COSTA MESA : High School Farm Faces Funding Cut

As drivers zip down Fairview Road on their way to the nearby freeway, a herd of sheep and wobbly little lambs graze along the roadside at Costa Mesa High School.

The commuters and critters have peacefully coexisted for more than three decades. But the animals’ future is uncertain. To save money, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District last week proposed cutting off funding for the farm.

The proposal is one of many possible cuts, along with teachers’ positions and free bus rides, under consideration as the district pares its budget to cover an anticipated $3.6-million shortfall for next school year.

But a few dozen students plan to fight for the 18-acre farm, one of the biggest of seven left in county schools.

These are not typical high school students. Some have battled drug abuse, and others are just different from their peers and looking for a place to fit in.

Like one 15-year-old who had begun to abuse drugs before the farm changed his attitude toward school.

Or Harmony French, a longhaired, bead-wearing sophomore who liked biology and found in the farm a practical application of ideas, such as photosynthesis, that excited her in ways her classmates didn’t quite share.

“Reading and writing is important, but for so many kids it goes in one ear and out the other,” Harmony told the school board members last week. “I know the number of kids involved is declining, but it’s quality, not quantity. Every student that’s involved is working on something.”

Board members agreed that the 32-year-old agricultural program is beneficial to students but argued that spending $92,000 on a program that benefits 50 to 60 students annually is not cost-effective.

Plus, they said, the students’ parents and the local 4-H chapter that uses part of the farm should form a booster club to help support it financially.

“I believe that everything stated here tonight is true,” board member Roderick H. MacMillian said of students’ arguments in support of the farm program. “We know it’s worthwhile. There’s not an argument against that. It comes down to dollars. We’re going to make other cuts, too, and they’re all going to be hard.”

The district’s $92,000 pays the salaries of the full-time instructor and farm hand and for general expenses, which total about $5,000.

Grant money of about $12,000 pays for food, fertilizer, supplies and other operating expenses.

Funds are raised through projects, such as selling plants and flowers, which the instructor and the students work on together.

Students work for credit or as an after-school activity. They can take out a onetime loan from the grant funds to begin a project, such as buying a hog or chickens or plants, and are expected to repay that loan when they sell the animal or plants.

“It would be really sad to see this go,” said Jessica Beck, a soft-spoken girl who handles her steer like a seasoned professional.

Added friend Christy Ragland, as she showed off her big pink hog: “Sometimes we just come out here and hang out.

“Almost all my friends do some (kind of drug) or another, everything you can think of. If they were here, they wouldn’t have time to do all that.”

Plus, she added, “you can just be yourself here.”