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NJROTC To Be Replaced With Smaller Program

High school's NJROTC cadets will be eligible to join Navy National Defense Cadets Corps next year

Wall High School's  Navy Junior ROTC cadets will still be able to participate in a military training this fall, albeit one slightly reconfigued from the one they have come to know. 

As long as money is available in the final Wall Township Board of Education budget, the Navy National Defense Cadets Corps (NNDCC) will supplant the current ROTC at the grade nine to 12 building come September.

Modeled on the traditional ROTC program, the NNDCC courses are taught in schools with less than 100 Navy cadets according to Mary Jane Garibay, the district's curriculum director.

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Having heard emotional pleas from several of the high school's 63 active cadets -- and their parents -- the board chose to adopt the NNDCC program at Tuesday's meeting.

The NNDCC is modeled on the ROTC and uses one teacher instead of two or more according to Board President John Tavis.

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"It's a different program that can be run with less personnel," Tavis said.

Because the high school's cadet population amounts to less than 100 participants, the Navy has decided not to fund the ROTC program after the current academic year, Garibay said.

The Navy and the district have previously split the cost of running the ROTC program and the salaries of its instructors, she said.

The NNDCC, which is designed for schools with more than 50, but less than 100 cadets, will use only one instructor whose salary will be paid by the district, Garibay said.

Cadet uniforms, supplies and operating costs are also picked up by NNDCC host districts, she added.

As with the ROTC, the Navy supplies the curriculum, books, and academic materials at its own expense, Garibay noted.

Because the high school now has more uniforms than cadets, the board will not need to purchase any for next year, she pointed out.

Just as was the case with the ROTC, actually implementing the NNDCC program will largely depend on its cost and how it fits into the forthcoming 2012-2013 budget according to Board Vice-President Laurie Cannon.

"This is, of course, contingent on the possibility that the 2012-2013 budget will be able to support this program," Cannon read from the minutes of a board curriculum committee meeting where the NNDCC was discussed.

"The costs for this program will be discussed in the Finance and Facilities committee [meeting] when we begin to discuss what can and cannot be included in next year's budget," Cannon said.

At the same meeting, the board approved a tentative operating budget of $62,752,230 for 2012-2013. That spending plan calls for a general tax fund levy of $58,297,150, which is below the state-mandated tax levy cap of two percent according to Business Administrator Brian J. Smyth.

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