Powell High School ag facility proposed

Posted 5/25/17

In hopes of learning those kinds of hands-on lessons, Powell High School students would like to have an agriculture facility built near the school.

“We feel there are a lot of ways that this ag complex would fit into our curriculum,” said …

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Powell High School ag facility proposed

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It’s one thing to listen to a lecture about livestock, but it’s quite another to raise a piglet.

In hopes of learning those kinds of hands-on lessons, Powell High School students would like to have an agriculture facility built near the school.

“We feel there are a lot of ways that this ag complex would fit into our curriculum,” said McKennah Buck, a sophomore at PHS. “This would be a great way to actually go out of the classroom and experience those things hands-on that we don’t necessarily get to do in the classroom.”

Buck and fellow PHS ag students, who are members of the Powell-Shoshone FFA Chapter, gave a presentation to the Park County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees last month. In proposing an ag facility for the Powell school district, students stressed the importance of agriculture.

“Ag is the overall biggest industry in the United States of America, and affects almost every other industry,” said Bronson Smith, a PHS junior.

He said there are a lot of different opportunities in agriculture.

“Not everybody goes out and drives a tractor,” Smith said. “There’s ag marketing, ag business, ag sales … a whole lot more offshoots in ag that people don’t realize.”

He said ag classes allow kids to pursue a career path they’re not likely to find otherwise.

A facility near campus would allow students who are not from farming or ranching families to raise animals, said Kaylee Meyer, a PHS junior.

“There are many students right now in our program that live in town, and have to keep their animals many miles out of town,” she said, adding that they have to leave their homes at least twice a day to feed and water their animals.

“This would give those kids the opportunity to keep their animals there, and an opportunity to see how plants are grown or shots are given,” she said.

Bryce Meyer, who teaches agriculture at PHS, said they’ve looked at ag facilities in the Cody, Buffalo and Hulett school districts. Ideally, a PHS facility would have a classroom in the front that transitioned right into a barn, so things could easily be brought into the classroom.

Powell school board members said they agree an ag facility would be beneficial for students, but worry about how it would be funded.

“I don’t think there’s anyone sitting around this table that thinks it’s a bad idea,” said Greg Borcher, school board chairman. “I would be 100 percent for it if we had the money right now. Unfortunately, we don’t.”

Earlier this year, the Wyoming Legislature cut K-12 education funding across the state, and more significant cuts could be coming next year.

Bryce Meyer said he doesn’t want an ag facility to be a financial burden for the district.

“I think we can sit down and figure out ways to make this place self-sufficient,” he said. “Obviously, we have a large up-front cost for the actual building, but we also have income that will be generated through our parent support group as well as our chapter.”

Bryce Meyer said some grants also may be available. He prepared a three-year proposal for the project and said it could be done in stages.

He asked the school board about building a facility on agricultural land the school district owns just west of Powell High School.

“Once we touch that piece of property, I’m afraid the city will make us put in streets and sewers and it will be a lot more expensive,” Borcher said.

In a follow-up interview with the Tribune, Borcher said the land is in the county, but since it’s surrounded by city property, his fear is that the City of Powell would require the school district to annex it.

“The city is already asking us to install curb [and] gutter and move an irrigation structure on that property next to Seventh Street, and the property use hasn’t changed,” Borcher said.

If the property was annexed into the city, by ordinance, farm animals wouldn’t be allowed to be kept there, he added.

“In my conversation with Mr. Meyer following the presentation, I urged him to talk to the city, and research all possibilities so that we would know what was and what wasn’t a possible location for the proposed ag facility,” Borcher said.

Bryce Meyer and the PHS students said they’d like to see a location close to the high school.

“There are a limited amount of buildings in Powell that you can use year-round for things such as pig sales and clinics ...,” Buck said. “This would be a great way to provide the community with another place to hold things year-round.”

Having students go back and forth during school hours to the Northwest College ag pavilion or the Park County Fairgrounds creates liability issues, Bryce Meyer said.

School board trustee Don Hansen asked about other potential liability issues with an ag facility.

“All I can say to that is, there’s a lot of ag facilities across the state, and we could talk with them about how their schools approached it,” Hansen said. “We’re not going to re-invent the wheel in a lot of ways. We’re going to work off the successes and failures of those schools.”

Some schools bring in special education students to work in the greenhouse, allowing them to grow, market and sell plants in the community, which teaches them life skills, Smith said.

He said the ag facility could be used for other subjects as well, such as science, math and career and technical education classes (CTE). The facility could also be an extension of the elementary schools and middle school, as well as 4-H programs.

“You could give them little presentations or miniature lessons on animals and where their food comes from,” Smith said. “Because everybody should probably know where their food comes from.”

Bryce Meyer said agriculture and other CTE classes help keep kids engaged.

“The engagement is what keeps kids in school. It’s proven,” he said. “It gives those kids a reason to be in school.”

Kids who complete a series of CTE courses have a higher graduation rate, he said.

Bryce Meyer added that ag students also contribute to the local economy.

Out of 40 FFA students who raised livestock and went through the county fair, he said they put over $26,000 back into the community by purchasing and raising their animals.

“There’s not very many school programs that can say they’re injecting money back into the community, so that’s a pretty cool thing, too,” Bryce Meyer said.

School board trustee Trace Paul said he appreciated the students’ presentation. He encouraged them to stay excited about the project, continue to research it and work on it.

“You didn’t walk out with a blank check, but you did something very important and started the discussion,” Paul said. “And that’s a skill you can take throughout your whole life.”

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