ROSAMOND TO ADD JUNIOR ROTC MILITARY PROGRAM TO BE VALLEY'S FIFTH.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

ROSAMOND - Rosamond High School will become the fifth school in the Antelope Valley to have an Air Force Junior ROTC program.

The lack of such a program at Rosamond High led students to transfer to other local schools - including Desert High at Edwards Air Force Base - in order to participate in one.

``We have students that want an ROTC program just because there are so many people around in the Air Force. They are interested in science and aerospace,'' Southern Kern Unified School District Superintendent Rod Van Norman said. ``We have many students who go to school on Edwards Air Force Base because they have an ROTC program.''

Rosamond High's program is scheduled to begin in the 2006-07 school year.

Other schools in the Antelope Valley with Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps programs are Desert High in the Muroc Joint Unified School District, and Highland, Lancaster and Knight high schools in the Antelope Valley Union High School District.

Enrolling in an ROTC program for at least two years allows high school graduates to enlist in the military at a higher rank. The program also raises self-esteem, builds confidence and instills discipline, proponents say.

``It will help them if they want to go into the service. They've already had training. It moves them further up in the officer program quicker,'' Van Norman said. ``The biggest thing I see is that students learn respect, how to maintain themselves in an orderly fashion and to be good citizens.''

The district applied to have a program in May 2003. It typically takes two years to four years to be accepted, Van Norman said.

The Air Force pays for the cost of all instructional materials, uniforms, equipment and a significant portion of the salaries of the instructors.

The district has to provide area for outdoor training, classroom space, and a place to store equipment and books, Van Norman said.

The district tightened up its school-transfer policy earlier this year because more than 10 percent of its 3,300 students are in public schools in other districts. Last school year, 349 students were out of the district, resulting in a loss of nearly $1.7 million in state funds for Southern Kern.

One of the reasons for the transfers was other school districts had programs that were not available in Southern Kern, such as Junior ROTC and robotics.

The Air Force Junior ROTC program has 794 units throughout the world with 102,000 cadets.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com