COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: JROTC/ROTC
Ten-hut!: Numbers are up in high school JROTC programs
Brad Buck, Palatka Daily News
October 20, 2005
Five months ago, JROTC enrollment was down. Students, parents and JROTC instructors protested proposals to cut their programs at Palatka and Interlachen high schools.“There was perceived waning interest,” said Col. Fran Martin, who heads a community advisory group trying to increase interest in the Palatka High JROTC program.
Now the JROTC classes at IHS and PHS are thriving, school officials said.
JROTC programs are required to have at least 100 cadets or 10 percent of the student body, to exist. Last fall, 110 students were enrolled in Interlachen’s JROTC program out of a school enrollment of 908. When the proposed cuts came along, there were 78.
Now, enrollment is back up to 117, IHS Principal Suzanne Mathe said Tuesday. PHS has 105 cadets, up from 88 last year, said Sgt. Larry Aspeotes.
How did they turn interest around?
“Kids who were in the program did a lot of recruiting,” Mathe said. “They find it’s a worthwhile program and they share that information with their peers.”
In May, when school Superintendent David Buckles suggested dropping the JROTC programs at IHS and PHS, students, parents, instructors and veterans groups decried the possible move. Even though the decision to cut the programs ultimately rested with the principals, Buckles caught the majority of the heat.
Increased enrollment at both schools has justified the move to keep the programs, school administrators said.
“We’ll gladly take the increased interest,” Buckles said.
COMMUNITY ADVISORY GROUP
After administrators allowed the JROTC programs to continue at the high schools, the school board asked that the community group be established at PHS to garner more interest in the program.
Asked why the advisory group was formed at PHS and not Interlachen, Buckles said enrollment had dropped more at PHS than at IHS. He said he had wanted to move the students to IHS.
Martin and Cadet Cmdr. Diamond Lewis will update school board members Monday on the progress of the JROTC program at PHS.
While the JROTC programs at all three public high schools in the county have parent booster clubs, only PHS has a community advisory group, she said.
The advisory panel met for the first time Sept. 12, Martin said. It consists of four people in, or retired from, the military and two civilians.
Since last month’s meeting, the Palatka High’s JROTC group has made plans to march in Palatka’s Veterans Day Parade, she said. Lewis will speak at the riverfront after the parade and the cadets will march over Memorial Bridge as part of the day’s ceremonies, Martin said.
They’re also going to work with Lowe’s Home Improvement Center on projects to help veterans when they return home, she said.
“We want to make sure the community understands what a great citizenship program Junior ROTC is,” Martin said. JROTC is not necessarily a tool to recruit people into the armed forces, she said. “The spotlight is on the cadets.”
PHS’s commissioned officer for its JROTC program left. The school board recently agreed to let PHS hire another commissioned officer to lead the program. The advisory group is helping Principal Karen Hughes with that selection, Martin said.
RECOMMENDED CUTS
The JROTC cuts were recommended because school districts must comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the state class size amendment and funding cuts. Therefore, schools focus on core courses such as reading, writing and math. As a result, sometimes electives, such as JROTC, are axed.
Mathe said last spring she was sympathetic about possibly losing the JROTC program. The final decision rested with Mathe.
She’s glad she kept the program.
“There’s a special bond between students and the instructors in the JROTC programs,” Mathe said Tuesday. “They’re very personable and very interested in the students.”
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