Butler Area School District will make more investments into agricultural education thanks to a youth agriculture grant from the state.

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture announced Monday, Jan. 12, the district would receive $7,500 for “Ag Programming Expansion” as part of the PA Farm Bill Agriculture and Youth grants.

District superintendent Brian White said Tuesday the money would be allocated to three major purchases: a row planter attachment for a tractor, raised planting beds for the Butler Intermediate High school’s agriculture education program and hand tools for Butler Senior High’s own program.

The grant is just one of the recent investments into agricultural education in the district. The intermediate high’s agricultural lab, built with around $65,000 in grant funding, was finished just after the beginning of the 2025-26 school year.

“They've been introduced to it and they love it. They want it, so it provides another resource for them to be able to partake in that,” Dave Andrews, the district’s instructional coach for student engagement, said. “The senior high now has an Intro to Ag class which has almost 100 students this year in it … They're writing up an Ag II course for next year because so many kids are interested in it.”