Great Valley High School Students Join Jr. ROTC With Phoenixville

MALVERN, PA — Lt. Col. Michael Baldi met some Great Valley High School students and parents at a career fair last February, and the meeting evolved into GVHS participating in an Air Force Junior ROTC program along with Phoenixville High School.

The AF JROTC at Phoenixville High School is now an endeavor with Great Valley High School, with 71 JROTC cadets in the leadership-building program. Six Great Valley students joined the program that started with the new school year.

Phoenixville Area School District Superintendent Dr. Alan Fegley made the agreement in 2014 with Air Force ROTC to bring the AF Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program to Phoenixville Area High School.

In the 2015-16 school year, 50 Phoenixville students were part of the character-building program, and it's growing.

After Great Valley High School students and parents met Michael A. Baldi, Lt. Col. (Ret), USAF ANG, at the February 2020 career fair, they reached out to say they wanted a way into the program. Baldi, AF JROTC Senior Aeroscience Instructor in PASD, went to Phoenixville Area High School Principal Dr. Craig Parkinson. Together they forged a "crosstown agreement" to include two school districts in a single JROTC program.

Had schools not been functioning virtually this fall, six Great Valley High School students would have attended their first class of the day at Phoenixville Area High School by bus, and then returned to GVHS for the rest of their day.

Now, class sessions, called "Flights," happen virtually, with 71 cadets from two districts in five Flights across the school day. There have been challenges. While both school districts use the Canvas online classroom platform, access had to be set up across district systems for shared instruction.

Baldi emphasized that the junior level ROTC programs do not recruit. Rather, the goal of AF JROTC is citizenship, he said.

"We want to make (students) a better version of themselves," Baldi said. He said only a small percentage of cadets in AF JROTC go into military service, but that all are likely to leave the program with a greater sense service, and with character built by their participation.

Master Sgt. Gary Knight, AF JROTC Instructor in the program, emphasized that the program is about developing leadership. "We operate in an environment of discipline. The cadets are very disciplined, and very respectful in the classroom," he said.

"Our hope is that this carries to outside the classroom," said Knight.

Knight and Baldi alternate days instructing courses. In addition to classroom instruction in what is an elective course, participants can be part of the Corps of Cadets, outside class time. The corps has its own leaders of squadron teams that engage in school-related leadership. One runs the school's color guard, for example.

Baldi said about half of the students in JROTC are part of the cadet corps, because many choose other demanding extra-curriculars. But, he said, all who are in the program gain an advantage in college admission. He compared it to making Eagle Scout; it is something that shows a level of character. And for those go into a full ROTC program in college, enlisted pay is higher if they have successfully participated in JROTC.

While only a handful of AF JROTC cadets continue in college-level ROTC programs, or military service, a 2019 Phoenixville graduate, Cadet Major Cole Dempsey has done so. The Phoenixville Community Education Foundation in April 2019 recognized Dempsey with the Joseph T. Perambo award in honor of a PASD alum's WWII veteran father, who received a Purple Heart and Silver Star.

This year, Cole Dempsey's sister Emma Dempsey is Cadet Command Col. of the Corps of Cadets, leading the AF JROTC Squadron Team that operates the color guard at Phoenixville High School.

Each branch of the military has its own JROTC, "but all build character and citizenship," said Baldi. He said the U.S. Coast Guard is the latest to add a JROTC program, now functioning in two high schools.

Further inquiries about the program can be directed to Lt. Col. Baldi at BaldiM@pasd.com.