County looks to hire positive youth development Extension educator
By Alexa Zoellner azoellner@dailyunion.com | Posted: Wednesday, February 14, 2018 6:45 am
JEFFERSON — Jefferson County boasts 29 4-H clubs with a total 676 or so youth members, according to the University of Wisconsin-Extension Cooperative Extension.
With the resignation of Interim 4-H/Youth Development Educator Bruce Jones, those involved in 4-H, which is run through Cooperative Extension, are left without a chartering authority for the second time in less than two years.
On Monday, the Jefferson County University Extension Education Committee took steps to initiate the process of hiring a replacement.
Committee members voted to move ahead with having Chrissy Wen, area Extension director for Jefferson, Rock and Walworth counties, create a position description for a positive youth development Extension educator with 4-H oversight as the job’s central focus.
Wen’s post was created as part of UW-Extension’s reorganization process known as nEXT Generation, which began in the fall of 2015 in response to a $3.6 million cut in funding in the state’s 2015-17 biennial budget.
As she now is the hiring authority for the county’s UW-Extension, the program description is not expected to be brought back before the committee prior to being sent in for approval and subsequent posting.
Once posted by the UW Systems Human Resource Department — where the biggest backlog in hiring is, according to Wen — it is expected to be two to four months before a person will be able to begin the job.
Wisconsin 4-H Youth Development Interim Co-program Director John de Montmollin presented the committee Monday with two options for filling the chartering authority role for the 4-H program: a positive youth development Extension educator or a 4-H program coordinator.
He noted that the titles of the educator positions have changed some as part of the reorganization.
“Either way you go, that person will be the chartering authority for Jefferson County,” de Montmollin said. “They will be responsible for the name and emblem, they’ll be responsible for the oversight for volunteers, the oversight for all the financial pieces and the chartering process for all the clubs, groups and the leaders association. So this particular position does come with some administrative responsibilities either way you would go with it.”
De Montmollin explained that, during the nEXT Generation reorganization, feedback from some counties showed that the 4-H/youth development educator strictly was working with 4-H members.
“In those particular cases, especially in our northern counties, when we’re requiring a master’s degree, sometimes the pools got really small,” he said. “Not a lot of people with a master’s degree that would, basically, fit the qualifications.
“So we provided some flexibility saying, ‘If you want a 4-H program coordinator, that’s fine. It’s going to be a bachelor’s-required position and it can only work in the 4-H membership program — clubs, camps and some after-school programming that’s limited to 4-H membership,’” de Montmollin continued.
Typically, the areas of focus for the 4-H program coordinator — which are “very narrow in scope” — have been expanding access and 4-H membership; volunteer development; and organizational systems, including working with clubs, groups and leaders association, he said.
De Montmollin explained that the positive youth development educator position is “more broad.”
“A positive youth development Extension educator can provide leadership to the 4-H program and (address) our three big issue areas,” de Montmollin said. “Then, of course, whatever Jefferson County has for local issues, that positive youth development Extension educator could work on, too.”
The three issues are:
• Pathways to the world of work, which involves “helping young people get workforce readiness skills.”
• Community-engaged leadership, which includes service, service learning and community leadership programs.
• Living healthy, which would address alcohol, tobacco and other drug prevention, along with basic nutrition and exercise.
The positive youth development educator would be a bachelor’s degree-required position with a master’s degree preferred, which potentially could help in making a final decision during hiring.
“That’s the other balance that we ask committees to consider as well; if you’ve got a large and robust, thriving 4-H program, you could say, ‘We want to hire a positive youth development Extension educator, but their number-one priority must be the 4-H program,’” de Montmollin noted. “You cannot say, ‘I’m not looking at those charters, I’m not going to work with that horse association that’s going through some conflict.’
“That has to be your top priority because that program is required,” he continued. “Only Extension can oversee the 4-H program. Those other programs, we can build partnerships, enter partnerships, leave partnerships, but the 4-H program is ours. We must oversee it.”
After hearing what each type of position would be able to do, the Extension Education Committee decided that hiring a full-time positive youth development educator was the best option.
The committee briefly considered looking to hire both a positive youth development educator and a 4-H program coordinator, but quickly dismissed the idea.
“I think we get the educator on board first and let’s see where we’re at,” District 21 Supervisor John Kannard, a committee member, said. “(We) see how their duties develop or evolve and, if it gets to be where there are other places they could help, maybe a coordinator makes sense down the road.”
The positive youth development Extension educator position was budgeted for by Jefferson County in the 2018 budget, along with a full-time agriculture Extension educator.
Prior to 2016, Jefferson County had four Cooperative Extension agents.
In May 2016, Sarah Torbert, who originally was hired in 2013, left her position as 4-H/youth development agent for a statewide position in Wyoming. Steve Grabow retired on July 5, 2016, after having served as the county’s community development agent since 1993. Kathleen Eisenmann, who began working at UW-Extension in 1995 as Green County’s family living agent and made a lateral transfer to Jefferson County in 2004, retired Dec. 15, 2016.
Jefferson County agriculture agent LaVern Georgson remains in the office. Jones, who served from Nov. 1, 2016, to Jan. 31, 2018, replaced Torbert on an interim basis only due to a hiring freeze that took place during the restructuring.
In a related discussion Monday, the Extension Education Committee determined that there is not enough need demonstrated from the community to justify filling Grabow’s position.
Also, the committee approved the contract between Jefferson County and the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.
The agreement includes contractual approval for the county to have one full-time agriculture Extension educator and one full-time positive youth development Extension educator. The county’s share of funding for the positions is $70,171.