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Marines still interested in opening DeKalb institute
by Jonathan Cribbs
jonathan@dekalbchamp.com
The Marine Corps remains interested in opening a military-style high school in DeKalb County, a top official said – a program the school district put on hold last month after it couldn’t get necessary signatures from busy military leaders.
“We were operating on a very quick timeline anyway,” said Bill McHenry, national program director for the Marine Corps JROTC. “It was a very good decision on the part of the superintendent down there to defer to the following year. … Now we have the luxury of time.”
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.
The school, known as the DeKalb Marine Institute, is one of several hundred varying programs the Marine Corps plans to open by 2020, McHenry said – part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2009. The programs range from traditional JROTC high school units to non-degree-granting colleges and institutes such as the one the Marines hope to open in DeKalb County, he said.
Anti-war activists protested the DeKalb County institute for several weeks, attending school board meetings to speak out and organizing road protests. When asked whether they played a part in the school’s delay, McHenry said he welcomed their input.
“The United States Marine Corps exists to protect the rights of its citizens,” he said. “We strongly encourage continued public dialogue and are glad to see the citizens are practicing their rights that the Marines are protecting.”
The district and the Marine Corps had hoped to open a school in August 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 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. Lenard has been reassigned to head the school district’s JROTC program. He signed a one-year contract.
The school would essentially be a magnet school, open to qualified students across the county. Military and schools officials also vigorously 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.
“It is an important project to us,” McHenry said. “It is getting the right visibility.”
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