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BLHS growing new agriculture program, FFA chapter

DISSECTING — Students in Buckeye Local High School’s agriculture education program and Future Farmers of America chapter participated in a live lesson on genetics, presented by Erika Lyon, right, of the Jefferson County OSU Extension Office. Interacting with specimens are BLHS seniors Keira Panepucci, left, and Addie Erwin. -- Contributed

RAYLAND — Covering a rural area, Buckeye Local School District has many students who live on farms or participate in 4-H. So, it may be surprising that the district lacked agriculture education offerings until just recently.

District officials, wanting to expand students’ opportunities, launched a new agriculture program and Future Farmers for America chapter for Buckeye Local High School this academic year.

Employing a BLHS alumnus as an instructor, the program grants students a broad overview of agriculture, amplified by hands-on activities. The young program has already benefited from two grant awards, and officials project the initiative will continue to blossom.

Of that same opinion is Cameron Best, Buckeye Local’s new agriculture teacher and FFA adviser, who said, “The kids really seem to like the classes offered, and I feel like the program is just going to keep growing with time.”

Presently, Best teaches four new classes, offered to BLHS students between grades nine and 12: Agriculture, food and natural resources; animal and plant sciences; science and technology of food and agriculture business. The classes cover a “wide variety” of topics related to the agriculture industry, Best said, ranging from marketing foundations and food safety to animal anatomy and nutrition.

Best will occasionally make his lessons tactile, such as by letting students interact with soil samples, farming equipment or DNA testing kits.

All 21 students in the program are members of BLHS’s new FFA chapter. Established in 1928, the FFA is an intra-curricular organization that fosters leadership among students and prepares them for agricultural careers.

Best said the chapter plans to attend the Ohio FFA Convention in May, and as the group grows, it will become more involved in various competitions like live stocking judging.

“We want to get out there and experience new things with our program,” Best said, “and give the kids the opportunity to find what they’re passionate about, what they like to do, and put that passion to use and see where they stand against other schools.”

Students have already profited from a live lesson on genetics — presented by Erika Lyon of the Jefferson County OSU Extension Office — during which they could dissect the reproductive tracts of a bovine and practice artificial insemination. They also took a field trip in November to Martins Ferry’s United Dairy, which provides BLHS and many students’ homes with milk, Best said.

Adding an agriculture education program first became a point of discussion about three years ago, while BLHS Principal Lucas Parsons was investigating ways to expand students’ opportunities. FFA became a priority, Parsons recalled, but the school needed to implement an agriculture business career technical education class to be eligible.

Efforts received a major boost when Coy Sudvary joined BLSD as its superintendent in 2023. Recognizing the district’s rural contingent and the state’s emphasis on CTE, Sudvary quickly backed the agriculture program’s implementation.

Hiring Best as the teacher and FFA adviser was perhaps one of the easier decisions during the program’s groundwork, according to Sudvary. Best is a 2022 BLHS alumnus and was raised on a small farm outside Rayland. He has also been heavily involved in 4-H, has a work background in horticulture and owns his own cattle business, CB Show Cattle.

Best is pursuing a degree in career technical education at Bowling Green State University, and he also attends Ohio University Eastern. Currently, he teaches part time at BLHS in the mornings and goes to classes in the afternoons and evenings. When he graduates in about two years, BLHS will take him on full-time.

Program offerings will eventually extend to students of the junior high school. In the meantime, Best said the high school will focus on expanding classes and better establishing the FFA chapter’s presence in the community.

With help from grant writer Dustin A. Pyles of VAZA Consulting, BLHS is always on the lookout for opportunities, Parsons noted. Two grant awards have come in to support the burgeoning agriculture program.

The Jefferson County Educational Service Center awarded BLHS a Best Practice Grant in the amount of $700. That funding will support creation of an Ag/FFA Hybrid Corn Plot in an area near Panther Drive. There, students will plant, grow and harvest different varieties of corn and analyze their differences.

Additionally, the Ohio Farm Bureau awarded BLHS a $25,000 grant to construct a new greenhouse on campus. Best said the greenhouse will provide a “world of opportunities” for not only his agriculture students but other classes’ students, who would use it to grow produce or flowers for fundraisers or the school’s home economics course.

The greenhouse’s location has yet to be finalized, but the structure itself will be designed by students themselves using specialized software. Best said that students can use the software to modify the greenhouse again, if needed.

“This is going to get those students out of the classroom and into a real-life scenario and … get them more engaged with what we’re doing in the classroom,” Best said of the greenhouse.

Best credits his relationship with the Jefferson County Farm Bureau for the latter grant award, claiming that the Ohio Farm Bureau places a major emphasis on collaboration with one’s local bureau. Best himself is a trustee on the Jefferson County bureau’s board of trustees.

Best said that Sudvary and Parsons played significant roles in the agriculture education’s formation. The two have been supportive of his coming in as a new teacher, amid the challenge of building an entirely new program.

Parsons thanked Sudvary and the BLSD Board of Education for advancing the agriculture program, the enrollment of which is expected to nearly double next year.

The program provides stepping stones for students who want to pursue an agriculture career or simply want to learn about agriculture, Pasons said, adding that the program has been and will be “very beneficial for the students at Buckeye Local.”

Sudvary said the program will give students an expanded outlook on the agriculture industry — including its ever-growing technological side — aided by hands-on experiences.

“There are students who may not have any experience in the agricultural area,” Sudvary said. “This will give them the opportunity to have that experience, and they may find something they’re passionate about as well. We have a strong community when it comes to 4-H, and with their support and the support of the farm bureau and our local businesses, we’ve been fortunate to be able to build partnerships for our students.”

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