Thayer Central Hires Agricultural Instructor

Last week, Thayer Central chose to hire Chester local Rachel Eickman as the new agricultural instructor.

Eickman is a 2010 graduate of UNL and has been teaching ag and career academy classes for Southeast Community College.

As part of this decision, Thayer Central will embark on launching an ag program for students to explore an industry that has a profound impact on the county.

“We felt that because we are in a community with such a strong agricultural base that it would be an advantage to our students to have that available to them,” said Drew Harris, Thayer Central superintendent. “Hopefully it will provide them with some skills to enable them to come back and work in our community.”

During this first year, the focus will be an introduction to agriculture class where students will be introduced to the marketing, livestock and growing aspects of the industry. After that, the school hopes to expand the program to more specific classes.

“Ultimately students could end up with four years of ag studies,” said Harris. “We hope to provide them with a variety of opportunities. Hopefully they will gain an understanding of the importance of ag for our community and how those operations work.”

Eickman will start at Thayer Central in August and replace Randy Mesloh who is retiring.