De Anza High School junior Vincent Nguyen stood before the WCCUSD school board recently in protest, hoping for one more chance to persuade trustees to save JROTC — a military leadership program that he says has been instrumental for his growth and future.
Behind him at the Feb. 26 meeting, classmates wiped away tears as educators embraced and reassured the other students in attendance. Moments earlier, the board had voted to potentially eliminate the positions of the two instructors who head the Air Force Junior Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (AFJROTC) program at De Anza, the district’s only JROTC program, to help reduce its $127.2 million budget deficit.
“By cutting our instructor’s paycheck, you’re demolishing an entire program. It is my academy, my community, and it is my future,” Nguyen told the board. “A school’s objective is to provide their students with opportunity and not remove opportunity. And yet, by cutting a single paycheck, Miss (Superintendent Cheryl) Cotton, you are stomping on an entire community.”
Nguyen is one of 67 students enrolled in the program, whose members staged two walkouts to make their position clear. Many of them made emotional pleas to the board and started a petition, so far signed by more than 600 people, in hopes of saving the school’s 12-year-old program.
JROTC is a federally funded program administered by various branches of the U.S. military at thousands of high schools nationwide. At De Anza, the program stands out, in part because it is administered by what is seen as a more elite arm of the military, and because it was named a Distinguished Unit with Merit, an award given to fewer than 5% of Air Force JROTC programs worldwide.
The school’s JROTC is taught by two retired Air Force instructors, Lt. Col. Chris Carroll and Sgt. Debbie Sheppard. The district pays about $173,000 for both educators, and the Air Force covers the rest. They teach students in and outside of the classroom with a mission to “develop citizens of character,” rather than outright military recruitment.
AFJROTC is one of De Anza’s four pathway programs, programs that let students hone in on interests in fields such as law, health and information and technology. The JROTC students take classes throughout their four years that focus on aerospace history, principles of flight, leadership development, military drill and physical fitness.
“I learned how to become a leader,” Nguyen told Richmondside. “I’ve been able to attend conferences … speak in front of theaters, teach other students like myself, and give back to the community by doing volunteer work — giving back by cleaning up our campus, among other things.”
The students have access to opportunities such as traveling to tour different bases and attending conferences and competitions. They also can learn about robotics, cyber security and aerospace. They organize volunteer opportunities, their own afterschool programs and even their own annual Military Ball.
While that may sound expensive for a district looking to make millions of dollars in cuts, those opportunities are subsidized by the federal government. The Air Force not only matches salaries, but provides funding for free uniforms, specialized textbooks and co-curricular activities, including drill teams, color guard, and aviation/drone programs.
“We teach very minimally in a classroom, lecture-focused curriculum. Very minimally our students are sitting in their seats listening to a teacher drone on and on,” Carroll told Richmondside. “It is primarily a cadet-run program where most of our activities are organized and executed by our more experienced cadets, those who are in their third or fourth year. We do give second-year cadets the opportunity to be class leaders. And of course, if you’re in your first year, you’re really just kind of learning about things.”
Carroll, who has taught ROTC at De Anza for the four years, said WCCUSD cutting the program is like saying no to free money. And if the program is lost, it’s likely to never return.
“We are really at a critical point,” Carroll said. “If you kill the JROTC program, it goes away forever because there are 100 districts waiting for a junior ROTC program in their district.”
There are about 830 Air Force JROTC programs in the United States, and despite being in high demand, it hasn’t been able to expand largely due to budgetary limitations.
“The only way that a district that wants a program can actually get one is for one program somewhere else to go away. And once it goes away, you know, you don’t get back in line,” Carroll said. “It’s a huge loss.”
Could the program be saved afterall?
But despite the sorrow and tears that followed the school board meeting, Carroll said there is a “glimmer of hope.”
He said the calls from the community and students pushed the school board to deliberate saving the program, rather than just approving the cuts. At the last school board meeting, trustees Demetrio Gonzalez-Hoy and Cinthia Hernandez tried to keep the funding for the program, but they were in the minority.
“I originally wasn’t intending to advocate for the program, but once I did learn about all the resources that they bring and the advocacy that students do outside of that, it changed my mind,” Gonzalez-Hoy told Richmondside.
He said the district’s contract review committee will begin meeting on March 20 until May 1. He hopes that process will uncover contracts the district can cut, and then that money can be reallocated to save JROTC and elementary band programs, which have also been eliminated.
The district’s acting finance director, Jeff Carter, is also planning to meet with the Air Force to renegotiate the agreement and see if there is a chance the district can cover less of the salary in an effort to keep the program alive, Gonzalez-Hoy said.
Carroll told Richmondside that a senior official from the district (whom he did not wish to name) spoke to him after the board budget cut vote and said “this is not quite over yet.”
“We do think that there are ways that we can collaborate, between the Air Force, between the school, between (Sgt. Deb Sheppard) and myself, and hopefully the district, to come up with a way to keep the program going,” Carroll told Richmondside. “We are going to be creative.”
There were rumors circulating about why the JROTC was targeted, some saying the space would house students from elsewhere, but Gonzalez-Hoy told Richmondside there are no plans to use the space for non-De Anza students.
