Ernst leaves NJROTC for assistant principal post at Orange Glen

During athletic contests between Ramona High School and Orange Glen High School, Mike Ernst will be on the other sideline.

Ernst, whose primary job for the past nine years has been Ramona High School’s Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps instructor, was also the Bulldogs’ junior varsity baseball coach and an assistant football coach. He resigned effective in June to accept the job of assistant principal at Orange Glen High School.

“I’m not retiring,” he said. “I’m just transitioning from a teaching to an administrative role.”

The move echoes Ernst’s active-duty Navy career of 25 years. He was an enlisted serviceman for the first 10 years and then became an officer for 15 years before retiring as a lieutenant commander.

“It’s kind of natural step for my career path,” he said.

Ernst was born and raised in Cincinnati. When he was stationed on the USS Kitty Hawk in 1994, his roommate moved to Ramona and so did Ernst.

Ernst began his NJROTC instructor career at Chaffey High School in Ontario in 2005-06.

He spent one year there.

“When the job opened in Ramona, it was obviously very attractive,” he said.

Each school’s NJROTC program has one former officer and one former enlisted serviceman. Bob Richardson, retired from the Navy as a chief, will stay with Ramona High’s NJROTC.

Richardson also began teaching at Ramona High School in 2006 and also lives in Ramona.

“That’s been the key to our success,” Ernst said. “The previous instructors had been out-of-towners.”

Ernst’s successor, U.S. Navy Commander Brad Davis, is the son of Ramona honorary mayor Sharon Davis, who said her son will retire after 20 years with the Navy on July 29 and will start with the Ramona High program in August.

“He’s thrilled,” she said. “He has an opportunity to make a difference. He loves to teach.”

Ernst returned to school in 2013 to pursue a Master of Education degree, and he received his administrative credential in 2014.

“I’ve been seeking an opportunity in administration for a little over a year now,” he said.

Ernst applied with the Escondido Union High School District and was hired for the Orange Glen job on May 19.

Orange Glen and Ramona are not league opponents for football but are in the Valley League for other sports. An administrator must accompany the team for road games, and since Ernst lives in Ramona he will be the ideal choice when the Patriots play at Ramona High School.

During the 2014-15 school year Ramona’s NJROTC program had approximately 130 students.

“We did well in a lot of different areas this year,” Ernst said.

That included the drill team winning the state championship.

“We’ve had a lot of success in a lot of different areas,” Ernst said.

Ramona is one of 56 NJROTC programs in Area 11, which includes Arizona and Southern California. The top 16 units receive Distinguished Unit status, and Ramona earned that for the fifth year in a row.

“We’re pretty proud of that record,” Ernst said.

An instructor of a Distinguished Unit program has the same authority as a U.S. Congressman to nominate students to military academies.

“It’s a real benefit to the kids if they aspire to go down that road,” Ernst said.

Other NJROTC students have received NROTC scholarships to four-year colleges and will become officers after their graduation.

NJROTC students who opt for enlisted careers will begin with E-3 status if they join the Navy or E-2 rank if they enlist in a different branch of the armed rorces.

“They go in making more money than their peers who don’t have the experience,” Ernst said.

Other NJROTC students may choose careers other than the military but will benefit from the discipline and other elements of the program.

“The intent of the program is to create good citizens,” Ernst said.