This past summer, Paul Revere's newly hired principal, Fern Somoza, invited former teacher Rick Herrera, her old Hale Middle School colleague, to tour the Revere campus. She took Herrera, retired since 2006, to the planting yard, which had not been cleared since 1998.
She showed him the glass and lathe house, which were supposed to be used for plants and potting, but were filled to the rafters with boxes'none of them gardening-related. Then she asked Herrera to come out of retirement and revive Revere's horticulture program, which had been defunct for 30 years. Herrera accepted her invitation.
From working with him at the middle school in Woodland Hills, Somoza knew that Herrera was a man who liked a challenge. In 1972, with no prior soccer experience while working at Venice High School, Herrera started and coached a varsity soccer program. In 1974, the team went 17-0.
Herrera committed to teach at Revere and now he estimates that it will take him about five years to get the half-acre parcel of land in shape, upon which he will find his replacement so that he can retire again. 'There's so much to do,' says Herrera, who received funding from PRIDE, the parent booster club, to buy gardening tools and a floral refrigerator case.
Other projects Herrera would like to accomplish are more costly, including replacing the rotting raised beds with cement, installing a laser-drip irrigation system, refurbishing and filling the two ponds, starting a plant nursery, planting a vineyard, filling the glass house with plants, and working on a long-neglected nature walk that he hopes an Eagle Scout candidate will adopt as a project.
Herrera is currently teaching floral design, landscaping and horticulture. Early in the morning, he leaves his Thousand Oaks home, picks up flowers at the Van Nuys wholesale floral supplier Mayesh, and drives Pacific Coast Highway to Pacific Palisades. 'That drive is worth it, it's so beautiful,' Herrera says.
Once in the classroom, he teaches floral students how to create a corsage, a bud vase or a floral display. They also learn how to cut and tie ribbons for the arrangements.'Right now, we're learning about different sizes of ribbons and how to identify 50 different flowers for a floral contest in January,' Herrera says. 'Students will also be required to make a corsage and judge floral arrangements.' In addition, he plans to have the school sell arrangements to people in the community.
Students new to Herrera's horticulture classes start out with the basics and safety procedures, such as identifying and learning tool usage, before moving onto different fertilizer and soil amendments. Students learn the proper pH (acidic or basic) for growing each type of plant, as well as how to make plant cuts and how to root them.
'They are also going to learn the different types of grafts,' Herrera says. Progress has been made in the garden area, where the recently planted lettuce and Swiss chard are growing well, and the glass house has been emptied.
'My goal by the end of the year is to have this house filled with various indoor plants,' Herrera says, then laughs as he relates how, earlier in the day, a student cleaning the structure found a snake inside. 'It was a big snake,' he says. '[Science teacher] Mr. Honda's boa had gotten loose and was hanging around in there.'
In addition to guiding future landscapers and fending off runaway reptiles, Herrera has a diversity of passions.'Handball is my life,' says Herrera, who also is the director of the Southern California Handball Association, and plays in eight to 10 tournaments a year. He also belongs to the Red Line Corvette Club in a Thousand Oaks.
His wife, Evie, is retired after working for many years as executive director of the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce. The Herreras have two grown children: Michelle, a first grade teacher, and Richard, a landscape contractor.
Herrera knows all about fundraising: he was selected as grand marshal of the Conejo Valley Days parade in May after he raised $12,000 in two months for a community fundraiser through the Kiwanis Club. He also serves as the scholarship chairman for the Thousand Oaks Elks, which donated $4,500 last spring to high school seniors. Like most public schools, Revere doesn't have the budget for the ambitious program that he envisions, but Herrera is hopeful that the community will support his efforts with financial donations.