Mark. “When I first came, we didn’t have a middle school Ag
program. Each teacher can focus on their area of greatest
expertise, but we all work together as a team,” said Mark.
A walk into the TCHS 96x30 fully-automated
greenhouse leaves no room as to where Mark’s specialty
lies. According to the time of year, students will grow
flowers and/or vegetables. First semester students get things
started, and second semester students keep it going until
the greenhouse is filled with beautiful plants and flowers
including Emerald Queen, Boston, and Macho ferns, which
are a community favorite. By the end of March, the huge
plants are ready for sale. The cost of plants and flowers
range from $1 to $35. In addition to ferns, last year’s plants
grown and sold included Elephant Ears, purple Angelonia,
the leafy vine Pothos plant, Lantana, Canna Lilies, Peruvian,
Wandering Jews, and others. Vegetables grown included
tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, jalapeno, corn, onions, bell
peppers and banana peppers.
“Sometimes we'll plant a garden
outdoors. We grow a lot of lettuce
in the tower gardens. It’s similar to
hydroponics and basically uses a mineral
water or nutrient water solution that just
drips down over the plant roots. There's
no soil whatsoever. We’ve also grown
vegetables for Mrs. Theresa Standard’s
Family and Consumer Science class,
special meal functions as well as
provided some to be served in the school
lunch program,” said Mark.
Another asset to the Agriculture
program is the Toombs County Ag
Center. “There’s something going on
down there several times a month,” said
Mark. “4-H also uses the building. Our
State Ag Ed people host competitions
there as well. We host a couple hundred
competitors and spectators each year
in September at the Ag Center for
competitions in everything from floral
design to livestock exhibits, tractor
operations, meats evaluations where
students identify cuts and qualities of
meat.”
The motto of FFA is simple:
Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning
to Live, Living to Serve. None of that
is possible without teachers like Mark Montfort. Through
the years, former students have returned to thank him,
sometimes starting out with an apology for giving him such
a hard time back in school. But even then, they want him to
know that his words and his work made a difference in their
lives.
By the end of each school year, Mark will have taught
from 150 to 180 kids. At the end of twenty years, that adds
up to a lot of kids. Imagine the potential for job careers
for students who can grow plants and vegetables, arrange
flowers, identify cuts and qualities of meat in the grocery
store, fix a car, do electrical work, know how to manage
a forest and diagnose disorders in trees as well as cut and
weld metal. The future of our communities just might
depend on those with these important and practical skills.
TCM
96 Toombs County Magazine
The greenhouse at TCHS is usually full.
According to the season, students
semester of students gets the plants
started, and the next semester will
continue to take care of them through
the growing season.