LOCAL
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
HeRMIsTOnHeRald.COM • A9
Oregon FFA
receives state
funding
By JESSICA POLLARD
STAFF WRITER
T
staff photo by Jessica Pollard
Stanfield Elementary School Principal Lacey Sharp reads a book in the school’s “Safe Place” room for kids.
A different kind of discipline
By JESSICA POLLARD
STAFF WRITER
T
he sun is setting on
the disciplinary age of
no desserts and time-
out for children in trou-
ble. It’s rising, instead, on
a social emotional learning
program called Conscious
Discipline.
Perhaps Becky Bailey,
creator of the program, said
it best: “Discipline is not
something we do to chil-
dren, but something we
develop within them.”
Conscious
Discipline
has been around for two
decades now, and is cur-
rently gaining momentum
in Eastern Oregon.
The curriculum features
books and other classroom
aides that educators can
purchase online. It is built
around the “Seven Skills
of Discipline,” which are
composure, encouragement,
assertiveness,
choices,
empathy, positive intent,
and consequences.
It promotes internal,
as opposed to external,
reinforcement.
“You don’t do it because
I’ll like you, you do it
because it’s helpful,” said
Erin Bartsch, the prenatal to
third grade coordinator for
Blue Mountain Early Learn-
ing Hub.
The program also empha-
sizes a focus on childhood
trauma affecting student
success.
“People
understand
adverse childhood experi-
ences and how they impact
learning, and a child’s abil-
ity to come to school ready
to learn,” Bartsch said,
“When you understand
trauma, it changes the way
you approach behavior
management.”
This month, the Con-
scious Discipline Summer
Institute, a seven-day foun-
dational training on the pro-
gram, will take place in
Hermiston July 15-21.
Around 150 educators,
administrators and home
visitors will be in atten-
dance. Bartsch said the
training, which costs $1,100
to attend, sold out within
a month. The early learn-
ing hub, with the help of a
Maternal, Infant, and Early
Childhood Home Visiting
grant, was able to fund 50
of those seats.
With a grant from the
Ford Family Foundation,
the hub will help provide
lunch and travel expenses
to attendees. The leftover
money will go toward learn-
ing materials, which the hub
helps supply to teachers in
the area.
There will be a one-day
Spanish training available
as well, and a follow-up
training focused on parent
education and home visits
in August.
Currently, school dis-
tricts across Umatilla and
Morrow counties all incor-
porate some degree of con-
scious discipline into the
classroom. Umatilla Mor-
row County Head Start uti-
lizes the program.
The Yellowhawk Tribal
Health Center’s Native Con-
nections program is instill-
ing CD community-wide.
After the Conscious Dis-
cipline Summer Institute,
Bartsch said the area can
expect more parent educa-
tion on the matter.
Bartsch said that some
districts are more ahead
than others, and that it
mostly depends on size. She
said educators sometimes
look to Stanfield School
District as an example of
implementation.
ing in the fall, a new coun-
selor will be available two
days a week, along with a
counseling space adorned
with bean bag chairs and
games. The counselor will
be integral to the continu-
ation of the CD program,
Sharp said.
Sharp said that three
educators from Stanfield,
herself included, will be in
attendance at the training
later this month.
The middle and second-
ary schools have adopted
some of the CD practices as
well.
“It’s teaching kids how
to manage their emotions,
it just looks different from
[another] age,” Sharp said.
According to the Stan-
field School District web-
site, the district has over
520 students. Sharp said
administrative support has
been integral to implement-
ing CD so deeply.
“For parents,” she said,
“don’t be afraid to learn
more about it. [Conscious
Discipline] really starts with
the adult.”
ing for help forms” to tra-
ditional referrals. Rather
than sticking kids in deten-
tion, a “connecting session”
creates individual time
between the student, teacher
and principal to discuss the
conflict at hand.
“Any type of behavior
that students have, they’re
trying to tell us something
and it’s our job and oppor-
tunity to respond in a help-
ful way,” Sharp said.
But it’s not just about
the kids. The school has a
“Staff Shout Out” board
where employees can leave
positive comments for each
other. Photos of staff friends
and family are posted out-
side the library.
Sharp said when the
school first started practic-
ing CD, kids were showing
up in Safe Place at a much
higher rates than they are
now. Every month, students
participate in an assembly
that covers one of the seven
tenets of CD.
Previously,
Stanfield
Elementary didn’t have a
school counselor. But start-
he Oregon FFA, an
agricultural educa-
tion and leadership
organization, will receive
funding from the state this
biennium for the first time
in eight years.
House Bill 2444, relat-
ing to agricultural educa-
tion, flew through the Sen-
ate on June 30 by a 27-0
vote. The bill appropriates
$1.43 million to the Ore-
gon Department of Edu-
cation for FFA to provide
financing for enrollment,
leadership development
and the coordination of 24
state-level competitions.
The funding will help
make fees for joining the
FFA obsolete. The fees
have imposed a barrier for
students taking agriculture
classes who can’t afford
the $20 to join the FFA,
said JD Cant, co-chair for
Advocacy with the Ore-
gon Agriculture Teacher’s
Association.
There are almost 7,000
students already enrolled in
the Oregon FFA. Cant said
the funding could help as
many as 5,000 additional
students, who already take
agriculture classes, become
enrolled in the intracurric-
ular program.
The bill also appro-
priates $600,000 in grant
money, to extend contracts
for FFA advisors into the
summer.
Many advisors already
provide engagement in
projects and mentoring
over summer break. Cant
said a lot of one-on-one
happens during the sum-
mer months. He, along
with other agriculture
teachers, wouldn’t stop
working during the sum-
mer because they want to
continue their programs.
But the educators are doing
the work for little to no
compensation.
Cant, who teaches in
Elgin, has worked around
60 days during the sum-
mer, only to receive com-
pensation for 24. He said
the minimal pay can make
recruitment of agriculture
teachers difficult.
“It’s hard to pull some-
one out of industry for
teaching when the indus-
try pays better,” Cant said.
“We don’t get into this pro-
fession to be rich.”
Rep Greg Barreto,
R-Cove, who could not be
reached for comment, ini-
tially introduced the bill in
collaboration with the Ore-
gon Agriculture Teachers’
Association.
Two similar bills for
public funding of the FFA
were floated in 2017. The
OATA procured a lobby-
ist to help spearhead the
effort, but both failed to
pass through Legislature.
“We thought we were
on the right track in the
2017 session. I love to
think you can get it right
the first time, but I don’t
think that’s the process
anymore,” Cant said.
For years, Wes Craw-
ford, also co-chair of the
OATA, said there had been
talk of trying to win back
some state funding.
“It’s been quite a long
process,” he said.
In the past, the Ore-
gon FFA was funded by
the Oregon Department of
Education. But as fund-
ing declined over a period
of two decades, the FFA
became reliant on private
funding, primarily through
the FFA Foundation.
“Now that there’s state
funding present, it’s not
going to replace private
funding, it’s to aid it,”
Crawford said.
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Conscious Discipline in action
There is a little room next
to Principal Lacey Sharp’s
office in Stanfield Elemen-
tary. It’s full of brightly
colored seats and picture
books. The whiteboard
reads in large handwrit-
ing, “You have the power to
choose!”
This is Stanfield Ele-
mentary’s “Safe Place.” It’s
where kids go when they are
feeling upset and need to
calm down, and it plays an
integral role in the school’s
CD program.
Sharp said Stanfield Ele-
mentary has been practicing
CD for six years now.
The school prefers “call-
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