COLUMBUS — When United Local School District constructs a new greenhouse on its K-12 campus, which is getting a new high school, it won’t cost taxpayers a cent, explained Columbiana County Career and Technical Center Superintendent Jeremy Corbisello on Thursday.

State Rep. Lauren McNally (D-Youngstown) recently announced that United Local was one of the latest recipients of funding through the Ohio Career Technical Education Equipment Grant. The district will receive $744,464.51 to upgrade its agriculture and construction trades’ programs.

“I’m very happy for our students and the increased learning opportunities available to them as a result of this funding,” said McNally. “Our kids deserve public money in public schools and the best equipment we have to offer so they can be exposed to and prepared for the world.”

The Ohio Career Technical Education Equipment Grant Program is a competitive financial grant system that seeks to expand Career-Technical Education (CTE) programs in Ohio schools and to better prepare students for careers upon graduation. Priority is set for careers found on Ohio’s Top Jobs List and credentialing from the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation Innovative Workforce Incentive Program list. Funds from the grants will establish or expand upon CTE programs and equipment in schools across the state.

According to United Local schools Superintendent Lance Hostetler, this was a grant that United filed cooperatively with West Branch Local schools, which is located in neighboring Mahoning County and both have agricultural vocational pathways.

“(United’s) portion of the grant will be primarily used to upgrade the agricultural lab and construction trades’ lab spaces. We are extremely grateful for the support we received from the (Columbiana County) Career and Technical Center, local businesses, the Business Advisory Council and area government representatives. This has been a true collaboration and we look forward to developing more partnerships in the future,” he explained.

West Branch schools Superintendent Micki Egli said that her district’s share of the grant will be used to construct and maintain a live animal barn with pastures on campus, where their agricultural vocation tech students can raise quality raised beef for their food service department to buy for school meals. She said that recent changes would have them potentially paying too much for meat that isn’t the best quality to feed their students and staff, so this is their solution for that.

For her, partnering with United Local was a no-brainer as the two districts travel within the same circles for their ag programs.

“I would like to partner with United Local on some other learning opportunities,” Egli said, adding that she would like to see one group tune in via distance learning when the other has a unique speaker or program — more like an academy approach.

Both United Local and West Branch plan to add a drone technology component initially to their ag programming but suspect that eventually due to many ways it can be utilized, it might end up with a pathway of its own.

Corbisello confirmed that he had authored a letter of support for the grant application. The CCCTC itself had received $1,456,453 during the first round of funding, which was the entire amount requested, for upgrades to its interactive media and IT technology programs as well as to purchase a 911 dispatch simulator for its new criminal justice program.

This second funding announcement includes 34 schools and builds upon the first funding announcement in March, which had 56 schools receiving $67.7 million, including the CCCTC and West Branch Local school’s initial $832,470.43 award. Funding for this grant program was included in the 2024-2025 state operating budget.

sujhelyi@mojonews.com