Mountain View High Loses NJROTC Program

Mountain View High School in Bend will lose its naval science program after this year, ending a 17-year run for the NJROTC.

The Navy requires schools with more than 1,000 students to have at least 100 cadets enrolled in the program.

Mountain View’s enrollment has hovered around 65 students for the last few years, forcing the Navy’s hand.

It’s one of 29 programs nationwide to get cut..

Naval science instructor Niels Farner said Wednesday that limited schedule options for students squeezed the course out.

“The biggest factor (is) that students coming into high school don’t have as many elective choices as they used to have,” Farner said. “Once you fill up your core requirements and look down that list of electives, and you see naval science — it’s a pretty tough class to take for your elective.”

The 95-year-old national program prepares young people for a possible career in the military by focusing on academics, athletics, community service and drill team competitions.

La Pine and Crook County high schools are now the only ones in Central Oregon school to host the Naval JROTC program, while Redmond High has a Marine Corps JROTC program and Madras High has an Army JROTC program.

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Here’s the announcement from Naval Training Service Command:

The Navy announced that it will disestablish 29 Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) units, effective June 30, 2012.

The 29 units are currently on probationary status for failure to meet statutory and regulatory minimum student enrollment standards.

“Our goal is to maintain a high-quality program that ensures the full range of NJROTC activities are available for participating students across the nation and overseas,” said Rear Adm. David F. Steindl, commander, Naval Service Training Command (NSTC), which oversees more than 600 NJROTC units at accredited high schools across the nation. “We are extremely proud of what the NJROTC program offers participating students, so it was important for us to work with each non-compliant high school and continue to support the NJROTC program as long as possible. However, due to projected future funding levels, it is no longer possible to maintain NJROTC units that fail to meet minimum enrollment requirements and are not in compliance with program directives.”

Title 10 United States Code, Chapter 102, Section 2031, and Department of Defense Directives require a minimum enrollment of qualified students for NJROTC units. For host schools with a total enrollment of 1,000 or more, the minimum enrollment number is 100. Where schools have less than 1,000 students enrolled, a minimum of 10 percent of the total enrollment is required.

The specific units to be disestablished are Waiakea High School (Hilo, Hawaii); Sterling High School (Somerdale, N.J.); Mountain Home High School (Mountain Home, Ark.); Greenwood High School (Bowling Green, Ky.); Dundalk High School (Dundalk, Md.); Shawnee Heights High School (Tecumseh, Kan.); West High School (Knoxville, Tenn.); Mountain View High School (Bend, Ore.); Cross Keys High School (Atlanta, Ga.); Eureka High School (Eureka, Calif.); Issaquah High School (Issaquah, Wash.); Alvarez High School (Salinas, Calif.); Florin High School (Sacramento, Calif.); Cairo High School (Cairo, Ga.); Bastrop High School (Bastrop, Texas); Richard King High School (Corpus Christi, Texas); Mariner High School (Everett, Wash.); East Hall High School (Gainesville, Ga.); Escambia County High School (Atmore, Ala.); Tabb High School (Yorktown, Va.); Pasadena High School (Pasadena, Calif.); Opelousas High School (Opelousas, La.); Crossett High School (Crossett, Ark.); Wall High School (Wall, N.J.); Franklin High School (Livonia, Mich.); Grenada High School (Grenada, Miss.); Durfee High School (Fall River, Mass.); West High School (Salt Lake City, Utah); and Lincoln High School (Stockton, Calif.).

NJROTC is a citizenship development program that instills in students at secondary educational institutions the values of citizenship, service to the United States, personal responsibility and a sense of accomplishment. The NJROTC curriculum emphasizes citizenship and leadership development. The classroom instruction is augmented throughout the year by community service activities, team competitions, visits to naval activities, marksmanship training, and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) seminars.

Qualifying secondary educational institutions may apply for a Navy National Defense Cadet Corps (NNDCC) unit as an alternative to the NJROTC program.

“The NNDCC program is modeled on the NJROTC program, but is primarily funded by host schools,” Steindl said. “NNDCC units use the NJROTC curriculum, and gain the same values of citizenship, service to the United States, personal responsibility and a sense of accomplishment as do the cadets in the NJROTC program.”