Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
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Martinsville, Virginia 24115
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| Program might be eliminated at MHS |
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Tuesday, February 17, 2009
By MICKEY POWELL - Bulletin Staff Writer
Martinsville High School’s JROTC program has turned students into leaders, or at least helped them achieve their full potential in life, during the past 25 years, according to retired Army Lt. Col. David King.
King, who oversees the program, said he remembers a few students who “I never thought would make it through” JROTC due to problems such as a lack of discipline. But “something clicked” in them, he said, and upon seeing them later in life, he realized they had turned their lives around.
That is why the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps is valuable, he said.
But city students may not be able to participate in JROTC after this school year. The program is eliminated in the Martinsville schools’ proposed budget for fiscal 2010, which will start July 1.
City schools officials have slashed spending — including the elimination of more than 26 jobs — due to a projected loss of about $1.1 million in state funds as a result of state revenues being lower than expected.
Officials found it hard to calculate how much it costs to offer JROTC at the high school for a year. The Army fully covers some expenses, such as cadets’ uniforms and other supplies, and partially reimburses the school division for some, such as salaries for King and his assistant, Sgt. Valerie Brooks.
Travis Clemons, the division’s executive director of finance and development, estimated the city ends up spending about $75,000 on the program each year.
Low enrollment in JROTC may have caused the program to be discontinued anyway, officials have said.
Projections are that only about 55 students would enroll in JROTC for the coming school year. According to King, the Army specifies that MHS should have 10 percent of its student body — roughly 80 students — in JROTC in order for the program to continue.
That number, and perhaps a few more, currently are enrolled, officials said.
King said he does not sense that students are losing interest in JROTC.
Rather, MHS Principal Tom Fitzgibbons said the low projected enrollment for the coming year could be due to two factors.
One, he said, is that the high school will shift from an eight-period to a seven-period daily class schedule, so students will take one less elective course.
The other is that students may be choosing to take courses they think will directly benefit them in careers they plan to pursue, Fitzgibbons said.
Yet skills students learn in JROTC can help them in virtually any career, said King.
MOTIVATING YOUTH
According to King, the mission of Army JROTC is to motivate young people to be better citizens. That is done, he said, through promoting values such as integrity, courage, loyalty, honor, duty, respect and service.
Those skills “work anywhere, in business, as a school teacher or whatever you want to do in life,” he said.
JROTC students have performed a lot of community service, Fitzgibbons said. That includes assisting with Veterans Day ceremonies and helping the American Red Cross teach first aid classes and prepare care packages for house fire victims, among other activities.
The JROTC curriculum includes leadership development and physical fitness components, as well as courses that reinforce lessons students already have learned about government and history, King said.
Contrary to what some people think, “our mission is not to put them in the military,” he emphasized. In fact, only a small percentage of MHS students who took JROTC have entered the military after graduation, he said.
JROTC experience could enable students who eventually join the military to enter at a higher rank than people without the experience, he pointed out.
King said the practice of JROTC students wearing uniforms periodically is aimed at instilling discipline in them.
Students can take JROTC for one, two, three or all four years of high school and learn different things as they advance.
They are “expected to be leaders” at all levels, King said. He noted that when visiting the MHS program, Army inspectors “want to see we’re training the cadets to run the program” and anytime he or Brooks must step in to assist, the program could lose points on an inspection.
JROTC students at Martinsville High were not available Friday to discuss their experiences.
King said, though, they are aware the MHS program may be eliminated.
“Some don’t know what to say or do,” he said. “Others are adamant that they don’t want to see it go.”
Neither King nor Fitzgibbons aims to fight plans to eliminate JROTC.
King said that many years ago he took a military oath to obey the orders of his superiors. Today, he considers his superiors to be Fitzgibbons and Martinsville school Superintendent Scott Kizner.
On plans to discontinue JROTC, “they’ve given us that direction, and we (he and Brooks) will follow it” if they must, he said.
In terms of offering elective courses, “I want to make sure we, as a school, offer as much as we can offer” to students, Fitzgibbons said.
But while electives are important, he said, “my first priority is keeping our core academic classes” up to the state Standards of Learning.
Those classes are “what we’re judged on” as far as students knowing what they need to know to enter college and be successful in life, he added.
Fitzgibbons said he would like to work out an agreement with Henry County allowing city students who want to be in JROTC to participate in programs at the county’s two high schools, or to have a county instructor teach some JROTC courses at MHS. |
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