The St. Mary’s County Board of Education has approved a tentative $202 million operating budget for the next fiscal year that will go to a February 5 public hearing. The budget contains monies for a new Curriculum for Agricultural Science (CASE) program at the Dr. James A. Forrest Career and Technology Center.
The new agriculture program was supported at a public hearing Tuesday on the school system’s proposed changes to the High School Program of Studies. Five people spoke in support of the program: two adults and three teenagers.
The program will have a first-year cost of $50,444 for laptops, smart boards, scanner and lab equipment. Also included in the start-up funding is a $70,000, three-year grant from the Maryland State Department of Education. There already is a teacher in the school system teaching two courses. The new program adds a third course the first year and consolidates the program at the tech center4.
St. Mary’s County Farm Bureau President Jamie Raley and Mechanicsville farmer Joseph Wood spoke in support at a public hearing Tuesday during the school’s board regular meeting. Raley noted that the program would not only help raise a future crop of farmers but also veterinarians and Ag economists. Wood said the program would teach future farmers how to be good stewards of the land and protect the Bay.
Nathan Genberling, a Chopticon High School graduate, reintroduced the Future Farmers of America Chapter at Chopticon when he was there in 20011. He noted that the current courses, Natural Resources Management and Horticulture, would be supplemented with the third course as a start. “I think there would be a lot of interest in this program,” he said.
Carl Sasscer, III, a Great Mills High School student growing up on a farm, said the new program has been a dream of his. “I think it would be really helpful,” he said, for students contemplating a career on the farm.
Miss Maryland Agriculture Gabrielle Cory, a Leonardtown High School junior, noted that agriculture was the state’s number one industry. “Agriculture is just as important as technology because it is the first step in the food we eat,” she said.
The school board is expected to make a final decision on the High School Program of Studies at its February 12 meeting.
The proposed budget discussed at a workshop session prior to Tuesday’s board meeting had several revisions from the earlier one submitted by Superintendent Dr. Michael Martirano. The new iteration includes almost a million more dollars from the state, allowing an equal reduction in the amount being requested from the county commissioners. The revision has
