Emergency Meeting to Stop JROTC in Our Schools

email received from bauaw

EMERGENCY MEETING MONDAY EVENING TO STOP JROTC IN OUR SCHOOLS!
Monday, Nov. 5, 7:00 P.M., 474 Valencia at the Childcare Center.

San Francisco schools expected to grant JROTC a year's reprieve
Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, October 6, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/06/BAP3SJ72P.DTL&hw=board+of+education+jrotc&sn=001&sc=1000

The controversial demise of the Junior Reserve Officers' Training
Corps in San Francisco schools scheduled for this spring will likely
be put off for at least a year because the school district hasn't
developed a promised replacement program.

The expected reprieve would drag out what has already been a
protracted and emotional battle over the district's 90-year tie to the
military program.

Still, supporters say the prospect of an extra year offers hope that
JROTC could survive in San Francisco.

The school board voted last November to phase out JROTC over two years
because of its connection to the military, which board members said
was discriminatory, homophobic and at odds with the mission of public
education. They also agreed to create a task force to develop an
alternative program to begin in fall 2008.

Despite JROTC's expected demise, 1,500 students in seven city high
schools enrolled in JROTC this fall, with 670 of them participating in
affiliated after-school programs. That's about 200 fewer than last
year, although students who thought the program no longer existed
continue to transfer in, JROTC instructors say.

The school board's composition has also changed, and just two of the
board members who voted to eliminate JROTC last year - Eric Mar and
Mark Sanchez - are still serving.

A majority of current board members - Kim-Shree Maufas, Jill Wynns,
Norman Yee and Hydra Mendoza - said they were open to keeping JROTC alive.

The seventh board member, Jane Kim, said she was also willing to
support JROTC, but only if there were a way to address the military's
discriminatory hiring practice involving homosexuals. She suggested a
JROTC diversity curriculum or a cadet campaign against the military's
"don't ask, don't tell" policy.

But bringing JROTC back to life is not something any of those board
members seems willing to do right now.

"I wouldn't be leading any of it," Yee said. "I just don't want to do
that battle."

Maufas agreed. "I respect what the board decided," she said. "I
believe with hard work and enough time, we can provide a program that
serves students' needs in terms of leadership development."

But there isn't enough time to do that before next fall.

District officials didn't even create the task force that was supposed
to identify a new program until last spring - several months after
their vote against JROTC.

The task force - consisting of 17 district staff members, students and
community members, and including supporters and opponents of JROTC -
met for the first time in April. By its third meeting in June, the
group acknowledged serious flaws in the process.

"We do not have enough time, we do not have enough (task force)
attendance, and we do not consistently have agreement on this
committee," group members decided, according to minutes of the meeting.

In addition, the school board gave the task force little guidance,
even about how much it could spend.

"We've been given no budgetary guidelines," said Meyla Ruwin, district
director of school health programs and task force co-chair.

So the task force could ultimately come up with a plan that the
district has no intention or ability to fund.

Task force members said they plan to ask the school board's curriculum
committee Thursday to let JROTC continue until spring 2009.

Board President Mark Sanchez said he expects the extension to be
approved by the board.

"We've been trying to find a program that the city could benefit from,
the kids could benefit from, and would still provide that leadership
training and the physical training," said board member Mendoza. "It's
getting the program off the ground that's the key, and where are we
going to get the funding?"

The $1.7 million JROTC program receives a $750,000 annual subsidy from
the U.S. military. Students in the program, called cadets, earn up to
two years of physical education or elective credits for the courses.
[The rest is paid by the SFUSD!...bw]

Board Vice President Yee, who voted against last year's resolution,
said he wasn't surprised by the lack of an alternative.

"It seems like what I thought might happen is happening," he said.
"There's nothing to replace it with. ... There are a lot of practical
things we didn't think about."

In the meantime, JROTC students and their instructors said they are
frustrated by the inaction. The instructors don't know whether they'll
have their jobs next year.

"They've got mortgages," said task force member Robert Powell, a JROTC
instructor at Lincoln High School and retired Army lieutenant colonel.
"They've got bills. How can you tell them, 'Just hang on'?"

Junior Yvonne Ho said that she found her niche in JROTC and that
without it students would be sent to play sports - an option she dreads.

"I think it's pretty unfair to cancel the program without a backup
plan," said Ho, the battalion commander of Balboa High School's 280
JROTC cadets.

"We don't know where we'd go," she said. "There's just PE."

The task force said its next step will be to survey current and former
cadets about what is important about the program - characteristics
they hope to build into a replacement.

Students say the program develops leadership, teamwork, community
service, a sense of responsibility and a sense of belonging.

Maufas, whose daughter participated in the program while in high
school, said JROTC provides strong role models: Most of the program's
instructors are African American men.

"Those types of relationships are so valuable," she said. "It's hard
to replace it."
JROTC'S recent history in San Francisco

Feb. 22, 1994 - JROTC hazing incident occurs at Balboa High, prompting
a districtwide debate about the program's merits.

June 27, 1995 - San Francisco school board votes to keep JROTC programs.

May 23, 2006 - School board introduces resolution to eliminate JROTC.

Nov. 14, 2006 - School board votes to phase out JROTC by June 2008.

April to Oct. 3, 2007 - Task force meets five times to discuss a
replacement program.

Thursday - Task force scheduled to address school board curriculum
committee to request one-year extension.

E-mail Jill Tucker at jtucker [at] sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/06/BAP3SJ72P.DTL

This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle