Manchester Agriscience and FFA grow into new barn

The MHS Agriscience and FFA programs have outgrown the greenhouse facility and are planning for a new storage barn to expand their offerings.

With more student interest and community support, the Manchester Junior/Senior High School Botany and Zoology classes along with the FFA program, is growing stronger and ready to move into a new storage barn to improve their programs.

Randy Smith, agriscience teacher at Manchester High School, is excited about the upcoming project, which is made possible by the support of the community, administration, and school board, with a very generous $20,000 donation from the Manchester Chicken Broil.

“The main goal of this project is to improve the Manchester Agriscience/FFA Program,” Smith explains. “FFA is moving to ‘Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE)’ for all students. In the past, this has been a limiting factor because so many students do not have access to appropriate facilities. While we are grateful for the greenhouse, which has helped expand our program, a barn facility would help move our program even further forward, allowing students to experience different agricultural activities in a safe
working environment. I believe that this would be a major step forward for students at Manchester.”

The barn is planned as a 30′ x 40′ x 12′ storage building, adjacent to the current greenhouse which has, until now, been used to store soil and containers year around. But dampness has taken its toll on some of the spring planting equipment and different equipment is needed for the classes’ fall project. Currently, maintenance staff stores extra equipment in the maintenance storage barn, which is off-site. Other equipment is stored in Smith’s classroom. This keeps students safe by keeping the materials out of the way while working in the greenhouse, but obviously is not the best in terms of time management.

During the annual spring Greenhouse Project, about 25-30 students at a time are planting and constantly moving around while working. The barn would provide extra space for storage and working, as well as provide room for initiating more projects, including their newest project: broiler chickens!

The broiler chicken project has been ongoing since the fall of 2018 and was completed again this past fall. Students were responsible for animal health, cleaning, chores, and data recording.

“It was a huge success,” Smith enthuses. “However, the location and setup in the greenhouse was not ideal. We do the best we can with keeping the greenhouse and pens clean, but this is not the best way to raise birds! Basically, a greenhouse is not conducive to raising animals.”

The storage of poultry equipment has also been an issue; while it’s currently still in the greenhouse, it will need to be moved into storage in order to start the spring greenhouse project, and then brought back in the fall.

“A barn facility would make this transition much smoother,” Smith concludes. “Students would gain insight and responsibility for organization of all our Agriscience facilities.”

Space has been staked out between the greenhouse facility and the west wing of the high school to accommodate the new building. Watch for more details soon!

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by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.