EPHRATA — Local schools have earned multiple grants for equipment that will help ensure students have access to skills training and academic success programs, according to an Ephrata School District press release.

Ephrata Middle School agriculture instructor Ashley Hamlett led that campus’s efforts to obtain a $20,000 grant from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Washington FFA Foundation. The awarded funds will be used to build a greenhouse at the school to facilitate the school’s Agriculture Technology class.

The ag class is new to Ephrata Middle School this year and introduces students to agriculture and helps prepare them for agriculture activities at Ephrata High School. The Future Farmers of America program benefits from the promotion of agricultural education at the middle and high school levels. 

“Eventually, the school hopes to purchase a Farmbot for the new greenhouse. A Farmbot performs almost all processes prior to harvesting including sowing, mechanical weed control and watering while accounting for factors such as the age of the plant and local weather conditions,” the press release said. 

The district also received a $50,000 Comprehensive Graduate Rate Continuous School Improvement Grant. It will use the funds to help Ephrata High School students utilize Big Bend Community College’s Open Doors Program, which works to reengage current or prior EHS students ages 16 to 21 to earn a diploma in a college environment. 

The board authorized use of the CGRCSIC grant funding for the purchase of laptops and backpacks for students with any remaining funds to go toward GED testing, College Level Examination Prep — also known as CLEP — tests and speakers and training on social and emotional learning. The intent of the program is to aid students who struggled to get enough credits to graduate finish their programs and find success through BBCC’s Open Doors Program.