In fact, the reason JROTC was on the chopping block is just a matter of numbers. The program is smaller than many others at WCCUSD, serving 67 students, he said.
Trustee Leslie Reckler, who was absent from meeting due to illness said, “It is incredibly unfortunate and deeply disappointing to have to cancel this program.”
“However, due to the school district’s current financial challenges, every program is being evaluated to ensure all students can be supported responsibly,” Reckler wrote in an email to Richmondside.
AFJROTC is “transformational”
Parent Theresa Hardy said she is hopeful the district will save JROTC because her three boys have dealt with enough cuts throughout their years at WCCUSD. This year, however, has hit her family the hardest. Her youngest son is a seventh-grader at Betty Reid Soskin Middle who will be impacted by the middle school merger next year. Her middle son, Omar Hardy-Osterman, a junior at De Anza, is a cadet in JROTC.
Hardy said she is looking at sending her children to another district or a charter school — a decision she always criticized because she believes strongly in public schools — because the cuts are too close to her kids.
“We are seriously considering leaving the district,” Hardy said. “I even asked my kids what they would think and Omar is considering it, which is huge.”
Omar does not like to change, Hardy said, but he has thrived in AFJROTC program and without it, he feels lost. He is also worried about the prospect of picking another pathway program at De Anza so he can complete his graduation requirements.
She said Omar transformed from a kid who “never raised his hand and went to the front of anything,” to a student leader who won awards like “cadet of the semester.”
She said Omar never would have participated in sports, or gone to a school dance like prom. But at JROTC, Omar has participated in sporting competitions, performed in color guard at football games, volunteered to put the flags up at the Hilltop cemetery for veterans and even attended the JROTC military ball — an annual formal dance organized by students.
“ROTC is one of those programs that gets him up, and makes him want to go to school,” Hardy said, adding that he is also thinking about where he wants to continue his education. “I don’t know that he’d necessarily be thinking in the future so much if he didn’t sort of have ROTC and some structured program.”
She credits the teachers for Omar’s transformation, noting that the structure of the program, including field trips to hospitals or other military bases, has opened up his world. And their constant encouragement and accommodations has helped Omar make friends, excel in his classes and develop leadership qualities, she said.
“Every day he’s getting up at 8:30 and it reminds me that he’s excited about those things,” Hardy said. “For him, it just worked. And I think that’s what I see with a lot of the kids, you know, this is the thing that’s worked for them, it helped them.”
She said it was bittersweet to watch Omar make posters ahead of the school board meeting in support of AFJROTC. While they didn’t end up attending the school board meeting in person, Hardy said she hopes the district responds to student concerns properly.
“It’s what we’ve told him to do — be active and to stand up and to speak out,” Hardy said. “I think students were excited that (their efforts) could possibly move the needle. And I’m sure that’s also why it was so tearful to see that nobody was listening.”
Hardy said she understands the realities of budget constraints but emphasized that there are “low hanging fruit” things that district officials could’ve done to teach students that their voices matter — such as meeting with students in person to explain the decision.
She said at the very least adults should’ve been communicated with parents and teachers. Carroll told Richmondside that he only found out his program was at risk through a Richmondside news article. Teachers at Betty Reid Soskin said they found out about the middle school merger from Richmondside as well.
“These are our kids, right? These are the youth, and they’re watching. They’re watching how they’re being treated, how their teachers are being treated, how their parents are being treated,” Hardy said. “And when they’re ignored and dismissed, I don’t think that’s the message that the district wants to send to any of their students, but that’s what they’re saying.”
Students taking charge to save program
Freshman Aylin Tello said althouth she’s new to JROTC for a few months, she is already attached, calling the community her family.
“This program has helped me a lot mentally and physically, because I struggle with my mental health,” Tello told Richmondside. “I get to get out of my head, because we have afterschool programs like Raiders (a fitness event), and that’s really fun.”
She was one of roughly 30 to 40 students who participated in the walkout. She said while she was nervous, she was hopeful it would put pressure on the district to keep JROTC.
Lori Capuyan, a sophomore, also participated in the walkout. She said she joined JROTC by accident, thinking it was a space program but couldn’t be happier with the mistake because it has taught her how to be comfortable talking to people and develop leadership skills. Her goal is to open her own business, so the skills she is learning now make it feel possible, she said.
“I came to a school where I really did not know anybody. I thought I would be really awkward, but this program really opened me, and it really helped me view that people really have a chance to be something,” Capuyan told Richmondside. “Honestly in this program (everyone) is really welcoming, and it’s a really good learning experience for anyone who’s trying to find (make something of themselves) in the future.”
She said she is devastated by the news. She had plans to become a group commander and was excited for all the things she could learn.
Senior Devin Deleon Escobar, a former group commander in JROTC, started an online petition which 615 people had signed as of Tuesday morning. He said he also didn’t expect to like the program and even planned to switch to another pathway program, but sticking with it became the most meaningful decision he made during his high school career.
“The program has provided structure, discipline, mentorship, and a strong, supportive community that has positively shaped so many students’ lives. For many of us, it has been the highlight of our school experience,” Escobar wrote. “It is more than just an elective, it is a community, a leadership foundation, and a life-changing opportunity for many of us.”
