SEQUIM — The Sequim School District vocational education department will be cut by 0.2 of a full-time equivalency teaching position instead of the originally planned 0.8.

The Sequim School Board made the change in a 3-2 vote Monday night as an austerity measure after several students and parents in a standing-room-only crowd at a three-hour special meeting asked that the district’s vocational education program be spared.

Voting for the measure were board directors John Bridge, who made the motion, Bev Horan and Walter Johnson.

Board President Sarah Bedinger and member Virginia O’Neal were opposed.

Bedinger said the original proposal to cut 0.8 of a full-time equivalent position “was not such a drastic reduction that needed to have immediate action.”

She said she wanted more suggestions for options, and more time to make a decision, to see if the board could have avoided cuts in the first place.

“I felt if we needed to make adjustment in the program that we needed to take time to look at the overall program instead of some portion of it,” Bedinger said.

The recommendation is expected to affect the agriculture science program and spares the engineering sciences program, which provides vocational education for such programs as training in refrigeration and certification, and auto mechanics.

The board faces a Tuesday deadline under a contract with the teachers union to notify any personnel affected by the decision.

Decline in enrollment

School officials said vocational education enrollment has declined by 30 students to 180 total.

Bridge said he believed the board’s decision made the most sense.

He said the agriculture class had only two students in it and was not enough.

“Others were close to being full,” he said, including refrigeration, welding and automotive repair.

“We wanted to keep all of the vocational education classes, but more students were needed,” he said.

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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2390 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.