FHS Agriculture/FFA Program needs your support

To the Editor:

I was a part of the original advisory board to bring an agriculture education and FFA program back to FHS. We met with the District and our agricultural community came out in droves to raise support and funding to get the program off its feet for the first 3 years. Thank you all. In the fall of 2012, we hired Amber Seibert as our first advisor, our first students were enrolled and classes were offered for 9-12 grade. In 2014, 8th graders were offered ag classes in rotation with other classes for 1 year. Those 8th grade students went on to be our most involved students in both agriculture classes and as FFA leaders. When Amber Seibert left the district in 2020, Katie Elder was hired to take over the program as a brand new teacher amidst a pandemic. Since its inception, the goal of our advisory board has been to be able to hire an additional ag teacher and bring classes to both 7th and 8th graders. Finally, this year we were able to do that. Over 530 seats were filled with students enrolled in the agriculture program at FHS this year, led by our amazing staff of Casey Brown and Katie Elder. With two ag instructors who also serve as FFA advisors we were able to have students participate in a variety of Career & Leadership Development events throughout the year. Each FFA member also works on a Supervised Agriculture Experience, working or volunteering in the ag industry. Katie and Casey worked tirelessly before and after school to help get students prepared for their events. They were extremely successful with 46 FFA members registered in 13 events at the State FFA Convention last month. This is extraordinary and we were one of the top five largest student groups from an FFA chapter at this convention. Also, did you see the Sentinel article last week about our kids in the greenhouse? What a great community collaboration.

I’d love to say I’m writing this just to offer congrats to our students, as they truly deserve it, but I’m not. Our program needs your help. At today’s board meeting, the board will act on a proposal to not renew Casey Browns contract for next school year, and move forward with only 1 ag instructor. As a past State FFA Officer, and mom of 3 students who have gone through our program, and seen how it has grown, I know this would be an enormous setback to our program. We have kids eager to learn and grow and tremendous momentum to keep our program moving forward. I have personally witnessed the impact Casey Brown has had on the students at FHS this year, including my own. Casey came to us with 11 years of experience in another chapter and has been a great mentor to Katie. She gives her heart and soul to every student in her classroom and will bend over backwards to help them be successful. Casey has great ideas for moving our program forward. She needs to be given the chance to do that.

There is a huge shortage of CTE teachers, let’s not let ours go. The success of our program from this year would be nearly impossible to replicate with a one person program. I have heard from countless parents and students about how Casey Brown has influenced them in just the short 7 months she has been here. Our students deserve every opportunity to become future agriculture leaders in our community. Let’s not limit them by cutting back our program.

If you believe in the future of agriculture in Martin County show your support by showing up to the board meeting Tuesday at 5 p.m. at city hall. Contact your school board members and administration to voice your concerns.

Julie Becker

Fairmont