High School Confidential

Like all schools, Aiken Tech High School prepares students for the future. But more, Aiken offers a number of hands-on opportunities for students to gain real-world experience as part of the curriculum.

Aiken is one of several Cincinnati Public Schools that has a an agriculturally-based Career Tech program. Students can learn about land use and farming, from working with animals to protecting the environment to discovering the science of food.

During a recent career fair at the school, Frances Kroner, co-founder and head chef at the Sleepy Bee, talked with students about creating a monthly grocery budget.

Kroner’s visit was part of on-going relationship between Sleepy Bee’s College Hill location at 5920 Hamilton Ave. and the school. At the restaurant’s grand opening in November, the Pride of Aiken Band played, and celebrated with families, friends and the artists and agriculture students who created the pollinator wall artwork and research featured at the restaurant.

Aiken’s Agriculture Career Tech Pathway’s latest venture is a new greenhouse, where students learn the basics of how to grow plants in a protective environment. The greenhouse is heated by passive solar radiation along with through composting. Each week the students get pre-service food scraps from the Sleepy Bee to use in their compost.

Kroner is a native Cincinnatian who together with Dr. John Hutton and Sandra Gross, opened Sleepy Bee Café in Oakley in 2013. The restaurant’s thoughtfully crafted a breakfast and lunch fare holds itself to the highest sourcing and cooking standards, with a focus on the powerful pollinators critical to the environment’s health and well-being.