Southwest Lacking Schools plans to expand into high school next year with the launch of a new optional agricultural education program at Watkins Middle School this year.
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“It’s a brand new program, we start from the ground up,” explains Dina Carcuk, agricultural coordinator. We will build support in the middle school to keep students excited and to give us an introduction to agriculture. Hopefully, those eighth graders will continue to high school and will continue to follow that path if they choose to.
Carp students say, “You get a really good overview of what happens after you go to high school. We do a little food science, we do some gardening. We hope we can go to our green house and do some planting in the greenhouse. We do acupuncture and hydroponics, soil testing… They get a good mix of all kinds.
Students receive instruction in planning, design and reading plans. “We will have projects where the students will actually plan and build the garden properly,” said Carcuk. I think we want to reach a point where we can raise small animals and raise a variety of animals.
Community relationships are built
Superintendent Dr. Cassie Perkins commented on the decision to create a new election offer: That also has a lot of connections in our community.
He added, “The traditional way is not for every student. This gives them another chance, another way. When you graduate from high school, you can use these skills even if you are not going to pursue a career. There are many 21st century skills that they can use in this program that they can use in their chosen profession.
“One of the things we expect this program to do is to connect directly with the community,” Perkins said. We look forward to connecting this to a healthy children’s network, partnering with them and providing food for our families throughout the year and in the summer. We want to start adding fresh vegetables from local food warehouses as well as our own cafes.
“When we talk about expansion and how this program is growing, we really want this community to have relationships and help our own families,” she said.
Some of the previously established relationships include the C-TEC and professional relationships in the new Southwest Exporting Agent. Discussions were held with Lake County’s top gardeners and with Lakeing County soil and water, and the district hopes to meet with local farmers.
Grant wanted; The community can vote online
The district is currently in the process of raising funds to pay for a new greenhouse on Watkins Road near Middle School (or former high school).
“We wrote financial support,” Perkins explained. It is called ‘State Farm Neighbor Assistant’. There were over 2,000 submissions and one of our 200 selected to go to the polls. Forty of these 200 will be selected to win a $ 25,000 prize.
“Our application is based on paying for a greenhouse,” she continues. We have already worked on our architecture (on design).
“That allows us to grow those vegetables all year round,” says Carp.
Community members can help maintain support by voting online at https://www.neighborhoodassist.com/entry/2038217.
The election will be held August 18-27, and Perkins said people over the age of 18 can vote up to 10 times a day.
“We are thrilled to be one of the 200, and we are very excited and our community is supporting this initiative and financially supporting our greenhouse,” Perkins said.