Hollister
– Nearly 100 San Benito High School students will be looking for
new elective courses come fall because San Benito High School
administrators, citing financial reasons, have decided to
discontinue the Navy Junior ROTC program after four years.
Hollister – Nearly 100 San Benito High School students will be looking for new elective courses come fall because San Benito High School administrators, citing financial reasons, have decided to discontinue the Navy Junior ROTC program after four years.
“We love the program,” said Jim Koenig, director of finance and operations for the school. “But when you look at the dollars and cents, at what we’re putting into it and what we’re getting out of it, it just doesn’t make sense to continue it.”
The NJROTC is a program sponsored by the Navy. It’s designed to impart the values of patriotism and good citizenship upon students, encourage them to finish high school, seek a college education and stay away from gang activity. While it does provide information to students considering a career in the Navy, and students who enlist with an NJROTC background have a few advantages over other sailors, finding recruits is not the main goal of the program.
“We have kids of all different flavors, from the 4.19 GPA rocket scientists to the kids who have trouble making a 2.0,” said retired Navy Cmdr. Dean Whetstine, who served as one of two NJROTC instructors at SBHS. “We have very few kids who want to join the Navy, actually, and that’s fine with me.”
The program, which was founded in 2002, has attracted enrollment of close to 100 students each year, Koenig said. The Navy, which sponsors the program and reimburses SBHS for certain expenses, demands enrollment of at least 100 in order to continue the program. The SBHS NJROTC program has been on enrollment “probation,” for the past two years.
“It’s an official notice from the Navy that your program has fallen below 100 students, which is sort of their benchmark,” said Whetstine. “But the Navy has never terminated a program that the school wanted to continue to support.”
Despite the Navy’s financial contributions – about $50,000 a year, Koenig said – the program is prohibitively expensive. The cost of the two instructors alone is around $160,000 including salary and benefits.
“We have two instructors teaching 10 periods, and a little more than 80 students,” Koenig said. “So that means you have seven or nine kids in each period. And of course they love being one of only seven or nine students; the student-teacher ratio is outstanding, but the enrollment can’t support that.”
On top of that, both NJROTC instructors offered their resignation at the end of the school year to pursue other professional opportunities, according to Director of Educational Services Cindy Cordova. NJROTC instructors must be retired Navy officers who go through a screening process before they can even apply. Whetstine, however, said he was still interested in teaching if the school wanted to continue the NJROTC.
“I think they’re losing a valuable program,” he said. “It’s just one more niche for kids looking to find their place in a big high school.”
School officials said it was possible that the program might be resurrected in the future, but were unsure what particular criteria would need to be met for the Navy to sponsor the program once more in turn.
Danielle Smith covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or ds****@fr***********.com.
