Athens middle school FFA team performs for board; students win vote to brief board twice a year

The Athens Area School District board heard a presentation and demonstration by the Athens Middle School FFA executive team and approved the chapter’s student motion—amended from an annual update to a biannual update—at the meeting.

Teacher and FFA leader Mrs. Bidlak introduced the middle school team and described program highlights, saying the district’s ag program recently added a floriculture class with 40 students and that students “have grown over 500 heads of lettuce, built over 500 miniature greenhouses, [and] made a thousand Christmas swags” as part of hands-on learning and entrepreneurship.

During the student demonstration, chapter vice president Serrano Marica moved that the chapter “update our school board program yearly.” After discussion, student Kylie Hill moved to amend the motion to replace “yearly” with “biannually.” The amendment was seconded and approved by voice vote; the amended main motion (to update the board biannually) stood as adopted by the student chapter.

Students explained components of the FFA three-circle model—classroom instruction, Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE), and FFA—and described SAE requirements such as record-keeping, resume and business-card creation, and buyer outreach for livestock projects. The advisor noted middle school membership of about 200 students and that teams compete locally, regionally and statewide.

Board members thanked the students and advisors for the presentation. The student officers introduced themselves to the board following the demonstration.

The board did not take a formal governance action on the FFA program itself; the motion and vote recorded in the transcript were made by the student chapter during their demonstration and reflect the chapter’s direction to brief the board on the agricultural program biannually.