Military school in DeKalb put on hold

The DeKalb County school system has canceled its plans for a fall opening of what would have been Georgia’s first military high school, but an elected official insists this is only a temporary setback.

The partnership with the U.S. Marine Corps is “not feasible,” school system spokesman Dale Davis said in a news release Friday, adding that the parties would continue discussions “in hope of reaching a mutual agreement that is in the best interest of both institutions.”

Davis gave no specific reason for the breakdown in negotiations and did not return a call for comment. An opponent of the proposed school said he believes officials are bowing to political pressure. But Paul Womack, the school board member who represents the neighborhood where the academy has been tentatively located, said this is merely a delay caused by Washington bureaucracy.

The military was supposed to help pay for the school and has been unable to secure approval, Womack said.

“It’s on the back burner only because we have not been able to get the signature of the Secretary of the Navy,” he said.

Many parents have said DeKalb needs a public school that combines academic rigor with discipline. But critics, including some veterans, ridiculed the proposal as a recruiting trick. A coalition of opponents has planned a protest at Monday evening’s school board meeting and a coordinator of the protest said school and military officials are bowing to the opposition.

“I think they’re feeling enormous pressure,” said Tim Franzen of the American Friends Service Committee. “And I think right now they just want all this pressure to go away.”

The DeKalb Marine Corps Institute would have emphasized math and science, with a military-style regimen similar to existing Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps programs. The Marines were to pay startup costs of about $1.4 million, while also supplementing an undisclosed amount of the operational costs.

Officials had considered locating the school in the Heritage Center off Briarcliff Road in north DeKalb. The former elementary school, at 2225 Heritage Drive, houses students with special needs, who were to be moved. Their school would have been converted to a high school campus with an enrollment of 650.

Residents around the center had begun pushing to locate the military academy elsewhere, saying they supported the concept but were concerned about increased traffic.

Others, such as Franzen’s group and some veterans, criticized the concept itself. Franzen, who is the Peace Building program director for the Quaker-based Friends group, was appalled that the children would be taught courses such as military history and marksmanship. The Marines would fund the school with revenue from their recruiting budget, he said, adding that would violate an international prohibition on recruiting juveniles.

“If the Marine Corps is going to pay for this out of their recruitment budget … then there’s no other way to explain what they’re doing,” he said. “Don’t you think they’re going to want a return on that money?”

Officials have said that no military commitment would be required of the school’s graduates and that parents could choose whether to send their children to the school.