MLHS to get Air Force JROTC this fall

Also anticipating expanded vocational education

MOSES LAKE — Air Force Junior ROTC is coming to Moses Lake High School this fall, according to MLHS Principal Triscia Hochstatter.

Hochstatter, speaking at Chief Moses Middle School during a school district town hall on career and technical education Wednesday evening, said JROTC will start at MLHS in a portable classroom but will eventually move to the new high school once it is open, hopefully in the fall of 2022.

“It will be here before we know it,” said Assistant Superintendent Carole Meyer.

The district began talks with the military for a Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program several years ago in hope of providing it as one more extracurricular option. It will be part of the district’s future career and technical education (CTE) offerings.

MLSD officials used the town hall meeting to outline the district’s vision for career and technical education and the place that the proposed new high school — informally referred to as “Real World Academy,” though that will not be its name — will have.

“I don’t think that high school is for everybody, but having a plan for your life after high school is for everybody,” said Superintendent Josh Meek.

Meek noted that while college was “a good fit” for him, it wasn’t for a younger brother, who is in the fifth year of an electrical apprenticeship.

According to Meek, the MLSD is heavily committed to vocational education and has established 12 concentrations of classes related to various kinds of industries and “career pathways.” They are intended to teach skills in things as varied as computer science, health care and auto repair. Many of these classes can also fill state requirements in English, math and science, as well as enable students to earn college credit.

This is in addition to the course offerings at the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center, according to James Yonko, MLHS vice principal, who oversees CTE programs.

“But this is not competing with CB Tech,” Yonko said. “We want kids to be ready to go there.”

The programs at CB Tech serve a number of school districts and are generally limited to juniors and seniors, while the district has expanded — or is working to expand — its high school CTE offerings to all students during all four years of high school.

Meek said the district is looking at focusing on vocational education at the proposed new high school, which would have a series of four-year CTE programs and would be supported by expanding vocational education into the district’s middle schools.

“We want to hook a kid and get them excited about a curriculum,” Meyer said. “A ton of thought has gone into every course we’ve added in grades 6-12.”

The current high school will retain its academic emphasis and host the district’s sports, drama and music programs, meaning there will likely be a great deal of movement between the two schools, both Meyer and Meek said.

But it’s important to note that the MLSD wants to provide career alternatives for kids who don’t want to go to college, and not slot young people into technical or academic tracks. Rather, the course offerings and “career pathways” are intended to help kids “align their passions, interests and goals.”

“The pathways are very broad, and this is not a one-time choice,” Meek said.

“This doesn’t prevent kids from the Forrest Gump approach to life,” Meyer added, referring to the fictional character’s description of life as being “like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’ll get.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.