LIMA — The future is bright for agriculture and engineering students at Lima High School.
The school celebrated the new Lima Senior Career Tech Agriculture, Outdoor Work and Engineering Technology campus Thursday with a ribbon cutting and open house.
“This has been a dream come true for some time,” Lima Schools Superintendent Jill Ackerman said. “It became clear that we needed more space and growth opportunities.”
Lima Senior Principal Darnell Collins said: “This is a really great day. It’s an opportunity for our students to think outside the box about career options they may have never considered before.”
The campus includes an engineering building, an agricultural building, and land with a poultry farm and greenhouse. Approximately 50 second, third, and fourth year students are participating in this program.
“There’s room for growth right now. We expect to grow to 100 or 150 students,” said Frank Kohlhofer, Lima’s senior director of career and technical education.
Lima Senior was inspired to work with companies and universities and use the same equipment and machinery as them.
“The best part about these buildings and the facilities and curriculum inside them is that you can find the same at Northwestern Ohio University and Ohio State’s Lima campus,” Kohlhofer said. “We did our research when putting these buildings up.”
The campus site, located at 700 East Edwards Street, was the site of Emerson Elementary School, which was demolished in 2017.
Lima Senior engineering senior Keonte Newell spoke highly of the program and what the campus meant to him during his final year of high school.
“It meant a lot and helped set me on the path I wanted to take in life. It’s bittersweet not to be able to experience it all, but it has given me a great opportunity to intern with the Ohio Department of Transportation,” he said. Said.
Newell, who hopes to become a civil engineer, said Ohio Northern University, the University of Toledo and Purdue University are schools he is eyeing in the future.
Kohlhofer said a par-3 golf hole on vacant farmland near the chicken coop could be beneficial by teaching students landscaping and lawn care techniques.
Eggs will be sold at the agricultural building for $2 per dozen, and the greenhouse will provide plants and flowers to the community.
Agriculture and Engineering are two of Lima Senior’s 12 career technical programs.
Juniors start their day on campus during three time periods. Second year students will be in the next two periods. Upperclassmen take the last three periods of the day on campus.
The project broke ground in August 2023 and was funded by the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund under the federal CARES Act.
Please contact Cade Higgins at 567-242-0351.
