CADETS GIVEN YEAR TO BEEF UP RANKS.

Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer

GLENDALE - After protests by students and parents, the Board of Education has quietly dropped a plan to transfer the Air Force Junior ROTC program from Crescenta Valley High to Glendale High.

The school board in February considered the larger Glendale High as the new base for the Reserve Officers' Training Corps because Crescenta Valley High has failed in recent years to meet the minimum enrollment requirement set by the U.S. Air Force.

School board member Greg Krikorian said the board has decided to give the cadets one year to bring enrollment up to 100 from the current 60 members.

``Let's give them a full year, give them a chance to build the program,'' he said. ``If they can't do it, we will have to decide what is best for all the kids.

``Even though I love the program and I strongly believe in it, if it is not going to make financial sense a year from now ... I would probably have to vote to end it.''

Sgt. Earl Hintz, who founded the program 14 years ago, said the district contributes about $80,000 a year to pay for the staffing costs of the program. The Air Force provides the equipment and teaching materials.

Hintz, who weathered another attempt by the district to close the program more than a decade ago, is cautiously optimistic about the change of heart.

``We may have won the battle, but I am not sure if we have won the war,'' he said, noting that there is a lot of work ahead recruiting new cadets and retaining current members.

Cadets expressed a renewed sense of purpose now that they have a mission to boost their ranks.

``This whole incident has unified the corps. It made us closer to each other,'' Cadet Lilia Stefanowa said.

In the week before the school board meeting discussing the relocation of the program, cadets collected some 1,000 signatures from the community to protest the move.

Fellow Cadet Krikor Nalbantian said corps members now appreciate the program much more than in the past.

``Everyone has taken it for granted for the last several years,'' he said. ``We have to earn the right to be in the corps and the privilege to be in the corps.''

Cadets spoke of how their lives have been enriched and transformed by the program, which not only teaches them aeronautics, but public speaking and leadership, and is character-building.

After school, on weekends and during holidays, corps members are seen around the community volunteering for various events.

``It has helped me set high standards for myself,'' said Liseth Saravia, whose ambition is to become an Air Force colonel and an ambassador. ``I have goals in my life now.''

Cadets are organizing a barbecue to recruit candidates from Rosemont Middle School, Crescenta Valley High's feeder school. They are also working on producing a recruiting video.

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Photo:

Courtney Dong, 15, salutes during a test on drills in her ROTC class at Crescenta Valley High School.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer