Edwards AFB celebrates new school
EDWARDS AFB — Local, state and federal officials celebrated the opening of the Desert Junior Senior High School, on Tuesday, as part of a $180 million, 220,000-square-foot replacement educational complex some 10 years in the making.
The overall effort was enabled through the Department of Defense’s Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation’s Public Schools on Military Installations Program. The educational complex will support the education of 1,600 students in grades TK-12 annually, in the Muroc Joint Unified School District’s five schools.
The District was in need of new school facilities with no way to pay for it.
“Our local population did not have the bonding capacity to pay for these schools, no way,” Muroc Superintendent Kevin Cordes said. “They did not have the bonding to even meet the 20% match that we needed to fund.”
The Public Schools on Military Installations Program provided 80% of the funding for the project. The remaining 20% was paid for with numerous state grants.
“Anyone that was familiar with our school facilities on base prior to construction knows how desperately we needed to do something to extend the life of our buildings,” Cordes said. “But when your facilities were designed and built during the Eisenhower Administration, you can only go so far with what you have and at some point, these facilities needed to be replaced.”
The project covered the three schools on Edwards Air Force Base — Desert Junior Senior High and William A. Bailey and Irving L. Branch elementary schools.
The complex includes a performing arts center, libraries, rocketry lab, STEM facilities, robotics lab, a flight simulator, basketball court and gymnasium.
“This was a long, hard fight for these children,” Cordes said. “We have accomplished something great. This is a legacy that will stand for generations.”
He thanked Patrick O’Brien, director of the Office of Local Defense Com
munity Cooperation, for his efforts to make the project a reality.
“We’ve been working with Muroc School District for a decade,” O’Brien said.
He said that up until about 10 years ago, the Department of Defense resisted getting into school construction. The notion was that the responsibility belonged to states and local communities.
“It took 10 years,” O’Brien said. “I tell everybody this is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. We got through the marathon.”
Muroc’s educational complex is the first one completed as part of the program, O’Brien said.
“It’s a major accomplishment for the Air Force,” he said. “It’s an accomplishment because this is a gem. The county would be very bad off if we lost this facility. The ability to keep this facility is dependent on the ability to attract people to it.”
That theme played out in comments from Brig. Gen. Matthew Higer, 412th Test Wing commander.
“The school revolves around its community,” he said. “If the school thrives, the community thrives.”
If the school struggles, say, for example, due to programs, difficulty in hiring or retaining staff, or inadequate facilities, the community will struggle as well, he said.
“This is a momentous day because we’ve removed one of those struggles and in fact, the biggest one and the largest one, that myself and my predecessors have heard about literally for multiple generations here,” Higer said.
His last assignment at Edwards Air Force Base was in 2017-18, when the physical transformation started.
“I remember the demolition starting,” he said.
Higer also called the complex a gem for the community.
“I am very optimistic,” he said. “And excited about what this will enable us all to do, as we then push on the remaining two things we can get after, programs and people.”
The outdoor ceremony moved indoors to the performing arts center. There, the attendees watched a video of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield., who helped fund the program, and heard from other dignitaries.
Cordes also highlighted some of the District’s programs that broaden students’ opportunities.
For example, the District offers an Airframe and Powerplant program in partnership with the US Air Force. Students will be able to earn a certificate on successful completion of the program. Desert High School will also soon offer a new Career Technical Education course offering — a rocketry program that is the first of its kind in the nation. High school students can also have dual enrollment at Cerro Coso Community College and earn college credits.