BY DAVID
RICHARDS
EDITOR@SIERRASTAR.COM
The Yosemite Union High
School District’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved an agreement
made between the district and Yosemite High School agriculture teacher
Steve Ecklund during a special April 29 board meeting.
Following a 40-minute closed session, Superintendent Bill McCabe
announced the agreement to the audience, made up of mostly parents
and students, and added that the resignation of Ecklund had been
accepted as well.
The announcement comes almost a month after Ecklund was first placed
on administrative leave from the high school April 1. The reason
for the leave has not been released by the district.
For the second time in a week, parents and students flocked to the
board room located on the Yosemite High campus.
At the April 22 monthly meeting, audience members took turns speaking
in regard to Mr. Ecklund and the YHS agriculture and FFA programs
during a 30-minute time period allotted by the board during the
public comment portion.
On April 29, parents and students talked for an additional hour
on the issue.
Both meetings drew large crowds.
Priscilla Pike, chairperson for the board of trustees, told audience
members to speak to the board and added that no rebuttals would
be permitted, although the board would accept anything that was
submitted in writing.
Some parents and students asked questions to the board about the
issue, some of which were answered, some of which were not.
“The difficulty with the question and answer session is it gets
into the personnel issue,” Pike said.
Pike addressed that topic in the meeting the week before.
“With matters concerning personnel, we are limited to what we can
say,” Pike said.
Yosemite High School Principal Steve Raupp touched on the future
of the program at the April 29 meeting .
“It’s been a challenge for all of us. We will continue to try to
do the best in terms of meeting the needs of the students,” he said.
“What I need to do is to set up an opportunity to talk with students
and parents about where we need to go and how we’re going to get
there.”
FFA president Heather Plumb, a senior, said she is concerned over
the program as a whole.
Her younger brother Alex, an eighth grader this year, is scheduled
to take part in the program next year.
“I’m completely shocked they are taking away such a great teacher,”
she said.
There are two Yosemite High School teachers working with the program
at this time, Nicole Ullrich, a science teacher and Gordon Baker,
who is credentialed as an agriculture teacher.
According to McCabe, both teachers will continue on with the program
throughout the remainder of the school year.
McCabe added that a full-time agriculture position at Yosemite High
School is already being advertised for next school year in different
locations, including the California Agriculture Teacher’s Association
website.
The Yosemite FFA team, one component of the YHS agriculture program,
received the National Chapter Award and National Gold Award during
the annual FFA Convention in Fresno April 17-20 at Selland Arena.
The Yosemite High School agriculture program is made up of approximately
150 students and is in the process of adding a 150-feet by 250-feet
equestrian center, with the main pieces for the center set to arrive
this week. McCabe said Wednesday that Baker will be organizing the
effort to assemble the arena.
There are seven acres devoted to the YHS agriculture program and
the equestrian center is set to take up one acre of that land.
McCabe said that all current agriculture and FFA facilities will
remain in use at the high school.
“We want to move on and make the best ag program we can,” McCabe
said.
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