In its second year, the Future Farmers of America (FFA) students are trying to enhance their program at Tombstone High School.

“It’s hard starting out a new program, especially on such a low budget,” said Amanda Telles, FFA Adviser.

The agricultural education and FFA programs are running on a $40,000 budget, which includes the teacher’s salary. This amount is extremely low for an agricultural program.

Joanne Coppola, director of Career Technology Education, said the program is funded through Career Technology Education (CTE) grant, JTed (joint technical education district) grant and fundraising.

The majority of the schools with a FFA program have a barn or workshop to better enable the students to have a hands-on, agricultural experience.

Tombstone High, however, does not have a barn.

“The heart and soul of the program is located within the barn and workshop,” Telles said. “Without it, it’s hard to run a strong program.”

Agricultural education is made up of three parts: Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE), Classroom, and FFA. Classroom instruction differs from school to school.

“Most schools tend to focus on one aspect of agriculture,” said Amanda Zamudio, former Arizona state officer of FFA. “Benson tends to focus on Ag Mechanics, San Simon focuses more on livestock and most Phoenix schools focus on biotechnology agriculture.”

Because of the lack of a barn, Telles has structured her class around plants and entomology.

FFA is the extra curricular part of the agricultural education program. This is where students would normally get to show off what they have learned at conferences around the state and/or show animals at fairs.

SAE is the agricultural experience within the program. This area focuses on things such as raising animals, welding objects, plumbing and planting. Students are required to complete project records for their specific project to show what they have learned.

To have a successful SAE program, schools need a barn or workshop. This is where the welding, plumbing and raising of animals would take place.

“The program doesn’t have a strong SAE program but I am trying to make do with what I have to work with,” Telles said.

Telles said she and the school built a greenhouse where her students could plant a variety of vegetation including carrots, beets, radishes, strawberries, tomatoes and cilantro.

For an SAE project, Telles gave her first-hour class the project of landscaping the road by the highway.

“The students will have to design a desert landscape with boulders, descriptive rock, plants and cactus,” Telles said. “My fourth hour was given the project to gather bugs and put a board together with their scientific name and common name.”

Principal Robert Devere thinks the program has made a great start into the school curriculum.

“Everything is going real good,” Devere said. “It is a start-up program and it has done a lot within its second year.”

Telles said the school is waiting on a $3 million stimulus package to improve the program. Part of the money would go to building a barn and workshop for the school.

“Having the barn would greatly improve our program,” Telles said. “We could offer more in the area of agriculture and fill the needs of the students.”

Zamudio said it is normal for new chapters to struggle within their first few years. They are trying to find their niche within their Ag program.

Until the school receives the stimulus package, Telles will continue to try and find ways to improve the agricultural education program at the high school.

“I have a lot of ideas and dreams,” Telles said. “It’s just going to take a while.”