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Superintendent and staff highlight agriscience relaunch, partnerships and early enrollment gains
Summary
Superintendent Smith and Director Tasha Brown told the board Des Moines Public Schools is relaunching its Central Campus agriscience program with community partners (Iowa State University, LSI, Microsoft, Botanical Gardens) and reported 30 students have already enrolled for next year.
Superintendent Smith and program leaders told the Des Moines Independent Comm School District board on May 19 that the district is relaunching the agriscience program at Central Campus and expanding community partnerships to support student learning and community access to the grounds.
Smith said enrollment has begun to climb: "30 students are already signed up to take part in the program next school year, double the number we saw when things were put on hold last year," and credited outreach and new partnership planning for the increase.
Tasha Brown, the district's director of career technical education, described work with Iowa State University, Lutheran Services in Iowa (LSI), Microsoft and the Botanical Gardens of Des Moines to develop programming and community use of facilities. Brown said LSI is establishing a Global Greens garden on the site and that the project has space for community plots; she noted "we have enough plots for 45 families that have been on a wait list" and described connections to Wesley Life's hydroponics work, Meals on Wheels and the Food Bank of Iowa.
Brown also said the district has hired a nationally experienced agriscience leader who will start in the fall and that staff plan to use the campus for community education, farm and gardening plots, and a possible orchard. Board members praised the program's partners and earlier local efforts to reimagine the offering.
The recognitions concluded with the board moving on to the consent agenda; no policy votes specific to the agriscience program were taken at this meeting.
