Some students at Appoquinimink High School will soon suit up and take on the title of cadet when they join the school’s first Junior ROTC program provided by the United States Army.
During the Appoquinimink Board of Education’s Aug. 10 meeting, Matt Fallis, director of human resources for the Appoquinimink School District, introduced the two instructors that will get the program off the ground.
“They previously ran the program at Mount Pleasant High School in the Brandywine School District,” Fallis said. “They come in here with a wealth of experience to get our program going.”
Chief Warrant Officer Hiram Benitez, who will lead the program with Master Sergeant Carl Suddler, said the pair is excited to establish a new program at the high school, and he is pleased to hear 85 students are already interested in enrolling.
He said the goal of the program is to promote citizenship, develop leadership ands strengthen personal character.
“I have been teaching JROTC for nearly 10 years now, and I enjoy it,” he said. “It’s a very rewarding job.”
Suddler said his main goal is to motivate young people and to help them develop self-esteem and self-discipline.
“We’re not here to recruit and put them in boots,” he said. “We’re just here to motivate them to become better citizens.”
Construction update
Bob Hershey, buildings and facilities supervisor for the district, said the construction on the crosswalk at Middletown High School and Dove Run Shopping Center is set to be complete by the beginning of the school year.
The district has worked with the Delaware Department of Transportation and the Town of Middletown to install a crosswalk with a fully operating signal and crossing guards at the intersection to increase safety for students crossing the street in that area.
Hershey said the agricultural building, expanded parking lot and new entrance to the high school on Route 299 are also nearly complete.
He said the parking lot contains small islands that will be used as storm water retention bases.
Hershey said crews are finishing up renovations at Cedar Lane Elementary School, which has been under construction for the past year.
The school’s bus lot was recently paved and the main entrance to the campus has been widened by approximately 10 feet.
Hershey said the road that leads back to Alfred G. Waters Middle School has also been re-stoned and re-paved, and the turn has been widened.
“We had a few concerns about buses cutting cars off coming out of that area,” he said.
Hershey said the district’s new campus on Old State Road near Odessa, which will include an early childhood center and elementary school and was approved in the December 2009 referendum, is still in the design phases.
“It’s scheduled to break ground in the spring, he said, "and if that occurs they’ll open [the schools] in 2012.”
