High school occupational programs threatened

<p>Dusty trophies dating to 1928 line a shelf in the Petaluma High School agriculture shop, where generations of students have learned to fix broken tractor engines or weld fence gates.</p><p>But the program linked to Future Farmers of America — and to the city’s past as a thriving farm town — could soon go the way of the family dairy or horse-drawn plow under proposed cuts caused in part by state budget cuts.</p><p>Nearly all technical ag classes could be eliminated next year and one of two teachers could be laid off, hobbling a program that draws students from Marin and Sonoma counties.</p><p>Junior Michael Bordessa, a member of the ag welding class who comes from a long line of Lakeville-area dairymen, said it would be a huge loss.</p><p>“These are skills you can use for life,” said Bordessa, 16, who recently built a steel gate for a Chileno Valley Road farm. “The classes give kids an opportunity to find something they might be good at and really like.”</p><p>The cuts at Petaluma High come as districts countywide prepare to slash career and technical classes in response to a 20 percent reduction in state occupational program funding.</p><p>County public high schools will lose up to 50 classes — from woodshop courses to instruction in culinary arts. Those that aren’t dropped from schedules could double in size.</p><p>Santa Rosa city schools will lose $300,000 in regional funding next year and 10 classes, including seven at Santa Rosa High School where nearly a quarter of all students take some career tech course during their four years.</p><p>The state lopped $100,000 in regional occupational funding from the West Sonoma County Union High School district where both Analy and El Molino high schools are expected to lose three courses, including an agriculture class at both campuses.</p><p>Petaluma schools will lose $119,000, possibly resulting in the elimination of seven technical classes at Petaluma and Casa Grande high schools next year.</p><p>Steve Bolman, assistant superintendent for business services, said declining enrollment at Petaluma High makes the problem worse. Nine teachers received notices earlier this year that they may not be asked to return.</p><p>At Petaluma High, one ag class will be eliminated under the state cuts, but the school might eliminate three more, in part because the classes aren’t as popular as they once were.</p><p>“The district can’t operate classes with 10 or 11 students in them,” Bolman said. “Typically, they should have 26 to 30 students.”</p><p>Danny Aschwanden, who teaches the shop portion of the program, said he received a pink slip earlier this year informing him he won’t be needed to teach four of his five classes. If he is laid off, Kim Arntz, who teaches the classroom science sections, will be the only remaining ag teacher.</p><p>Aschwanden said the shop classes are valued by students not necessarily on the four-year college track. The program attracts up to 175 students a year, he said.</p><p>“At the high school level, there’s nothing else in the area that teaches these skills,” said Aschwanden, a third-year teacher who was raised in a Central Valley farming family. “That’s the hardest part about it.”</p><p>Arntz said the elimination of the ag shop classes will further erode enrollment because students who currently commute from as far away as Inverness and Occidental won’t come.</p><p>She said there’s been a full-fledged ag program at Petaluma High since it opened in the early 1900s. Students have won at least 13 state farming championships since the 1970s.</p><p>“I think the community values the program and continues to support us,” said Arntz, who graduated from the program and teaches teaches ag biology and veterinary medicine.</p><p>Students said the loss of ag classes at Petaluma High would be disappointing.</p><p>Sophomore Danny Moretti, who was rebuilding a four-stroke engine on a shop bench, said his parents were in the program. He commutes from Santa Rosa every day for the special training.</p><p>“This has been around for so long. It’s what Petaluma High is known for,” said the 16-year-old. “If they got rid of it, I’d go to a different school.”</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 762-7297 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.</p>