North Butler Ag program expands - School joins Iowa Big North

Up to this school year, North Butler has shared its agriculture program with the Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock school district. Next year that will be changing. The school board hired assistant wrestling coach Frank Kisley to take on the job as Agriculture and Iowa Big Instructor.
     “We had been sharing Ag with RRMR and only getting two hours a day. This will allow us to basically double the time that we have for North Butler students in an Ag program, so it will make it easier to meet the needs of our students,” said Superintendent Joel Foster.
     Iowa Big North is a student-driven project-based STEM learning program that allows students to learn real world applications. North Butler will join Charles City, New Hampton, Riceville, Turkey Valley, Osage, and Howard Winneshiek in initiative-based learning in which students work with business partners from the community to solve problems and gain STEM skills.
     Kisley hopes to bring a hands-on non-traditional approach.He graduated from Iowa State with a Master’s degree in agriculture and horticulture leadership and previously worked as a teacher for eight years and at a cooperative for seven years.
 
Read more in the April 26 edition of the Tribune.