our elementary students. Justin Brill is our AgEd teacher at the high school, and he has big visions for the program, (including) connecting with many willing community partners, getting hands-on training for our students, offering places for elementary students to come grow pumpkins and other produce, and to see animals and learn to care for them. We currently have 250 different high school students taking classes in AgEd.”
The grant will allow Cascade to tear down an old barn at the high school and replace it with a new ADA-compliant pole barn on the school’s 6-acre ag property.
“It will be accessible to all students,” Koskela said, “and provide a place we don’t currently have for classes, demonstrations, and for businesses and community partners to come in and teach our students.”
Redtail Excavation of Turner is donating its services to tear down the old barn, “but timing is unknown at this point,” Koskela said regarding when the new facility will be ready “We are waiting on permits and bid info before we know the timetable, but we are working as quickly as possible.”
The new facility, Koskela said, also will allow the AgEd group to look outward into the community more.
“We will increase our ability to host community events and expand industry partnerships, in addition to providing an additional space for learning,” he said. “We can expand our community-wide agriculture education through events such as ag safety days for youth and tractor certification, as well as new and expanded partnerships with other local educational institutions.”
The Cascade grant was one of 31 that was issued statewide, The grants totaled $7.6 million and ranged from a $65,000 award for Condon High School in Gilliam County to $500,000 for firefighting and EMT training in the Sheridan district.
