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Meeting Public Comments

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SF 2019
A bill for an act establishing the national FFA organization advisors competitive grant program within the department of education and making appropriations.
Agenda
Subcommittee members: Garrett-CH, Cournoyer, Giddens
Date: Thursday, February 1, 2024
Time: 11:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: Room 315
Comments Submitted:
The purpose of comments is to provide information to members of the subcommittee.
Names and comments are public records. Remaining information is considered a confidential record.

01-31-2024
Jacob Hunter []
I am reaching out personally to encourage your support of agricultural education.While I am not directly your constituents, I serve Sen. Cournoyer's district almost every day. While all educators work a tremendous number of hours, agriculture teachers are unique in our additional efforts to better our communities, students, and agriculture. At North Scott, this is accomplished through our extended hours. Regularly, my colleagues and I work before, after school, and on the weekends to engage our students and provide world class education. This is accomplished through active involvement in the FFA organization and engaging our students in work based learning through agriculture (Supervised Agriculture Experiences). This is most apparent during the summer months where we manage over 70 acres of farm land to fund our program, manage a sweet corn patch to help fund scholarships for students to attend leadership conferences, manage student research projects, coach several competitive teams, manage operations at county and state fair, guide students through leadership events, and more. At North Scott, Im fortunate that I have an extended contract that pays for about 40 days of work on top of my typical contract. However, I often go through these extended days before second semester and still commit to bettering our community regardless of payment.Not all schools are this lucky, when I was in Des Moines I had no extended contract and I know that are still many ag. teachers in Iowa that do their best with no compensation.I love making a difference in the lives of students and making the district better, but we also need a sustainable system to support the work we do for the future of Iowa.I urge you to continue your efforts because agricultural education is one of the best models, we have in Iowa for empowering students to become the best versions of themselves. I would arrive in person, but it is important that I continue my work and efforts in the classroom to help build Iowa stronger for the future!