Clinton County is saying no to an Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (AFNR) Program and FFA chapter for the 2023-24 school year, despite a 50% financial commitment from the local community to cover two years of salary for its open instructor position and half-time conservation technician.
The recent announcement is disappointing, said Mark Forbush, Michigan FFA state advisor and AFNRE outreach specialist. According to reports, Clinton County School District superintendents unanimously voted to cancel the proposed 2023-24 Regional Education Service Agency (RESA) AFNR program due to low student enrollment.
Michigan features 57 Intermediate School Districts, RESA, and Regional Educational Service Districts, which promote stable economies by creating a skilled-trades talent pipeline.
Forbush said it’s hard to recruit students into a new program when you don’t know if it will exist.
“They never start with 20 or 35 kids,” he told Michigan Farm News. “They start with smaller numbers, especially in career center-type programs when you have to come on a bus from somewhere else. And they grow with good teachers and good support, and there's obviously good support in this community for this project.”
That financial support comes from business leaders like Clinton County Farm Bureau, AgroLiquid, Clinton Conservation District, and MWC Glanbia, which agreed to pay $50,000 for the instructor role and a half-time conservation technician, to make it a full-time job. (Read the Clinton Conversation District’s letter here.)
“There’s certainly enough agriculture in Clinton County,” Forbush said.
“This is an industry opportunity for students. The goal was to start a program that would allow more students to get trained, and some would come from an agricultural background, and some would not. It would open the door to new people to work in the ag industry at all different levels.”
According to documents obtained by Michigan Farm News, the Clinton County RESA AFNR Advisory Committee met the criteria in the proposed hiring of an instructor, which included covering half of the full-time salary for 2023 to 2025 and writing the hybrid job description.
On Monday, Bob Craig and other AFNR community members expressed disappointment in the superintendents’ decision, asking the Clinton County RESA School Board to reconsider.
“They didn’t change anything,” said Craig, chairperson of the Clinton County RESA AFNR Advisory Committee.
“They're basically standing by their superintendents’ decision.”
The Clinton County RESA agriscience program would have served the St. Johns, Pewamo-Westphalia, Fowler, Bath, and DeWitt communities.
“We property owners pay one-half of a mill in Clinton County school millage property taxes county wide for vocational education programs,” Craig told Michigan Farm News. “We're going to pay it whether we got an AFNR program or not. It's disappointing the decision that was made, but we’re going to keep trying because we have great kids here in Clinton County.”
Source: michiganfarmnews.com
Categories: Michigan, Education