ROTC Program OKd for Cresenta Valley

The Glendale School Board on Tuesday unanimously approved establishment of an Air Force Junior ROTC program at Crescenta Valley High School.

The program, the second at a district school in two years, reflects a nationwide move back to military training in public schools, district officials said.

Starting in September, a retired Air Force officer and a noncommissioned officer will join the high school staff and teach as many as 100 students.

In 1986, an ROTC program sponsored by the Navy was instituted at Herbert Hoover High School in Glendale. Glendale’s only previous Junior ROTC program, sponsored by the Army, was disbanded in the late 1960s.

The program will probably include one ROTC class a day, Crescenta Valley High School Principal Sam Nicholson said. Participating students will wear uniforms and read air history and technical textbooks supplied by the Air Force.

Under the terms of a federal grant to establish the program, the Air Force will also pay half the salaries of the instructors, or about $30,000, Donald Empy, deputy superintendent for instruction, said.

Nicholson said about 25 students at the 1,750-student Crescenta Valley school join the armed forces after graduation each year.

“Our school colors are blue and we’re the ‘Falcons,’ so the Air Force should fit right in here,” Nicholson said. “We try to provide as broad a range of educational opportunities as possible and this should go over quite well.”

One of the reasons for the program’s revived popularity, Hoover High School Principal Donald Duncan said, is that each high school ROTC can award one college scholarship each June--up to $50,000 for tuition and books.

Scholarship winners must enroll in a college ROTC program and, after one year of college, must sign a contract binding them to four years of military service after graduation.