JAMESVILLE — The Northeast Regional School of Biotechnology and Agriscience is breaking barriers.

As the first and only school of its kind in the state, NERSBA serves about 240 high school students across Beaufort, Martin, Pitt, Tyrrell and Washington counties. The school is in its fifth year and employees about 20 staff members.

NERSBA’s curriculum focuses on hands-on learning, with priorities in science, math, technology and agriculture. Much like early colleges, NERSBA students are given a five-year time frame to complete a high school diploma and earn an associate degree. Some students are able to complete their education in four years.

“Twenty percent of the instruction is from the teachers, but 80 percent comes from the students actually doing inquiry-based learning and discovering the concepts on their own. We do a lot of group activities,” said Julie Gurganus, director of technology.

“We have a 200-day calendar, and our board of directors felt like that was important so that our students could have opportunities to go out and do some college visits and have some opportunities off site that would enhance instruction, but they still would have their 180 or 185 days of instruction,” she said.

Gurganus and NERSBA teacher Sarah Bennett were invited as guest speakers at Delta Kappa Gamma Society’s Alpha Omega Chapter meeting Thursday night at First Christian Church. Delta Kappa Gamma is an honorary society of women educators.

Along with a longer school year, students must also complete five Supervised Agricultural Experience projects, logging 30 hours each, and a 135-hour internship before graduation.

Gurganus said each of the five counties in NERSBA’s service area is responsible for transporting students to the school, but the state will only fund 185 days of transportation. To account for the extra 15 days, she said teachers employ “home satellite days,” during which students must complete assignments from home using their school-allotted laptop.

Gurganus said much of NERSBA’s expenses are state funded, but school officials also apply for many grants to cover some expenses and fund special trips. In lieu of offering sports teams, which can be difficult in a large service area, NERSBA offers a variety of extracurricular activities, included an equestrian club, robotics, guitar club, Science Olympiad, book club, school news club, and all students are members of Future Farmers of America, according to Gurganus.

“Having different outlets in the school day, I think really helps them. They definitely look forward to it,” said Bennett, who helped found the guitar club and Science Olympiad.

Interest in NERSBA and what it has to offer has grown in Beaufort County over the past several years. About half of this year’s freshman class was comprised of students from Beaufort County, according to Dr. Don Phipps, Beaufort County Schools superintendent.

If a student moves from a public school to NERSBA, that amount of per-pupil funding goes with the student. The same is true if a student transfers to a charter or private school.

In the coming years, NERSBA staff hopes to see the school continue to grow. As a model school statewide, legislators are also looking to see how a regional setup can work.

Any rising ninth-grader living within the five-county service area is eligible to apply to attend NERSBA, although students whose parents did not attend college are given a higher priority. The application period for 2017-18 closed in March, but applications for the 2018-19 school year will be accepted in early 2018.

“Many of the students actually compliment the idea or the opportunities that we offer to them,” Gurganus said. “We have rigorous curricula across the board, and we have high expectations for our students.”

The Northeast Regional School of Biotechnology and Agriscience is located at 1215 St. Andrew’s St., Jamesville.