(upbeat music) - When I first came here, operating in an old system, there was a shift.

That old system went away and there was this middle ground with, what is it gonna look like with Common Core, or what's the expectations for learning, moving forward?

And there was that little window of opportunity that really creeped in for me that, hey, this may be an opportunity to actually change the landscape of what schools could be.

- So, one day, we get this incredible principal named Jared Savage, and he just thought outside the box.

I mean, he wanted to change education.

And he said, "What can we do to make this school different, better, and run it like a junior college?"

He came up with this concept about, what about agriculture?

And we're in the San Joaquin Valley, and then I put my hand up right away and it's like, "That's it!"

- I started at Fairmont.

I started there in kindergarten and it's a K-8 school, so it was really great.

I think putting agriculture in the education curriculum, especially in the Valley, is huge.

- Our kids learn about irrigation systems, and so, water efficiency.

- Do you guys have a system in place to actually control the amount of water and amount of pressure that's coming through?

- They just care and you don't get lost in the jumble, which I saw happen a little bit in high school.

- It is so exciting to see the outcome of these kids' exposure at a young age going into the field.

- Then we added the dish soap and the salt with a half cup water and poured it back in the bag, smash it some more.

- We tell our kids every single day, whether you're four years old or you're getting ready to go onto the high school from eighth grade, we feed the world.

We are right in the middle of that.

And what we learn, what we produce, how we go about the business of learning, how we work together as a team, we not only feed the world, but we can change the world for the better (upbeat music) - [Announcer] Production funding for "American Grown: My Job Depends on Ag" provided by James G. Parker Insurance Associates, insuring and protecting agribusiness for over 40 years.

By Gar Bennett, the Central Valley's growing experts.

More yield, less water, proven results.

We help growers feed the world.

By Brandt Professional Agriculture, proudly discovering, manufacturing, and supplying the ag input that support the heroes who work hard to feed a hungry world every day By unWired Broadband, today's internet for rural Central California, keeping valley agriculture connected since 2003.

By Hodges Inc.

Battery Storage Systems.

Would you rather invest in PG&E's infrastructure, or your own?

by Harrison Co., providing family farms with the insights they need to make the best possible strategic, M&A, and financial decisions.

By Sierra Valley Almonds, dedicated to sustainable agriculture and water efficiency for a brighter farming future.

By Cal-Pacific Supply, providing agriculture the field supplies needed to keep field operations on track.

And by Valley Air Conditioning & Repair, family owned for over 50 years, dedicated to supporting agriculture and the families that grow food for a nation.

(bright music) - I'm going on my 14th year here at Fairmont.

And when I first came over as a principal, the district at the time and district leadership had a certain philosophy on how kids should be taught.

It was all about test scores and an achievement number at the end of the year.

And that was the summation of what a school year looked like.

There was high pressure for teachers.

It was all about producing a particular number at the end of the year.

My whole system rejects that because we need to treat kids, whether they're four years old or 18 and getting ready to go on to college, we need to see education through a strengths-based approach, meaning that it's incumbent upon us to find ways and opportunities for kids to actually shine.

We gotta love on kids, but we gotta push them and challenge them with some tough love.

And part of that tough love is really challenging ourselves to create options, to create opportunities, to create the conditions within schools where kids are gonna be able to create the life that they want so that they have the ability to choose.

And the only way that they're gonna gain that strength is through relevant, meaningful, powerful experiences.

And it's incumbent upon all schools to accept that responsibility.

(bright music continues) - I am Christine Torosian-Klistoff, and I am the K-8 ag science teacher here at Fairmont Elementary School in Sanger, California.

I started out as a third grade teacher and I also coached track.

And in my family, sports was a big deal, so we either farmed or we participated in sports.

I wasn't a good athlete, but the rest of them did, and they were amazing.

But I knew I could coach, and so I did that for 30 years.

I know, time flies, and I feel like I'm 22, but who knows what my age is now.

So, one day, we get this incredible principal named Jared Savage, and he just thought outside the box.

I mean, he wanted to change education.

And he said, "We can make, what can we do to make this school different, better, and run it like a junior college?"

And he came up with this concept about, what about agriculture?

And we're in the San Joaquin Valley, and then I put my hand up right away and it's like, "That's it!

This is what we can do!'

Going back a little bit, when I started teaching, they had done a, there was an "Ag Mag" magazine, and they had done an article when I started teaching.

