School District Trustees Hear Concerns from FFA Students, Parents

About two dozen past and present Future Farmers of America students and Ag Boosters members turned out for the June 16 school board meeting to urge the trustees not to cut back on agriculture classes at Ramona High School.   

“FFA students ran the program for six weeks (after) the teacher resigned,” parent Clint Burdett told the board. He stressed the impact the program has had on its students, including his daughter, Emily. One of the main aspects has been the leadership portion of FFA, he said.         

Burdett also mentioned the improvements made by the Ag Boosters to the FFA farm at the high school.

“The dads decided to fix the farm up,” he said. “We thought, as parents, if the appearance of the farm improved, it might improve the program. The program took off. The numbers increased.”                                                      

College student Desiree Nihart, past president of the Ramona FFA chapter and past officer of the FFA San Diego Section, said the program at Ramona High School “has been in kind of a wishy-washy state” because students are not being encouraged to enroll in agriculture classes.

“There’s discouragement coming from the counselors,” Nihart said. “You’re not giving other students the opportunity to grow as leaders. California is the top ag-producing state in the country. It’s important to keep that going.”

Gloria Andrews, Ag Boosters president, said it has been discouraging for the parents, as well.

“We’ve been sent in different (directions), saying we cannot do things for the students,” Andrews said. “We want to raise a lot of money for the FFA program. We want to be able to make the farm even more beautiful than it is.”

She encouraged the trustees to fill the teacher vacancy with someone “that’s going to help these students and won’t let them down. They need a good teacher and they need all of us.”

Trustees also heard from other program leaders in Ramona Unified School District. Teacher-on-assignment Linda Ball gave a PowerPoint presentation highlighting the 29 volunteers with Older Adult Service and Information Systems (OASIS) who provide weekly reading assistance for students in kindergarten through third grade.

Special recognition was given to Gail Cole, who has been with the OASIS program since it started here 13 years ago, and to Sandy Fansher, Phil Harding and Dorothy Oberlies, volunteers for 10 years.

Robert Grace, a teacher at Ramona High School and advisor for the Skills-USA program, was joined by several of his students in talking about the major conferences and competitions attended in recent months at local, state and national levels. Teams and individuals won numerous awards, scholarships and prizes, in competitions from auto repair to giving speeches, Grace said.

He mentioned Cuyamaca College in El Cajon where Ramona teams have won first place 19 of the 31 years the competition has been in existence, including this year. He also praised seniors Tanner Perfect and Matt Swafford who qualified to compete in Skills-USA in New York City in April.

“It was a great experience,” Perfect said. “I had the time of my life in New York. It’s all due to our two great teachers, Mr. Grace and Mr. (Mike) Sevedra.”

Business items coming before the board included a report by Assistant Superintendent David Ostermann with an update on the district budget for 2011-2012. While the district continues to predict a deficit, Ostermann said it has been showing improvement over previous months.

The final budget is dependent upon approval of the state budget. Until then, Ostermann said he will “stay on top of the changing information” coming from Sacramento and the County Board of Education and will keep the board, staff, parents and community informed.

The 2011-2012 school year will begin Aug. 25 for teachers and Aug. 29 for students.