Lincoln High adds greenhouse to agriculture department
Posted on Sunday, December 2, 2007
LINCOLN - One of the most popular and successful programs at Lincoln High School now has an additional facility the instructors hope will further enhance the agriculture department.
A new greenhouse has been built for the agriculture program, and agriculture instructors Kevin Barenberg and Chase Hilton hope to make good use of it in the spring 2008 semester. They said the greenhouse will be helpful in providing students with a place to learn how to grow plants for both class projects and fundraisers for Future Farmers of America.
"It's going to be awesome," Hilton said.
"I think it's nicely located since it's next to the ag building," sophomore Brooke Rose said.
Rose added the greenhouse is a good size as it is not too large for the program and not too small.
The greenhouse covers approximately 1, 800 square feet and is designed as a Quonsonet hut-style building. It is located on the north side of the high school campus near the physical education gymnasium and the agriculture program.
Rose said she looks forward to working in the greenhouse next semester. It will provide them with a convenient place to grow plants, as finding alternative locations would probably be difficult without the greenhouse.
"We have a horticulture group with FFA, so this will give us some hands-on experience," Rose said.
Barenberg said some semester-long class are starting in the spring that will use the building.
"We have a greenhouse management class," sophomore Pamela Kong said.
Approximately 165 students in the school are already enrolled in one of the current agriculture offerings this semester, Barenburg said. The facility might prompt more students to enroll if they are interested in working with plants.
"I'm excited," Barenberg said. "The greenhouse will open our program up to a different type of student."
Some of the work fields where greenhouse experience might be helpful include landscaping, horticulture and landscape design, he said.
"Everyone wants their house landscaped," Barenberg said.
Many of the other agriculture classes focus on animals and farm equipment, and the greenhouse will enable them to devote a more specialized focus on horticulture, he said.
The facility is being paid for mostly with a $ 50, 000 state grant that Barenberg obtained to expand the program. The grant helped subsidize most of the costs for the structure.
Stuppy Greenhouse of Kansas City, Mo., a company that specializes in greenhouses for school, installed and built the structure for a bid of $ 55, 327.
Barenberg is a 1993 graduate of Lincoln High School and has been teaching agriculture at the school for nine years. A greenhouse is an addition he has wanted for some time, but the school did not have the funds to build one within its own budget.
The facility is made up of metal frame, with the poles planted in the ground, and greenhouse glass. The structure was not built with a concrete foundation, but it does have a concrete sidewalk on the inside.
Barenberg and Hilton said the indoor sidewalk will provide a means for dividing up tables of plants along the central walkway. The entrydoors are also large enough to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
By placing the poles in the ground instead of a permanent foundation, the greenhouse is movable should the school relocate some day, Hilton said.
One of the first plants to be housed in the new greenhouse are poinsettias that the Future Farmers of America chapter is purchasing for a Christmas-time fundraiser.
Barenberg said they do plan to sell the poinsettias in the upcoming month prior to winter break. The heating and cooling fan units for the greenhouse have been installed.
The structure does not have light fixtures inside at the present time, but they plan to order them once the new plant arrangements for the 2008 semester are finalized, Barenberg said.
"We're waiting for fluorescent lights," he said.
Hilton said adequate enters through the greenhouse walls and roof now for the occasional visit to the facility.
Students also researched tables and benches to purchase for furnishing the greenhouse on the Internet, he said.
"I let the students do a lot of that work. It doesn't take them long to find things online," Barenberg said.
The students and teachers are also making plans for a plant sale next semester with products grown at the greenhouse.
"Hopefully, in April we'll do a plant sale," Barenberg said.
There is one commercial greenhouse in Lincoln, and it has been a good business partner with the program over the years, Barenberg said. He said he plan to set up school plant sales and events in a manner that does not conflict with the local operation.
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