SNOHOMISH — The Marine JROTC program at Snohomish High School has been spared for at least another year.
Last month, the Snohomish School Board gave Superintendent Bill Mester the authority to contact the military to begin the process of dropping it. The cash-strapped district was looking for ways to cut its budget.
Since then, Mester has learned from the national Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps that the two teachers in the program can be used part time in non-JROTC capacities.
“That was a big breakthrough,” Mester said. “We have some compelling needs if I can assign them to other functions.”
Mester said he learned about the flexibility to reassign during a face-to-face meeting in Snohomish with Bill McHenry, national program director for the Marine Corps JROTC based in Quantico, Va.
The reprieve gives JROTC backers time to rebuild enrollment, which drives funding. The Snohomish JROTC was dealt a blow when the Monroe School Board recently cut funding for next fall for its high school students who are bused to Snohomish to participate in the program.
The Snohomish Junior ROTC program has been in existence since 1967 and is one of the first programs of its kind on the West Coast. It’s one of just three in the state affiliated with the Marine Corps.
Students are thankful, said Elizabeth Wu, a JROTC cadet.
“When our class first found out about the news, there was literally no one in the room who could keep a smile off their face,” she said. “Some were cheering and laughing, some were just consumed in pure relief. Either way there was, of course, no one who took this short-term solution for granted.”
Wu said JROTC students are now turning their attention to finding ways to promote their program.
“It was an all-too-real wake-up call, and it has made more cadets realize that their participation is crucial to keeping the program alive,” she said. “The kids are really stepping up to the plate, you can tell it means a lot to them.”
Federal law requires two teachers for any JROTC program. This year, there are about 110 students from Snohomish, Glacier Peak and Monroe high schools enrolled in the Snohomish High School program, but early registration for next fall indicates that number is declining, Mester said.
As a result, the student-teacher ratio is much less than other classes, where teachers can have as many as 160 students a day.
Students already are getting some support from the community.
Doug Roulstone, a retired Navy captain, has begun a fundraising campaign. He hopes to raise $20,000 that would allow Monroe High School students to continue in the Snohomish High School JROTC program. The Monroe School Board cut JROTC from its budget next fall. It has had a contract with the Snohomish district for high school students to be part of the Snohomish JROTC.
“It appears that there is going to be time to raise money between now and August,” Roulstone said.
The district is open to creative solutions, said Rosemary O’Neil, a Monroe schools spokeswoman.
“No doors were closed,” she said. “It certainly has never been a question about the caliber of the program and the benefit to the students. It has been a budgetary question.”
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.
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