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October 7, 2016 CapitalPress.com 11 Oregon Backers say Measure 98 will expand ag and vocational classes By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press CLACKAMAS, Ore. — Clackamas High School southeast of Portland has an ag program other schools envy, with a 10-acre farm, livestock, apple trees, greenhouses, a wonderful old barn and other outbuildings. Teacher Kathy Mayield has had to ight for it, and sa- vors the prospect of voters approving Measure 98, which would provide at least $800 annually per student for high school career and technical ed- ucation (CTE) programs, col- lege-level courses and dropout prevention programs. The measure, on the state- wide November ballot, would establish the High School Graduation and College and Career Readiness Fund as part of the state’s general fund bud- get. Money for the program would come from anticipated increases in state revenue. Agriculture teachers and many others involved in voca- tional training strongly support the measure, citing workforce needs in the technical trades and a segment of students who reach a dead end in high school. Eric Mortenson/Capital Press Clackamas High School ag teacher Kathy Mayield, center, gives directions to students Lauren Dale, left, and Remi Lam. The school district operates a 10-acre farm that has cows, sheep, chickens, apple trees, garden and a large old barn. Mayield said she has con- versations with parents who tell her the Clackamas ag pro- gram “saved my child.” “I think that goes across the board with CTE,” Mayield said. “It provides a relevan- cy to education that they just aren’t getting. All of sudden, math makes sense and science makes sense.” At Sutherlin High School in Southern Oregon, agriculture teacher Wes Crawford said the real-world application of technical ed “lips the tables” for students who struggle with traditional academic courses or tune out at school. “Everyone is a lot more equal,” Crawford said. “Some- times this is what gets them through their day.” His program in Sutherlin has four paths: animal science, which includes veterinary science; plant science, which includes forestry; agri-busi- ness; and a sector dealing with power structures and technol- ogy, which includes welding classes. In a school of 410 stu- dents, about 135 are enrolled in Crawford’s classes. At Clackamas, Mayield and her husband, Wynn, the school’s other ag teacher, of- fer three years of animal sci- ence classes and advanced ag in the inal year. Mayield said animals draw students in, but they’re also exposed to a well-rounded program that in- cludes soil science, marketing, tractor driving and other as- pects of ag. Students raise and market beef, while beginners press the farm’s apples into ci- der, which is sold as well. But Mayield said she and her husband handle classes of 35 students. Passage of the measure might provide money to repair rotting greenhouse walls and add more staff; an instructor-to-student ratio of 1-to-20 or so would be desir- able, she said. The measure has broad support, including endorse- ments from construction trade unions, newspaper editorial boards, the Latino Network, Coalition of Communities of Color and Ecumenical Minis- tries of Oregon, among others. An analysis from the League of Women Voters said Oregon’s 72 percent gradua- tion rate in 2014 was the fourth worse in the U.S., and Ore- gon’s per-student spending has dropped 5 percent since 2010. The League said auto shop, wood and metal shop, culinary arts and robotics classes have been “signiicantly reduced” over the past 20 years. Data from the Oregon De- partment of Education showed that students who earned at least one CTE credit in high school have a graduation rate more than 15 percent higher than the state average, accord- ing to the League’s analysis. The difference “tends to be more dramatic for low income and minority students who have taken CTE,” the League said. Opposition has been low key. A committee studying Measure 98 for the inluen- tial Portland City Club split 5-5 on an endorsement vote, with some members saying the measure was too narrow- ly focused but all agreeing the current state of education in Oregon “threatens the state’s future and economy.” 1/18 The City Club’s full mem- bership, however, overrode the committee’s concern and voted to endorse the measure. Elsewhere, the Crook Coun- ty School Board in Central Oregon declined to endorse the measure. Both candidates for governor, incumbent Kate Brown and Bud Pierce, sup- port it. Vocational education can be a “real life-changer” for young people, said Bridget Quinn, workforce development coor- dinator for a Portland training center jointly operated by the National Electrical Contrac- tors Association and the Inter- national Brotherhood of Elec- trical Workers. Quinn became a licensed journeyman electrician in 2008 after completing an ap- prenticeship program. “I had never heard anything in high school about this as a possible career,” she said. “I’m trying to deliver the information that, quite frankly, I missed out on.” The contractor-union co- alition operating the training center supports Measure 98, she said. Many high school gradu- ates haven’t held a tool in their hands and aren’t prepared to enter the trades, which in some cases have been stigmatized as “only for losers couldn’t make into college,” Quinn said. The stereotype of the “cat-calling construction worker” hasn’t helped, she said. But the construction trades need workers, because up to a third of the workforce will be retiring in he coming years as baby boomers reach the end of their careers, she said. She welcomes the swing back to career and technical education in high school. “For a very long time it re- ceived cuts,” Quinn said. “The irst thing cut from the budget was auto shop, wood shop and metal shop.” Owyhee Irrigation District accused of shorting water By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press 41-1/#4N The Owyhee Irrigation District in Oregon’s Malheur County is accused in a lawsuit of delivering insuficient wa- ter to a farming couple, caus- ing $200,000 in crop losses. Delos and Barbara Lee have iled a complaint al- leging the irrigation district delivered fewer than 80 acre- feet of water to their 95-acre farm in 2014 even though they were allocated to receive 142.5 acre-feet that year. The complaint, iled in Malheur County Circuit Court, claims that the Lees received their allocated 152 acre-feet in 2015, but miscal- culations by the district re- sulted in “no water delivery of water during certain months in which Lee otherwise would have received water.” The lawsuit accuses the district of negligence and breach of contract and seeks $200,000 in damages. Jay Chamberlin, manag- er of the Owyhee Irrigation District, said he’s away from the ofice at a conference and hasn’t yet read the complaint. Delivering water has been a challenge during re- cent droughts, he said. “The drought has caused a tremen- dous hardship on our ag pro- ducers.” In the 2014 and 2015 growing seasons, about 27 percent of the acres served by the district were idled because of a lack of irrigation water, Chamberlin said. The situation improved in 2016 but farmers have faced lower prices for hay, cat- tle, grains and corn, he said. “It’s almost like a two-edged sword.”