And I said, "Wait a minute."

And then my heart changed, and I said, "I'm gonna just teach a little bit, and then I'm gonna get into agriculture."

I never wanted to be an ag teacher, but I felt that if we could educate young children about agriculture, really teach them, it would change things.

But the opportunity never came up.

It never came up until Jared Savage came along.

And then, it was just, after that, we wrote a proposal, and the district said, "Hmm."

They said no to everything that year, and they go: Okay, we'll give you a shot.

If that's what you wanna do, you wanna do this?

Okay, but we have no money for you.

We will give you a classroom, we'll pay for your salary, but that's it.

And it's like, "That's all we wanted.

That's all we wanted."

So, they gave me this classroom.

It was the afterschool program.

It was ripped up, it was awful, and I didn't care.

It's like, "Okay!"

So, we called a parent meeting and invited all the parents, and about 10 showed.

And from that point, planting that seed, it just blew up from there.

- Now, they'll have the same drones, but then they're going to learn to code the drones so they'll fly autonomously.

And then, I have a commercial-grade drone that I'll show them how mapping is used in agriculture and different industries.

And then, from there, we'll investigate inspection, how drones are used for inspection in different industries.

(bright music) - Every single human being has experiences and challenges, adversity, successes in their life that shape the course and direction of how they think, how they operate, how they believe, and some of the things in society that take place, whether it's inside the big institution of education, or outside.

Some of those things and challenges actually deter us from going in a specific direction and becoming who and what is possible in our lives.

And some things actually propel us forward.

And if there's anything that someday, I wanna look back on, is a legacy of building teams.

Building teams on every front, whether it's kids or football teams or teams of teachers.

Here at Fairmont, one of the things that I found was that the different values of this community was a real opportunity to really synergize some momentum in a learning space that actually could serve as a model, an example, a blueprint, not only for here in this district, not only the Central Valley, not only California, but actually, across the nation.

And I do not say that halfheartedly.

I say that with pure belief and honesty and commitment.

The team that we have built here at Fairmont and all the leadership components that I've gone into, especially with Christine Klistoff, has really been able, allowed us to double down on this grow the legacy mindset.

And grow The legacy mindset is really about creating the conditions within a school that is gonna change the trajectory of lives.

Not only about one test at the end of the year, it's about creating powerful experiences on a daily basis where kids are gonna get relevant learning, where they're gonna be hands-on, practical application that they're gonna be able to apply to the rest of their life, whatever they choose.

Agriculture being in the middle of the Central Valley, we feed the world, period, $8 million-plus industry.

So, we tell our kids every single day, whether you're four years old or you're getting ready to go on to the high school from eighth grade, we feed the world.

We are right in the middle of that.

And what we learn, what we produce, how we go about the business of learning, how we work together as a team, we not only feed the world, but we can change the world for the better.

- We are going to one of my favorite spots.

It's kind of like an overlook at one of our ranches that I walk, and you can see the whole little valley that we're in, and it's really pretty.

And I love that side of agriculture, is that it's just so pretty and it's, you're doing something good for the community, it's pretty at the same time.

So, in my opinion, it's a win-win.

My name's Stephanie Herring.

I'm an in-house pest control advisor for Booth Ranches.

Basically, the easiest way I've ever been able to describe it is kind of like a plant doctor.

I'm in charge of going out, looking for problems in the trees, and as soon as I find a problem, I write a recommendation to make it better.

I started at Fairmont.

I started there in kindergarten and it's a K-8 school, so it was really great.

And then I went to Sanger High, and my first year at Sanger High, we actually heard about it at Fairmont, is Wonderful sponsored a dual-enrollment program in agriculture.

So, I was able to get my associate's degree in plant science in high school.

And then, from there, I went to Cal Poly in SLO and got my my four-year degree in plant sciences.

You'll pick a spot this time of year.

I really like walking itself.

This job is great for steps.

I do three to four miles a day.

And so, this time of year where I'm not as much in a rush to get through my fields, I'll usually park at one spot and walk the entire thing and then get back to the truck.

Whereas when you're busy, you have to check it, jump in your truck, go to the next spot, check it, jump in the truck, go to the next spot.

And so, this time of year, it's really nice to just slow down and really get familiar with how your ranch looks.

And that's where I've found it's really easy to find your hotspots when you're taking your time.

You're not just jumping in the truck, jumping right back out.

Fairmont is wonderful.

