Where Learning Takes Root: East Aurora’s Hands-On Approach to Sustainability.

In this episode of Achieving Joy and Mastery in Public Schools, we visit East Aurora Union Free School District to celebrate a powerful example of authentic, hands-on learning.

Superintendent Brian Russ joins the podcast to share the story behind East Aurora High School’s Sustainable Agriculture program, launched during the 2023–2024 school year on the district’s beautiful 107-acre campus, once family farmland. Rather than simply honoring the land’s history, East Aurora is bringing it back to life as a “living laboratory” where students learn through farming, animal care, composting, soil health, sustainability, food systems, entrepreneurship, and service to the community.

This episode also features 12th grader Maya Reynolds, along with the work of teachers Jeff Shelley and Ethan Hansen, who are helping students connect science, environmental stewardship, responsibility, business, and community in meaningful ways.

At its heart, this conversation is about what happens when public schools create learning experiences that are real, relevant, and rooted in place. East Aurora’s Sustainable Agriculture program reminds us that students can do more than study the world around them. They can help sustain it, improve it, and grow from it.

Find us on Twitter @NiagaraErie

Or visit our website E-NSSA.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:04

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Eerie Niagara School Superintendents Association's podcast, achieving joy and mastery in public schools. I am your host, Brian Graham, superintendent of the Grand Island Central School District. We are really excited that you're listening today. This podcast is designed to celebrate all that is good in public education around Western New York. We will be featuring programs and innovative ideas that inspire and influence our students, faculty, staff, and community in new and exciting ways. So, everybody, let's get started. Today on the podcast, we have Brian Russ, the superintendent of the Easter Aurora Union Free School District. Brian began his educational career as a teacher in Akron Central, working mostly at the high school level. While teaching at Akron, he received his educational administration degree. He quickly was identified as a successful candidate for an assistant principal position in Akron. And later, after building a house here in East Aurora, he applied for the post of principal. Brian Russ was hired by the district in 2004 and later became the director of instructional technology and was the chief information officer before accepting the role of interim superintendent and eventually being hired as the superintendent, ladies and gentlemen, in 2011. Brian, you really, really have broken the glass ceiling. We're very, very proud of you as a cohort of superintendents. Brian was highly successful, or is has been a highly successful superintendent for 15 years. And today we're going to be discussing the sustainable agriculture program that was launched here in 2023 and 2024. What makes this story especially meaningful is that East Aurora High School sits, and I did not know this, Brian, on 107 acres. Do I have that correct? Yep. That's correct. Yeah, a hundred and seven acre campus here in East Aurora, and it was was once a family farmland. I think we're going to learn about that in a moment. Rather than simply remembering that history, as most schools do, the district is bringing it back to life through a modern sustainable agricultural program that gives students hands-on experience with farming, animal care. Maya was telling me there's even there were cows here yesterday, so I gotta I can't wait to talk to her about that. So not only animal care and farming, but sustainability, composting, food systems, entrepreneurship, and service to the East Aurora community. East Aurora schools have approximately 1,700 students served in three different schools. Brian, welcome back to the podcast. Thank you, Brian. It's great to be here with you today. Yeah, I am so excited about this work that and this episode. It's so unique. And I guess I did not really know this was going on here. And I'm very, very impressed, not only with the teachers and Maya that are sitting with us today, but the vision of your staff, your faculty, and how this is growing. And it's really not that old, but it's really uh taken off, hasn't it? It sure has. Yeah, yeah. It's really great. It is so great. So, you know, uh we talk a lot about the the title of this podcast is Achieving Joy and Mastery in Public Schools. I'm just curious what's bringing you joy right now as a superintendent?

SPEAKER_05 3:40

I guess innovative programs like sustainable agriculture are the staff, administrators, and teachers working together to create programs that our students are really interested in. And so principals work closely with our students to get feedback. I work with um a student advisory group as well to get information about what's going well in the school district and where we can use some help. And they always come up with some great ideas, and and part of this came from our looking at our own food service program. And that's kind of where the idea first came. But I'll get into that a little bit later in the podcast. But I think the innovative programming is really exciting. I think it provides like innovation and a variety that our students are really enjoying.

SPEAKER_03 4:20

Yeah, that's great. And you and I have done a podcast before, and it really was also celebrating innovation at the middle school level. And in in the intros, Maya was saying, Oh, I was part of that program in middle school, which I'm not surprised about. I imagine that's still going on, right? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, it's very successful. Yeah, that's awesome. So, and if I recall, and I, you know, help me out a little bit. I remember that there were some authentic performances by the middle school students as part of this program. Do you want to just give a little color to that?

SPEAKER_05 4:50

Yeah, so they work on passion projects and they work on them throughout the year. And then we have this uh this day in the spring, which is coming up soon, where they get to put their projects on display at at Knox Farm. So we work at the mansion, and each one of them gets to talk about their project with the public. And every year when I attend, I try to visit every one of them. And I'll tell you, I'm just blown away by their creativity and the passion that they have for their particular topic. And so I think it's just a great way to help them to learn just better communication skills, research skills, the ability to stand up and present. Yes. Those are all really valuable things that they learn uh throughout the process, and they seem to really enjoy it.

SPEAKER_03 5:30

Yeah, and I think, quite honestly, you are ahead of the curve, right? You and your teachers and your students doing work like this at the middle school level is transformative, I think, and well aligned with what the portrait of a new graduate is really communicating across the state. And and so I think there's a lot, you know, for our listeners to absorb today and to celebrate the good work that's been going on here. And that program has been, you know, been around for a while, hasn't it? The middle school program.

