Mclane JROTC students take a stand

Mclane JROTC students take a stand

They say the program has been canceled; no decision made, associate superintendent says. by Pablo Lopez The Fresno Bee

A group of students complained. Wednesday that administrators have made a unilateral decision to end a key component on the Mclane High School campus - The Junior Reserve Officer's Training Corps.

"It's totally unfair," Cadet 1st Lt. Maeketah Rivera told the Fresno Unified school board. "Don't you want young people to become better citizens?"

The cadets said Mclane Principal Frank Silvestro had told them that the program was ending.

Superintendent Michael Hanson directed Associate Superintendent John Marinovich to talk to the students, many of whom wore crisp Army uniforms and red barets for their appearance before the board.

JROTC is a partnership between Fresno Unified and the U.S. Department of Defense. The two entities share the cost to have two retired military officials train the students at each school. Mclane and Fresno High have Army JROTC. Ducan Polytechnical has Air Force JROTC.

Rivera said Mclane students enjoy the military discipline and structure that the program offers. The cadets have rifle teams, drill units and color guards that perform at football and baseball games and other community functions. They also do other community functions. They also do community project like graffiti removal.

Outside the board meeting, Marinovich told the cadet that he was proud of them for brining their concerns to the school board. He said "no decision has been made" about the future of Mclane's JROTC, but her did express concerns.

Marinovich said 80 to 90 students are in the Mclane program, while Fresno High has nearly 290 cadets. Mclane also has only a retired noncommissioned officer teaching the program. It is supposed to also have a retired officer involved, but the school hasn't been able to hire one, Marinovich said.

Cadet Maj. Joshua Wise and Rivera, how ever, complained they they began the year with more then 230 cadets, but Mclane counselors pulled them out of JROTC to attend classes they they didn't need to graduate. Marinovich said he would investigate the complaint.

If the JROTC were to end at Mclane, Marinovich said, the cadets would be given options - they could transfer to Fresno High or Ducan Polytechnical High and join the JROTC programs.

Vanessa Vasquez, Mclane's student body president and a student trustee, said that idea wouldn't work.

"We are Highlanders," Vasquez said, referring to Mclane's mascot. "We can never be anything but Highlanders."

-> The reporter can be reached at plopez@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6434.

Please get involved!!!


John.Marinovich@fresno.k12.ca.us
Assistant Superintendent
High School Education
(559) 457-3935

Please contact him and share your expression of opinion.

We have a dream. Our dream was to get a 4 Let Year from JROTC. Go to college and take ROTC. Get experience from JROTC and join the real deal. The ARMY PRIDE Never let down! Fight for your right!

I voted for 'No'

JROTC too valuable to be reserved for elite few

Last week, several McLane High cadets who worried that the school was dropping its Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps took their concerns to the Fresno Unified school board.

I'm told that Board President Tony Vang allowed the cadet a grand total of three minutes to speak- giving the students a powerful lesson in how democracy works at Fresno Unified, where it's often more about the adults than the kids.

Someone should have told the cadets how to double their time at the microphone, employing a tactic that has worked for others. First compliment the board for granting Superintendent Michael Hanson a 35% raise in the midst of the $16 billion state budget deficit, then segue to their real business: asking that a program important to them and about 100 other student be kept intact.

I'm also told that the cadets presented themselves professionally. They were well-spoken and respectful.

I'm not surprised. I can vouch for JROTC's value. My son Adam - now a Madera Country sheriff;s deputy - was a cadet in Fresno High's program.

"It provided structure and a place to learn leadership," Adam said. "It also gave a large group of students a sense of belonging to a group that was positive. We prepared for life after high school and were taught how to be professional. We learned the important of integrity and respecting others."

Associate Superintendent John Marinovich told the cadets outside the board room that the district hadn't decided whether to keep or drop JROTC at McLane, but that it was concerned about declining program enrollment.

Later in the week, McLane Principal Frank Silvestro told KSEE-TV that the program would continue next year, but with 40 select cadets. Others students would be offered technology classes, he said.

