EPHS holds open house for new KBar Agricultural Learning Center

EAGLE POINT, Ore.- Eagle Point High School held an open house for its new KBar Agricultural Learning Center on April 25.

The event was open to the public and featured a jackpot stock show, a variety of interactive science activities and a special donor recognition.

According to Andy Kovach, Superintendent for the Eagle Point School District, they’ve been working on the KBar Center for around three years. He says students were in the two classrooms of the center at the beginning of the school year, but they fully finished the project over the winter. Randy Wolf, School Board Member for the Eagle Point School District, says their students were limited before they added the center.

“Our students are really restricted by what they can do, where they can go, everything is having to go around the community, the different farms and ranches,” Wolf said. “We have one of the top FFA chapters in the state and now we have the facility to match our FFA chapter.”

According to the school district, the facility cost just under $2.6 million. The project received its biggest donation of $1 million from the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians. Carla Keene, Chairman of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, says the tribe cares deeply about agriculture and education.

“The Eagle Point School District came to the Board of Directors, explained to the board that they really needed this building to expand their agricultural program, and (we) decided that that was something that we wanted to go ahead and do for them,” Keene said.

Kovach says the school district is very thankful for the Cow Creek Band’s donation, along with their other sponsors.