School Board Trustees Worthy of Amateur Night
School Board Trustees Worthy of Amateur Night
Editor,
I had the displeasure of attending the Hollister School Board of Trustees meeting last week (Aug. 3). Regarding the pending cancellation of the NJROTC program at the San Benito High School, I would like to congratulate the board for bringing the science of smoke and mirrors to a new level.
In speaking with parents and students of the program after the NJROTC portion of the meeting had concluded, the consensus was that it was apparent that the board had made its decision regarding discontinuance of the program long ago. While on the surface they seemed to pander to the audience desire to save the program, with a mere two weeks left to hire a qualified instructor, it appears the trustees have thwarted any real possibility of resurrecting the program.
I can appreciate the board’s budgetary considerations and understand that there is always a balance that must be found when it comes to curriculum, desires of parents and students, and how this all fits into the big picture. And if the pending discontinuance of the NJROTC is in fact solely a budgetary constraint, then call it that. To continue the charade that the board had been actively (competently) seeking a replacement instructor for the program is an insult to one’s intelligence.
It is my understanding that prior to last week, the sum of the board’s attempt to locate an instructor was to place an advertisement in the South Valley Direct, which services between Coyote and Paicines. I would offer that they may have been as successful placing an advertisement as a footnote in a real-estate mailer or in the Auto Shopper.
While the cancellation of the NJROTC program would be truly disheartening to the dedicated students that have gained so much from the program, to be deceived by the board’s mimicking a desire to save the program is only adding insult to injury.
In the future, please save your sleight of hand for your local amateur night.
Charlie Martin,
Hollister
