Back from spring week this week, San Benito High School
administrators refused to comment on reasons why Naval Junior ROTC
Chief William Stratmann suddenly resigned with only two months left
in the academic year.
Back from spring week this week, San Benito High School administrators refused to comment on reasons why Naval Junior ROTC Chief William Stratmann suddenly resigned with only two months left in the academic year.
Stratmann approached administrators March 31 with his intention to quit. Superintendent Jean Burns Slater attributed his resignation to “personal issues he’s trying to deal with.”
But she would not elaborate beyond that – citing confidentiality that comes with personnel issues.
“I can’t comment on any particular reasons why he may have chosen to resign,” Burns Slater said.
Principal Duane Morgan also declined to comment on reasons for the resignation.
School officials, however, remain confident the Naval Junior ROTC program will continue in Stratmann’s absence. And Cmdr. Dean Whetstine said he plans to return to San Benito High in 2004-05 as the program’s top ranking instructor.
With an enrollment of 110 students, the program is hovering above the benchmark of 100 students the Navy desires to keep such outfits running, Whetstine said. The Navy and the high school split the costs, including instructors’ salaries.
“This is the sort of thing you work through,” Whetstine said. “I think pretty much everybody has started to adjust.”
Regarding his colleague’s sudden departure, Whetstine said, “I really can’t comment on that, both from a personal point of view and a professional point of view.”
Stratmann has left his San Juan Bautista home since his resignation, according to Whetstine. His phone line was disconnected within a week of his resignation.
Stratmann co-founded the school program with Cmdr. Larry Chizek at the outset of the 2002-03 school year.
Chizek departed after last school year for unknown reasons. And Whetstine has since overseen the program.
Stratmann had previously resigned at the end of the 2002-03 school year, Burns Slater said. But he retracted his resignation within a couple of weeks and returned the next academic year, she said.
Clete Bradford, the school’s California Teachers Association president, said administrators told him that Stratmann voluntarily resigned – “and kind of took them by surprise,” Bradford said.
Bradford has attempted to locate and speak with Stratmann, Bradford said, but without success.
Administrators and Whetstine acknowledged many of the program’s students have been torn over the resignation.
“Everybody was sad he’s gone,” Whetstine said.
Burns Slater agreed.
“Oh yeah,” she said. “We knew they would be, because we have two very competent men there in that program.”
School officials said a long-term substitute teacher has joined Whetstine and will remain for the rest of the school year.
