YAKIMA, Wash. – The East Valley School District announced on Monday that its initial decision to disestablish its JROTC program will be moving forward.
EVSD initially decided to suspend the program for the 2024-25 school year on April 26. The decision was made due to low interest and lack of a qualified instructor.
Several community members attended a school board meeting on May 13 to show their support and how the program has positively impacted them. However, the district says its benefit to the community was not in question, stating that the low interest and lack of instructor were the only reasons.
As a result, EVSD says a partnership was made with West Valley High School to all students to join its program and participate in its extracurricular JROTC activities. The district is also working on allowing EVSD students to attend JROTC classes during the school day.
According to the district, its JROTC program had declined since 2016, dropping from 180 students to 43. This caused the U.S. Army to put the East Valley High School JROTC program on probation.
As for its instruction, the U.S. Army requires JROTC programs to have two qualified instructors. A lack of qualified instructors applying and one of its program leaders retiring means it is unable to operate.
