As a part of an organization-wide restructuring, the University of Minnesota Extension Service in the county will cut its number of educators.

Wednesday, March 13, 2002

As a part of an organization-wide restructuring, the University of Minnesota Extension Service in the county will cut its number of educators.

Under a new staffing model starting July 1, three educators currently assigned to the county will be contracted to two, and the duties of the remaining two will be extended beyond Freeborn County.

Kendall Langseth, agriculture, food and environment educator, will leave his position. Sharon Davis will become the director in charge of Freeborn and Dodge counties. And Pat Stumme will be assigned as a regional 4-H youth development educator.

&uot;At this moment we do not know how this reorganization will impact our programs,&uot; Langseth said.

The extension service counts on utilizing telecommunication technology to make up for the staff cut, according to Langseth. But it will reduce opportunities for individual contacts that Langseth has enjoyed in his past 11 years experience as an educator in the county, he said.

Due to financial shortcomings, the extension service will eliminate 43 positions out of 275 educators across the state. The organization will still have a presence in every county in the state, but many positions will cover multiple counties.

Currently 90 percent of the organization’s budget is dedicated to personnel, and the extension service expects the drastic restructuring measure will strengthen its financial backbone.

Training for remaining educators will start next week, where new programming focus will be addressed.

&uot;We must ensure that our programming addresses the most critical issues in Minnesota and ties directly to the research base of the university,&uot; said Extension Service Dean Charles Casey. &uot;We also must have the flexibility in our resources to respond efficiently and effectively to the needs of local communities.&uot;