A $15,000 grant awarded by the Bayer Fund will put Marion High within striking distance of building a new greenhouse.

A panel of teachers and farmers picked Marion High for the America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education Grant.

Mark Meyer, industrial and ag education teacher at Marion High says the money will put them at the “half-way point” in paying for its construction.

“It’s just what it costs to build a structure anymore,” he said of the proposed 18-by-36-foot building.

Much will depend on the school district’s expenses this fall, but Meyer said he is grateful for the support area farmers gave to the project.

The greenhouse will finally allow him to teach his students about agronomy crops and farming in a way that makes sense, he said.

“It is hard to teach that without a greenhouse,” he said. “I have been approved to teach horticulture, but that kind of depends.”

Students would raise bedding plants for the community garden while they learned about growing and seeding them.