While many students are too young to serve in the military, several staff members on campus have donned the uniform of a United States military branch.

“Ever since the birth of our nation to present day, men and women all over our country have been asked not only to defend our country but to preserve its heritage,” bookroom clerk and army veteran Ken Budz said. “By being in the military and armed forces we’ve done both succeeded and worked very hard to keep this country going, and I’m just happy I can be a part of that movement.”

One of ten federal holidays, many government offices and banks are closed today in observance of Veterans Day Saturday, but since mandatory military service is not required of all citizens, Budz doesn’t think it should be a day off for Frisco ISD.

“I feel like this holiday is really buried in the hearts and minds of the people who served and their families, and I feel like what you’re doing here today and what other schools are doing is probably good enough,” Budz said. “We wouldn’t really need a holiday.”

History teacher Mark Thomas thinks otherwise.

For him, allowing Veterans Day to be a school holiday would serve to unite everyone in its celebration.

“It should be a school holiday,” history teacher and coast guard veteran Mark Thomas said. “It would get everybody out of school for a day that’s fine. As long as they know what they’re doing it for and they appreciate what they’re celebrating. I think there’s a lot of community events that could go along with veterans day that if you’re out of school, you should be going to those – parades, functions, and things like that.”

Whether or not veterans day is a holiday doesn’t mask the love for country that inspired assistant principal Jason Harris to join the military.

“I joined the military primarily because I wanted to serve this country that has given so much to me and my family, my friends; it was an honor to serve it,” assistant principal and army veteran Jason Harris said. “Less than 1 percent of our population serves in the military, which I think is about 0.5 percent of the population serves, and if you look at World War II it’s about 12 percent, so being apart of a very small percentage of the people of the United States that serve it means something also. What it meant for me to serve, again , just knowing that I played a small role in helping to protect the liberties and freedoms that we get to enjoy here, that we get to enjoy in the United States.”

For others on campus such as school resource officer Glen Hubbard and counselor Ryan Kiefer, serving in the military runs in the family.

“Well I joined the military when I was 19,” SRO and army veteran Glen Hubbard said. “My dad was in the military, my grandfather was in the military – his dad and brother. So, I come from a military family, and while I was in college I thought well if I couldn’t get a job doing the thing that I was getting my degree in, I could fall back on that.”

“I always wanted to serve in the military since as long as I can remember, as a little kid I had several family members, so it was just something I’ve always wanted to do,” counselor and air force veteran Ryan Kiefer said. “And, I’m really proud of the fact that I got to serve my country.”