Students at Mountain View Elementary will be seeing a greater military presence in the 2017-2018 school year with the Leaders in the Schools Program.

The goal of the program is to give community leaders the opportunity to experience Anchorage public schools through an inside perspective. Air Force Lt. Col. Jeffrey Rock, 673d Mission Support Group vice-commander and school leader for Mountain View Elementary, visited the school for the inaugural meeting of his year-long commitment Nov. 20, 2017.

Rock was led through a tour of the school by four fifth-grade student council representatives and was able to see what the day-to-day life of a student looks like.

Following the tour Rock met with Mountain View Elementary Principal Chris Woodward, where a more in depth conversation about the administrative side of things were discussed.

“How can I help?” Rock asked. “My goal is to be as helpful as possible.”

Quickly, the two began discussing how they can make theirs a successful pairing.

“Everybody thinks they know what goes on in elementary school because we all went to elementary school,” Woodward said. “Being here as a student is different from being here as a teacher or an administrator. I don’t know that the general public has a good idea of what it’s like to work with 300 kids every day. This just gives some of our community leaders, both in the military and private sector a different perspective on things.”

More than 20 schools will be participating this year, with two leaders representing the Army and Air Force.

Program participants district wide are scheduled to meet Nov. 29 to discuss their experience.