SPEAKER_05 6:01

Yeah, for for several years. And every year it it sells out. Yeah. Yeah. The class is maxed out every year because we just have so many kids who are interested in participating.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

Yeah. And it feels a little bit like a capstone project. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_05 6:14

That's exactly what it is. Yeah, it's a capstone.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

And I love that you've titled it Passion Projects, right? And it doesn't seem so ominous. But it I would imagine that these students work on it for all of eighth grade. Oh, for the majority of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:28

They they kind of start off in the beginning talking about how do you go through the process. So they uh the teachers are teaching them those kind of research skills and those development skills. Yeah. And then they they start identifying their their their area of passion, and then they develop it, and it takes months to prepare the uh, like you said, the capstone work.

SPEAKER_03 6:45

Yeah, yeah, it's really, really great. So thank you for sharing that with our audience. And you know, before we introduce the guests at the table, I always love to kind of probe a little bit and what inspired or influenced our guests to pursue education, right? It's such an important endeavor and it's a labor of love, right? So, where where did you grow up? I grew up in Chictawaga. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 7:07

Where'd you go to school? I went to Chictawaga Central.

SPEAKER_03 7:09

Nice, nice, nice. I was just there last week. We had an artificial intelligence summit that Scott Zip and the PDK of Buffalo, Niagara put together. Great campus. He's doing amazing work there. It's really, really great. So you grew up there, and then what influenced you to pursue education?

SPEAKER_05 7:26

Well, I I I think when I look back on it, I started off as a lifeguard when I was like 15 years old. And I taught I taught kids uh swim lessons and they were from age five to probably 15. Nice. You know, I was a swimmer and I just loved doing it. And and then when I decided to go off to college, I was actually like at that time back in the 80s, you know, like computer science management information systems was a really big area of focus. And so that's where I studied. But quite honestly, I I didn't find it completely fulfilling. Right. So I decided to go back to graduate school and and study education.

SPEAKER_03 7:59

Nice, nice.

SPEAKER_05 8:00

Very good.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

So do you dabble? Do you code at all?

SPEAKER_05 8:03

Uh no, I've given that up a number of years ago.

SPEAKER_03 8:06

All right, that's awesome. So I'm excited right now to introduce Jeff Shelley. All right. So, Jeff, it's a pleasure to meet you. I know you're a science teacher here at the high school, but maybe uh help us uh give a little bio, a little background to your journey. Maybe where where did you grow up and what what inspired you to pursue education?

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Yep. So I grew up in the Hamlet of Colden, just outside of East Road a little bit. Yeah. I've attended Springville High School for all my years.

SPEAKER_03 8:32

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

And I pretty much, right from a young age, knew I wanted to do something with weather or earth sciences. Right. So very quickly, I decided that earth science was going to be my forte that I really wanted to dive into. So all through high school.

SPEAKER_03 8:47

Where'd you go after high school?

SPEAKER_01 8:48

So after high school, I went to SUNY Genesio.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

Um and I got a geology degree. Nice, which allowed me to be able to either be a geologist or go on in earth science and got the chemistry certification.

SPEAKER_03 9:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

And very quickly came back here back home looking for a job and landed a job right here in East Roar, my first year.

SPEAKER_03 9:07

So that's great. And and and it's a good, you know, when I drive through this community, it's just one of the most iconic communities in western New York. And I imagine, you know, working here is awesome. Do you still live in the Springville area?

SPEAKER_01 9:21

So I live just outside of East Roar in Colden. Yeah. Um my hometown. Um but seven-minute drive to school, which is really nice. But yes, yeah, it's really great, great community to be in.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

So what's on your caseload as a science teacher right now?

SPEAKER_01 9:34

So I've always been Earth and Chemistry. Over years, I developed an environmental science program that they actually can get college credit for through was ECC. Nice. Um now it's Buffalo State University. So I've got about 45 to 50 students enrolled in that this year. Yeah. So I teach three sections of that. So it's kind of a kind of neat that I actually don't teach any regents anymore. I teach all juniors and seniors, um, whether it be environmental science or the sustainable agriculture.

SPEAKER_03 9:59

Right. Um and and this particular course that Maya's in, we're gonna meet Maya in a moment, is the what do you call it?

SPEAKER_01 10:07

The So Sustainable Agriculture. Sustainable agriculture, right. Yeah. And it's a senior elective. Only seniors can take it, but it is within our science realm because we are both science teachers. Of course. So it can be kind of their fourth science or fifth science, like Maya's case. Yeah. But it cannot replace for actual science course.

SPEAKER_03 10:24

Yeah. And and you also have a club, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Yeah. So we have a club to in order to basically take the money in and out. We have monthly club meetings where we have business meetings where they uh approve for the bills, approve purchases. We have a treasurer that does a treasurer's report. We have a secretary that keeps all their notes. Wow. That gets all turned into the to the auditors to to look at our money going in and out. Wow. But again, the the idea is we've gotten money from our educational foundation to get the program going, but moving forward, all of the funds come from our sales.

SPEAKER_07 10:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

And so far we've been doing pretty well after being two or three years in that we're sustaining our programs, we're adding to programs, and it's really the kids, their hard work, that that sweat equity that is actually allowing us to grow into our different fields of study that we're doing.

SPEAKER_03 11:14

Yeah, that's great. Well, we're gonna introduce uh Ethan Hansen next. Ethan, I understand you also are a science teacher in the high school and with a specialty maybe in physics.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Yep. I teach API physics, regions physics, computer programming.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

Oh, very nice.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

And sustainable agriculture.

SPEAKER_03 11:32

Yeah. So all great stuff. I'm a kind of a nerd. I do a lot with AI. I'm building dashboards and perplexity and clod, but you know, you really know how to do it. I just wing it and fake it a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

I guess.

