MIRANDA JAMISON When Richmond High School students return this fall, they will be greeted by a new face in the agriculture department – one with a long history of hands-on teaching and a vision for growing the program. Erik Harel studied horticulture and turf grass management at the University of Rhode Island before starting his own landscaping business, which he ran for five years. Much of that time was spent teaching employees how to perform their jobs correctly. “Then my wife and I had our first child, Rowan, who’s 11 now, and my wife said, ‘you can’t work 80 hours anymore,’” said Harel. “So I sold the business.” He later worked for tree companies, again training people on equipment use and proper techniques. “My wife said, ‘you’re spending all this time teaching people. Why don’t you just become a teacher?’” stated Harel. Harel went on to teach landscape and horticulture in Massachusetts for nine years before moving to Missouri to take the agriculture position at Richmond…