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Saturday, March 7, 2015
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Ag education under fire Governor’s budget could eliminate ag education funding By Goldie Currie gcurrie@bcrnews.com
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed Fiscal Year 2016 state budget eliminates the agriculture education line item. His suggestion has raised concerns for many ag educators and promoters, including Illinois Leadership Council for Agriculture Education (ILCAE). Currently, many ag education supporters are urging others to contact Rauner’s office and local legislators to protect the line item. Willard Mott, Bureau Valley FFA advisor and ag instructor, is one who is actively encouraging many to act against this proposal. “In general, we need to keep the agriculture education line item intact with full funding,” he said. “The funds in this agricultural education line item are critical to the
success of local agriculture programs.” The line item is currently allocated at $1.8 million, although the Illinois State Board of Education recommends increasing it to $3 million. According to Mott, 40 percent of the funds in the line item go directly to schools to improve programs through equipment and resources used to educate students. “These funds are essential to providing current up-todate resources in the classroom; 53 percent of the line item goes to teacher and program services, as well as curriculum resources and professional development projects,” he said. “The line item keeps our agriculture teachers prepared to teach students for current careers in agriculture. Our local agriculture industry depends on trained and educated employees in agriculture. The line item is critical to our ability to continue to supply high-quality employees to the agriculture industry.”
According to a press release issued by ILCAE, the ag education model is three part, combining classroom instruction with work-based learning and leadership development. The line item supports student work-based learning projects — or supervised agriculture experiences — that generate more than $11.8 million in students earnings and more than $2.1 million in local and state matching funds for Ag In The Classroom efforts, affecting more than 29,000 secondary and 468,000 elementary schools, respectively. How would this cut affect local ag education programs? Mott said Rauner’s proposal would cut funds received through the incentive funding program. These supplemental funds have been used to purchase equipment for the agriculture department at schools like Bureau Valley.
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Election 2015 By Goldie Currie gcurrie@bcrnews.com
The April 7 consolidated election is just around the corner. Bureau County residents who still need to register to vote or who need to make changes to their voter’s registration may do so up until 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 10. Voters will be electing candidates for local offices such as city and village officers, school board members and library trustees. Residents interested in registering to vote must be a U.S. citizen, 18 years or older and a resident of Bureau County for at least 30 days. Individuals who have recently moved into the county or have moved within the county need to update their address on their voter’s registration. Bureau County Clerk Kami Hieronymus confirmed there are currently 24,247 registered voters in the county. That’s a large number, however, Hieronymus is only predicting 25 percent of those voters to be at the polls this election. Based on the voter turnout from previous consolidated elections, the numbers haven’t been so great. “We haven’t seen much interest yet in (this election), which is kind of a bad sign,” Hieronymus said. “We will have to wait to see. If we can get 25 percent, it will be good for us.” The ballot for this election will be pretty small, according to Hieronymus. “Most ballots are just
Election Page 4 Year 169 No. 29 One Section - 16 Pages
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BCR photo/Goldie Currie
Celebrating Music in our Schools Month Second-grade students at Jefferson Elementary School in Princeton dance and sing during their music class on Friday morning. March is Music in our Schools Month, an entire month dedicated to the inclusion of arts in the classroom. Music teacher is Karen Robinson.
Bringing the mission home Princeton to host 2016 summer workcamp By Zita Henneberry zhenneberry@bcrnews.com
PRINCETON — With the help of St. Matthews Lutheran Church and local community members, a Christian workcamp is coming to Princeton in the summer of 2016. Thursday, March 5, marked the first ever
workcamp organizational meeting. “Every time I went, I kept thinking, ‘We could do this in Princeton,’” said Linda Berry. After attending three workcamps or Christian group mission trips, Berry determined it was time to bring the mission home. Working with St. Matthews Pastor Scott Schmidt, the two are in the midst of organizing the mission trip which will bring youth from all over the nation to Princeton. Under
a construction crew’s advisement, workcampers and their supervisors will provide the labor for home improvements many people are unable to do themselves or cannot afford to pay for. Workcamp is a Christian-based organization which helps to bring youth group mission trips to area communities. These youthful workers pay to go work and
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