APRIL 1, 2020
News Advertiser PAGE 9
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Round Hill Renaissance Agriculture Program to Inject New Life into the Community Michelle Pinon News Advertiser Round Hill School has been saved by the bell. Trustees with the Battle River School Division (BRSD) voted on March 19 to keep the Kindergarten to Grade 9 facility open. That news came as a great relief to parents and community members who had been advocating to keep the small rural school, located 25 kilometres south of Tofield, viable. One idea to keep the school sustainable was to implement an agricultural program into the curriculum. Kyle Nahirniak, Project Manager of the Round Hill Renaissance Agriculture Program, explained how it all came about. While compiling research, members of the parent-led committee came across Altario School, which had developed a student-led farm and residency about three years ago, said Nahirniak. The overall vision of Altario School Principal Kevin Van Lagen was to create a place of “living authentic, hands-on, and relevant learning” for its students. “We sort of used that as our model. When we were faced with closure we tracked down the principal of the school because he’s become a real champion of rural education, and promoting, and saving small schools from closure. So he came out to the community. He talked about what they did, and he suggested our school would be a perfect fit for a similar program. And that kind of kickstarted this whole thing. The principal and superintendent gave us emails and letters of support and said they would 100 percent support us, guide us through the process, and that they wanted to partner with us. We took it a bit further…In their case it was the principal and the superintendent who were pushing the program, they designed it, and they were trying to get the community on board. Whereas in our situation it was the complete reverse. It was the community driving this, trying to convince the school division that they needed to buy into this. It has a lot of similarities but the way it has been drawn up and executed is completely opposite of ours.” Another thing that worked in favour of the group was having the support of the Round Hill & District Agricultural
Kyle Nahirniak and Nicola Irving stand in front of Round Hill School that was recently saved from closure thanks to school board trustees. They have led the way for an innovative agricultural program at the school. (Mary MacArthur - Western Producer/Photo)
Society, Round Hill Elks Lodge and the Round Hill Branch of the Alberta Women’s Institute, and several local churches. The group also had the support of the agri-food industry, agricultural companies, equipment dealerships, and grain commissions. Nahirniak added that Northlands and Ag. For Life, actively promote rural education, are well established, and have massive resources which can be accessed. Having developed a business plan was also a key component in the group’s favour. “So we have educational resources, we have monetary resources, we have technical resources. It’s kind of a turn-key operation at this point…The community support we have is overwhelming really. It’s shocking how quickly and how effectively we can mobilize and what we can do. With the school division onboard I feel like we can easily get this farm up and running within a year. We’d like to get the community garden going in May so that when the kids come back in the Fall, assuming that kids are back in the school by the Fall, that will be in place. We’re working off the strength of the community, and the strength of the school, and the location. Being in a strong agricultural community we knew we could count on the support of the local businesses as well as corporations.
of an agricultural industry that has a massive potential to expand and set these kids up for careers. Also to make sure the narrative about agriculture is being represented by what actually happens. We want this generation to come up seeing conventional agriculture first hand so that they can carry that message forward and help write the social license that agriculture requires in order to operate without too much government oversight,” stated Nahirniak. The program outline for Round Hill School includes: a student-led farm, 4-H style feeder farm, hatchling chicks to raise broilers, background pigs, community garden, greenhouse, goats and on-site compost. Irvings Farm Fresh, which is located near Round Hill would supply project management, small business management, butchering, and direct marketing for the program.
“It, (agriculture), is something that’s become very relevant. Twenty years ago, thirty years ago, everybody was off the farm or they still had an uncle or a cousin on the farm. Now that doesn’t happen, and so there’s a gap between urban people and where their food comes from, and people want to know about it. So, it’s an excellent opportunity for us to take advantage
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