LIMA — The future is bright for Lima Senior High School’s agriculture and engineering students.
The school celebrated the new Lima Senior Career Tech Agriculture & Outdoor Occupations and Engineering Technology campus Thursday with a ribbon-cutting and open house.
“It’s been a dream in the works for a while,” said Jill Ackerman, superintendent for Lima schools. “It became apparent we needed more space and an opportunity to grow.”
Lima Senior Principal Darnell Collins added, “Today is truly a great day. It’s a chance for students to think outside of the box as far as career choices that they may not have thought about before.”
The campus has an engineering building, an agricultural building, land with a poultry farm and a greenhouse. The program includes around 50 sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
“There is now room to grow. We expect to grow to 100 or 150 students,” said Frank Kohlhofer, Lima Senior director of career and technical education.
Lima Senior was inspired to use the same equipment and machinery as companies and colleges, collaborating with them.
“The very coolest thing about these buildings and the equipment and curriculum inside is that you will see the same things at the University of Northwestern Ohio and the Ohio State-Lima campus,” Kohlhofer said. “We did our research when setting these buildings up.”
Located at 700 E. Edwards St., the campus property was the former home to Emerson Elementary School, which was torn down in 2017.
Keonte Newell, a senior engineering student at Lima Senior, spoke highly of the program and what the campus means to him in his last year of high school.
“It means a lot and has helped guide me towards the path I want in life. It’s bittersweet not to experience everything, but they are giving me good opportunity with an Ohio Department of Transportation internship,” he said.
Hoping to be a civil engineer, Newell listed Ohio Northern University, the University of Toledo, and Purdue University as schools he’s keeping an eye on for his future.
Kohlhofer mentioned a par 3 golf hole on the open farmland near the poultry barn could benefit students by teaching them landscaping skills and managing grass.
Eggs were being sold for $2 per dozen in the agricultural building, and the greenhouse will offer plants and flowers for the community.
Agriculture and engineering are two of the 12 career tech programs at Lima Senior.
Juniors will start their day at the campus for three periods. Sophomores will get the next two periods. Seniors will get the last three periods of the day at the campus.
The project broke ground in August 2023 and was funded by Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds with the Federal CARES Act.
Reach Cade Higgins at 567-242-0351
