From left, Adam Feagles, Ashlee Cotton, Kristen Quist and Madison Blood present their plans for an orchard on the Ag PTECH school grounds to local orchard owners for feedback.
Ag PTECH this spring won a grant from the Education Committee for the Eastern New York Chapter of the Air & Waste Management Association to cover the costs of establishing an educational orchard, and students were tasked with coming up with plans for the location of about 20 fruit trees.
First, sophomores in groups presented their plans for planting an orchard on school grounds to the owners of two local orchards. Linda and Ken Coyne of Bellinger’s Orchard in Fultonville and Mitch Rogers of Rogers Family Orchard in Johnstown provided students feedback on all of their ideas.
The best ideas were then cultivated from among all the groups’ concepts, and a group of four students — Madison Blood, Kristen Quist, Ashlee Cotton and Adam Feagles — brought the proposal to the Oppenheim-Ephratah-St. Johnsville Central School District Board of Education during their June meeting.
The students hope to move forward with the plan this summer.
