KELSEYVILLE >> The Kelseyville Unified School District”s (KUSD) Future Farmers of America (FFA) members are looking into the future — the near future — for their dream of an on-campus barn to be realized; with good weather, a roughly 50-by-50 foot modular barn will be standing on KUSD property before the end of February and serve the high school”s agriculture department in a wide variety of ways.
While the high school has managed without since its ag program was started in the late 1970s, the barn will provide a central location for students” animals and is expected to expand the 230-student FFA program”s capacity for teaching.
A primary function of the barn will be housing the animals of students who participate in the annual Lake County Fair but don”t have property to raise livestock at their homes. Up until now, a dozen or so families have graciously housed those students” fair animals during the summer, but students have to make twice daily visits to those properties to attend to their swine, beef, goats or sheep. With the convenience of the barn will come a decrease in liability and cost for those property owners.
Ag advisor of 27-years, Donelle McCallister, has been responsible for making visits to each property to provide instruction to students. Her daughter, Mary McCallister, who is also an FFA member of four years and senior at KHS, gives testament to the amount of work those site visits have required. From April through August, Donelle assembles a five-student team every other week to visit each property and weigh the students” animals, Mary describes. The scale alone causes backaches, taking four people to lift.
“It”s quite an adventure,” Donelle said.
But with a central location for the fair animals, Donelle and Mary are eager to open the barn doors to more students who want to participate in the summer program.
Another benefit of the barn will be an increase in hands-on learning for FFA students year round. The plan is to start out small in the first year, raising chickens and perhaps a few piglets, then move up to raising larger animals that can be sold or shown at the fair, Donelle said.
“When we had a smaller program, we were able to take field trips to local farms and other places,” Donelle said. “But with our larger program, the barn will allow kids to get hands-on experience, get beginning practice with veterinary skills and learn how to work around animals safety.”
In addition to teaching ag science and ag biology, Donelle also heads the floriculture and horticulture classes at the high school and the barn will provide just as many learning opportunities for the young gardeners. Landscaping the area around the barn and planting fruit trees will be those students” responsibility.
The idea for an FFA barn on school campus has been a dream for a while. Jared Smith, a three-year FFA member and junior at Kelseyville High School (KHS), said he”s been pushing for a barn ever since he started taking ag classes. But it”s only been within the last year that the district came into some money that could be appropriated for funding it; several donations from community members prompted the board to seriously consider building the barn and it subsequently set aside some of the district”s funds for its construction, according to KUSD Superintendent Dave McQueen.
“It”s time has come and we”re ready for it,” McQueen said.
With some research, the barn has been planned to allow for both versatility and expansion in the future. Donelle took time to survey a few local barns for ideas, suggestions were pulled from the FFA students and a committee got together to work on the designs. After getting the green light on blueprints, KUSD director of maintenance Kyle Reams started heading the construction as project manager.
The current plans lay out 28 small stalls that can be expanded for larger livestock, a wash room with multiple stalls, a tack pen and a feed room. Gravel, dirt and cement ground surfaces will be specified for the needs of each area. Ten-feet-wide, roll-up doors on either end of the barn will allow students to easily move livestock in and out of the barn, and vented wire surrounding the barn will provide fresh air flow or can be blocked off in the colder months.
For now, the ground has been prepped for the barn”s foundation, a fence has been constructed around the plot and materials, which were ordered based on their prices from Middletown and around the country, are expected to be shipped in Dec. 15. A Santa Rosa-based company won the low bid for the construction and will start bolting the barn together when the materials arrive.
Eventually, water and electricity will be hooked up and the barn will open its stalls.
“This is a project we”re going to expand on as the program”s needs grow also,” Reams said.
In Kelseyville, where vineyards and orchards dominate the landscape, the addition to the school”s agriculture program is highly relevant to the students” future.
“What”s neat about this whole program is that it really ties into the whole Kelseyville community of agriculture and farming,” McQueen said. “We have such a great tradition here with our ag department and its relationship with farmers and ranchers.”
“I”m very proud of my community and school, which continue to support career technical classes; we have such a proactive board and staff, the kids are really lucky,” Donelle said.
