Napa Unified School District moves to create ag innovation center at Vintage High School

More than four years ago, the Napa Valley Unified School District board voted to declare the 10.5-acre old home of the Sierra Avenue teaching farm for Vintage High School students as surplus property. In part, that move was intended to raise funds for a replacement farm.

Now, with plans to build a 53-home subdivision at the old site approved by the Napa City Council in November, the district has moved on plans to create the new farm northeast of campus at the eastern end of Trower Avenue, about a third of a mile from the former site.

Construction is expected to start as early as February or March 2024 on the new site, known as the Agricultural Science Innovation Center at Vintage High School, according to a district news release. And the district’s focus with the center will be improving and adding to agriculture-related career and technical education programs.

That effort will be helped along by a $755,500 grant from California’s K-12 Strong Workforce Program — which provides funding to local districts for vocational training, among other categories — specifically for the center.

That funding, according to the release, will be used to upgrade current district vocational offerings — in agricultural science, animal science and culinary and hospitality fields — and be used to explore adding an agricultural technology pathway as well. AgTech education would involve exploring how technology such as cellphone apps, drones and robotics can help with farming.

“NVUSD students will work with industry partners to identify current industry challenges and how technology might be used in the solution, and learn through classroom and work-based learning experiences the skills and knowledge needed in the viticulture and hospitality industries,” according to a district news release.

The grant funding will also go toward investments in industry-standard technology that would help lead students to “high wage, high demand careers while meeting the needs of the local workforce,” according to the release.

To that same end, the funding will be used to increase dual enrollment opportunities with Napa Valley College, and to facilitate transitions for students to the NVC agricultural and natural resource programs.

“We believe this Center will allow us to continue to prepare our students with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in school, careers, and life,” said NVUSD superintendent Rosanna Mucetti in the release.

You can reach Staff Writer Edward Booth at 707-521-5281 or edward.booth@pressdemocrat.com.