Community

GILROY—Classes that teach high schoolers the agricultural arts and sciences just received a big boost in Gilroy, where farming and ranching dominated life for more than a century before subdivisions and industrial development moved in.Spurred by a resurrected parent booster club, Gilroy Unified School District trustees have approved renovation of a sprawling but decaying greenhouse at Gilroy High School where in better times members of the school’s Future Farmers of America chapter grew a sea of red poinsettias as their annual holiday fundraiser.“I’m very happy to see it grow, said Hannah Komin, 16, of the greenhouse plans and renewed emphasis on programs that cater to the many students who dream of careers in ag-related industries.She is one of about 170 members of Gilroy High’s booming Future Farmers of America chapter and also one of its officers. FFA is a nationwide organization.“I wish I would be around to see it,” said FFA member Dallas Lafond, 17, a Texas transplant who was graduated from GHS yesterday, June 11.The resurrection of a greenhouse that has been a dilapidated target of vandals, graffiti artists, ground squirrels and the elements for more than four years is the story of parents with a cause, a supportive school board, help from local ag companies and the Gilroy Rotary.“They were a huge help,” said FFA member and graduating senior, Ashley Bonesio, 17.Kurt Ashley, president of Gilroy High’s FFA Booster Club, said that by the time his daughter entered GHS four years ago the ag program “was dying for lack of support” and the boosters club had vanished.Regular fair goers with their family at the annual Santa Clara County Fair, Ashley and his wife noticed other high schools had better ag programs and larger and better equipped FFAs.They sought out other parents and together in 2013 kick-started the boosters club that, with a donation of $500 from Mayor Gage, applied for and secured nonprofit status and set its sights on supporting a program the school district no longer can afford to fund as it has in the past.“We’re not just doing the greenhouse,” Ashley said. “That’s just one piece of the project. Our goal is to support the entire FFA program, including the school farm out on Kern Avenue.”FFA member and chapter officer Kimberly Potman, 16, gives all the credit for the rebirth of interest in farm and ranching subjects for the benefit of students to the involvement of parents.“It was the boosters, they pretty much fueled everything,” she said.Financial help also has come from Christopher Ranch and Uesugi Farms, among others, Ashley said, enough so that the boosters’ club will contribute $10,000 of the nearly $50,000 cost of renovating the greenhouse with new heating, cooling and electrical systems, new roof and siding materials and other upgrades to be ready for classes in August as long as the new ag teaching staff is in place by then.In addition to horticulture and floral design, new course options for students interested in agricultural sciences in 2015-16 will include Ag Chemistry, Ag Communication and Leadership, Soil Chemistry and Biotechnology.For more information on the FFA club and boosters, go to facebook.com/gilroyffaboosters.

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