I loved going there, it was awesome.

It's one of those really cool, smaller schools, so I was in classes with the same 30 people my entire life, basically, until I went to high school.

And that was a big, different step.

I really enjoyed having a smaller school with smaller class sizes, and I think that stayed with me from the beginning to the end, is that's why I chose Cal Poly is it has smaller class sizes.

So, you had a more personal relationship with your teachers, which I had originally learned is awesome at Fairmont, because they just care and you don't get lost in the jumble.

Which I saw happen a little bit in high school, is when teachers have 200 students, 300 students to take care of every day.

They don't really necessarily know that you're struggling with something specific or what's going on or anything like that.

So, I just really enjoyed Fairmont for the person, the teacher-student relationship that you develop.

And I think it's really awesome.

- So, after teaching that 30 years and with Jared Savage coming up with this concept about agriculture, one of the things that we started out with was, we knew we wanted to create curriculum for all schools in California to teach ag in the classroom, and make 'em solid.

Make it solid curriculum, not just a lesson, "Oh today we're gonna learn about eggs," or something like this, something so simple.

We wanted real curriculum.

And we were given the opportunity to go to Sunkist, the corporation in Valencia.

And they took us there and they said to me, they said, "Christine," or, "Fairmont, if you can come up with curriculum that we can use in inner city LA, agricultural curriculum that they could use in the classroom that they would understand, we will support you."

And since then, we've put together a team, and that's what we've been working on, real lessons about agriculture that could be used in any classroom.

- [Interviewer] Why is that important for our inner city kids to learn?

- It's important for all kids to learn about agriculture, because, I mean, I thought during COVID, during the pandemic, when people all all of a sudden realized, where's their food coming from?

I mean, if there's no food, what are we gonna do?

Because what's sad is, to me, personally, nobody cares.

They just want it.

I go to the store, I buy it.

And we've heard it before, but if they were educated enough how it's grown, for example, let me give you an example.

Students, even adults, just the term germination.

How does a seed, how do you get a seed and it becomes a plant?

I mean, kids are fascinated by that, but if they've never been taught, they never thought about it, they don't even care, right?

So, they don't even know how important just that one simple concept is.

What is so special about the San Joaquin Valley?

What's so special about California?

Why can we grow it here?

When we say it, I think, people, it just goes over their head.

"Oh, it could probably grow anywhere."

But they're not understanding about the soil or the water or our climate.

And it really needs to be taught through levels and steps, because, and not picking on any farm day that kids go to once a year and they go and they see the animals, and that's cute, and, "Oh, look at that plant.

I got my seed, got my plant."

That's great, but they really don't internalize it, because we want them to be able to grow up and be adults that are responsible.

Not that they have to be farmers, absolutely not.

But they have to be educated voters someday.

They have to understand the systems.

They have to understand, when we talk about drought, what is a drought?

For most of us, yes, absolutely understand, but there's some people, "Ah, whatever."

And then they don't know how problems can be solved.

They need to be the problem solvers of the future.

And number one for us, of course, when we teach here at Fairmont, and not just for Fairmont, our exposure to careers.

There are so many careers out there that they would never have the opportunity to and know about, especially with engineering right now, and technology and innovation.

I mean, there's so much out there.

Kids love it.

- Then, she should spray up, and then we just water all this, and maybe turn it down.

- Do we need one more down?

- We can't go down, 'cause that adapter goes straight sideways.

I mean, we can- - Can we turn this part over here?

We turned that sideways.

- We are the only school that I know of anywhere across the United States that has two national teachers of the year.

And those guys are side by side.

(uplifting music) Anything that has propelled us forward, those two things have given us validation that we are in the right space and that we are doing the right work, and we are fully committed to double down on that.

- So, the future plan is, what's really great about Booth Ranches is, even if you move up in those managerial positions, like my boss is the vice president of the farming department and he's still out and about as much as he wants to be out and about.

He doesn't get to spend as much time as I do, but he still gets to go out and take a look at something if there's a problem, or just really just check what's going on, check the fruit and everything like that.

That's one thing I really love about it, is that you're not, if you don't want to be, you're not stuck behind a desk.

(uplifting music) Yeah, so the first time that I noticed that Fairmont was unique was, since it is a K-8 school, it doesn't offer middle school sports by itself.

You get bused into the bigger middle school in Sanger, which is called WAMS.

