ARLINGTON — Arlington High School has applied to the Air Force and could begin offering a Junior ROTC program as early as the fall of 2005.

The school could learn this summer if the Air Force has accepted it for a Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps unit, said Bob Penny, principal of the 1,450-student campus.

A survey of students found that there was enough interest to add the elective. However, enrollment will need to continue to grow to merit adding a new class, and the school won’t cut existing courses to accommodate it, Penny said.

"After three years, you have to have 100 students or 10 percent enrolled in a JROTC program," Penny said. "We had over 100 students indicate an interest."

Arlington would become the fifth high school in Snohomish County to offer a Junior ROTC. Everett, Mariner and Marysville-Pilchuck high schools have Naval Junior ROTC programs and Snohomish High School is affiliated with the Marine Corps.

The Air Force’s ROTC enrolls about 103,000 cadets in 744 units in 48 states and several countries. In Washington, there are eight high school Air Force Junior ROTC programs with the closest ones in the Tacoma area.

Congress is allowing the Air Force Junior ROTC to expand, said Ann Easterling, a spokeswoman for the national program based at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala.

"In the next few years, we are supposed to go up to 935 units," she said. "Naturally, we are going to look for areas that are under-served."

The Air Force describes the Junior ROTC curriculum as being 60 percent aerospace science and 40 percent leadership education. Instructors are retired Air Force commissioned and noncommissioned officers.

Penny said Arlington High School chose the Air Force because of its vicinity to Arlington Municipal Airport.

"I’m going to guess there can be a nice relationship built up with the Civil Air Patrol and the airport," Penny said.

Penny was an assistant superintendent in the Burlington School District in Skagit County when Burlington-Edison High School added a Junior ROTC in the 1990s. He found that it provided an outlet for many students.

"Really what you are creating is another haven for student interest," he said. "It’s a good program. I have never seen a program do so much over the course of a couple of years to provide a positive effect."

Although an elective, Junior ROTC can also help students earn PE or science requirements, Penny said.

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.