PRESQUE ISLE — By one count, the number of students working in harvest-related jobs during the fall break is declining. But by another, it’s still pretty strong, and it’s not costing the school district too much.
In School Administrative District 1, serving Presque Isle, Mapleton, Chapman, Castle Hill and Westfield, 12.9 percent of 9th through 12th graders participated in potato harvest work this year, compared to almost 27 percent in 2014.
This year the school district stopped counting work at the school farm in the category of harvest work. Including the school farm, district officials estimate that about 24 percent of 9-12 students worked in a harvest-related job, while almost 35 percent participated in other jobs. The other 52 percent did not work, according the high school’s survey of students.
Though not formally proposing any changes, MSAD1 administrators presented the school board with an estimate of how much money would be saved by ending the three week harvest break, as greater Houlton’s Regional School Unit 29 have done. The savings are minimal: about $53,000, mostly from lower fuel spending and not having to pay bus drivers.
“But that’s for a later discussion,” superintendent Brian Carpenter told the school board. “You have the information. Now is the time to look at it, digest it and at some point in time, if you want to look at proposal for reducing it, eliminating it, or what have you, it’ll come to the board.”
High school seniors did the most harvest-related work this year, with more than 20 participating and another 50 percent working in non-harvest jobs. Among ninth graders, though, only 5.7 percent worked a harvest job.
This year, 38 of the students in a harvest-related job worked in potato houses, 17 worked as field harvesters, 9 worked as hand pickers, three worked as truck drivers, two worked as soil samplers, two worked as babysitters, one worked as a barrel loader and one worked as a wind rower.
In Fort Fairfield, 9.5 percent of high school students worked directly for farmers this year, during the district’s one week harvest break and during additional school time. The district did not take a formal survey this year, but estimates that more students likely worked at least some of the time during the one-week break, said middle and high school principal John Kaleta.
In a survey last year, Fort Fairfield found that more than 20 percent of students in grades 6 through 12 worked for a farmer during the harvest, Kaleta said.
