Ag department will stay open at YHS

Lacey Rees/Sierra Star

Steve Ecklund, Yosemite High School agriculture teacher and FFA advisor, shows sophomore Michelle Stuber the proper way to water greenhouse plants. Freshman Josh Waters waits to take over.

FFA disappointed by move of Superintendent of Education

 

Lacey Rees - lrees@sierrastar.com

“We are not shutting down,” assures Steve Ecklund, the Yosemite High School agriculture teacher and Future Farmers of America advisor. He wants to dispel any rumors. He is not getting laid off and Yosemite High School will still have an Ag Department,

His comments are in response to an announcement that the state is closing all regional FFA ag education offices and moving the state staff to Sacramento.

Although the California Agriculture Teachers Association has found a way to delay the closing for a month, until November 4, state Superintendent of Education Delaine Eastin has cited “continuing budget cuts” as the rationale for the action.

Ms. Easton, who, says Mr. Ecklund, has refused to talk to FFA officials, is completing her term as education superintendent. FAA’s only hope is that things could change again when the new superintendent, to be elected in November, is put into office. None of the candidates, however, are giving any hint as to what they think or might do.

“I’m disgusted that Ms. Eastin has, in her final days in office, sought out to handcuff and perhaps destroy this vital educational program,” said Senator Dick Monteith (R-Modesto). I challenge the candidates running for superintendent of public instruction to first, make known their stand on the FFA program, and second, when elected, restore these regional offices to the Central Valley.”

Jim Aschwanden, California Agricultural Teachers Association executive director, said, “The intended purpose of this action is not centered on financial savings, but rather on the impending reassignment of agricultural education staff to other duties within the Department of Education.”

YHS affected

The YHS Ag Department, nevertheless, has been affected by the closure of the Fresno regional office.

“The most immediate impact is the cancellation of all regional activities coordinated by regional advisors,” Mr. Ecklund says, reading from an email he has received. The YHS FFA has already cancelled its regional contests for this fall, such as a leadership conference in November.

Mr. Ecklund says that people perceive him and his students as just doing welding and raising animals and plants. Additionally, Mr. Ecklund teaches leadership skills and applied academics.  What he teaches in the classroom on a daily basis is only a small part of the time he puts in to the FFA.

He explains that the Ag Department is a melding of three areas: classroom work, FFA and Supervised Occupational Experience Projects [SOEP] or self-guided learning projects. The regional closures will leave only the classroom portion of his responsibilities.

“The reason projects will suffer is that we will lose our proficient awards in competition,” he says. The students have to compete at a local, regional and state level to go on to national, which can lead to scholarships. The students have to go through all the steps. “If we lose the involvement of regional supervisors, I have no idea how those books [the detailed records of projects] will be graded and judged to make it to national,” he says, as some YHS students have done in the past.

Closing the regional offices essentially gets rid of the regional FFA competitions that the student leaders “live, breathe and die for.” He explains that because the Mountain Area holds no local competitions, local FFA students begin their competitions on the regional level. If that step is missing,  because there is no regional supervisor to coordinate it or supervise it, they would not be qualified for state.

Mr. Ecklund can spend up to 100 hours a week accompanying students to regional leadership activities or going to homes to evaluate individual projects. “It is hard to measure the ability of a kid on paper. There is no state [mandated] testing for leadership.”

“They are telling me to [evaluate projects] over the phone,” he says. “I can’t do that.” Some kids have invested [large amounts of] money on a project” over the course of their high school careers.

It is the incentive of competing regionally and further on projects that inspire the students to continue.

If the closures continue into next year, the regional contests in job skills and speaking competitions, for instance, will not be held. Mr. Ecklund’s worst-case scenario, now, is that come January there will be fall out.” I would venture you will see some huge changes. Once a position is vacated, funds will go elsewhere and will not be reinstated,” he says.

My top-end kids will be devastated. “The top achievers will be toast,” he says.

Additionally, Mr. Ecklund says about 90% of the department is funded through the Vocational Agriculture Incentive Grant. He has to apply for it every year, but is subject to a review every four years to continue certification. With the loss of a regional supervisor who does the initial certification work, he says the incentive grant could be eliminated because it could not be reviewed or managed.

Mr. Aschwanden also said, “It is my belief that over time that ag education [will suffer] a slow death spiral similar to what we have seen in industrial technology … over 60% of the shop programs in California have closed over the past 10 years.”

“What is happening to them is what we are afraid will happen to us,” comments Mr. Ecklund.

He says that the state FFA is putting out a call for anybody who took ag classes in high school or is an alumni of FFA to contact Mr. Ecklund. The group wants feedback of the impact that FFA has had on their lives. They can contact Mr. Ecklund at the the high school at 683-4667.

 The state FFA hopes to use stories as ammunition when they start a campaign in the future to again localize officers in the regional offices.