The North Fork Utica Board of Education approved a second agricultural science teacher at its special meeting on April 28, a decision supported by rising enrollment in the Ag Education program, board member Rob Krueger said.
A dip in enrollment in the program a few years ago was countered by the addition of middle school classes, which he said is one of the only such programs in the area.
When the previous teacher was lost to another district, the local school district hired first-year teacher Caleb Hickman.
“He’s what we call a five-star teacher,” Krueger said. “He’s been phenomenal to the program, right out of school, first teaching job, charismatic, engaging to the kids probably become one of the more popular teachers in the school.”
He said enrollment went from approximately 60 students to 135 for the next school year, doubling the size of the high school program.
As a school board member, Krueger said he looked at the state funding for the program. The program must be yearlong to get state Career Technical Education (CTE) funding. But the middle school program was only semester-based or quarter-based for those students, so the school district never got additional funding. He wanted to add full-year programs for eighth grade to qualify for CTE funding.
Krueger said that the school board members started the debate, but it became less of a debate as students told them through the enrollment increase that they needed to expand the program.
“I feel like we’re not really expanding the program … it’s the program is expanding itself because the students are telling us what they want to have,” Krueger said.
Most people see Ag Education as what used to be the Future Farmers of America program, but that has expanded, he said. Now it includes more leadership skills, science, math and all those things combined into hands-on education.
“So it’s education with an agriculture base to it,” he said.
It has a competitive side with different skills tests and competitions, including a supervised agricultural experience, such as a service project, traditional farming or raising animals or crops, or improvement projects.
Ag Education has several tiers and offers introductions to things like welding, electrical work, carpentry, animal science, horticulture or gardening, he said. Record-keeping and financial development also are part of the program.
The programs have become so diversified that inner-city schools are offering them to students with things like sustainable agriculture and backyard farming. Krueger sees this on a personal level as a veterinarian and co-owner of Mount Vernon Animal Hospital in his visits to farms and other places.
“We’re seeing a lot more backyard farm situations, people raising eggs in their backyard because eggs are expensive at the store,” he said.
In addition, people are installing raised garden beds in their backyards and learning how to plant tomatoes.
