CVUSD agricultural program to expand for future students
The Coachella Valley Unified School District's (CVUSD) agricultural program is expanding thanks to surrounding businesses that vowed to help the club at the high school get on its feet.
The Future Farmers of America (FFA) club has several students who have a passion for working with agriculture and animals. Right now their program is just a dirt lot that sits beside Coachella Valley High School. Eventually, plans show that the district is going to expand on the program.
It's going to be called the new Agricultural and Natural Resources Academy which will have four different parts to it. There will be a section to raise farm animals, a greenhouse, a plot to grow seasonal crops, then another for long-term crops.
Part of the goal according to Kevin Sleeper, a CVHS agricultural teacher, is to get students to see how certain crops are grown and developed.
In the last six months, several local agricultural businesses helped the school clean up the property to get these plans rolling. These same businesses also hope to be able to continue helping the program learn from the industry.
“What we want to do is introduce a crop to the students," explained Garrett Cardilino, from Prime Time International. "Not just the crop and the growing of it, but we want to introduce them to the planning of it, to the purchasing of the seeds, of the supplies, to the picking of it, to the growing of it.”
CVUSD Superintendent Luis Valentino said this project was at a standstill for years until volunteers agreed to get the FFA program wherein once was.
It'll eventually be where future agricultural students learn different aspects of the trade.