SPEAKER_03 11:46

What what are you introducing kids as far as computer science go? What what are the basics? What are you teaching them?

SPEAKER_00 11:52

So the the course is it's an AP course called AP Computer Science Principles. Nice. So it's it's kind of basic coding principles, but also computer science vocabulary and nice terminology. Nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:05

Great, great. So tell me about your background. You know, where did you grow up and why did you pursue science as a career?

SPEAKER_00 12:12

So I grew up in Barker, which is in northeastern Niagara County on the lake.

SPEAKER_03 12:18

And Jacob Ryan, Jacob Reimer's the super there. And I was just there just a few weeks ago, and we did a podcast. They have a great partnership with United Way, and it really supports their community. But I also just want to give him a plug. He's got a solar farm on his property, and I'm jealous about that. Yeah, but he's great. Do you do you still live in that area?

SPEAKER_00 12:39

I do not. I I had a really great experience in Barker Schools, and it's a farming community. Yeah. I was not a farmer as a interesting, yeah. My family isn't in farming. That was a more recent endeavor. But grew up in Barker, uh, went to Geneseo, studied physics, and both of you guys went to Geneseo.

SPEAKER_03 13:04

Yes. We didn't overlap. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

I was there right before. Close.

SPEAKER_03 13:07

Nice, nice.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

But yeah, I would say I like physics. Yes. But I think my true passion is agriculture. Yeah. So I feel very It's wild, right?

SPEAKER_03 13:18

This this journey, you know, from living in a farming community but not farming, who now now you're very passionate about it. Where does that come from?

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Agriculture program here kind of started. I don't know what got into me, but I was inspired to present at our staff wellness day.

SPEAKER_03 13:34

Okay. Probably to get tenure, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:36

I don't I don't think so. I was I was feeling feeling particularly inspired at that time. And gave a present. I had started a couple years before it started working at a local farm, pasture-based livestock farm. Say that again. Pasture-based livestock farm. So I don't know what that means. So that means our animals are not in barns. Okay. We rotate them through pasture. Pasture-based.

SPEAKER_03 14:01

All right. I got confused with that word.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

So chicken, pork, dairy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:07

And where is that happening?

SPEAKER_00 14:08

That's Herba Verde Farms in Easter Aura. Easter Aura, got it.

unknown 14:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

So I started working there and while you're teaching here.

SPEAKER_03 14:15

Yeah. Brian, we got to talk about your contract here. What's happening?

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Well, it started because I used to teach summer I call it NerdCamp. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 14:24

Yeah. I I would sign up.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Talent gifted and talented summer program through through Johns Hopkins.

SPEAKER_03 14:30

Nice. Totally nerd camp.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

And it got canceled.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

It feels like longer ago than COVID times, but it got canceled in COVID. Yeah. So I didn't have any kids yet, so I was looking for something to do. Yeah. And I didn't realize till later that I think my interest in farming started by the YouTube algorithm. I was teaching myself how to build a fence at my house.

SPEAKER_03 14:56

Yep. Watching YouTube videos and then the algorithm started giving you more.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Giving me agriculture things.

SPEAKER_03 15:02

Here's a fence for a farm. Here's a fence for a barn or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

I guess I'm not totally sure to this day, like exactly what I love about it, but I just know when I'm doing agriculture things and I'm outside and working with animals, that's where I want to be. So we just kept going with it.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

Yeah. That's awesome. It's a great story. So so this all happened, and somehow you brought forth this idea, maybe, or a portion of the idea at a staff development session.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Yeah. So Mr. Russ was gracious enough to attend my presentation, and the high school principal, Mr. Roberts, was there. And then they kind of came up to me maybe that day and were saying, Yeah, hey, what wonder if we can do something neat here?

SPEAKER_03 15:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

And so the next couple of years we were visiting different schools. We went to Royhart. Okay. We went down to Bolivar. Wow. They kind of had a program that so Medina and Royhart are FFA programs. Okay. Bolivar was sort of, you know, on their own kind of program. They had the their mascots, the Wolverine. Yeah. So the Wolverine Environmental Education Center, I think they called it.

SPEAKER_03 16:21

Absorbed a lot of different school resources.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Yeah, learned what other people were doing and what would fit here. And then we went to the agriculture uh the educational foundation, the Easter Educational Foundation, and um put together a proposal for funding.

SPEAKER_03 16:38

Shark Tank proposal. We love it. Yeah. And and you guys won. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

They seem to be excited about it.

SPEAKER_03 16:46

Yeah, it makes perfect sense.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

It was a little daunting. Yeah, we had a lot of grand ideas, and they they said, hey, let's go for it.

SPEAKER_03 16:54

Yeah. Congratulations. That's awesome. So now I want to introduce our student guest, and that is Maya Reynolds. Maya Reynolds, we were chatting before we started the podcast. You honestly are a fascinating, fascinating student, and I'm so thrilled to meet you. So tell our audience a little bit about yourself and let's start with your grandparents in Idaho, if you don't mind.

SPEAKER_06 17:19

Yeah. My grandparents were potato farmers in Rexburg, Idaho, where they were farmers in the summer and teachers in the winter. Wow. And they mostly grew potatoes and wheat because that's kind of just what you grow in Idaho. Yeah. They impressed upon my mother that she should get out of farming. Oh. But I can see the impact that her childhood in the farming community has had on my family and myself. My father was grew up on a farm in Maryland with his parents, and it was much smaller. It was more of a family farm, not meant to grow anything to sell. Okay. But he learned a lot of like important skills that he's passed on to me. Right. My parents met in Utah and then moved to East Amherst.

SPEAKER_03 18:13

I just gotta nudge a little bit. Idaho for your mom.

