By Andy Raun, Hastings Tribune
Reprinted with permission
HASTINGS - Hastings Catholic Schools is plowing forward with a plan to extend new career-related educational experiences to middle and high school students.
The HCS Unity Board, which is the school system’s board of education, voted unanimously before Christmas 2020 in support of establishing an agricultural education program for St. Cecilia High School and Middle School starting with the 2021-22 academic year.
School officials then advertised for an instructor. Father Cyrus Rowan, high school and middle school principal, recently announced to faculty and staff the hiring of Shelby Wachter of Blair for the new position.
“We are really excited about the opportunity for HCS to offer Ag Ed for the first time,” said Father Thomas Brouillette, chief administrative officer for Hastings Catholic Schools, in a news release announcing establishment of the program and an associated FFA chapter. “This will be particularly good for our students who have interests in the wide range of subjects and fields that Ag Ed covers.”
Topics to be covered in the program will include agribusiness systems, animal systems, environmental and natural resource systems, food products and processing systems, plant systems, power, and structural and technical systems.
According to HCS, future aspects of the program may include greenhouse work, welding, small engines, plasma/CAD/CAM, land plots, woods and animal laboratories.
Wachter, the program’s founding instructor, has been heavily involved in agriculture throughout her life, growing up in a farming family and spending many years as a 4-H and FFA participant. She also studied ag education in college.
Most recently, she has worked with the Saunders County 4-H program, which serves more than 500 youths.
Class schedules for 2021-22 will be organized and presented to St. Cecilia students over the next couple of weeks so they and their parents can see how the new program might fit into their plans.
Hastings Catholic Schools is a central parochial school system for Hastings and the surrounding communities and rural areas. HCS includes St. Michael Elementary School and St. Cecilia Middle School and High School. On average, the schools serve 425 students per year in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.
Sources of financial support for the school system include students’ families, who pay tuition; local Catholics through school assessments paid by their parish churches; both Catholic and non-Catholic donors from the wider community; and Catholics throughout the Diocese of Lincoln whose contributions help support parochial education in southern Nebraska.
Discussion and research concerning a potential agricultural education program at St. Cecilia began more than two years ago. In 2019, all students at the middle school and high school students were surveyed, and 91% indicated an interest in career and technical education opportunities.
The school system conducted its most recent strategic planning process in 2020. Unity Board action to endorse the new program followed.
A committee of volunteers was assembled to plan for the start of ag education and FFA next fall. Committee members include Matt Greenquist, a beef cattle nutritionist; Amanda Hoffman, a local business owner; and Ryan Weeks, owner and CEO of Weeks Family Farms.
Although the Unity Board fully supports adding the new program, the current school budget can’t support the added expense. Therefore, donations are being sought, especially from businesses in the ag and industrial sectors.
The goal of the planning committee and school administration is for the program to be fully funded by donors for the first three years. The projected expense for that three-year period is $300,000 and would cover the teacher’s pay and benefits, classroom set-up, acquisition of supplies, and FFA program costs.
Garrett Parr, a St. Cecilia junior, said he’s excited about the prospect of an ag program at the school and all it would add to students’ educational experience.
“I am interested in the ag education program because I have grown up raising, working and showing cattle with my dad,” Parr said. “Ag is a big aspect of my life, and I think others should have the resources to learn about the same things I’ve been fortunate enough to be surrounded with my whole life.
“I think the new ag education program would provide many new opportunities for students to be able to have hands-on experience. It brings an even wider variety of course options for students. This program can provide new opportunities to learn about the industry that feeds the world.”
The announcement concerning ag education and FFA helped to punctuate Catholic Schools Week, which included various activities at St. Michael and St. Cecilia. Bishop James Conley visited for a Eucharistic procession and Mass for all St. Michael and St. Cecilia students in the St. Cecilia gymnasium.
