The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Ag program back in big way
MORRISVILLE, N.Y. >> Though it’s been gone for more than 30 years, the Morrisville-Eaton Central School District’s agriculture program is back in a big way and is looking to become bigger.
“It’s been years in the making,” said agriculture teacher Rebecca Werbela. “It was a community and district driven effort to get agriculture back in the classroom. The 2018-19 school year is our inaugural year and we entered the Schoolyard Sugaring Contest.” The high school entered alongside the elementary school — and both took home first place for their syrup.
The New York Agriculture in the Classroom association, with the New York State Maple Foundation, host the Schoolyard Sugaring contest as a way for students to experience the process of making maple syrup, from sap collection to bottling.
“It’s pretty intensive,” Werbela said. “Syrup is graded on clarity, the grade, the color and a blind taste test.”
Out of 17 other schools, the Morrisville-Eaton Central School District managed to impress the judges enough to take home first place. When she learned her class won, Werbela said she was shocked.
“I expected us to be in the top three because of the effort put in by the students,” Werbela said. “When students learned they won, they had smiles across their faces. They were very proud. I think this was something the inaugural class needed to prove that we really are 100 percent serious about this program.” Not only did students have to present a sample, Werbela said she also had to submit all the lessons, quizzes, tests and power-points for the maple
curriculum to show just what the students learned.
Getting agriculture back in the classroom is something truly important, Werbela said, and that it began at the elementary school level with elementary teachers Jessica Tomcho and Kathleen Orth during the 2017-2018 school year.
“It was startedwith Kathleen and Jessica,” Werbela said. “They started the ag program and that was the grassroots movement that got the district andthe communitymotivated and ready to support agriculture in the high school.”
Orth said having students take part in every step of the maple process and be able to observe it had lasting affects on the class. “There was a sense of pride and they educated others around them,” Orth said. “Many of them [students] began the tradition and practice of makingmaple syrup at home with their own families.”
The 2018-19 school year rolled out with an introduction to agriculture class that focused on agriculture, food and natural resources along with an animal science course.
When it came time to get ready for the contest, there were a fewspeed bumps the school had to face — but overcame with help from the community.
“We didn’t have any maple trees on our property, so we tapped into neighbor’s trees,” said MECS Superintendent Greg Molloy.
On top of that, the Morrisville- Eaton Central School District doesn’t have a dedicated sap house with the equipment needed to process sap. Instead, the Morrisville-Eaton Central School got help from David Orth, owner of Orth Farm with his wife Kathleen.
“He is our local maple syrup producer and he helped us,” Werbela said. “He had the sap house, the equipment, the evaporator and everything else needed. We [the class] took many field trips to the farm and he worked with the students.”
Students did their own work collecting sap, starting in March, and had to boil it and bottle it themselves. 60 gallons of sap were collected, Werbela said, resulting in a gallon and a half of pure maple syrup.
And the agriculture program has no intention of slowing down just yet. Werbela said Molloy’s goal was to get a full-time agriculture program for the 201920 school year and it looks like the school’s all set.
“Next year, we’re running a full course load and offer a middle school component for seventh and eighthgrade agriculture,” Werbela said. Molloy said thanks to a grant from the New York Association of Agriculture Educators and funds secured by Senator Rachel May, who visited the school in the winter, the program could take root.
“The senator visited the program and saw the level of investment Mrs. Werbela had and made it a priority to provide funds to help us build a program,” Molloy said.
And still not slowing down, Werbela said the charter application for a new FFA chapter will be sent in by the end of June. “I’m hopingwe’ll receive our charter before the end of the summer,” Werbela said.
“I think it’s incredible we’re able to provide this program to our children,” Molloy said.
“I believe that in order for us to be sustainable in our journey to the year 2050 when globally, we’ll be at a population of 10 billion, with 33 percent less land to use, bringing agriculture education to the forefront is very important,” Werbela said. “Agriculture education is no longer just future farmers. It’s future engineers, future scientists, future mathematicians, future historians and more.”