Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Ten-year-old Jack Pobar rounds up the pig he keeps at the 4-H farmyard on the Los Gatos High School campus. His grandfather, Gene Pobar, helped build the pens nearly 30 years ago.

High school officials say 4-H pens must go

By Clarence Cromwell

A 20-member 4-H club is faced with ejection from its farmyard at Los Gatos High School by mid-August.

For decades, club members have raised pigs, sheep and goats here, but now the high school is so pressed for athletic field space that the school is pushing out the 4-Hers to make room for another playing field.

The 4-H club's contract to use the space expired June 30, and the club's adult leader, Mary Bartlett, got word shortly thereafter that the club will have to find another location.

"We had no discussion whatsoever of this," Bartlett said.

The property is currently home to five sheep, about 15 pigs and a goat. But many of them are to be auctioned off at the county fair this month.

Gene Pobar, a Los Gatan who helped build the 4-H pens in about 1968, said he's a little miffed about the proposal. "They can't just demolish something somebody else put together," Pobar said. "It's wrong what they're trying to do. I'm against it 100 percent."

The school's playing fields have been coveted space ever since LGHS began to field both boys and girls teams in most sports, high school Principal Ted Simonson said. Now, the school's four soccer teams, two field hockey teams and two football teams practice in the same area, Simonson said. There's also the track and field team. And community sports leagues demand time on the high school fields as well.

"There just are not enough facilities in Los Gatos to handle all the things that are going on," Simonson said.

An athletic field would serve more people than the 4-H pens, he added.

On top of the shortage of fields, livestock pens just don't belong at the high school any longer, Los Gatos-Saratoga High School District Superintendent Cynthia Ranii said. The high school used to offer veterinary science and agricultural science, but dropped its agricultural program years ago, she explained.

Ed Burke, owner of the Los Gatos Athletic Club, is one community proponent of the new field, school officials said. A former Olympic hammer thrower, he's asked for a hammer-throwing area on the new field, where he could train Olympic competitors.

Simonson speculated that the Olympic Committee might help pay for construction of the playing field if the hammer-throwing area is included.

Burke was not available for comment at press time.

Athletic director Butch Cattolico said after the 4-Hers move their animals out of the pens, sometime during August, crews will demolish the facility, level the dirt and plant grass.

The project won't affect the Los Gatos Youth Park, near the 4-H plot. Three youth park buildings will still be used by Boy Scouts of America, Girls Scouts, Campfire and 4-H. The Youth Park rents its land from the San Jose Water District.

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