Delaware schools: The Barn boosts agricultural curriculum
By EDWARD L. KENNEY • The News Journal
Space for animals inside will make weather nonfactor
A barn-raising is under way at Middletown High School this summer -- although it is not the kind where friends and neighbors pitch in to help out.
The Barn, as people have begun to call it, actually is an agricultural wing that is being built on the west end of the school, visible from the main thoroughfare of Del. 299.
"It's actually done to look like a barn once it's completed," said Bob Hershey, the Appoquinimink School District's facilities supervisor. "It has the pitched roof of a barn with a cupola."
Ground was broken for the project in early March, and it should be completed in August for the new school year.
The $4 million, 10,000-square-foot addition, which was funded by the successful 2006 referendum, will allow students in agricultural classes at the school to bring animals -- especially larger ones such as cows and horses -- indoors. Until now, the students have had to go outside to work with some of the larger animals in portable pens, and those lessons were always at the mercy of the weather, Principal Jim Comegys said.
"Next year, we'll be able to do that right in the classroom," he said.
Although nicknamed The Barn, animals do not live there, but are transported when needed from area farms.
"It's not meant to house animals for large periods of time," Hershey said.
The high school is one of the few in New Castle County with an agricultural program. More than 150 Middletown High students pursue the elective program's pathways of animal science, plant science and natural resources/environmental science, Comegys said. Studies include everything from artificial insemination to aspects of wildlife management.
"It's pretty exciting to know we're going to have a space to do these kinds of programs," he said. Agriculture is not just about growing a plant. It's so much bigger."
District Superintendent Tony Marchio said the Barn allows the school to "add more depth to the programs we have, because we have better facilities to deliver instruction.
"When you just have a holding pen with animals in the backyard, it's a lot different than having a building," he said.
"Race to the Top focuses on college and career readiness," he said, referring to the $119 million federal education grant funding Delaware won. "So I think we have to pay just as much attention to career readiness as to college readiness."
The tall building being constructed looks from afar like it will be a two-story structure, but the building will feature a mezzanine at the top for storage, much like a barn features a hayloft. Room in the facility also is being made to accommodate large aquarium tanks to keep fish for study, Comegys said.
In addition to the Barn construction, $2 million worth of other referendum-approved work will be completed at Middletown High this summer, the last of the referendum's projects to be finished. That work includes replacing ceiling and floor tiles at the school, building a culinary kitchen, adding security and fire-alarm systems and constructing an entrance on Del. 299 that will allow eastbound entry, Hershey said.
