QUOTE
Concerns arise again over future of JROTC
Alicia Ebaugh
Staff Writer
MICHIGAN CITY - Once again, students in the Marine Corps Junior ROTC program at Michigan City High School are unsure if the program will continue, although officials say it will.
Last week, school administrators received a letter from Marine Corps JROTC headquarters indicating the program will be shut down if Michigan City Area Schools does not get a second teacher, School Board President Jim Kintzele said Tuesday. The program has operated with only a single instructor since instructor Maj. Larry Naifeh died in January 2006, and its future has come into question in the years following.
"(Interim Superintendent Carla) Iacona is working with them on this," Kintzele said. "There are not as many students in the program as we expected, the numbers aren't where they should be, although, it's been said that maybe if we had a better program, we'd have more students in it."
Program instructors are partially paid by the Marine Corps.
Senior Caitlin Foster, operations officer in the program, said in a phone interview JROTC has given her self-discipline and leadership skills she would never have gained without it.
"If it's not there anymore, it will have a negative impact on the school," said Foster, 18. She was not at the board meeting. "Only about 230 schools in the country have the program, and only four in Indiana. It's an honor to have it here."
While JROTC students wear uniforms, drill in the hallways and sometimes outdoors and honor military traditions, the program's main goal is to prepare the cadets for higher education, Foster said. Community service also is emphasized through everything from color guard for graduation ceremonies and security for athletic events to picking up trash from the side of the roads.
Foster said about 85 MCHS students participated in JROTC last year.
"It's hard to justify providing two instructors for 85 students when high school English teachers routinely see 160 students a day," former Superintendent Michael Harding said of the program in 2007.
Marine Corps rules require two instructors for each JROTC program.
When MCAS faced a $1.8 million cut in state funding in 2005, some talked about cutting the program. The program survived, but it has been on probation because it is supposed to have two instructors. Naifeh's assistant instructor, Marty Pluchinsky, resigned in July 2007 amid uncertainty about JROTC's future. In September 2007, his replacement, JROTC instructor Julius Miles, resigned after he was accused of punching a 16-year-old Michigan City High School sophomore.
The instructor now is Sgt. Major Ken Altizer.
Alicia Ebaugh
Staff Writer
MICHIGAN CITY - Once again, students in the Marine Corps Junior ROTC program at Michigan City High School are unsure if the program will continue, although officials say it will.
Last week, school administrators received a letter from Marine Corps JROTC headquarters indicating the program will be shut down if Michigan City Area Schools does not get a second teacher, School Board President Jim Kintzele said Tuesday. The program has operated with only a single instructor since instructor Maj. Larry Naifeh died in January 2006, and its future has come into question in the years following.
"(Interim Superintendent Carla) Iacona is working with them on this," Kintzele said. "There are not as many students in the program as we expected, the numbers aren't where they should be, although, it's been said that maybe if we had a better program, we'd have more students in it."
Program instructors are partially paid by the Marine Corps.
Senior Caitlin Foster, operations officer in the program, said in a phone interview JROTC has given her self-discipline and leadership skills she would never have gained without it.
"If it's not there anymore, it will have a negative impact on the school," said Foster, 18. She was not at the board meeting. "Only about 230 schools in the country have the program, and only four in Indiana. It's an honor to have it here."
While JROTC students wear uniforms, drill in the hallways and sometimes outdoors and honor military traditions, the program's main goal is to prepare the cadets for higher education, Foster said. Community service also is emphasized through everything from color guard for graduation ceremonies and security for athletic events to picking up trash from the side of the roads.
Foster said about 85 MCHS students participated in JROTC last year.
"It's hard to justify providing two instructors for 85 students when high school English teachers routinely see 160 students a day," former Superintendent Michael Harding said of the program in 2007.
Marine Corps rules require two instructors for each JROTC program.
When MCAS faced a $1.8 million cut in state funding in 2005, some talked about cutting the program. The program survived, but it has been on probation because it is supposed to have two instructors. Naifeh's assistant instructor, Marty Pluchinsky, resigned in July 2007 amid uncertainty about JROTC's future. In September 2007, his replacement, JROTC instructor Julius Miles, resigned after he was accused of punching a 16-year-old Michigan City High School sophomore.
The instructor now is Sgt. Major Ken Altizer.