FARMINGTON – A fitness trail combined with an outdoor classroom and learning stations on 13 wooded acres next to Cascade Brook School will mean teachers can expand their curriculum and kids will have more recreational opportunities.

The project, called Nina’s Woods, was presented Tuesday to members of the Mt. Blue Regional School District Board of Directors.

It commemorates the life and spirit of Nina Bitterauf, a top student and all-around athlete who graduated from Mt. Blue middle and high schools. She died in a car accident in 1999 at the age of 20.

In a brochure that Principal Nicole Goodspeed distributed to the board, Bitterauf is remembered for her “brave and effervescent spirit” and for being someone who “always challenged her physical limits and loved to exercise surrounded by the beauty and inspiration of the natural world.”

Ski coach and physical education teacher Jeff Meserve said that last spring he approached Kevin Vining, owner of E.L. Vining & Son, and asked for a cost estimate on improving the rough, old logging trail that is used for training middle school cross-country ski and running teams.

Vining, who has assisted with many school and civic projects, offered to do the work at no charge during a lull in his construction schedule.

“This is beyond my wildest dreams,” Meserve said.

For years, Meserve has maintained the trail with his equipment, but erosion problems have made parts of it impassable.

The project is designed to preserve the woodland in its natural state in perpetuity, and it will be open to the public for walking, skiing, running and snowshoeing during non-school hours; there will be no hunting or motor-powered machines allowed, officials said.

The half-mile trail can be reached from the back entrance of the school. Vining’s crew has widened it and packed it down with stone dust to make it accessible, Meserve said.

An outdoor classroom and several learning and fitness stations will be built along the route, with the cost picked up by grants and donations. The funds also will pay for the services of outdoor education consultant Jan Stanchfield.

Teachers, community members and faculty from the University of Maine at Farmington are coming up with ideas for activities, guidance counselor Martina Arnold said.

“It has been amazing,” she said.

Some suggestions: studying the water cycle and drainage during spring melt-off; teaching GPS and orienteering skills; using plane geometry to measure tree height; doing art inspired by the outdoors; weighing giant glacial erratics, or stones, using mathematical formulas; planting young trees to vary existing species; and studying soils and erosion.

Meserve said this fall, he has been taking gym classes out on the trail.

“There have been no complaints,” he said. “The kids have such a different attitude now about exercising because they like it so much better than doing laps.”

The project is being funded largely by a grant from the philanthropic Kirby Foundation and does not include any district funds, officials said.

School board member Iris Silverstein of Farmington applauded the effort.

“It is clear you are putting tremendous energy and thought into the school,” she said.

“This is really a dream come true,” Arnold said.

The idea for an outdoor classroom evolved from the school’s experience at Camp Susan Curtis, a tuition-free, outdoor experiential education center in Stoneham. More than 900 Cascade Brook students have attended the camp over the years, with tuition picked up by grants and donations. However, Arnold said, funding is no longer available.

“We hope to have a little bit of Camp Susan Curtis right here,” she said.