And so, there, I was exposed to the kids that went to WAMS, the kids that went to bigger schools in the district and everything like that.

And hearing how they were struggling in this, but their teachers really didn't notice, or they could get away with barely doing the minimum or anything like that, was really where I started noticing that Fairmont was so different, because you knew everything about your teachers.

You knew what they expected from you from day one, like the relationships and being able to be held to a higher standard academically was just so much different, where you had bigger schools that the kids just get lost in the jumble.

(uplifting music continues) - Hey, I was talking to family members this weekend, and they were telling me about the prices of their grapes.

This is my family in Madera and Chowchilla.

They're telling me about the price of the grapes and the almonds, and it's like, "I don't know what I'm gonna do."

It's like, "Don't give up."

The future is still there where you cannot give up on the San Joaquin Valley.

We can't quit.

Do not quit.

We gotta keep ag going.

And I I believe that.

And I always laugh, too, 'cause whenever you go on vacation or go anywhere, people always say, "Well, where are you from?"

And it's like, "I'm from Fresno County."

And they go, "Aw, that's too bad."

And it's like, "Too bad?

We live in the most wonderful place in the world."

And I know so many people wanna leave California for all the negativity.

I get it.

But I could never leave our valley that is so beautiful and green and rich with our agriculture.

It's amazing.

(uplifting music continues) - When when you walk in this market, there's a sign that says, "Bringing the legacy to life."

Our legacy is built on tradition.

It's a blend of tradition and it's a blend of innovation.

Tradition in that we're rooted in core values and core identity and rooted in hard work.

(uplifting music continues) People misinterpret innovation.

They think, "Yeah, everything's changing, changing, changing."

That's a little bit about that.

But innovation is actually doing what's necessary.

Innovation comes from doing what's necessary to change the world around you.

So, when we talk about legacy, our legacy is gonna be made up of both tradition and innovation.

(uplifting music continues) All the kids that you're gonna see here in a second, legacy is typically attributed to something that we leave behind.

We like to talk living legacy.

The living legacy is the heartbeats of the kids that show up to school every day.

That's where it's at.

It's in the day-to-day grind, showing up to school and making an impact on the kids' life.

(crowd cheering) (crowd clapping) (uplifting music continues) - I think there is some people that may operate their lives and find purpose in various things.

And professionally, sometimes finding or personally finding purpose can sometimes be absent.

I think there's millions of people that are out there that are simply going through the motions and in survival mode.

(uplifting music) Here, what we've continued, what we've built, and what we continue to build upon is this really deep core belief that we have a greater purpose.

And our greater purpose has to do with doing things that have never been done before.

And that's why it's been so hard.

This is hard work, trying to trailblaze a path forward for an entire system that may not recognize some of those core values and core beliefs.

They might have the branding, they might put up a banner or say the right things.

But fundamentally, how people operate and how we go about the business of learning, I am reminded every day, every day, that my purpose here has to do with being connected with the Klistoffs of the world and collectively doing something greater, doing something greater that's never been done before.

And on a granular level, cut out all the noise, cut out all the logistics, cut out all the, all the stuff.

It's about connecting with people.

It's about connecting with kids.

It's about connecting teachers.

But you have to determine what, as a system, as an organization, as a family, what is it that we're all connected to?

And for us, being connected to a vision that is going to change the world, (uplifting music continues) we're right where we need to be.

We're where we need to be.

(mellow music) - [Announcer] Production funding for "American Grown: My Job Depends on Ag" provided by James G. Parker Insurance Associates, insuring and protecting agribusiness for over 40 years.

By Gar Bennett, the Central Valley's growing experts.

More yield, less water, proven results.

We help growers feed the world By Brandt Professional Agriculture, proudly discovering, manufacturing, and supplying the ag inputs that support the heroes who work hard to feed a hungry world every day.

By unWired Broadband, today's internet for rural Central California, keeping valley agriculture connected since 2003.

By Hodges Inc.

Battery Storage Systems.

Would you rather invest in PG&E's infrastructure, or your own?

By Harrison Co., providing family farms with the insights they need to make the best possible strategic, M&A, and financial decisions.

By Sierra Valley Almonds, dedicated to sustainable agriculture and water efficiency for a brighter farming future.

By Cal-Pacific Supply, providing agriculture the field supplies needed to keep field operations on track.

And by Valley Air Conditioning & Repair, family owned for over 50 years, dedicated to supporting agriculture and the families that grow food for a nation.