ADAMS TOWNSHIP — A one-year agriculture program will be introduced this fall at Laurel Oaks in Wilmington.
Great Oaks Career Campuses Superintendent Harry Snyder visited the Clinton-Massie school board’s meeting Monday and noted the new offering. Great Oaks is the career-technical partner for 36 school districts in southwest Ohio, including Clinton-Massie.
Great Oaks Public Relations Coordinator Becky Beckstedt on Tuesday stated, “This is a unique program at Great Oaks. It is designed to meet the needs of students in the Laurel Oaks area and allows them to take advantage of our strong relationship with Southern State.”
The new ag program will offer college-level classes in agronomics, bio-science, horticulture science and more. Classes will be at Laurel Oaks and at the Wilmington campus of Southern State Community College. Southern State’s Wilmington campus is located near Laurel Oaks.
Participating students will have the chance to take a minimum of four college courses and earn college credit through Southern State.
Snyder said Great Oaks officials hope the one-year program can continue beyond its initial year.
He noted that the current Ohio director of agriculture, David T. Daniels, was in 1975 one of the first graduates of Great Oaks’ agricultural programs.
The new Laurel Oaks agriculture program is for high school students rather than adults. To enter the program, a student is required to meet admission requirements for Southern State Community College in ACT, SAT or Accuplacer.
High schools affiliated with Laurel Oaks include Clinton-Massie, Blanchester, East Clinton, Wilmington and Lynchburg-Clay, as well as five others in the Highland and Fayette Counties region.
For more information on the College Agriculture Program to be offered through Laurel Oaks in 2017-18, please contact Laurel Oaks Career Specialist Bill Davis at 937-655-5407 or [email protected].
Snyder reported there are 35 on-campus Great Oaks students whose home school is Clinton-Massie. The class breakdown is 24 juniors and 11 seniors, who are at Laurel Oaks or Live Oaks in Milford.
Among Massie students who have been named Students of the Month with Great Oaks are Dana Eickenhorst in welding, Katelyn Brewer in equine science and management, Brianna Garrison in animal science and management, Darby Forand in digital arts and design, Trinity Cordy in animal science and management, and Alexis Adams in the aviation maintenance technician program.
Clinton-Massie’s Nicholas Dixon made the dean’s list as a participating student in Great Oaks’ precision machining program offered at Live Oaks.
During the Clinton-Massie Board of Education meeting, middle school art teacher Jessica Yankel proposed making eighth-grade honors art — which is a semester class — qualify for a half-credit that, upon successful completion, would go toward high school graduation credit requirements.
Thirty-four students applied for the class for next school year, but not all were admitted to the course, Yankel said. One criterion to enter the class is to have at least a 3.5 grade point average.
Clinton-Massie Superintendent Matt Baker followed up Yankel’s presentation by pointing out Clinton-Massie had three first-place finishers at the latest South Central Ohio League (SCOL) art show and the most awards overall.
The board of education took action on the following items:
• Approved a summer school for kindergartners through second-graders between July 31 to Aug. 10. It is for students who have some struggles, Baker said, and “we need to make sure we’re keeping them on track for the [Ohio Department of Education’s] Third Grade Reading Guarantee [program].”
• Approved an overnight Cincinnati Zoo trip in mid-May for fourth-grade gifted students.
• Approved a summer speech program funded by the Charles F. Fischer Society.
• Approved an academic team overnight field trip to Chicago for the National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT) Small School National Championship Tournament in late April. NAQT is a high school quiz bowl format.
• Approved a high school choir and Falconaires overnight field trip to Chicago for mid-April 2018.
• Approved Spanish teacher Mary Watts and Cherie Brewer-Coon as chaperones for a trip to Puerto Rico in June 2017 by Spanish students. There are plans to visit several national parks and historical areas in San Juan; tour the El Yunque Rain Forest and Visitor Center and Camuy Caverns; go on a guided sightseeing tour of Old San Juan including a Spanish fortress and a cathedral; tour a coffee plantation; visit an art museum; take a boat tour of Bioluminescent Bay and go snorkeling; receive a salsa dancing lesson; tour a nature reserve; and visit local beaches.
• Approved the retirement of teacher Becky Carroll.
Reach Gary Huffenberger at 937-556-5768.
