By Kellen Olshefski
Correspondent
During last week’s meeting, the Elkhorn Area School District Board of Education formally voted in favor of a recommendation from District Administrator Jason Tadlock to appoint a second agricultural teacher.
The vote to approve several personnel recommendations provided by Tadlock at the April 27 meeting – which included the ag teacher – was approved unanimously by school board members.
In speaking with the Elkhorn Independent earlier that day, Tadlock said district administration had begun looking into an additional staffing request for the agricultural sciences department prior to the March 9 meeting in which Elkhorn FFA Alumni Association members attended and advocated for a second full-time ag teacher.
According to Tadlock, staff along with members of the school board further reviewed the request at its Budget Retreat meeting on March 14.
“Each year we review all staffing needs at that meeting, and the ag position was one of several positions that were approved to move forward with,” he said.
Tadlock said the district posted the position opening in March following that meeting and began interviewing candidates just over a couple of weeks ago. Following those interviews, he said, the district selected Bailey Hart to fill the position, which the School Board formally approved at Monday’s meeting.
A graduate of UW-Platteville with a major in Agricultural Education, Hart comes from the Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton School District, where she was a full-time agriculture teacher and FFA advisor. She is set to join the Elkhorn Area School District for the 2020-2021 school year.
The decision to add Hart comes from the growing need for additional staffing as Elkhorn’s agricultural education programming continues to grow.
According to Derrick Papcke of the Elkhorn FFA Alumni and Supporters Association, requests for agricultural sciences classes at the high school have grown by 69 percent over just the past four years, and updates coming to the middle school schedule will increase the demands for agricultural staffing as well.
With 363 total course requests from students for next school year alone, Papcke said it’s clear that interest continues to grow.
While the district previously had one full-time agricultural teacher to handle the programming and upkeep of facilities, the addition of Hart is expected to help address staffing concerns presented to district administration both before and at the March 9 meeting.
