Opinion: Why STARS is important to Linn County residents

The service that the STARS program provides Linn County students is invaluable, the author says. It helps keep students in school until they graduate. (Journal file photo)

By Roger Sims

Journal publisher

rsims@linncountyjournal.com

School boards in Linn County may for the first time in years see some interest in budget hearings for the 2025-26 budgets. All of the districts have been trying to shave expenses as much as possible to get close to the revenue neutral rate set by the state.

But try as they might, schools are facing the same kind of inflation pressure where the cost of everything, including insurance and equipment, keeps escalating.

Linn County Commission Chair Jim Johnson suggested during a meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 9, that taxpayers attend school board and library budget hearings because of their impact on taxes.

A handful of irate taxpayers did show up to Prairie View's budget hearing, complaining about their property valuations, what they saw as excessive spending by the district on building a new weight room, and about the money spent on sports and activities.

I've got to admit that I too was critical of the expense of sports vs. more academic activities in schools. But that changed when I was elected to a school board and then was hired to teach.

From my experience I learned that sports and other activities are a means to an end.

The dropout rate for the high schools in Linn County is minimal, and sports and extracurricular activities help keep young people engaged. Educators see involvement in activities that actually interest students help make sitting through classes they might consider boring or irrelevant tolerable.

Increasingly the Southeastern Technical Academy for Rural Students (STARS) is playing a similar role. The training high school students get at STARS prepares them to essentially step into a well-paying middle-class job the minute they get their high school diploma.

For its 2025 graduates, the STARS program had a 90% placement rate into union and nonunion jobs with an average salary of about $28 an hour. The students who did not get jobs typically failed to meet a crucial step to accept a job that was offered. For example, one student was offered a job but failed to obtain a necessary drivers license.

Everyone has different methods of learning. Some learn well by reading, others learn best by seeing, still others learn best by hearing. STARS students seem to learn best by using their hands, and that is a learning technique that is obviously paying dividends.

And while STARS students may find it difficult to see the relevance of writing an essay or studying math, when trade courses require writing and math skills, those skills suddenly become more important.

I recently was tasked by an organization to set up a scholarship for STARS, however, in discussing options with STARS Director Jay Allen, he said that the normal scholarship formula didn’t necessarily work. The STARS students typically weren’t going on to university or other schooling, they were going into the workforce, and into decent-paying apprenticeships that will lead to solid, well-paying jobs.

Students who were entering the STARS program, on the other hand, often needed money for training materials or even protective clothing such as leather boots. And while the STARS staff, some trade unions, and company sponsors often pitch in to get economically disadvantaged students what they need, there is sometimes a struggle to fill those needs.

The success of the STARS program isn’t debatable. The number of students has increased dramatically from when it started three years ago. That increase has brought in students from out of the county and even some out of state, but the academy still trains predominantly Linn County students.

The county commissioners are now considering on withholding about $332,000 in tax money from STARS that the commission approved by a split vote in 2023. No paperwork was prepared, no contract was signed, but the commitment of two of the three commissioners at that time was there. If the county's money is given to the STARS board, it will be used to purchase the STARS building from the Pleasanton school district and make needed improvements.

That will reimburse the Pleasanton school district for only part of the effort that district has made into making the Linn County trade school dream a reality. It will also help the school district by giving it much needed funds. It is more than ironic that the poorest school district in Linn County has done so much to help students from all three districts.

If the commission fails to follow through on what was essentially a verbal handshake to provide funding, it will be more evidence that the commission cannot be counted on to support educational efforts to benefit the future of Linn County residents.