SPEAKER_06 18:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:17

Your dad in Maryland. They they somehow get together in Utah. Oh, that's where they went to school and end up in Western New York.

SPEAKER_06 18:25

Yeah. My dad got moved to work for the National Weather Service in the Buffalo office. And we lived in East Amherst for the first couple years of my life.

SPEAKER_03 18:37

Okay. You know, that is a really cool story on so many levels. I love the farming story with your grandparents. I love your grandmother saying, hey, you got to get out of farming. And here you are. You're like the president of this agri sustainable agriculture club. You're so excited to be part of it. And and off mic, you were saying that you were inspired to make your own garden at home. Maybe share a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_06 19:03

It started before COVID. My dad, before we moved to East Aurora, had a cornfield almost every summer. And I didn't really think much about it because I was very young and there wasn't a ton that I could do in the field. But I it did impress something on me that during COVID, when I was extremely bored and I had almost nothing to do, I kind of had an aha moment where I was like, oh, I want to grow my own garden. So I went to my dad and we went out and bought the tools and we started a garden that summer. And it slowly transitioned to from it being a dual effort to more of a I pick a theme every year and I grow my own stuff in my garden. And it's self-led and it gives me a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge pertaining to the subject. And it's kind of grown a lot of passion for farming and growing my own food.

SPEAKER_03 20:01

Yeah. Yeah. And I I do love the whole idea that, you know, you're COVID, like everybody started a hobby and during COVID. My daughter was like, I'm gonna learn how to bake. And it's just amazing. You know, sometimes out of bad comes good. And and this has certainly been a good thing. I can just see it on your face, how how much fun you had working with your dad. And and not only that, but you have themes. So I've never heard of gardening with themes. Maybe just tell our audience just a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_06 20:32

I think one of the first years I didn't really have a theme, but I was just trying to grow the most exotic things that I could find in the store. Yeah. So I would my actually the variety that's kept through all of the years that I've grown is the golden cherry tomato. Okay. I found that I like them a lot more than the red cherries. I just picked them out because they were yellow. Yeah, yeah. Um but you turned out. Just a little bit of experimentation has allowed me to grow my like variety and allowed me to kind of explore what is out there in the agriculture world. Another example is color. One year I picked color. So I picked up it. I went out and I grabbed the most like out there plants that I could find that would give me the most variety and color for my garden. Like purple potatoes, purple carrots. There are a lot of purple things that year.

SPEAKER_03 21:24

But it's very clever though. And I think I I don't know. I don't know anything about gardening or farming, but that sounds fun. It sounds like I could get behind like build, you know, having a theme around a garden. And I bet you a lot of our listeners are just nodding and listening and thinking, what a great idea. And this is coming from you as a 16 year old at the time, 17?

SPEAKER_06 21:47

Yeah, I started when I was about 13 or 14. Okay, yeah. And 18 now. So I've got quite a few years of growing my garden under my body.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Love it. So we're we're definitely going to circle back to Mr. Russ and the teachers, and then we're going to wrap things up with you. But as as we get ready to transition, you were telling me a story about your grandparents, about your your parents, and how supportive, honestly, they have been in your in this passion of yours. But what impassioned you? You told me a story. One of the teachers showed you a Google slide and you were in eighth grade. Tell us that story real quick.

SPEAKER_06 22:27

My freshman year of high school, my one of the teachers on this podcast, Mr. Shelley, came in to my biology class and he had this Google slide presenting in the introduction of the Easter aura sustainable agriculture. And I was just I was kind of in shock. I was like, wow, this is this is right up my alley. I love a program like this.

SPEAKER_02 22:53

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_06 22:54

And I just got involved from there. I have been on several of the field trips before I could even join the class. I was very interested in becoming a into a leadership position for this program. And I've just been kind of following their progress since.

SPEAKER_03 23:14

Yeah. And before I transition, there's a club. So d is the club open to underclassmen or is it only open to seniors? The club. I know the course is for 12th graders.

SPEAKER_06 23:25

The club is mostly seniors because it's much easier to run because it's you know run by the seniors. Right, right. In general.

SPEAKER_02 23:35

Totally get it.

SPEAKER_06 23:36

But you can get involved with the farm. You just have to come like ask.

SPEAKER_03 23:42

Okay. So an underclassman could help.

SPEAKER_06 23:44

Yeah. And also the farm itself is open to the public all day. We have a sign outside the farm that says so. Nice. It's it's a public farm. So you can just come in and explore.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

I love it. So I want to learn more about the origin story. So we're going to go to Mr. Russ. So this is great. So, Brian, obviously you uh are watching Ethan do this presentation, and you and the principal are like inspired to begin to make this grow. You know, tell us a little bit about that and and you know give us that overarching view of how important this work is for your high school.

SPEAKER_05 24:21

Sure. I was working with my student advisory group and it's students in grades seven through twelve, right? We meet several times throughout the year. Yeah. Just to talk about, right? Yep. Just to talk about how things are going in school and you know, how can we make things better? And one of their areas of focus for that year was food service. And so, you know, after we came out of COVID, food service was was really, you know, in some ways they were struggling, just getting employees, the the supplies, and those types of things. So we were rebuilding our our food service program and our lunches and breakfasts and those types of things. And they just started asking me about can we look for additional variety in our offerings and also doing more like That's okay, yeah. Okay. I love that that's going on because people know we're really in a school. Okay. Sorry. Uh and and just looking for more like kind of uh farm to table, those types of things. We reach out to local like farms to see what we could bring in. And we do that already. Our our food service director is excellent and and does everything they can, but they're on limited budgets and there's a lot of challenges. Right. So we said, yeah, let's see what we can do. So we brought those people down to speak to the group and and and we were making some progress in terms of making some changes. And then on our wellness day, Mr. Hansen was presenting and we stopped by to see what he was talking about. And I was really interested. It was right up you know our alley in terms of what we were trying to do in the student advisory group. And so I asked him to come and speak to that group. And even on the day of his presentation, even before that happened, Mr. Roberts, the principal and I, we said, Hey, do you think there's something we could do with this? You know, could we create some kind of, you know, agricultural course? Because our kids seem to be really interested. Yeah. And he was really interested in. And before I knew it, I thought we were just gonna start with the classroom experience and then build the farm over time. But within four or five months, they applied for a grant. Uh, our educational foundation is incredible. They've been incredibly supportive of not only this program, but many programs throughout the district. And so it wouldn't be possible without their contributions. And so and that's the only way we really got the farm started so quickly because they gave us the money to get it started. And they just took it, Mr. Shelley and Mr. Hansen, and ran with it. Yeah. And so and then there was a great response from the kids, and here we are today. It's and it's just grown. Yeah. They just continue to kind of you know they're working on the like the business of farming, that's an important piece. That's right. So that's the classroom work that they do. Right. Uh and they talk about the research and the technologies of farming, that kind of stuff. And then they go work on the farm, which I think is the most fun part of the class. And they work with our chickens and plant our crops, and they've expanded to a uh a bee farm. And there's just so many great things going on. But it's really based on uh their desire to take it and run and the kids' desire to do the work and participate. So it's really just been a great experience.

SPEAKER_03 27:08

Yeah, it sounds amazing. So, Jeff, uh, you know, Brian was just talking about you know the the classroom experience and having your students understand the economics of farming, right, and some of the challenges and some of the celebrations. So I would assume you have learned quite a bit. And how many sections of this course are current?

SPEAKER_01 27:31

So we have one section. Okay. Um takes place at the very end of the day, eighth period. Nice. So that they when they leave school, they're a little dirty.

SPEAKER_03 27:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

And the moms can deal with that with the laundry. I'm sure there's a few disgruntled parents out there at times.

SPEAKER_03 27:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

But yeah, the big thing in the economics-wise is again, Beath, both Ethan and I are science teachers. Right. So we are go-getters, we want to build things, we want to experiment and see how things work. The business end was never a natural rush. Yes. So I will say that's the one thing that we had to kind of pick up the most on trying to figure out like what do you charge for things, how to market the products. Because again, we produce about 35 dozen eggs every two weeks. Yes. That we sell through shares within the school.

SPEAKER_03 28:11

We produce 35 dozen every two weeks?

SPEAKER_01 28:14

Every two weeks.

SPEAKER_03 28:15

For for 40 weeks of a spring.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

So not the entire year, but springtime we have extra chickens on board. Interesting. Um, we raise brand new chickens every fall. Right. It takes six months to actually start laying eggs.

SPEAKER_03 28:27

Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

And then we actually sell for a profit. We'll sell them for like$25 a piece. An egg layer that's about a year and a half old. So you sell the chicken. Yep, we'll sell the chicken to someone that wants to start their own farm.

SPEAKER_03 28:39

Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Um, every year we put out a Facebook posting and people line up out there with their dog crates and cat crates. Give me that chicken. And they they will pick them up for$25 a piece, which we put back as money into it.

SPEAKER_07 28:51

Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

So, yeah, right now in the spring we always have the most. We have to decrease a little over the summer just because we don't have the resources to handle that many um chickens.

SPEAKER_03 29:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

But yeah, so we we saw the eggs. We sold about was about 45 pounds of honey this past year.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

Yeah, and that's relatively new, right? The bees. Yep. So tell us about that. That's pretty fast.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

Um we have a local business masterson's garden center in town. Okay. Erin Helko, who's a substitute teacher here. Her son was in our class last year. Okay. We know her really well, and she is pretty much like the B lady of Western York. Anyone that's got a B question, yeah, Erin is the one that they go to. So she's been kind of like a I would say a third faculty member for the like three years. Yeah. And so she set us up with five hives out in the back.

SPEAKER_03 29:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

We originally had them in the farm and they became a little distracting because the students were nervous with them.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

I was gonna ask that question.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

So now if you look when you drive in at the at the our front entrance at Eastora High School, on the left hand side is our farm, yeah, and on the right hand side is our bees. Nice. Our bees are right right at near the entrance, off tucked away in the side.

SPEAKER_03 29:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

We have five hives. You normally lose a few. Right now, I think we've got two or three hives active this year, but last year was our first year with the honey.

SPEAKER_03 30:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:01

And we emptied our honey in July and in October and have produced, I would say, about 120 little quarts of honey.

SPEAKER_03 30:10

Amazing. So we're talking chickens, we're talking bees, and what other really cool, maybe unique things are happening on this farm?

SPEAKER_01 30:19

So we do have definitely tried to take both Mr. Hansen's my expertise together. I'm really good at trees and forestry and items like that. So we actually connected with our old technology teacher, Mr. Schmidt, who has his own Christmas tree farm. We've had him come in last year and speak with the students. But when you come to our athletic fields out there, the far side is just a looks like an abandoned goldenrod field. Now there's about 130. What is happening here, Mr.

SPEAKER_03 30:47

Russ? You have farms, you have bees, and you have a like a Christmas tree. And a Christmas tree farm. Yeah, this is crazy. All right, tell me more.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Yeah, so we developed the farm the first year. We planted a few trees. We lost a few. It happens with hot, dry summers and all that. So we're on our third year planting. They're now about a foot and a half tall.

