Sen. Chris Widener invoked A.B. Graham and Clark County’s history as the birthplace of 4-H at the Clark County Fair during a presentation on the proposed agricultural STEM school Monday night.

“Look what that’s done throughout the world,” Widener, R-Springfield, said. “This project is going to be the same and similar to put Springfield on the map when it comes to innovation and education.”

Members of the Clark County Farm Bureau were invited to the informational session with Sen. Chris Widener, R-Springfield, who proposed the Global Impact STEM Academy he hopes to see open in Springfield.

The school would combine the food, fuel and fiber industry with science, technology, engineering and math education.

While the field is growing with one in seven Ohio jobs in agriculture, educational opportunities are shrinking, cautioned Widener.

“We’re losing agriculture teachers, we’re losing agriculture programs and we’re losing agriculture education at the rate of about 5 percent,” he said.

Dwayne Yoder, a former Northeastern Local Schools agriculture educator, attended the meeting because of his concerns about how the school would interact with the National FFA Organization. FFA, a student organization closely entwined with most agriculture school programs, teaches important values such as interview skills and public speaking, he said.

“That’s my biggest concern,” he said. “If a program like this is formed, then the FFA does have an integral part in it.”

Yoder said his concerns were relieved by the presentation.

“I’m all for it, I’m all for the school and it’s something that I hope does have a very big success,” he said.

Amy Armstrong, a farm bureau member from South Charleston, said she supported the school and has felt reassured as she hears more about it.

“I guess I gotta say that I’m for it but you don’t know until it gets going,” she said. “I like the aspect of it, the hands-on aspect that I think a lot of kids need.”

Widener hopes to see the school open for 9th and 11th grade students in the fall of 2013.