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Bureaucratic hang-up postpones DeKalb military school
by Jonathan Cribbs
jonathan@dekalbchamp.com
The DeKalb County School System had been working for the last several months to reach an agreement with the Marine Corps to open a military-themed high school in August. They were waiting on a signature from the Navy’s secretary.
Problem is, the secretary’s office is in flux, school district officials said.
President Barack Obama’s pick for Navy secretary, former Mississippi governor and ambassador Ray Mabus, was sworn in May 19, leaving too little time to approve the school in time for an August opening, said Paul Womack, a school board member. It was unclear June 2 whether Mabus has seen plans for the school, called the DeKalb Marine Corps Institute.
“The window of opportunity has pretty much [disappeared],” school system spokesman Dale Davis said.
The bureaucratic hang-up hasn’t killed the school, he said. District officials are still hoping to open it, possibly in 2010.
The district and the Marine Corps had hoped to open a school that could be used as a model for military-style schools in other states. It was to focus on math and science while featuring a military-style regimen that attracted outcry from local groups who feared the school was a thinly veiled recruitment facility. The school planned to open to a freshman class in its first year and expand to a 650-student school within four years.
The school would essentially be a magnet school, open to qualified students across the county. Military and school officials have previously disagreed with protestors who claimed the institute would merely pipeline students into the military. A large group of those protestors appeared before the school board June 1 to applaud the project’s slow-down and keep pressure on the district and school board.
“You guys are doing a terrible disservice to our country,” said Annette Davis Jackson, a parent who said she believed the Marine Corps was trying to recruit high school students. “You guys are doing a terrible disservice to our kids.”
Balewa Alimayu, an Atlanta resident and Vietnam veteran who has worked with protestors for several months, urged board members to consider the physical and mental sacrifices young soldiers make on the battlefield.
“After you become a veteran, you have to fight to get medical attention. You’re lied to,” he said. “This is not just about a disciplinary thing. This is about fighting. This is about killing.”
Protestors at the meeting said they plan to continue attending school board meetings and lobbying the board to finally kill the school.
“I think they never expected the heat to come out on this as it did,” said Michael Burke, a local opponent of the school.
The school had at least one vocal supporter at the board meeting, however: Daniel Sobczak, a teacher at Southwest DeKalb High School. He said he believes the military institute would teach students valuable lessons about discipline, respect and dignity.
“We are not forcing anyone into this school,” Sobczak said. “It’s a choice. … It’s between the parent and the child.”
The school system had also hired a 32-year Marine Corps veteran to serve as the institute’s commandant: Ret. Col. James David Lenard. Lenard, who left a Texas high school where he ran the JROTC program since 2001, recently relocated to DeKalb County. Davis said the school system will likely slide him into a similar JROTC program somewhere in the county until the military institute’s future can be sorted out.
Lenard’s former boss, Granbury High School Principal Marsha Grissom, said in April he came to DeKalb County because he dreamed of running a military-themed school.
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