SPEAKER_03 31:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

But it'll take about seven or eight years to produce it, to actually make the live trees. Last week was kind of a neat moment. We've had a tradition here at our school that we go to fourth grade Parkdale. Okay, fourth graders, they're moving on to the middle school.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

Right.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

And the tradition has been for the last eight years is our sustainability club here at the high school donates trees for each child to take home as a fourth grader on Arbor Day. So when we were down at Parkdale last week, the some of my students that were presenting that are in this class kind of had this ah-a moment that these gentle these kids are seven or eight years out from being here at the high school.

SPEAKER_03 31:42

Super smart.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

So they will be the class that actually gets to maybe harvest that first set of Christmas trees.

SPEAKER_03 31:49

Yeah. Oh my goodness. So, Jeff, if if somebody listening wants to just get a hold of you and talk about starting a Christmas tree farm on school property, how do they get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_01 32:01

So we do have a Facebook page where we try to keep updated. Nice. Um just look up Easter Our Sustainable Agriculture or through our district website. We're always posting events that are going on or such like that.

SPEAKER_03 32:14

Because you know, Ethan said a while ago you all went and visited different school districts. I imagine now people are gonna come and visit you.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

Last year, I think we had a solid maybe 20 schools cycle through here at some point. I know tomorrow we have Akron coming to visit. Love it. But I will say a majority of the schools in southern Erie County have stopped by Eastore in the past year to see where they can steal or what ideas they can take.

SPEAKER_03 32:41

Yeah, definitely back. Definitely a lot to celebrate. So, Ethan, I'm learning so much. I obviously did not prepare well enough to know all the great things this farm is doing, not only for your students and for you, I think, as teachers, but for the entire community and the young children at Parkdale learning about everything from you know the Christmas tree farm and Arbor Science and all that kind of stuff. So, so I understand that this farm also had cows for for some time.

SPEAKER_00 33:12

Yeah, so that project kind of started by accident last school year.

SPEAKER_03 33:18

Okay. This should this should be fascinating. So I own some cow jumped over the moon, landed at the farm.

SPEAKER_00 33:26

Outside of school, I own some beef cattle.

SPEAKER_03 33:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

And not every not every mother cow is as good as the others. So there was one that wasn't taking good care of her calf. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 33:39

And oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

I was kind of catching it in the pasture and trying to get it a bottle and then trying to decide if the mom was gonna step up to the plate or not. Wow. And then it kind of hit me, we should just take it to school. Of course. And I I think I texted Jeff.

SPEAKER_02 33:59

That's what would have been my first thought.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

Uh texted Jeff. He's like, sure, we're always I mean, that's one of the things about us. We just go for stuff.

SPEAKER_02 34:08

It's good that you checked with your teacher colleague.

SPEAKER_00 34:11

I did check with uh Bill Roberts, high school principal.

SPEAKER_02 34:14

Oh, there you go, there you go.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

I think he was skeptical, but he's learned to kind of go with the flu.

SPEAKER_03 34:23

So when did this happen? Recently?

SPEAKER_00 34:25

So this was right before the start of school twenty night twenty twenty-four.

SPEAKER_03 34:31

Okay, wow, so yeah, a couple years ago.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

So that ended up being a surprise for the first day of school. Yeah, and the club, and it worked out timing-wise that we went out for class for the first day, and there's this calf out there.

SPEAKER_03 34:46

The kids must have fallen in love. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

So her name, they named her Patty.

SPEAKER_03 34:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

And just some of the coolest parts of this program are the things that you don't expect. Yeah. So uh we have a Bose's classroom in our building. Yeah, makes sense. They're work-based learning.

SPEAKER_03 35:08

Sure, high school age kids trying to learn vocational skills.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

And one of their teachers, Mr. Paulini, just kind of like hey, started coming around and asking, hey, do you need any help? And then perfect for the kids. A bunch of his students got into it. And so they ended up taking on. So this is a calf that has to get bottle fed twice a day. Yeah. So they took on you know, one of the bottle feeding and turned it into, you know, their therapist would come out and and kind of integrate their therapy into the whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 35:44

Super smart.

SPEAKER_00 35:45

So, and now we have a really good relationship with with his class and his students.

SPEAKER_03 35:51

It's so smart.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

And, you know, they're they're really valuable as members of our community.

SPEAKER_03 35:58

And they're learning super important skills, right?

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Even stuff like you know, working on occupational therapy tasks, you know, opening the gates and grossing. Following the instructions, closing, closing gates and mixing the milk and all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_03 36:13

Amazing. So just one cow was on the farm, right?

SPEAKER_00 36:17

That year. Oh, this is the story. It was it was so successful. Right. So we returned, we raised her through the school year and we returned her to her herd. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:28

The other animals interesting. Oh, okay. In the spring. How did that work out?

SPEAKER_00 36:33

She's a little bit antisocial.

SPEAKER_03 36:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

But she's doing good. Yeah, good. And then it this wasn't even we weren't even really trying for this. We just had two more mother cows that were not doing a great job. And maybe I think we could have tried harder to you know get their mothers to do a better job. But we then we have two this year. So they were just yesterday. They just left yesterday. Yeah. So the grass is growing, it's time to go back into green pastures. And so they went back to the herd yesterday.

SPEAKER_03 37:11

And so I and they look good. I'm gonna have to check that Facebook page to see what other surprises come come your way.

SPEAKER_00 37:18

My my farm business partner outside of school said, those calves look great. Compliment, compliment the students. Yeah. They did a great job.

SPEAKER_03 37:25

Yeah. And yeah, really great message. So this is just an incredible story. It's there's a lot of fun, but a lot of hard, hard work. And when you think about farming and all the work that goes into it, you know, there's the summer. And we we, you know, in schools work 186 days or give or take. And the summer sometimes uh you know can be an obstacle to do a project like this. How have you overcome the you know these obstacles?

