It is not every day that someone heads to school in a Black Hawk military helicopter. On Monday morning, however, Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District staff and students were entertained by the arrival of Air Force representatives who touched down in the Chippewa Falls High School practice field.
Their arrival to Chi-Hi was no surprise to staff however, as a site visit by the Air Force was also a chance to discuss the potential for a U.S. Air Force Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corp (JROTC) program.
With discussions of introducing this program to Chi-Hi a year in the making, high school Principal Donna Goodman said that having representatives in the school to continue those discussions was very exciting.
“We’re excited to partner with them and to give kids this opportunity,” she said. “Each week we have a branch of the military that works with our students, that comes and is present in the cafeteria. So if kids have an interest in the military, they can come and talk with someone from the Air Force, Marines, Army, Navy — we have that once a week.”
But with a dedicated Air Force JROTC program, Goodman said, “This would be programming to actually teach the things that the military wants them to know about, like leadership classes, communication, management, drill practice for phys ed and the history of aviation. All of the things that they would need to prepare those students for a career in the military… We work on employability skills every day in our (Career and Technical Education) areas and we prepare our kids for college, but it is another opportunity to build our students into leaders.”
As Air Force representatives were guided into the cafeteria alongside guests and staff who support the potential program, the representatives were introduced to what their schools have to offer.
John Kinville, a social studies teacher and advisor to two clubs at Chi-Hi, talked about patriotism and the ways that students are already involved in civic duties and paying respect to military personnel and veterans.
“The students here in our district have always been a patriotic group of kids,” he said. “It is something that runs and is strained through our culture here in the Chippewa Valley, and that is seen through their participation in our American Club, where students learn to civically discuss issues with each other without being disagreeable; and also through our Flags4TheFallen club… where students research and honor the fallen soldiers of our community.”
Regarding student interest, Kinville said, “The reality is — as somebody who has been in the classroom for 20 years — the kids are looking for these types of opportunities for self-improvement and to give back to their communities, and oftentimes they don’t know how. They rely upon schools, they rely upon their parents and they rely upon stakeholders in the community to give them opportunities to do things above and beyond. In my class, American Government, we talk about freedom and what that means, but I always try to tell the students that freedom is not what you do for yourself, it is also what you do for others. I think this is something that would be a very popular addition to our district that students are going to gravitate towards.”
The site visit also gave the school an opportunity to show what spaces would house the JROTC program, as well as aspects of the Fab Lab and a drone class demonstration in other parts of the school.
With no confirmations yet, discussions continue on the possible offering of this program. Goodman said she believes it is the heart of the student population that shows them the potential to operate an Air Force JROTC program.
“The biggest asset we have with our school is our amazing student body,” she said. “We have about 1,500 students here approximately every day… They are good people, and I think that’s what we need in our service members and in all of our careers to make the world a better place.”
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