If it sounds to you like Fresno Unified can't get its story straight, go to the head of class. The cadets said they had been told there wouldn't be a program come September. And the JROTC instructor, retired Sgt. Major Lee Benton, told me the school has been steering prospective ROTC students into exit-exam classes.

Admittedly I'm not a high powered educator, but I'm pretty sure a 17-year-old isn't going to find structure or think about what he wants to do with his life an exit-exam class. He's going to stare out the windows and wish he were elsewhere. I'm also pretty sure that McLane High - and all of Fresno - benefits from the cadets' community up graffiti.

Hanson has asked the board to trust him to to come up with creative solutions to problems. Maybe a compromise is in order, such as incorporating exit-exam material into the JROTC curriculum for students who need it. For certain: Silvestro and Benton should adjust the program so that it best serves students.

But cutting opportunities isn't the answer. The district shouldn't limit JROTC to a handful of elite students who already have shown they have the right stuff, The beauty of JROTC - like high school sports - is that it gives teenagers a reason to stay in school. By staying, many of them challenge themselves and discover the discipline that will help them succeed.

-> The columnist can be reached at bmcewen@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6632. Check out his blog at fresnobeehive.com.

JROTC cadet Sgt. Major Estevan Martinez gives commands to other cadets during class Tuesday at McLane High School in Fresno.

McLane High students spoke up for program that teaches discipline and leadership.

An appeal by cadets has saved the Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps at McLane High School in southeast Fresno.

Principal Frank Silvestro had told the cadets last week that he was thinking about eliminating the program because there were not enough students enrolled to justify the cost.

The cadets rallied -- and complained during a Fresno Unified School District board meeting last week. That made all the difference, Silvestro said Tuesday as he announced the program would not be touched.

"They were passionate," Silvestro said. "I'm proud of them for standing up for something they believe in."

But the cadets will have to help make the program work, he said. The program has 86 cadets, of whom 57 are freshmen. It should have at least 125, Silvestro said, and he's counting on the cadets to recruit their friends.

Cadet Lt. Col. Raquel Padilla, the highest-ranking student at McLane, said that shouldn't be a problem.

"This is a great program, because it has done so much for so many students," she said. "I know we can make it work if we work together."

The program teaches students discipline and leadership and encourages them to do community projects, such as graffiti cleanup. The cadets' drill and rifle teams are fixtures in local parades and other events.

Silvestro said he was reluctant from the beginning to cut the program. He brought JROTC to McLane in 1994.

But the program had trouble recruiting students and retaining them, which made it difficult for the district to justify its cost, said John Marinovich, an associate superintendent.

Fresno Unified and the Army share the cost for the program. The district pays 70% of an instructor's salary, and the Army pays 30%.

The average English teacher teaches as many as 175 students, Silvestro said. With its current enrollment, the JROTC program's instructor teaches only 86. And the program is supposed to have two instructors.

A retired Army sergeant major has been teaching the program, but JROTC guidelines call for a retired officer also to be an instructor. Marinovich said Fresno Unified has hired a chief warrant officer who will start at McLane later this year. That adds pressure to increase enrollment, he said.

At the school board meeting last week, McLane students said 230 cadets were enrolled when the school year started, but counselors pulled most of them out of JROTC to attend classes that the cadets said they didn't need to graduate.

Marinovich and Silvestro said Tuesday the students' complaint was unfounded; counselors were 99% correct in their decisions in guiding students to classes they need to graduate.

Fresno Unified also has an Army JROTC at Fresno High and an Air Force JROTC at Duncan Polytechnical. The number of JROTC programs in the country is limited. If McLane had given up its Army JROTC program, there are 350 high schools on a waiting list to pick it up, a military spokeswoman said.

The cadets applauded Silvestro for his change of heart.

"This is great news, because we're like one big family," said cadet Sgt. Major Estevan Martinez, a junior who has been in JROTC for three years.

The reporter can be reached at plopez@fresnobee.com or(559) 441-6434.



JROTC cadet 2nd Lt. Gustavo Perez, center, leads other JROTC cadets in ceremony drilling Tuesday at McLane High School in Fresno. The program at McLane will continue.