Down on the school farm

Bob Kuntz showed two high school kids how to thread new strings on a mower, then sent them out to chop the tall grasses by a fence.
This was not two kids doing their after-school chores. This was the Gilroy High School agriculture class at the high school farm on a bright, sunny Friday afternoon.
For 33 years, Kuntz has shown students how to care for animals, how to choose good land to buy and other agricultural skills. The lessons students learn, Kuntz said, are responsibility and leadership. It teaches them responsibility, gives them a work ethic;” lie said. “It provides more than just cows and plows.”
.The program at Gilroy High is. vocational and takes students all through their four years at the school. While he didn’t start it, the 64-year-old Kuntz has helped shape the ag program, and plans to stick with it through another potential change.
School district officials are planning on moving the high school farm, which is currently located on Kern Avenue in the northwest quadrant of the city. Kuntz, who is close to retirement, said he will stay on if the farm moves soon.
“For years I planned to leave in the year 2000, but I’ve been told we’re going to move the school farm,” he said. “If we’re in, the middle of moving the school farm, I’m not going to leave in the middle of that.”
It’s this stick-with-it attitude that has given the program the stability that is lacking in other areas of the school, which has seen four principals in as many years.
. When Kuntz came to the ag program, it had seen a lot of turnover. It started in 1930 — seven teachers before Kuntz. Before him, the longest one had stayed for only seven years, he said.
But with Kuntz at the helm, parents who once took the class now have children enrolled. His presence also provided an anchor to help get the horticulture class started. Now it is underway and students sell plants to raise money for their program.
While no site has been determined yet, district officials are using Kuntz’s expertise in locating a favorable spot to move the farm, which is just over 5 acres.
Students in the agriculture class, automatically enrolled in Future Farmers of America when they enter the class, use the farm to house their animals, many of which are shown at the Santa Clara County Fair. Students’ dues for FFA are paid by a private grant. The farm also plays host to visiting elementary school classes, where children learn about the workings of a farm.
Over the years, Kuntz has seen a number of changes, the biggest one he remembers happening in 1969. That’s the year girls were allowed in the class.
Since then, Kuntz has been teaching boys and girls an array of things, such as the art of parliamentary debate, career development, land judging and record keeping.
The students appreciate the effort and have learned a variety of things.
“He’s a good teacher,” said sophomore Alex Mulch. “(I’ve learned) how to land judge, how to pick out different animals, like steers and pigs.”
With Silicon Valley pushing its way southward, Kuntz has noticed a lot of changes in agriculture. Most noticeable is the disappearance of the orchards. The number of dairies also has dwindled, from 13 to about two or three, he said.
While those may have changed, beef, mushrooms and nursery crops are growing, Kuntz said.
“When I first got to this Valley, we didn’t start school until the third Monday in September because the kids were all out in the fields picking prunes,” he said. “There’s still a lot of ag here. I heard a man say this is Silicon Valley, agriculture’s nothing. Well, he better check again.
Also, technology has become a key factor in agriculture — something that Kuntz teaches his students. In fact, Kuntz’s agriculture class was on the Internet in 1986, when all that was on the Web were agricultural sites, he said.
“(Farmers) can’t operate without it,” he said. “A farmer has to have a computer to keep track of his records. The kids need to know how to use them.”
The teacher who grew up on a farm in Oklahoma and who decided to give up a basketball scholarship to Oklahoma Baptist University to pursue agriculture likes `being out in the open air and working with the students.
“I’m not stuck in the classroom all the time,” he said. “It’s nice working with the kids when they’re enthused. We still get seat warmers, but that’s just like everything else.”