What are the details on the new Agricultural Center?

Until 2019, Bartlesville was the only 6A school district out of more than 30 in the state lacking an agriculture education program. That year, voters approved the construction of a shop and classroom building at the south end of the Bartlesville High School campus.

Since the program began, it has grown rapidly with 85 middle and high school students participating during the last school year and enrollment expected to nearly double in 2021-22. Two full-time, highly experienced teachers are devoted to the program, which has already earned two state FFA titles, including the State Champion team in Agricultural Communications Career Development.

Agricultural education provides a career pathway into the breadth and depth of the industry: from production agricultural to agricultural research, animal and plant science, and woodwork, welding, and plumbing. Students who otherwise might not feel motivated to pursue other extracurriculars may discover that the agricultural program is the one thing that keeps them coming back to school.

The bond issue will allow the growth of the agricultural education program into a more comprehensive offering of courses and experiences through the construction of the Bartlesville Agricultural Center to provide space for both plant and animal projects.

The Bartlesville Agricultural Center would be constructed to the south of the softball practice field at Bartlesville High School, which is located to directly south of the large student parking lot on the east side of Shawnee Avenue (also known as Jim Bohnsack Avenue in that area).

As shown on the general tentative layout, the existing Pathfinder Parkway entrance parking lot just south of the oil wells access road would be roughly doubled in size, extending it eastward, which would shift the entrance to the Pathfinder Parkway trail system eastward as well.

The area south of the enlarged parking area would be built up, using soil taken from the same city property east of Hillcrest Drive that is already being drawn from for the current rebuilding of Hillcrest Drive between 20th Street and the Caney River. Pulling soil from that area avoids adversely impacting the overall floodplain, which prevents higher future flood levels in the area.

The Agricultural Center building footprint and associated encircling roadways would be built up around 8 or 9 feet to keep the new facilities one foot above the 100-year floodplain. Elevation lines are shown on both the tentative general and detail plans.

Part of the area is currently the Shawnee Trails Disc Golf course, which would be relocated further south and/or east in the floodplain off the Pathfinder Parkway trail.

There is already an agricultural building with a shop and two classrooms directly east of Crestview Drive at the south end of the parking lot for the Bruin Activity Center indoor practice facility. (It is the yellow rectangle in the aerial view.) That building would still be used for its designed purposes. The Agricultural Center would add livestock and greenhouse facilities to the campus, keeping the livestock barns over 750 feet, or the length of 2.5 football fields, from the nearest residence off Crestview Drive.

Structures

The Agricultural Center would include some classrooms on its north and west sides, a small show arena in the center, and small animal barns to the east. Two greenhouses would be built south of the show arena, and there would be a production lean-to at the southeast end of the property with small fields south of it.

Animals

The small animal barns could serve goats, sheep, swine, cattle, broilers (market poultry), and/or rabbits. There is room for beehives and garden plots north of the production lean-to.

The types and numbers of animals will vary with projects throughout the year. Some projects are 2-4 months while others are 12-14 months. One barn could house up to 20 sheep or goats, but we anticipate it being around 8-12. The other barn is multipurpose and can hold up to 20 pigs during show season and can also be used for rabbits and poultry. Poultry pens vary from 6-20 head, and rabbit pens vary from 3-4 head per pen. The production area to the southeast would house any cattle projects, which are not anticipated to be more than 4 head of cattle at any given time.

Students will clean pens in the barns daily with deep cleans every week. They will use wheelbarrows to move shavings and waste into a roll-off dumpster, which would be dumped regularly using city waste collection service. This is a common practice for school agricultural centers.

Regarding odors, it is important to recognize this would not be a commercial livestock operation. The center is for student projects where daily care is expected and is supervised by the teachers, with daily and weekly pen cleaning. Waste will be disposed of as described above, along with the city's sewer system being used for some waste rather than a lagoon or septic system. The barns are on the back side of the facility to maximize the distance from the road, and the nearest residence is over 750 feet away.

Livestock is just one component of the facility, not its sole focus. It also will have a significant plant component with two greenhouses and support for aquaculture. The teachers want the community to attend functions at the center and will ensure it is properly managed.

A small drainage ditch angling off Shawnee Avenue to the southeast would form the southern boundary of the Agricultural Center property. There is a cell phone tower on the south side of that drainage ditch back in the woods off Shawnee Avenue.

The current sewage lift station on the southwest corner of 18th Street and Shawnee Avenue will be reworked by the City of Bartlesville in the coming years. If its re-engineering makes its current location unworkable, there is a space designated for a new one somewhere around the current little-used softball practice field just east of Shawnee Avenue to the south of the student parking lot.

Flooding

The teachers will be prepared to move livestock to several off-campus locations for a short period of time if Shawnee Avenue were inundated. The program has a truck and trailer to transport livestock with an evacuation plan. The program could also have a Jon boat for access to and from the facility whenever southern Shawnee Avenue floods, which happens about once or twice a decade for a few days. The center itself will be raised up above the 100-year floodplain.

This rendering is a high view of the proposed Agricultural Center, looking toward the south east.

This rendering of the Center is at the new elevated roadway level looking at the east side of the building.