About 25 La Salle-Peru High School community members gathered Wednesday to discuss the process of replanting its agriculture program at the high school within the next year, setting a timeline for its launch, among other goals.

Superintendent Steven Wrobleski said fall 2024 will focus on establishing three work groups: a capital campaign team for a new ag building, an ag building construction design team and a curriculum design team – the point of the Wednesday meeting.

Then at the November board meeting he will make a recommendation to post a full-time teaching position so L-P can begin the process of hiring an ag instructor, he said.

In spring 2025, L-P will begin to offer an Illinois Valley Community College course, Introduction to Agricultural Industry. The course will be taught by an IVCC professor on the L-P campus, Wrobleski said.

“We need 10 students to be enrolled in the course for it to be able to run,” he said. “As a dual credit class there’s an age requirement that’s tied to that ... you have to be 16 years of age or older.”

The projected cost of the class at this time is $199.

Wrobleski said during this time the school will hire a new ag teacher, in preparations for the 2025-2026 school year.

In summer 2025, if all goes well, the school hopes to break ground or at least be in the position of releasing bids on a building, Wrobleski said.

“Then in the summertime we want to begin working on half of FFA activities,” he said “So, we’re not going to start pull in the beginning of the school year, but begin to get things in order next summer.”

In fall and spring 2026, Wrobleski said the ag program will go live and then the goal would be to move into the new building sometime in the spring of 2026.

Wrobleski opened the discussion by thanking the people who made the replanting of the ag program a possibility through their advocacy and conversations; Junior Molly Mudge and her family, freshman Mollie Thompson and her family; Lucas Allen, Jenny Wold and the board.

Capital campaign

The new ag building will be built at the corner of Sixth and Creve Coeur streets.

“The district has been methodically over several years now purchasing the housing and properties on that corner and tearing them down as we acquire them,” he said.

The property is 24,000 square acres, Wrobleski said.

Wrobleski said the capital campaign committee will look at the site as well as other ag facilities in the area and ensure the ag department is not missing anything.

“I think this is an exciting piece too, for those who may be interested in the design phase of this,” he said.

Wrobleski said the district doesn’t have a final dollar amount, but he told the board a minimum of $2 million.

The capital campaign committee could also be able to engage with the community to ask for financial support to build the building – including the discussion of naming rights.

Ag building construction

The district architect Mike Kmetz will work with this committee on designing the ag facility.

“This is kind of a fun thing if you’re really interested in or into the nuances of what goes into a facility,” Wrobleski said. “There will be opportunities for site visits to go to visit other places.”

Wrobleski said it would be great to have a greenhouse on the facility.

Curriculum design

Principal Ingrid Cushing said she was happy to see all of the interest in the potential new program at the high school and said there were many different strands of curriculum that fall under the agriculture program.

Cushing provided packets of the different courses; there are eight different career clusters to choose from; agribusiness systems, animal systems, biotechnology systems, environmental service systems, food products and processing systems, natural resource systems, plant systems and power, structural and technical systems.

“Each one of those is a different strand and what we really need is this group to make the determination about what actually interests you,” she said.

She said the reality is they can’t implement every single one so she asked everyone to pick three and email her their choice – even if they chose not to be in the committee.

“This will be a much stronger program if we can ensure that we have voices of everyone here making those selections and not just relying on the adults in the building,” she said.

Community members can email Cushing their curriculum choices at icushing@lphs.net.

Wrobleski took questions after the meeting, some of the questions audience members asked included when the committees would begin.

Wrobleski said they were going to get a list together then set dates, but that every committee would be working on a different schedule as some committees have harder deadlines.

“Our curricular team,” he said. “We really need to have that finalized by January, because that’s when our students begin registering for classes for the next year.”

Riley Hintzsche, asked on Facebook, if the school would commit to running the program for at least five years to build investment from students.

“That certainly would be our recommendation,” Wrobleski said. “And we recognize too that we’ve had programs here that we’ve gotten off the ground that we’ve run with three kids in the class … so my answer to that would be yes.”

Floyd Crane, of La Salle, said he wanted to thank everyone for getting the program going as a 1973 graduate and president of the FFA for two years he said the ag department – specifically his teacher changed his life.

Crane said he would probably sign up for the building construction committee.

Wrobleski ended by telling the students in the room how exciting it is for them to be a part for the ag program from the ground level.

“You know your names are going to be permanently etched here in the history of rekindling and replanting the ag program here,” he said.

“What a legacy to leave behind.”