Oak Ridge schools offer FFA for first time, hits ground running

This is the first year for rural Oak Ridge School District to offer a National FFA Organization (FFA) program, sparking the interest of nearly half the high school students, faculty organizer Nick Thiele said Friday.

He said the community and school district have considered the addition “a number of times” through the years.

“And yes, you would think, we’re surrounded by agriculture and most of the schools around us have [agriculture] programs; it just never fell into place,” Thiele said.

Last April, voters within the district approved a no-tax-increase bond issue to fund construction of two additional elementary school classrooms, enhance school safety and make other improvements — including a designated building for agriculture-related courses.

Sixty-four students are enrolled within the FFA program this year, Thiele said, describing it as “good interest” for the first year.

Through FFA, students receive hands-on experience with basic animal science, plant science and leadership training, Thiele said.

Setting aside the initial success of the program, Thiele said he understands it’s his responsibility to make sure enrollment and awareness continue.

“I’m trying to make sure the program is taking off on the right foot, that we’re doing some things that are attractive to students and that it’s valuable to them,” he said.

Thiele is hopeful, he said, what he is helping implement is valuable to the employers in the area, as well, and he wants to make sure those successes are discovered.

All of the indicators needed to build a successful program are already present within the Oak Ridge community, Thiele said.

And although the school’s program is new, Thiele isn’t new to the agriculture scene.

Originally from Leopold, Missouri, he spent 36 years teaching agriculture courses. Then, after retiring “some years ago,” he said, he got the chance to lead the FFA program at Oak Ridge.

“For a guy like me, an educator at my age, this is a wonderful opportunity,” Thiele said. “We’re starting with a good student body, a strong academic school, and then building it from there, from scratch.”

Thiele said since the program’s inception in August, he is already seeing student placement in part-time jobs for several agriculture-related businesses in the area.

With construction on the elementary addition in progress, Thiele expects the agriculture department’s new 5,000-square-feet shop to be complete by August.

Thiele’s goal, he said, is to then complete the interior of the shop, including painting and flooring, with the help of students.

Once complete, Thiele said it will suffice for building a variety of projects: trailers, log splitters, livestock chutes and feeders.

A component of FFA is Career Development Event (CDE), which takes place this week, Thiele said. It focuses the students’ attention on horses, livestock, dairy cattle, dairy foods, floriculture, nursery landscaping and soils.

Thiele said he thinks students get a “pretty good smattering” of those areas through the event, which will lead them to deciding what career they might pursue.

About half the CDEs will take place Wednesday at the Show Me Center with about 40 Oak Ridge students participating, Thiele said by text message Saturday night, and the other half of CDEs will be Saturday at the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center, with another 24 Oak Ridge students participating.

The Southeast District of FFA comprises schools from Ste. Genevieve to the Bootheel and as far west as Doniphan and Arcadia Valley, Missouri, Thiele said in the text.

He also is working on building a relationship between the FFA students and the four active 4-H units within the district to “just keep shaping [the students] as they get older.”

Financial preparation is another aspect of the program Thiele said he instills. The first Friday of every month for the students Thiele described as “record book day.”

“I don’t want them to forget some of these great activities that they’re doing, and not get them documented,” Thiele said. “Because that’s important,” he said.

Thiele said, “The students are going to have to do that someday, anyway.”

FFA participant and Oak Ridge High School sophomore Maggie Hinkle said even though she was at first shocked to find out the program wasn’t previously offered, she decided to enroll because it was something she wanted to learn more about.

If she chose to work her own farm, Hinkle said the program would aid in selecting suitable crops. So with the upcoming CDE, Hinkle said her project involves soil.

“These are just trial runs until we figure out what we actually want to do,” she said.

Hinkle said she plans on being part of FFA through her senior year.

jhartwig@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3632