SAD 1 potato harvest numbers steady
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — Fifteen fewer Presque Isle High School students worked during the 2013 potato harvest than the previous year.
According to results of the student harvest survey, 121 high-schoolers performed harvest-related work during the three-week break. In 2012, 136 students worked, while 123 worked in 2011. Three students performed harvest-related work this year for less than five days or earned less than $100.
Harvest-related jobs included handpicker (nine students), harvester (23), potato house (39), School Farm (35), truck driver (five), windrower (three), barrel loader (three), two performed other harvest-related jobs, while two babysat for others who did harvest-related work.
Of those students, which represents 22.3 percent of the school’s population, 32 were seniors, 50 were juniors, 33 were sophomores and six were freshmen. They earned, in total, $162,600.
By comparison, 24.5 percent of the students performed harvest-related work in 2012. They included 37 seniors, 43 juniors, 36 sophomores and 20 freshmen. Combined, they earned a total of $142,484.
Survey results also show that three other freshmen did non-harvest work, while 133 did not work at all. Seventeen sophomores did non-harvest related work, while 84 were unemployed. Thirty-seven juniors did other work and 53 were not employed, while 53 seniors did non-related harvest work, and 41 did not have jobs.
In 2012, 134 students did non-harvest work, while 286 didn’t work at all.
The percentage of PIHS students doing harvest-related work in 2013 (22.3 percent) is comparable with more recent years. In 2012, the percentage of workers was 24.5 percent, in 2011 the number was 21.5 percent, while in 2010 the percentage was 19.2.
SAD 1 Superintendent Gehrig Johnson said the board agreed several years ago to revisit the potato harvest issue if the percentage of students doing harvest-related work got down to 15 percent.
“For years now we’ve monitored that,” he said. “Many years ago the board set 15 percent as a point that if and when we ever got to that point that we would put it back on the agenda and review the process. We’re in line with where we’ve been the last few years … give or take a few percentage points.”
