By LINDA CHION KENNEY
A new agricultural barn with pasture enclosure is on tap for the high school in Ruskin named in honor of beloved Riverview resident, Earl J. Lennard.
“With Dr. Lennard being such a proponent of agricultural education, coming from a farming family himself, it’s only fitting that the school named in his honor is finally getting the right facilities,” said Jennifer Prete, whose daughters, Alexandra and Jetcia, graduated from Lennard High in 2019 and 2022, respectively.
FFA Facebook Photo
Lennard High FFA student Olivia Knight in 2021 painted a rain barrel likeness of school namesake Earl J. Lennard, reading a book under a tree, that was shown at the Hillsborough County Fair. Pictured are Lennard’s wife, Annabel; daughter, Missy; and grandson, Riley Shields.
Prete said her oldest daughter earned a vet tech certificate at Lennard, and that her youngest daughter in 2022 received a scholarship in memory of Lennard, through the Riverview Woman’s Club, which she used for her culinary arts studies in Orlando.
“There’s been teachers and advisors working on that [barn project] since my oldest daughter was a freshman, and she’s 24 now,” said Prete, who for four years served on Lennard’s FFA alumni board. “If they’re going to get that barn, it’s a huge plus. The kids in that program work really, really hard, and this is going to help that program thrive.”
According to documents that were to be reviewed at the March 11 school board meeting, the current agricultural barn at Lennard High does not meet district standards.
Plans are to construct at Lennard High “a new agricultural barn structure with pasture enclosure.”
School board members were expected to approve the guaranteed market price (GMP) for the barn, as proposed by Allstate Construction Inc., set at $479,636. The reported construction completion date is June 23.
According to school officials, “Students will be able to safely keep animals from extreme temperatures in an agricultural barn that meets” county school district standards. Moreover, “the new facility will provide access to electricity and plumbing to provide a safe environment for the animals while allowing students to properly care for the animals that will be shown in contests throughout the year.”
One such contest was the Florida Strawberry Festival, which ended its 11-day run March 9 at the Florida Strawberry Festival Fairgrounds in Plant City. Upcoming is the Hillsborough County Fair, which kicks off Oct. 30 for its 11-day run at the Hillsborough County Fairgrounds in Dover.
In keeping with Lennard’s lifelong association with farming and agriculture, the school in Ruskin has a strong agriculture program, including an active FFA program.
Missing for years, however, has been the type of facilities that for years have graced other schools, like the barns at Plant City High and at Newsome High in Lithia, Prete said.
A new barn at the school in Ruskin “would be great and the kids at Lennard High really deserve it,” Prete added. “All they’ve had is a land lab, basically a big field, with kind of a lean-to shed for the animals. But it wasn’t enclosed, and they didn’t have adequate electricity in that lab.”
Without such a barn, Lennard students after fair seasons “would have to find somewhere else to have the animals housed, to keep them out of the extreme summer heat,” Prete said.
Lennard, who died in 2019 at age 77 after a long illness and lengthy hospitalization, has long been admired as one of Hillsborough County’s most-respected superintendents of schools.
Lennard entered the school system as a first-grader at Palm River Elementary, graduated from Brandon High in 1960, was in the first graduating class at the University of South Florida in Tampa, taught “Problems of American Democracy” at East Bay High, and at one time served as the school district’s agricultural supervisor.
Prete said she met Lennard when her oldest daughter was at Lennard High. “He visited the veterinary assistant program during the Great American Teach-In and spoke to the kids,” Prete said.
The Greater Riverview Chamber of Commerce, now known as the Central Hillsborough County Chamber of Commerce, launched the Lennard scholarship fund, managed through the Riverview Woman’s Club Foundation, at the chamber’s Jan. 17, 2020, dinner, one month after the heralded educator died. The scholarship is for students seeking post-secondary studies at colleges, universities and technical programs for workplace readiness.
A Lennard FFA Facebook post shows Natalia Overduijn, who participated in the 2024 Hillsborough County Fair Goat Show and placed first in her class.
“An historian, an educator, a good friend, what else can you say about Earl,” said club co-founder Donna Fore in a 2024 interview, after three Lennard scholarship recipients were recognized. “We modeled the scholarship program around what Earl had to say about giving back to local students, who are more likely to come back home and work here in the community.”
The year after his 2005 retirement as school superintendent, Lennard High opened to relieve overcrowding at East Bay High in Gibsonton. Lennard reportedly opened with roughly 700 students and today enrolls 2,434, according to a report dated March 1.
The newly built Aquilla J. Morgan High School in Wimauma, set to debut in August, is set to relieve overcrowding at both Lennard High and Jule F. Sumner High in Balm/Riverview, which according to the March report is the district’s largest school, with 3,547 enrolled students.
For more on the scholarship program, visit www.riverviewwomansclub.org/. For more on Hillsborough schools, visit www.hillsboroughschools.org/.