News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Owen Christianson is an eighth grader at Sisters Middle School. He's also in business for himself. He breeds sheep - a dozen-plus - only two of which he will enter for show. The rest is agribusiness in microcosm.
Owen Christianson loves the hard work on a ranch.
He comes by it naturally. Both of his parents are self-employed entrepreneurs. They reside on an 80-acre spread spanning both sides of Highway 126 about halfway to Redmond.
Christianson wishes there was a vocational agriculture program at Sisters High School, as there is in every other school in Central Oregon. He sees himself as a full-time rancher when he's finished with school.
In the meantime, he finds his most beneficial class to be math.
"I have to pencil out my costs and know my breakeven points," he said. "Math is important to my budgeting, and I use it every day for feeding calculations, purchasing, and measuring my sheep's development."
He's been raising sheep for three years now encouraged by a friend to give it a try. He has no regrets. Along the way he has learned to weld and fix things. It's a big job with many hours.
He has the option of going to one of the Redmond High Schools, but his heart's in Sisters. At Redmond he'd be part of the Redmond Chapter of FFA (Future Farmers of America) and fall under the umbrella of Career and Technical Education (CTE) that "embraces education, passion, and curiosity to fuel the future for Oregon students. CTE programs use 21st century technology to support students in acquiring technical skills, professional practices, and academic knowledge critical for career success in high-wage, in-demand careers."
Not too far away, between Sisters and Tumalo, the Brent children are also in the breeding and show business. Adelaide, eight, shows chickens and raises goats, and when we met her she was tending to three chicks hatched on Thanksgiving with two more eggs still in the incubator.
The Brent family are ardent participants in agriculture in Sisters Country.
Until she's nine, she's ineligible to join her brother and sister as a full-fledged member of Cloverdale Livestock Club, the 4H chapter in Sisters Country. As such, she's a "Cloverbud," but no less enthusiastic or hardworking than the older kids.
Brother Dixon, 13, has a large show-goat breeding program that he built from scratch two years ago. He, along with older sister Verbana, just acquired a 1986 Ford pickup that they're learning to restore. He already can drive, as many farm and ranch kids learn early.
Verbana, 15, shows sheep but is also raising pigs to breed.
All three attend Sisters schools.
It was eight degrees last Wednesday morning and all three Brent kids were out checking their livestock, which also includes turkeys and Scottish Highland cattle. They knew livestock coats and feathers would protect them from the cold, but their water would be frozen. And they'd still need to be fed.
It's all in a day's work for the trio. They needed no coaxing from their parents to get them out of a warm bed.
Like Owen, Verbana and Dixon, talked about the importance of math and some of the classes they could possibly take in Sisters that would increase their knowledge of soils, mete-orology, food science, and construction.
Sisters High School, too, has a CTE program. The District encourages students to explore all the CTE programs of study. If a student develops an interest in a particular area, they are encouraged to complete the program by taking three credits in the field, which can be a combination of in-person classes, courses offered by local colleges or universities, and internship/work experiences.
Owen Christianson works on fencing.
But according to the 30-plus kids in the Cloverdale Livestock Club who attend schools in Sisters, the CTE program sorely needs agribusiness courses, and an expansion of courses to include welding and similar skills needed in the building trades, such as plumbing and electric.
Pam Mitchell, one of the longtime leaders of the Club met with District Superintendent Curt Scholl recently to discuss what it would take to get agrisciences and/or business under the CTE umbrella.
Mitchell sees the need and demand firsthand.
"It was a very productive meeting," she said. "Not unexpectedly, the issue of funding was brought up as an obstacle, but in general, the District agrees that there is a need and benefit to such courses.
"There is widespread community support for vocational agriculture," Mitchell said. "We have many businesses who can lend expertise to such an effort."
In next week's Nugget we look at how CTE is funded, and ways in which Mitchell and parents like the Brents and Christiansons can make their case to the School Board.
Reader Comments(0)