Hollister
– Fall is here and San Benito High School students are busy
meeting new teachers and classmates. But for 85 former Naval Junior
ROTC cadets, the new school year just won’t be the same.
Hollister – Fall is here and San Benito High School students are busy meeting new teachers and classmates. But for 85 former Naval Junior ROTC cadets, the new school year just won’t be the same.
“It’s sad to know that all our efforts didn’t pay off, even though we were able to get a lot of support,” said senior Matthew Haro, who was a lieutenant commander with the program. “I wish we could have had a happier ending.”
SBHS’ NJROTC program has been officially canceled after weeks of parent protests and frantic searching for a new naval science instructor.
“We’re not happy,” NJROTC Booster Club President Caroline Haro-Garcia said. “But we just need to regroup and see what the cadets want to do.”
Trustees voted to save the program three weeks before the semester began, provided at least one naval science instructor could be found in time. The ROTC’s two teachers had resigned earlier in the spring.
“I don’t think this was really fair,” Matthew said. “And I don’t think they thought that we would really fight for the program.”
Both the district and parent booster club worked to find candidates by writing and sometimes phoning about 40 ROTC instructors who had indicated interest in working in the northwest region, which includes California, Washington and Oregon as defined by the ROTC.
“We talked to our regional commanders, to other high schools in the area and we advertised in the Navy Times and online,” Director of Finance and Operations Jim Koenig said. “Unfortunately we were unable to identify a candidate.”
A few applicants responded to the ads, but backed out because they could not relocate to Hollister quickly enough or for other personal reasons.
“We were actually able to make close contact with four applicants, but they all said they were not interested at this time,” Koenig said.
Despite the district’s efforts, Haro-Garcia said she and many other ROTC parents think SBHS could have done more to woo potential instructors.
“If we had been able to start looking for someone in June when the administrators knew they wanted to cancel the program, we probably could have found someone,” she said. “At least they could have given us this last year of the program and ended it in a more organized fashion.”
Koenig says the district is looking into the possibility of partnering with the local Explorers program, in which youth volunteer to help out local law enforcement and gain leadership skills and experience in return. The Explorers would be an entirely extracurricular activity, however, whereas the NJROTC was a class in and of itself with extracurricular components.
“The Explorers offers a lot of the same character development skills that the NJROTC does,” Koenig said. “And that might appeal to some of these students.”
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.
Koenig said no one had discussed bring the program back for the 2007-2008 school year, but did not say it was impossible. Haro-Garcia said it would be difficult for the district to bring in a similar program.
“My understanding is that once you drop the Navy, they don’t come back,” she said. “But maybe the Army or some other branch will want to do it.”
SBHS’ program has been on probation since November 2005 as enrollment has never topped 100 students, the Navy’s minimum requirement. Ideally, SBHS Superintendent Jean Burns said, the program would involve around 10 percent of the student body, or 265 students at the low end. Both NJROTC instructors resigned at the end of the school year and school officials determined that the cost of staffing – $160,000 in salary and benefits, only $50,000 of which is reimbursed through the Navy – did not justify continuing a program when class sizes averaged nine or 10 students each period.
The district’s budget for the 2007-2008 year, which was passed in June, is running at a nearly $500,000 deficit. Cutting the NJROTC program is one option district officials hope will help ease that burden while affecting a minimal number of students.
At the July 19 meeting of the trustees, parents and students filled the boardroom, many in uniform or booster club T-shirts, to plead their case before the board. Many students said the disbanding of the NJROTC unit would effectively eliminate their social circles at school and attested to the many ways in which the program had improved their academic performance and confidence.
“I still hang out with a small group of (former ROTC students),” Matthew said. “But everyone has pretty much dispersed all over campus. They’re doing their own things now.”
The Parent Booster Club will be having a meeting in September to tie up loose ends and decide what to do with the remaining club funds.
“We usually have a Navy Ball in October to celebrate the Navy’s birthday, so we might still be doing that this year,” Haro-Garcia said.
Danielle Smith covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected].
