By Kellen Olshefski
Correspondent
With the Elkhorn Area School District Board of Education entering into budget discussion for the 2021 school year, members of the Elkhorn FFA Alumni and Supporters Association recently appealed to board members to bolster agricultural sciences programming further at the middle and high school through additional staff.
Derrick Papcke of the Elkhorn FFA Alumni and Supporters Association said at the March 9 meeting that with a 69 percent growth over just the past four years with requests for agricultural sciences classes at the high school, as well as a lack of adequate programming at the middle school level, now is the time to act.
With 363 total course requests from students for the 2021 school year, Papcke said it’s clear interest is growing. But growing interest also presents a problem with a lack of adequate staff.
Additionally, while an updated middle school schedule for the 2021 school year will provide more opportunities for students to engage in ag sciences at that level, Elkhorn FFA Alumni and Supporters Association President Marra Andreas said the group would like seventh and eighth graders to have not only one ag pathways course available to them, but a second as well if they were interested in exploring ag sciences further.
Staffing needs
Papcke said the association is appreciative of the ag sciences facilities approved by the school board and funded by taxpayers, such as the greenhouse, labs and fields. While there has been tremendous growth and opportunities, he said, it’s also an overwhelming amount of work for a single ag teacher.
“An ag teacher has many, many roles,” Papcke said, noting that teacher supervises Supervised Agricultural Experiences and serves as the FFA advisor in addition to daily classroom instruction.
“All these different pieces for one person to do for a program the size of Elkhorn’s school district, in the alumni’s eyes, just doesn’t make sense,” Papcke said. He also noted the ag sciences teacher is responsible for community outreach, serves as a communications specialist and manages the equipment and facilities, such as the Outdoor lab, Pathways lab, Food Science lab and Plant Science Learning Center.
“One person can only do so much. From our perspective, that is our biggest concern,” he said.
A challenging job
District Administrator Jason Tadlock echoed the FFA Alumni Association’s sentiments.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find a teacher that I think has a more challenging job in the school. I’ve felt that way for years because he has been what we call a singleton teacher, the only one in that subject area,” Tadlock said.
“Nobody else teaches as many different courses as he has over the years, and that’s a lot to ask; that’s a lot of work,” he added.
Andreas said while relying on interns and part-time teachers has helped address staffing in the past, it’s also not a permanent solution.
“Depending on when we were able to get those interns and part-time teachers, sometimes it gave students limited opportunities too late in their middle school career,” she said. “Having additional staffing would provide that extra guidance and connection points, which we know are so important for middle school students during that age of transition.”
Andreas also noted the lack of permanent staff has led to missed FFA opportunities, such as leadership training and development events, career development events, and especially, proficiency awards and individual award opportunities that are linked heavily to student involvement over a longer period of time.
By the numbers, Andreas said students involved in agriculture and natural resources have a graduation rate of 97.7 percent compared to the 89.9 percent stage graduation rate.
She said Wisconsin farms and agricultural businesses generate more than $88.3 billion in economic activity each year and more than 400,000 jobs, or nearly 12 percent of the total workforce in Wisconsin. Furthermore, she said, those numbers don’t factor in other agricultural pathways, such as food manufacturing, agricultural products and recreation like golf courses and turf management.
“It is more than just farmers,” she said, and named several other careers such as botanists, chemical engineers, wildlife biologists, dietitians, bacteriologists, water quality managers, fish and game officers, and field representatives for banks, insurance companies and government programs.
“So much is covered under the ag career clusters. It’s absolutely amazing what pathways these students have ahead of them,” she said.
Proposal presented
Papcke said the association is proposing the district incorporate another full-time ag sciences teacher, with that additional teacher spending two-thirds of the time at the high school and the other third with middle school students.
He also noted the association feels staffing decisions should address the four pathways each year, utilize the facilities available entirely, allow for students to engage in the classroom, through supervised agricultural experiences and FFA, and build sponsorships and community relationships that will benefit students and the program as a whole.
While previous talks have suggested shifting a teacher from the tech ed department to ag sciences to assist some of the time, Papcke said it’s important for the program to have a teacher dedicated to the program full-time.
“I don’t have the silver plan, the FFA alumni doesn’t have the silver bullet, but we want to explore this idea of a second full-time ag teacher,” he said.
“Why are we doing this now? Because the numbers justify it … I think we need to find a plan that fully utilizes that investment that we’ve made in the school district.”
Papcke said with the topic being so important to the FFA alumni, the association is prepared to make a $10,000 donation to hire a second, full-time ag teacher.
“Our contribution comes with the stipulation that it’s a full-time, dedicated ag teacher,” Papcke said.
“We’ve worked through it, we’ve discussed it and we feel that’s our best avenue moving forward for the students, for the alumni and for the community,” he said.
Numerous current and former Elkhorn FFA members and agricultural sciences also voiced their support for the alumni association’s plan at the school board meeting.
