The U.S. Army has threatened to shut down the Junior ROTC programs at three U.S. Virgin Islands schools over the eight-percent pay cut imposed on the program’s 11 instructors in the territory as part of the territory’s budget crisis.
James E. Knauff Jr., JROTC chief based at the U.S. Army Cadet Command in Savannah, said Wednesday that unless the territory rescinds the reductions the territory will lose the Junior ROTC programs at St. Croix Educational Complex, St. Croix Central High School, and Ivanna Eudora Kean High School on St. Thomas. The three programs have a combined enrollment of more than 800 students.
The V.I. Senate learned of the Army’s decision Wednesday when Sen. Alicia “Chucky” Hansen released a copy of Knauff’s letter during a meeting of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, Energy and Veterans Affairs. According to Director of Personnel Kenneth Hermon, who was testifying on an unrelated matter, the 11 JROTC instructors in the V.I. Programs make an average of about $70,000 to $90,000 a year.
But that’s not the cost to the territory, Knauff explained, saying you can’t just add the 11 salaries to get the cost of the program. The actual cost is much lower.
JROTC instructors are retired military personnel, Knauff explained in an interview with the Source. When they are hired for JROTC, they receive their military retirement pay – which varies depending on their rank and years in service – and a salary that makes up the difference between their retirement pay and what they would receive if they were on active duty.
For example, a soldier making $60,000 a year, to use a round number, who retired on half pay, would have a $30,000 retirement. If he was hired for JROTC, he would receive that $30,000 retirement pay, plus an additional $30,000, and that payment would be cost-shared, or split, between the territory and the Army. So in this example, the territory’s cost for that $60,000 instructor would be only $15,000.
And the territory receives a lot more for its money than just the instructors, Knauff added. The Army, or the Air Force or Navy, depending on the service program, provides the curriculum and all the texts and materials. It also flies participating students to summer training camp in Puerto Rico each year.
According to Knauff, the territory has the right to lower the portion it pays its instructors But if it does so, it is in violation of the terms of the terms of its agreement with the Army.
“The Army would have little choice but to exercise its legal and contractual right to remedy the breach through termination of the JROTC contracts with all three schools,” Knauff wrote to Hansen.
The end could come in just a few weeks, he added, as the termination would occur at the end of the school year in which the eight-percent pay cut is applied.
“This threat is imminent, by end of school year, just a few weeks,” Hansen said.
Hermon said “it might be a reasonable position to amend act to allow the exemption” of the JROTC instructors from the the pay cut.
Hansen in fact had authored a bill that would have done that, but the Senate Rules Committee put the measure on hold April 12 after being assured by the Department of Education that the schools would not be in breach of the contract.
Contacted Wednesday afternoon, Government House said a statement would be released later in the day, but no word on the Department of Education’s plan for dealing with the possible loss of the program had been issued as of 11 p.m.
Knauff said the Army, by law, is allowed to support 1,731 JROTC programs and there is a waiting list of schools looking for the chance to join. If the territory’s three programs lose their contract, there will be “no problem” in assigning the contracts to other schools, Knauff said.
