D/MJ gets into AGFC program

MT. JUDEA — The Deer/Mt. Judea School District has received the prestigious designation as an Arkansas Game & Fish Commission School of Conservation Leadership. Superintendent Bill Mizaur made the announcement at the June 11 meeting of the school district's board of education. The designation includes both the Deer and the Mt. Judea K-12 schools.
Last September, Lauren Cannon, director of the commission's Ponca Nature Center, and AGFC Educator Brad Savage made a presentation to the school board. They said the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is committed to inspiring a love of the outdoors and conservation in young Arkansans and is working with schools to foster responsible stewardship of natural resources in the next generation.
Through its School of Conservation Leadership Program, AGFC is working to increase conservation education, outdoor learning and outdoor recreation opportunities for students in Arkansas and to increase awareness of conservation careers and inspire the next generation of conservation professionals. The Commission has created a designation that recognizes the public, private, charter and early childhood schools that are doing this well.
The school district is already participating in Archery in the Schools for 4th - 12th grades and Youth Shooting Sports for grades 5-8 and 9-12 and had already met many of the requirements of the application.
The School of Conservation Leadership application process is conducted in three phases which takes about a year to complete. The designation is awarded for a three-year period.

Savage had emphasized that there is no financial cost to the school district to apply.
To earn the designation, the schools' staffs and students were required to participate and complete a list of activities and projects over three phases with phase 3 being an on-site visit to the schools. Both campuses were visited last month with students and staff making a joint presentation to the AGFC Education Leadership staff who completed the final evaluations.
Mizaur read a letter the school district received from AGFC Chief of Education Mary Beth Hatch congratulating the school for earning the designation.
The schools will be receiving new archery equipment and AGFC will be providing the school district's renovated greenhouse with plants for study among the 50 hours of conservation courses that will be added to the schools' curriculum.
Mizaur said he was proud of the teamwork exhibited during the application process and wished patrons could have witnessed the presentations in May. "This is a new challenge," Mizaur said.