Cheer Another week, another drug bust. At least it seems that way sometimes in Butler.Narcotics officers on Wednesday seized nearly 900 bags of suspected heroin, dozens of rocks of crack cocaine and thousands of dollars in currency during an early morning raid of a home in the 300 block of First Street. Two accused drug dealers were arrested, along with an alleged customer.Cheers and congratulations for the fine police work.It’s not the first significant arrest. It won’t be the last. One big bust follows another. One series of overdose deaths follows another. At times it seems we can’t win.But we can win. We can rid our community of this scourge — as long as we keep fighting.County Detective Tim Fennell, the head of the Butler County Drug Task Force, credits “a lot of complaints from neighbors” in the launching of a three-month investigation that led to Wednesday’s raid.Fennell’s mention is significant. Residents are not putting up with drug dealers in their neighborhoods. And they refuse to be cowed into silent hand-wringing.Eventually the traffickers will get the message that it’s not easy or safe for them to peddle their junk here, and they’ll leave.That won’t happen overnight. It might not happen for several years. But we must continue supporting and communicating with law enforcement with an expectation that it will happen. There’s too much at stake for any other outcome.

Jeer Maybe we’ve got the whole public education system backward.South Butler County School Board, facing a $1.5 million budget deficit and a pledge not to raise property taxes, is considering a phase-out of foreign languages classes in French and possibly Spanish. Administrators say declining enrollment is forcing the cutbacks — never mind that the cuts will do nothing to reverse the enrollment trend and, in fact, will likely hasten it, since prospective new residents with children typically factor the district’s quality of education in their decision to relocate.Meanwhile, the district is committed to beefing up its STEM curriculum — STEM sands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.But aren’t the STEM disciplines emphasized at the Butler County Area Vocational Technical School? Aren’t STEM principles the Vo-Tech’s raison d’être? If you don’t know what raison d’être means, ask a French student.And if we start dropping arts, languages and classics from our local school curricula, aren’t we in danger of essentially cloning vo-tech schools across the region?If that’s the trend, then maybe the regional Vo-Tech should be converted into a regional campus for arts and languages. That would make more sense than cutting foreign languages.

Cheer Cheers to the 15 FFA members who drove their tractors Monday to Moniteau High School, demonstrating their pride in a career they love.The tractor round-up was part of the school’s FFA picnic day when school staff and guests join the chapter members for a lunch cookout. Other rural districts across Pennsylvania have similar celebrations, says Brian Dean, Moniteau’s agricultural education instructor and FFA adviser.“It’s all about promotion of agriculture,” Dean said. “I hope people take it in a positive light for what it is.”The tractors came from family farms across the Moniteau School District — from North Washington, West Sunbury, Hooker and Harrisville — an area measuring 152 square miles. Some, like senior FFA member Cory Powell, made it a two-day trip to beat the 7 a.m. arrival deadline, a time arranged so the slower-moving tractors wouldn’t interfere with school buses or other vehicles.The FFA members should be proud. They intend to carry on a tradition of growing the crops and livestock that feed and clothe everyone.“It shows a part of agriculture,” said senior FFA member Austin Stoops about the event. “It’s our day to show what we do.”Collectively, agriculture remains the No. 1 industry in Pennsylvania. One of seven jobs statewide is linked in some way to farming.And the bottom line is that it must be pretty cool to show up for school on a tractor.