Mother's Day this Sunday may be a pleasant and happy day for many mothers. But for families in Petaluma who sit around a lovely dining table, laden with locally produced fresh foods, enjoying locally produced beverages, and appreciating the agricultural heritage of Petaluma - this is a time of great concern. A serious conversation around the dining table and phone calls afterwards to decision makers may make a world of difference for our youth who desire to learn both agricultural traditions and cutting-edge agricultural and industrial practices that could, literally, save our Planet.

Because -- the Agriculture Department program and Industrial Arts program at Petaluma High School are SERIOUSLY threatened with disappearing - if families, students and people who care do not speak up for the teachers, the students, the traditional and POTENTIAL classes for our students - to continue to support Petaluma students in leadership and educational excellence.

Budget cuts planned to negatively impact the Agriculture, as well as Industrial Arts, programs and classes at Petaluma High School may be able to be closely examined and reexamined. Creative and probing inquiries may very well lead to productive answers, and a collaborative and energetic approach devised in time to protect AND enhance these programs. Courses in agriculture and biological resources, for example, will begin to include both career path education and courses in water resources and irrigation, carbon sequestration, the impact of climate change on agriculture and design, influencing those impacts through local food production and conservation measures, and also for Industrial Arts students, integration of forward thinking design and wind turbine building, solar panel installation, and building design and practices using best Green building policies - timely and incorporated into our technical education programs - instead of eliminating the very programs at the core of educating our youth about sustainable, healthy living and supportive careers to achieve that. Why, the other evening in the forum sponsored by Dan Sunia and Gene Karas and the Industrial Arts Program at Petaluma High School, a story was told by a panelist of a student who designed an engine that obtained over 1000 miles per gallon in fuel efficiency - through just such an Industrial Arts and Design Program as that at Petaluma High School.

Petaluma has one-of-a-kind assets to treasure in high school Agriculture and Industrial Arts programs. How can we know the course to take in society unless we preserve traditions while, at the same time, create forward thinking and new approaches to agricultural and industrial technical education? It is the marriage of these 2 approaches that leads to innovation, inspiration and agricultural and industrial technological survival - and leadership.

The next School Board meeting is Tuesday, May 12th, at 6:00 p.m. at 200 Douglas Street Petaluma. Please make your presence known and also take a few moments for some phone calls over Mother's Day weekend. Here are the phone numbers for your convenience.

Board of Education: