Lindhurst ROTC instructors resign ahead of possible cuts

Both instructors in the Air Force Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program at Lindhurst High School are resigning their positions and will not return next school year for the program that may end because of budget cuts.

Major Chuck Surman, 55, the senior aerospace science instructor, and Sgt. Richard Maeda, 47, have submitted letters of resignation to the Marysville Joint Unified School District. The two men are retired from the United States Air Force.

"Based on the uncertainty of this year and the budgets of the next two to three years," Surman wrote, "I feel compelled to submit my resignation."

"This year has been a roller coaster ride for many school districts including our own," he added in his April 15 letter. "I need to move on and seek opportunities outside the school system."

Surman said he and Maeda have told students that the retirements don't mean the ROTC program, at Lindhurst since the school opened in 1975, has to end. Surman noted Monday that in 2008 then- instructors Lt. Col. Bernard Stein and Master Sgt. David Miller retired.

"The program went on," Surman added.

He said the ROTC's program's fate is up to Marysville Joint Unified.

"The ball is in the district's court," Surman said.

Superintendent Gay Todd said Monday the board of trustees will meet June 22 about the budget and funding for programs including ROTC — which runs about $98,000 in the red yearly, according to the school district.

"Until the board actually adopts the budget we don't have the final answer on that," Todd said about the Lindhurst High program's fate. "The board can decide what it wants."

The resignations by the two instructors, the superintendent said don't necessarily mean that ROTC at Lindhurst will end.

Maeda said Monday that, "I would love to see it continue on."

"Just in the two years I've been here I've seen what the program does," he said. "The Olivehurst area doesn't necessarily get the best kudos. But the kids here are tremendous. I'd put them up against anybody else."

James Ferreira, an assistant principal at Lindhurst, praised the ROTC program and said, "It's a real positive thing."

"I'd hate to see it go," Ferreira said.

But he noted the financial crunch faced by schools in California and said officials have to decide which programs will continue —a decision he likened to the question: "Which of your kidneys do you want to lose?"

CONTACT Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmccarthy@appealdemocrat.com.