Future of ALHS Ag classes uncertain
Published 12:00 am Saturday, May 4, 2002
The cost to the Agriculture Program at Albert Lea High School from last winter’s budget cuts is starting to become clear as students register for next fall’s classes, say some supporters of the program.
Although cutting the Introduction to Agriculture class was discussed early on, that class will be offered next fall. But the resurrected class will be a much slimmer version, making do with less time in the schedule and less time from the teacher, Kim Meyer, who will be reduced to half-time.
Greg Gosen is a local ag producer who’s concerned about the ag program. He doesn’t think skimping on ag classes is good for rural families or for the agricultural economy in Freeborn County.
&uot;Albert Lea has a reputation for quality ag education,&uot; said Gosen. He attended high school in Brainerd and remembers how they would look up to Albert Lea as one of the finest programs and FFA chapters in the whole state.
&uot;The December budget cuts put us in the position of having to react to a threat,&uot; he said. He compares the situation of supporters of the ag program to those who have been struggling to maintain the dance team and cross country.
Gosen does see the dilemma facing the school board.
&uot;I know that everybody had to take a hit, but the problem is there are no extras in the ag program,&uot; he said.
Gosen also sees that some of the reasons for the threat to ag programs at the high school lie in demographics. When the average age of farmers in the county is 56, there simply are fewer farmers with school-aged children, he said. As one of many electives at the high school, the current program brings in under 20 new students each year.
According to rules about class size at the high school, that means that there aren’t always enough students to justify having a class at all.
&uot;With the budgeting problems, we need to more strict about holding to class size limits and we’ll have to stop granting exceptions for classes that don’t meet those limits,&uot; said David Prescott, district superintendent.
Prescott and other district administrators acknowledge the strengths of the current program and its history, but survival of any elective needs to be based on numbers.
&uot;We certainly want to maintain the ag program, but we also need to be fair to kids in other programs that have met the class size requirement,&uot; said Prescott. He takes a broad view of class size, and isn’t sure about the wisdom of offering a class for only 10 students at the high school when some elementary classes already have 30 students, he said.
The district will try to get by with few major changes to ag classes this year, but in the future the ag program itself will need to be completely restructured, Prescott said.
Whatever happens, the agricultural economy will still need educated workers, said Gosen. Right now, both big and small agribusinesses are having trouble finding enough qualified employees with solid agricultural credentials. And that means they end up hiring workers without the ag background.
The Albert Lea ag program is one piece of the educational plan that creates those workers, he said. It supplements and reinforces what rural kids learn at home and on the job. It also provides a foundation for students going on for further study in technical schools or at a university. He doesn’t think the community or the students can afford to lose it.
&uot;A good high school agriculture program provides a better educated agricultural workforce,&uot; Gosen said.