WOODBURY — Nonnewaug High School’s agricultural program is known for the tractors and its yearly drive-your-tractor-to-school day in the spring.
The ag program had the same tractors for a while now that get used daily for various uses. The backhoe and a Case tractor were traded in for the program’s new John Deere backhoe/tractor and Gator. But are these new pieces of equipment worth it for the program?
“Yes, I would say the new tractor has benefited the program so far,” ag mechanics teacher Andrew Zielinski said. “It’s good to bring in brand-new equipment to see what’s current in the industry. You can do all the same things that the other two tractors did. I ran that same model before and had a good experience with it.”
Since the ag program is always improving, making sure there is newer equipment to operate gives the students a better understanding of the evolution and the concept of agriculture. Many students find the new purchase exciting.
“I believe that it will be beneficial in the long run,” said senior Cheyanne Gugliotti. “The new tractor has the power to do many things around the school including, moving, digging, and taking care of the land. So it’s gonna be useful and helpful, but at the same time, the old equipment did the same thing. They just wanted something newer.”
The new tractor seems to be pretty beneficial for the ag program in the long run. However, some students think keeping the old tractors would be better for the program. Some students tend to think that the ag program should be getting different equipment to practice on and use.
“I think we should have kept the Case,” said junior Joey Bernardi. “It was in pretty good condition and just got rid of the Ford only because it was falling apart. I think that our school should have invested in an excavator because with all the digging we do, I believe it will do more for the program than the Gator.”
Although some students disagree on certain decisions, they agree that there is so much room for improvement with this new equipment. When freshman students do their tractor driving course, they will get to work with newer equipment in the industry.
But should the program have kept any of the old tractors?
“No,” said Zielinski. “I don’t regret not keeping any of the old tractors. We hardly used them. We only used the old tractors for freshman tractor driving. The Case needed a lot of work done to it, so in the long run, it’s not economical to keep it around.”
Students agree that in order to see improvement within the program, tough decisions have to be made to grow bigger and better.
“I think I would rather put money back into the mechanics program,” said Gugliotti. “The mechanics programs needs more [resources] for welding, transits, and tools for the shop.”
The program’s new purchase has sparked students’ interest in what other improvements are needed in the program. The students have all sorts of ideas. Some students want more money put into the mechanics program and some students want more money to go into tractors and other equipment for the school. The program has grown, but it’s not done growing yet.
