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Portage County extension committee approves shared educator FTE, creates 4‑H associate role and signs off on 2026 contract changes
Summary
The Portage County Agriculture and Extension Education Committee approved flexible shared‑position FTE for crops and livestock educators (0.20–0.25), converted a county support role into a University of Wisconsin Extension associate 4‑H educator, and approved the 2026 extension contract with updated area‑director and cybersecurity language; a related budget amendment was amended to a zero fiscal impact.
The Portage County Agriculture and Extension Education Committee voted to approve a set of staffing and contract changes intended to preserve services while adjusting to statewide budget reductions.
The committee approved a motion to allow the crops educator position to be shared regionally at between 0.20 and 0.25 full‑time equivalent (FTE), with a maximum of 0.25 FTE, to reflect whether the position is shared among four or five counties. “Going from 21 areas down to 19” at the state level and related county budget decisions prompted the flexible FTE approach, Jason, an extension staffer, told the committee.
The committee also voted to convert a county support position into a University of Wisconsin Extension associate educator post to expand 4‑H programming capacity. Staff said the move would be budget‑neutral to the county because salary and fringe costs would be transferred into the contractual extension budget rather than adding new county expense.
Jason highlighted two substantive contract updates included in the 2026 extension agreement: a new clause that explicitly names the role of the area director in the contract and updated cybersecurity language to require mutual notification of incidents. “If something were to happen in the county, we would alert extension. If something happens on our end, we're gonna alert the county,” Jason said, describing the two‑way notification provision.
Committee members amended one budget‑line fiscal impact from a listed number to $0 to reflect that the change was a transfer rather than a new county cost; a motion to make that change passed by voice vote. The committee then approved the 2026 extension contract, which includes line items for the shared crops/livestock FTE and the associate educator position (staff noted an available funding placeholder of $69,664 that may change based on final salary negotiations).
Chair (speaker 1) called the voice votes; multiple motions passed without recorded roll‑call tallies in the transcript.
The committee will forward the approved contract and the updated fiscal materials to the full county board as required for final execution and any needed follow‑up contract amendments if participating counties’ budgets change.
