Austin High School is hosting a program at 1:15 p.m. Saturday in the AHS Commons to kick off the renovation of science classrooms and labs made possible by the Hormel Foundation.

The Austin Public School District has been bestowed $1.5 million for science renovations, which include 15,000-square-feet of updated space, equipment and the latest technology.

Speakers include Richard Knowlton, chairman of the Hormel Foundation; Alice Seagren, Minnesota Commissioner of Education; an AHS science student; and Mark Raymond, AHS science department chairman.

A ribbon-cutting will follow at 1:30 p.m. with an open house at the classrooms and labs. Refreshments will be served. Enter through the main doors on the east or west side of AHS.

Science encompasses only one-third of the Hormel Foundation’s contribution; $1.3 million has been donated to the University of Minnesota Fellowship Program for teachers to pursue master’s degrees, and $810,000 will go toward programs of excellence for gifted and talented students.

The last science lab renovations at AHS were in the early 1990s.