Flathead Valley Community College began its spring semester with 4.7 percent fewer students taking 2 percent fewer courses for a decline of 6.7 percent full-time equivalent students from spring 2012.

College President Jane Karas gave the 15-day enrollment report at Monday’s regular meeting of the board of trustees.

“This is line with what we had projected,” Karas said. “We’re not down quite as much as we had projected for the year, so that’s a good thing.”

Budget projections are important because the college must return state education dollars if enrollment numbers don’t meet forecasts. In recent years, college enrollment increased due to federal dollars provided to retrain displaced workers during the recession.

When adjusted for that, enrollment shows a long-term trend line of growth.

“Compared to where we were in 2008 and the economy took a nose dive, we’re still up 20 to 30 percent,” Karas  said. “This is just a normal adjustment after a quick peak that was quite a challenge to address as you all remember.”

Trustees on Monday approved adding a new Associate of Science degree in agriculture and an Associate of Applied Science in integrated agriculture and food systems. The proposed two-year programs next go before the Board of Regents in May.

Heather Estrada, sustainable agricultural grant coordinator, said she had worked to develop the agricultural programs over the last year.

She said the Associate of Science was designed to prepare students to transfer to three programs: agricultural business, plant science and sustainable food and bioenergy systems at Montana State University.

She said the two-year applied science degree aims to prepare students to start their own businesses.

“It’s a combination of agricultural sciences, business and hands-on actual experience which will be complemented by a farm we intend to start here at the college,” Estrada said. “So students will be doing internships at the farm and they will also be doing internships at sites around the Flathead Valley.”

Karas said that the college had a grant that helped Estrada develop the programs.

“She had a very active advisory committee made up of many local farmers — people involved in the agricultural industry here in the valley,” Karas said.

Responding to a board question, she said the college began exploring the new degrees in response to interest over the years for some more advanced education beyond the Kalispell Public Schools vo-ag program and other high school programs. Estrada did a needs assessment to identify students interested in agriculture who want to take two years here and transfer to Bozeman.

“That was impossible previously as easily as it will be now with this curriculum,” Karas said.

She cited another group of people with small farms involved in new ways who wanted the integrated agriculture and food systems program to learn how to create and operate small farm-related businesses.

“There’s so much happening now with smaller farms,” Karas said.

Job opportunities after graduation included plant/soil/animal technicians, agricultural sales and marketing or farm managers. Small-scale farming was described as one of the fastest growing sectors in agriculture with opportunities for graduates as self-employed farmers.

Referring to the new transfer associates, Estrada said that MSU just graduated its first eight students from the sustainable foods and bioenergy systems program. Established four years ago, the program now has 100 students enrolled.

According to an MSU news release, the program focuses on ecologically sound, socially just and economically viable farming methods, food and people’s health and other issues related to food and bioenergy systems.

The program could help Montana producers who are looking for ways to improve their profitability, said William Dyer, a professor of plant sciences and plant pathology at MSU.

“We hope that our students can help Montana producers identify sustainable ways of producing food and bioenergy crops that can reach new markets,” Dyer said.

Trustees unanimously approved the new programs.

In a final action item, the board approved a resolution calling for an election on May 7 to elect trustees to the two, three-year board positions representing the Flathead/Glacier high school district. Mark Holston and Shannon Lund now hold those positions.

People interested in filing to run for these position must live in this district.

They may pick up registration materials from Monica Settles, clerk of the district, at the president’s office in Blake Hall at Flathead Valley Community College.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.