Elgin School District Planning Land Purchase for New Agricultural Learning Facility
By Garrett Christensen on Thursday, January 5th, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
ELGIN—The Elgin School District is looking to expand its facilities, and its educational opportunities, in a big way. What started out as a donation of sheep to the local FFA chapter has expanded into plans for a new multi-use agriculture and science learning center, complete with facilities for student livestock ownership.
The project found its origins in the Elgin FFA program’s ongoing student livestock project. In the summer of 2021, the program was donated twelve show ewes by Three Sisters Livestock. The animals were primarily kept on local property owned by community member Jeff Smith with a growing need to find a permanent location more suitable to student needs. As put by district superintendent Dianne Greif, “I got the idea of, really, if we’re going to take on that kind of an agricultural project, we probably need a place to do it.”
Further inspired by similar land lab projects utilized by other FFA chapters, Elgin hopes to purchase 15 acres to create a multi-use facility that will allow for more extensive student livestock projects. As noted by Greif, “We want to make sure that any kid who is interested in the program and wants to participate would have a place to house their animal if they didn’t have their own property.” This will also include a large enough interior space to practice showing. However, the plans for the new facility go well beyond just livestock projects, as the hope is to include a fully functioning classroom and combined kitchen space for students. Further, the district is in the early stages of applying for a technology grant to allow for high-speed internet access in the completed center to facilitate remote learning opportunities. According to Greif:
“When we put that classroom in, we’d like them to be completely current with technology. If we’ve got a group of kids who are interested in veterinary sciences, we’d like that classroom to be what they call a ‘zoom room’ and interactive so we can set up an education course where they could take a class that we can’t offer.”
In addition to the educational aspects, it is planned for the center to also provide practical support for the school district and the Elgin community. Specifically, “One of our big dreams when we started this whole project is to raise garden produce and meat projects that we can then sell to the school for consumption,” noted Greif. Livestock raised by FFA students will be processed by a local USDA butcher while Lynique Oveson’s plant science class will establish green houses to produce garden greens throughout the school year. If space allows, the district may assign each of the elementary classes a garden spot to tend to with support of the plant science class.
In terms of community usage, the plant science class would also like to support the Elgin community garden by creating more space for raised bed planters. Currently, it is undecided if this will be done by constructing public planters at the new facility as an extension of the garden or if the facility will take on other functions to free up space for the garden to expand. “Every year the community garden is completely spoken for. People just go in and speak for a portion of the raised bed planters, and so we’d like to expand that so that those people who are interested in that have a little bit more space to grow in,” noted Greif.
Currently, the school district is in talks with the city, county and current landowner to purchase the property which would include annexing 18 building lots. Due to the land’s currently being zoned for agriculture, rezoning will have to be approved before it can be split off and developed. No official timeline or roadmap is in place though Greif noted the district is hoping to have the land purchased and construction underway by this summer. Contractors will be contacted to plan utilities and any necessary excavation once the land is purchased.
The project is being funded through a combination of grants, donations and community support. The district recently received another “Farm to School” grant to help purchase livestock and fencing for the completed facility while the FFA program is partnered with a local alumni group to operate fundraisers and other outreach projects. Though nothing specific has been confirmed, Greif noted that the City of Elgin are enthusiastic about supporting student projects and are a “big factor.”
Through and through, that is what the project ultimately comes down to. Greif made it known that, though Elgin are a smaller school district in a rural area, they still want to support their students as best they can and provide opportunities for career and educational development that may otherwise be restricted to larger schools. While the learning center will benefit the community in the long term, it is a project for students. Once completed, students will be the ones raising livestock, a student will be assigned as the farm manager, and students will gain practical experience in numerous fields. As best put by Greif:
“We just keep trying, as a district, to build the opportunities for kids to lead. Not everybody is headed to college so let’s make sure we’re enhancing their skills, whatever that area may be where they’re headed.”
