A school merger plan approved by the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) last year included changes to career training pathways that sparked fear the district’s long-standing Horticulture program could be eliminated. The program will be offered at East Technical High School next year but it will look a bit different.
Horticulture has been taught in Cleveland schools since the 1970s, first at a standalone center and later at East Tech. Next year, the program, along with Animal Sciences, will be rolled into a new career pathway called “Agribusiness.”
The change means that while students won’t have a Horticulture or Animal Sciences credential listed on their diplomas they’ll still be able to take horticulture courses at the greenhouses in Washington Park and host their annual plant sale and take an annual trip with the program.
This year’s spring plant sale — which like the broader Horticulture program was briefly thrown into jeopardy when the district dragged its feet on paying invoices to plant vendors — will start this week. A full list of dates and times is below.
Fraught communication about the future of program
The first warning signs about Horticulture’s disappearance came in December. At the time, Julie Stanton, the teacher who runs the program, was worried and confused because of its track record of helping students graduate with useful certifications.
After the merger plan was approved, Stanton began reaching out to upper administrators to understand if the program would be offered next year and was met with contradictory responses. In mid-January, Signal Cleveland reached out to the district about the program. At the time, Brent Dean, who heads the College & Career Readiness department at CMSD, confirmed that Horticulture would be eliminated.
Emails between administrators on the district’s academics team, including Dean, shared with Signal Cleveland, show plans to combine horticulture and animal sciences classes into one cohesive pathway with a new name: Agribusiness.
But these conversations didn’t include Stanton—leaving her and other teachers in the dark until recently about the programs they would teach.
A CMSD spokesperson wrote to Signal Cleveland that the idea behind combining the two programs under Agribusiness is to support “a farm-to-table concept where culinary, agriculture, and horticulture collaborate to create a self-sustaining pathway.” East Tech has a Culinary Arts pathway as well and an on-campus restaurant staffed by students.
While the process to resolve the issue was frustrating, Stanton thinks that the change will ultimately benefit students. Going forward, they’ll have a greater variety of classes that will all count toward earning the same certification, hopefully making scheduling easier.
“Whether this was what they were planning all along or our advocacy contributed. Things will be better for students next year,” she said.
Stanton does have lingering concerns about how two teachers will teach the same load of classes taught by three different teachers right now. Earlier this month, the district laid off the teacher who currently teaches Urban Agriculture at East Tech.
Other programs aren’t as lucky as Horticulture. The Criminal Justice pathway at Glenville, for example, will only operate next year as part of the district’s plan to phase it out, according to a CMSD spokesperson.
Annual East Tech plant sale moves forward
The plant sale is an annual tradition of the Horticulture program at East Tech. This year it will be held on May 7 to May 9 from 9am-2pm and on May 12 to May 16 from 9am-2pm at the Washington Park greenhouses in Newburgh Heights. Sales are cash only.
Students are involved in every aspect of the sale including selecting and growing thousands of vegetables, herbs, flowers and house plants. This year, the sale will feature nearly 20 types of tomatoes and 27 types of herbs as well as hanging baskets.
“The students do everything, they water, they fertilize, they apply chemical controls, like they literally take from seed to a finished product. And they’re also involved in the marketing and selling,” Stanton said. “They’re learning so much more than I can teach them in the four walls of a classroom.”
Proceeds from the sale go back into the program. They use the money for projects and to take trips around the world to see new plant species and learn about other food systems. Last year, Stanton and her students traveled to a chain of islands off the coast of Portugal which have plants that don’t grow anywhere else in the world.
Students from the other two career pathways, Culinary Arts and Engineering, offered at East Tech will also show off their talents at this year’s plant sale.
The culinary students will be selling wraps and danishes and the engineering students will be performing a science showcase. Stanton said that collaboration between different pathways is a big goal for East Tech teachers next year.
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East Tech students grow garden program with annual plant sale
East Tech High School students grow plants all year for the plant sale as part of the school’s horticulture program.