SPEAKER_00 37:52

Yeah, I think we've all seen our fair share of school gardens that fizzle out in the summer.

SPEAKER_03 37:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

We knew from the beginning, I think as I recall, our our visit to Bolivar kind of cemented the idea that we needed a plan for the summer. And so uh Patricia was her name. She she told us we have people students that come in the summer, and I don't know if they were paying them, but but they had a plan.

SPEAKER_03 38:20

So oh in Bolivar.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

Yep, yep. And so we reached out to the educational foundation again. Okay, smart and and asked, can we fund some pay for students over the summer?

SPEAKER_03 38:32

Yeah, nice.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Supervised by Jeff and I.

SPEAKER_03 38:35

Right. And they get internship hours, it looks good on a resume, right?

SPEAKER_00 38:40

And help us keep the farm going, improve it. Gives us a ch a chance to do you know little infrastructure projects like the first summer we put in some drainage. Right. We we also because we have the the student help, we invited a local nonprofit, the rural outreach center, RAC Center. Nice. And they provide a lot of resources to the surrounding community. And they have a summer program for elementary age students. And they came up once a week and did various farm activities with our interns.

SPEAKER_03 39:16

Really great.

SPEAKER_00 39:17

So that's sort of a model for what I think we can do in the future.

SPEAKER_03 39:21

How long is the internship? Is it six weeks? So it's eight weeks. All summer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:25

So basically July 1st and the end of August. Right. And the students average about three paid hours a week. So it's we're there working with them two days a week, and then they sign up to handle the daily chores on our off days.

SPEAKER_03 39:40

Yeah. Nice job.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

And it helps us so we don't have to ramp down the farm in the spring and then get back in September and start wrapping it up. You'd never have a meaningful, you know, facility to learn and teach in.

SPEAKER_03 39:56

There's a lot, a lot to be proud of. So well done. I really appreciate that. And Jeff said people can go to the Facebook page if they want to learn more, connect with you guys, because you're gonna get people touring and learning and wanting to, you know, do their best to duplicate a program like this. You know, as we wind down with you, Ethan, is do you have any you know suggestions for people listening who might want to model something like this? Probably start small, right?

SPEAKER_00 40:24

Yeah, when people visit us. You know, we're livestock. We're proud of what what we've done, but it's almost we wish we maybe had something a little smaller to show them, hey, you can just start here. Right, right. You know, start with egg layer chickens, yeah, or just start with uh a high tunnel greenhouse. Right, right, right. Because you don't have to go quite work on a nuts. So you don't have to go so crazy. Right.

SPEAKER_03 40:55

And uh there's a lot more acres here on the property, so I can't wait to find out what what comes next. Hey, congratulations. Really great work. So my uh work back to you. You're the president of the club, right? Yeah, yeah, and you have a team. What I'm really learning, right, is there this is a significant endeavor. You know, there you must have officers, you know, maybe give some attribution to your team for a moment.

SPEAKER_06 41:22

Yeah, there's a lot of work that goes into the Sustainable Agriculture Club, especially because we have a lot of money going through it. So shout out to Tyler, which is one of my friends. Nice. He handles a lot of money and he spends a lot of time working on the submission forms so we can have money going in and out of the club. Shout out to my other officer, my secretary, Mina, who does all the meeting notes. I couldn't write those meeting notes by myself. There's a lot to get through every time we have a meeting. Yeah. And then shout out to my team that does outreach, they do a great job. And yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:59

I guess, you know, as a superintendent in a different district, I'm learning a tremendous amount. There's a lot going on here. It's obviously educational, but it's a business. And this business seems to be pretty successful, right? You're selling honey and you're selling eggs and you're selling chickens, maybe cows in the future and Christmas trees. So, you know, has that opened your eyes up to this world, even though you were already dabbling with gardening and you you had some background with your family. Has has anything surprised you in this journey?

SPEAKER_06 42:33

There's a big difference between a roadside farm stand and trying to market chicken. Yeah. It's there's a lot more work that goes into it than I initially thought. Right. You have the design of the labels for the chicken packages and the honey packages that BDD did for us, which is Blue Devil Design, which is run by the East Or High School students.

SPEAKER_03 42:54

Okay, so smart. So it's interdisciplinary, right? You're collaborating with other departments. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 43:00

We do a lot of collaboration with Blue Devil Design because they make all of our labeling and our marketing.

SPEAKER_03 43:06

Nice. Super smart.

SPEAKER_06 43:09

Mostly just the idea of getting our products out there. Marketing was a lot more difficult than I thought it was. Even though I'm not part of that team, I see all the work that they put into it.

SPEAKER_03 43:22

Right. And how are you? Are you using, you know, the old Facebook, but it's probably pretty successful for people wanting to buy chickens? Or are you using Insta or TikTok? Or how are you getting the word out?

SPEAKER_06 43:34

Yeah, Facebook, because a lot of our buyers or consumers are the families of people that take our class or go to East Or High School, and that age group is typically on Facebook.

SPEAKER_03 43:46

They're not 17.

SPEAKER_06 43:47

So they we do a lot of outreach through Facebook. Yeah. And it it typically reaches our audience pretty well.

SPEAKER_03 43:56

Well, I've learned a lot. What are some big pieces? Pieces that you wanted to share, maybe to inspire younger underclassmen to pursue this club or this course or or anything as it relates to the the science around sustainability. You obviously have a passion, you know, at home, and now you're learning about it here. What are some things that you would like our listeners to hear from your perspective on how valuable this is?

SPEAKER_06 44:25

I found a lot of knowledge and experience that I gained was through the summer internship that I do, as previously mentioned. It was a big player in me learning all about the animals on the farm and gaining a lot of experience with them. It also taught me a lot about responsibility. I'm I'm sure a lot of students know that in the summer without a schedule and without routine, you kind of fall out of that routine and tend to sleep in a lot.

