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Stranded military colonel to oversee county’s ROTC programs
by Jonathan Cribbs
jonathan@dekalbchamp.com
Ret. Marine Col. James David Lenard left a job in Texas in April to work for the DeKalb County School System. At the time, the school district was moving quickly to open a military-style high school by August, and officials wanted Lenard, an experienced military educator, to lead it.
All that changed late last month.
The school district announced May 29 it was postponing the project with the Marine Corps, known as the DeKalb Marine Corps Institute. School officials claimed an agreement between both parties needed a signature from the secretary of the Navy, but President Barack Obama’s pick for the post, former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus, was only sworn in on May 19, leaving too little time to ink the deal.
District officials intend to keep Lenard in DeKalb County for at least one year to supervise the county’s 19 JROTC programs, said Bob Mosley, a deputy superintendent. What that means precisely has yet to be hashed out, but Mosley said Lenard would be put to broad use.
“He will serve to bring a district-level focus to the programs. We’ve never had one single person dedicated to that task,” Mosley said. “We’re really not to an end list of things that he will do.”
District officials declined The Champion’s requests to speak with Lenard, who could not be reached for comment. His former principal at Granbury High School in Granbury, Texas, said Lenard was excited to leave his former home and had aspirations to lead a military-style high school. He was named the institute’s commandant and was to work side-by-side with the school’s principal, who would handle academics.
When he learned the institute was postponed, possibly until 2010, he wasn’t upset, Mosley said.
“I think all of us were absolutely disappointed,” he said.
Lenard beat two other candidates to win the position, Mosley said. It was unclear June 5 whether Lenard will be paid as if he were a commandant.
Nearly every public county high school has a JROTC program, and 2,087 students were enrolled in a program during the 2008-09 school year, district spokesman Dale Davis said.
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