GILROY
– Still mum about its reasons for deciding not to rehire two
popular and successful agricultural science teachers for next year,
Gilroy Unified School District has already begun its search to fill
the positions before the Santa Clara County Fair kicks off July
28.
GILROY – Still mum about its reasons for deciding not to rehire two popular and successful agricultural science teachers for next year, Gilroy Unified School District has already begun its search to fill the positions before the Santa Clara County Fair kicks off July 28.
Gilroy High School Principal Bob Bravo said the school has placed calls into a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo teacher training program and would contact ag educators from other schools this week.
Replacing David Duarte and Sabrina Olivas-Henry as close as possible to their June 13 departure is crucial for Future Farmers of America students wanting to compete in this year’s fair. Without teacher representation, students are not allowed to compete in the skills competitions and livestock shows which pave the way to sometimes thousands of dollars in scholarship money.
Last year, around 50 steers, hogs, lambs and goats, as well as poultry and rabbits were entered into Santa Clara County Fair competitions by GHS students.
“In these circumstances we wouldn’t have to mandate that the person signing off on their projects is an ag teacher, but it would be sad if it’s someone that isn’t that knowledgeable,” said Eileen Jimenez, exhibits manager for the Santa Clara County Fair. “If a technical issue arises in the judging, who would advocate for these kids? We don’t just need a body, we need a knowledgeable body.”
For some students, like GHS junior Staci Linden, teacher advice over the course of the summer is what will be missed most.
“Our teachers are supposed to help us get our animals ready for show. It’s nice to have their expertise to fall back on if something goes wrong with an animal,” Linden said.
“Some of the kids have been in FFA for a while and they have parents who can help them out a bit, but its the first and second year students that are just getting started that I feel bad for,” Duarte said. “I haven’t been told what the school’s plan is.”
Typically, teachers work with kids in the spring and summer months before the Santa Clara County Fair, making sure animals are at their appropriate weight and teaching students how to market and groom their animal. At livestock auctions, large, healthy and well-kept animals can draw bids from ag supporters worth hundreds of dollars in profit.
Despite ever-shrinking education funds from the state, Bravo said the school could afford to fill the open ag positions in the summer months.
“It is possible to fund this program over summer,” Bravo said.
Late last week over the objections of numerous parents and students, school board trustees unanimously decided to not rehire Duarte and Olivas-Henry for the 2003-04 school year. The district has declined to explain its reasons for the decision and, according to Duarte and Olivas-Henry, has not told the teachers why they are being let go.
GUSD has called it a personnel matter and since Duarte and Olivas-Henry have less than two years tenure with the district, GUSD officials can let them go at will.
“I just can’t fathom why the district is doing this,” said Marcia Linden, Staci’s mother. “We’ve been through the teacher from hell with this program. We finally have ag teachers who we trust and who have turned this program around and now we’re letting them go.”
Duarte, 27, and Olivas-Henry, 32, have increased the program’s enrollment from roughly 150 to 240 students and have seen a tripling of the amount of state awards their students receive. The duo has also expanded vocational offerings at GHS, adding welding and horticulture courses to the curriculum.
The decision to let Duarte and Olivas-Henry go is a shock even to outsiders of the program. Jimenez, who has known Duarte since he was winning FFA awards as a high schooler in San Jose, called him “a great ag teacher.”
“What I’m hearing coming out of Gilroy reminds me of what I heard coming out of Pioneer High School before they closed their program down,” Jimenez said.
Before it stopped competing in fairs, Pioneer High School in San Jose had difficulty replacing a teacher who retired and talked about selling its school farm.
Similarly in Gilroy, the ag department has had trouble retaining personnel after longtime ag science teacher Bob Kuntz retired several years ago. The district has also discussed selling its farm on Kern Avenue in the north section of town.
Bravo and Superintendent Edwin Diaz have promised the ag science program at GHS will continue. Bravo said discussions to sell the farm have not taken place this year, but said in the past the district thought it might be wise to sell the valuable land for a cheaper lot elsewhere in town and keep the profit for other educational uses.