SPEAKER_02 44:57

That's right.

SPEAKER_06 44:57

So with a farm and animals that are dependent on you, you have to wake up early and go take care of them because they can't do these things themselves. They can't open the feed bucket to go get the feed out and put it in their feeder. You have to do that for them. Exactly. And because they're dependent on you, you like have a responsibility to be there for them. Yeah. You can't just let it be. You can't just sleep in. Right.

SPEAKER_03 45:24

You I'm gonna call in sick today. Yeah, you can't just call in sick. Right.

SPEAKER_06 45:29

It just taught me a lot of responsibility for people other not people, but animals and beings other than myself.

SPEAKER_03 45:36

Yeah. I I love that. It's a great story. And do you hope beside listen, you know, you're oh, you're on your way out, right? And I was asking you off mic what you would want to study, you know, outside of high school. Maybe share with our listeners, you know, what are some possible paths for you?

SPEAKER_06 45:53

Through learning about sustainability and callback to the beginning of the year where we read a book about the impact of food on our food system, I kind of took a leaning towards food science and health science as my direction for the future. And I really was inspired by learning about food sustainability. So I my chosen major as of right now is food science with a health science emphasis. And I hope to be learning more about food and its impact on the human body, as well as food health and food science in the real world.

SPEAKER_03 46:34

Do you know where you might end up doing this study after high school? Like, do you know where you might go and learn about these things?

SPEAKER_06 46:41

Yeah, I actually going back to where my grandparents live.

SPEAKER_02 46:45

You're going to Idaho. Yeah. That is awesome.

SPEAKER_06 46:49

Circling back to where I came from. I'm gonna be living near them. It's gonna be a great experience.

SPEAKER_03 46:55

It's gonna be great. And what is the school?

SPEAKER_06 46:58

BYU Idaho.

SPEAKER_03 46:59

Nice. Oh my gosh, that is great. Uh, do you want to give them a shout out? Your grandparents.

SPEAKER_06 47:06

Yeah, shout out to my grandparents. They uh they set up a path a long time ago that I'm proud to be circling back to and bringing forth agriculture in my family.

SPEAKER_03 47:21

Yeah, and it's so important not only for right, all of the states, but for the whole world, you know, to learn about these, you know, to learn about the science of of food and how maybe, you know, we will be at a point in for the entire world that everybody's fed and everybody has what they need to sustain you know their own personal health, right? All across the world. So yeah. I'm very, very proud of you. I know you're gonna do an amazing job, and I can't wait to hear more about you know your journey and how this farm is sustained without you. Yeah, that's huge too.

SPEAKER_06 47:55

Happy that all my work is gonna go towards the future. I'm very proud that every bit of work that I've done on the farm is always for a greater goal.

SPEAKER_03 48:05

Yeah, it's so great. Well done. So, Brian, I've learned so much. I'm jealous. You guys are doing amazing, amazing things here in Easter Rora, and I'm just always impressed when I'm here. As we wind down, is there anything else you want to share, maybe about your, you know, your school district or how people can learn more about this incredible program?

SPEAKER_05 48:25

Yeah, so I'd first just like to thank you for for doing this for our community. Yeah, I think these podcasts are incredibly valuable because it gives us time to share what we're doing. That's right. And and we learn so much from each other. So I'm just so grateful for your work. Yeah, thank you. It's time consuming. Yeah and and we we can be busy in our jobs, so I know it's it's hard to find the time. So we're just really grateful for that.

SPEAKER_02 48:46

Of course.

SPEAKER_05 48:47

And and and of course, if anyone's interested, they can just reach out to us, you know, via our website or contact my office. We'll be happy to set up visitations, as Mr. Shelley said earlier. We've had a number of school districts come out to see the farm and a couple of other things that we're doing that are more a project-based. And I think what's so good about that is that the teachers really seem to enjoy it, but the kids really love it. Yeah. Yeah, they see a lot of joy in in their experiences in in these opportunities. And so we're happy to share. So if you want to reach out, please do so.

SPEAKER_03 49:16

Yeah. And again, you know, earlier we were chatting a little bit about the portrait of a new graduate with your middle school, you know, passion projects. This is a passion project, right? And it's really fits into the different pathways that I think the state would love kids to accelerate in. So you're really a leader, you know, in this work. And I'm sure there's probably many other things, you know, down the road as we get closer to enacting the portrait of a graduate that's going to be exciting here in East Aurora.

SPEAKER_05 49:44

Yeah, I I agree. I think Portrait of a Graduate is actually a really exciting opportunity. We don't know much, right? We're still we've still got a long way ahead of us. But I think these types of programs like are directly linked to what the state is is looking to do and giving kids opportunities to uh have more hands-on experiences, different types of assessments. And I think Yeah, these types of programs like really fit the bill. So, you know, there's a lot more to do in regard to portrait of a graduating. We're still getting started. But like I said, we're happy to share if anyone is interested.

SPEAKER_03 50:14

Yeah, I love it. So for our listeners, don't forget if you love these episodes of Achieving Joy and Mastery in Public Schools, you can find us in Apple, Spotify, Odyssey, and so many more of your favorite podcast platforms. Until next time, thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you for joining us today as we explore the concept of achieving joy and mastery in public schools. We will be interviewing school districts in Erie and Niagara counties on a regular basis as we look to shine a spotlight on all of the amazing programs and practices essential for achieving joy and mastery with our students, faculty, staff, and community. This podcast is sponsored by the Erie Niagara School Superintendents Association, and we hope you consider subscribing.