SARAHSVILLE, Ohio – For many high schools in Ohio with FFA programs, an attached greenhouse helps simulate a rural setting.

Students at Shenandoah High School in the rolling hills of southeast Ohio have access to an entire 140-acre farm, the first student-operated farm in the Appalachian region.

“Every chance I get I just come down here because why waste time in study hall when I can come down here and expand my education,” said Eliza Carpenter, a junior and president of the Shenandoah High FFA chapter. “I’ve done everything from vaccinating cattle to feeding piglets in a typical school day.”

The school farm is called Green Acres Farm and it sits a few hundred yards from the high school. Students become involved with Green Acres when they enroll in an agricultural education course doing everything from flying drones to examining creek beds, tending to livestock, harvesting hay and tending to the crossbred piglets.

The farm’s bathrooms have a mud room in the back where the students can store their work clothes and mud boots.

It all started four years ago when the idea of a school farm was turned into a reality. That previous administration bought some land down the road from the school and construction began in 2021. The school received $1.5 million in grant funding to build the farm.

After two years of construction, the farm opened with a two-classroom facility coupled with a welding shop, tractor garage and more. The response was encouraging. Nearly half of the 290-student population is involved in the agricultural education program.

“It’s a true testament to the mission and vision of the administration and the board of education,” Noble Local School District Superintendent Justin Denius said. “They’ve bought into the idea of providing our kids with every opportunity any other kid in the state of Ohio would have. There’s no reason our kids can’t have that same access and opportunity as anyone else.”

Noble is a K-12 STEM designated district, but Denius said he prefers “STEAM,” meaning science, technology, engineering, agriculture and mathematics. Typically, the “A” stands for arts, but for Noble it stands for agriculture.

“When we went for STEM designation, we were thinking, ‘How does that play into ag and something that is near and dear to our community? How can we be innovative in our ag program and play off of that with our STEM designation?’” Denius said. “The fact that it’s a big part of our community before this facility was ever here is a big reason as to why it is what it is today.”

This past school year was the first full year students had to be engaged with the farm. Unlike many students, for agricultural education students the school day is not long enough. While their peers sit in a classroom, the agricultural education students hop on a bus every day to spend 90 minutes on the farm getting their hands dirty. Some spend even more time on the farm.

“We basically have to tell them, ‘You have to go home at some point,’” Denius said. “They want to be here. We don’t have an attendance problem and we don’t have an engagement problem. It’s unbelievable the dedication our kids have to the program here.”

The 150-student agricultural education program is taught by three instructors: Eric Van Fleet, Matt Wentworth and Jessie Pahoundis.

Pahoundis teaches a course on drones. Students learn how to do everything from general drone operations to professional video filming and editing with the footage they gather from it. The students use the drones to check up on the day-to-day operations of their nearby farm.

“A lot of times what we do is check the cattle and see how many calves we have, especially during calving season,” Pahoundis said. “We also check on our waterway to see if it’s still up. The students built a bridge, so my drone students fly drones out there to check on the bridge and see where it is on the map.

“By the end of the course, my students can get their drone license, so they can commercially fly anything from half a pound to a 55-pound drone.”

To ensure consistency in the leadership of who maintains the farm, each year the program elects a student to serve as the farm manager. The student will do everything from keeping farm records to managing the livestock feeding schedule.

Brooke Stottsberry, who graduated this past spring, served as the FFA chapter president and was the farm manager this past school year.

“Green Acres Farm has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Stottsberry said. “I don’t think if I went to any other school I would have ever been blessed with something like this. It’s truly overwhelming how many experiences and opportunities I’ve been given here.”