Jackson County High School beginning the development of its new campus farm, funded by federal and state grants.
Director of Schools Jason Hardy said the district secured a $126,000 grant from the USDA to begin the project, which includes the construction of a large covered barn and purchase of a tractor.
“The barn itself will be used to store some of our equipment that we’ll be using for things that go on at Jackson County High School, along with eventually at some point down the road to house some small animals that we would like to have some hands-on learning,” Hardy said. “Again, that’s down the road, but this is just one of the first steps.”
Hardy said in addition to the 80-by-72-foot barn, another grant funded the purchase of a tractor equipped with a loader to maintain the site. Hardy said the specific model was chosen because it fits the scale of a small farm and will be durable enough for student use.
“We’re way ahead of the game here, so we feel like we’re going to be able to get this barn built,” Hardy said. “We feel like that we’ll have this barn completed by the end of this school year and purchase the tractor and kind of have that part of our mini-farm laid out before us before we start moving forward in the years to come.”
Hardy said the project is being completed without the use of general purpose school funds. Hardy said the site of the farm is a former golf course that the school system already owned.
“Able to kind of start this mini-farm really ahead of the game where we thought we’d be, and that’s from the hard work of a lot of people here at Jackson County and Jackson County High School of going out and finding these grant funds that help rural schools and rural communities start these small mini-farms to help with our agriculture education,” Hardy said.
