With only a few ordered pieces of equipment yet to arrive, an open house to exhibit how Wallowa High School has invested a $480,000 grant the school received to upgrade its Agricultural Sciences and Technology Program will be staged from 4 until 6 p.m. Thursday, April 16.

Jeremy McCulloch, the school’s ag instructor, foresees an informal event where members from the community can view both the mostly remodeled 5,000-square-foot agricultural complex itself and the many new pieces of equipment inside.

“There are a lot of people from this community who went to school here,” says McCulloch. “It might be good for them to come in and see what the kids are doing.”

In addition to self-guided tours through a facility that includes two shops and a classroom, McCulloch says students will be on hand during the open house to demonstrate use of different pieces of equipment and answer questions. Among the many new items that may be viewed, says the advisor, are new routers, new plasma cutters, new welders, and new 3D printers.

The $480,000 upgrade was made possible through a CTE Revitalization Grant received in December 2013. McCulloch says money from that grant was earmarked specifically for the shop facility and work there is totally separate from a greenhouse built a short distance away at about the same time.

The popular 7th-12th grade FFA program at WHS, says McCulloch, is “completely intertwined” with the school’s ag program, so much so that FFA classes are part of the school’s curriculum.

Inherent in the invite to the open house is an invitation to enjoy and bring friends to enjoy a free barbecue pork loin dinner.

McCulloch encourages the public to come that Thursday to “help celebrate the great success this grant has been for our program and school.”