Cmdr. Michael Kerley will be the first to admit things got unusually hectic at the onset of Aurora’s Veterans Day Parade in November. Down a couple of instructors to help supervise the nearly 400 NJROTC cadets from East Aurora High School marching in the downtown parade, the group got off to a late start. And things became more complicated when, as they were unloading students and gear near the library staging area, it became apparent the U.S. flag had been left behind at the school’s Armory. “Caught between a rock and a hard place,” Kerley decided it was more important to stay with the young marchers and give a key card to an 18-year-old senior cadet, whom he described as “the most responsible” and who volunteered to run back to the school to retrieve the flag. The good news is that when the cadets stepped in front of the reviewing stand and all those TV cameras, the U.S. flag was flying high as this award-winning NJROTC program, the largest in the Midwest, was proudly introduced. Now for the not-so-positive news: On Dec. 17, the 63-year-old senior science instructor was let go, and Kerley insists he received no other reason for the abrupt dismissal than the events that occurred on Veterans Day. Which leads him to ask just what exactly were those events? The fact the group forgot the flag? That he made the decision to let a senior cadet go back to the school to retrieve it so he could stay and supervise the other marchers? Or could the reason for the dismissal, he wonders, have something to do with the fact East Aurora has not had an employment contract with him in place since he took over the role in 2021. Whatever the reason, Kerley is not going away quietly. At Monday’s East Aurora School District 131 board meeting, he introduced himself during the public comments as “a passionate voice” for the cadets, the program and the school district itself. “I am here tonight to practice what I preach to our cadets,” he declared, noting that one of the keys to better mental health is self advocacy and refusal to suffer in silence. “It is my understanding that the reason for my dismissal was based on the events of Veterans Day,” he said, quickly admitting that “mistakes were made at a variety of levels.” However, he continued, when the parade stepped off, “our unit had the flags flying and all our cadets were safe. We fulfilled the unit’s, school’s, D131 and community expectations. If you watched TV coverage you’d have seen our unit front and center.” Kerley then claimed that District 131 has been in “contractual non-compliance” since his first day on the job in August of 2021, and that a year later, after sending a letter to HR for status, was told it was being sent to the next level. “I continued to look for progress without success,” he said during public comments, adding that at the unit’s annual inspection in November 2023, the Navy was aware of the difficulty and was told a contract would be delivered July 1 of 2024. But as of December, “there was no movement,” he said. Kerley tells me he believes his dismissal is connected to his role as an outspoken advocate for the unit and for himself, with some district leaders regarding him as a “troublemaker.” There is, indeed, no love lost between Kerley and some School District 131 officials. Although the parade brought issues to a head, East Aurora High School Principal Jennifer Mitchell pointed to “a series of other concerns and events we have been in meditation over the last year or so that contributed to this final decision.” Cmdr. Michael Kerley, who is fighting his December dismissal as senior science instructor with East Aurora’s NJROTC program, was honored with a flag during a ceremony at Seven Gables Park in Wheaton over the 2024 Fourth of July holiday. (Mariann T. Kerley) It was a decision, she and East Aurora Superintendent Jennifer Norrell insist, that was in lockstep with its Navy partner. “The district has been in full communication” with officials from Great Lakes Naval Station, which partners with the district, Norrell said, adding that East Aurora has “had a wonderful back and forth relationship” with the Navy base “to make sure we are meeting program requirements that are in the best interest of our students, staff and leadership.” She also pointed out “there is always so much more to staffing concerns than what is able to be shared.” Speakers at the board meeting, however, painted Kerley, whose unit received the Distinguished Unit with Honor award from the Navy, the highest award possible for the unit, as an excellent leader and popular mentor to the cadets. It was pointed out that two of them were recently awarded Congressional nominations to the Naval Academy, the first time in at least 10 years at East Aurora High School, and the only high school in U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood’s 14th District to have two students nominated from the same unit. Kerley described himself as a husband, father and survivor of a ship fire that contributed to permanent brain injury. He retired after 35 years with the Navy and was an instructor with an 80-cadet unit in the Chicago Public Schools before accepting the role with the far larger East Aurora program. Kerley also called himself a second generation immigrant and first generation college graduate who enlisted in the Navy while still in high school to get away from a volatile childhood. “Many of our students have similar life experiences,” he said on Monday evening. “This is why I see myself in them. And that is why I’m so passionate about our cadets and our program.” Also speaking out for Kerley was parent Ginger Ingram, whose daughter is currently a cadet and has two sons who went through the program. Ingram described the board’s decision in December as a “serious misjudgment of character” and a “rash” decision that impacts so many in the community. Kerely quickly proved his excellence, she insisted, citing the many relationships he fostered in the community that bolstered the program’s visibility, the unit’s 100% graduation rate and countless hours of volunteerism, as well as the commander’s dedication to mentoring cadets past and present. When it came to the students, “he goes the extra mile,” she insisted. Also speaking on his behalf was former Green Beret Jerry Paulson, chair of the Aurora Veterans Commission who also chairs the Chicago Recruiting Battalion Military and Veteran Resource Group. Paulson told the board the veterans community was extremely upset by the reasons and the timing of the dismissal. Letting Kerley go right before Christmas, with no contract, he said, is not only “sad” but also “ruthless” and showed the veterans community and students a “total lack of professionalism.” “Needless to say we are not happy,” he said, adding that he’s known and worked with Kerley for over 15 years and describes him as “a fabulous Naval officer.” According to Norrell, there was no contract because Kerley was “legally an at-will employee” like other department staff. Existing instructors will step in to fill the vacancy left by his dismissal, she added, and in the meantime, “we are working in close partnership with Great Lakes to find a replacement.” Kerley, however, is not done with this battle: On Tuesday he filed an appeal with the board, asking for his job back. “Cmdr. Kerley deserves to be heard and at a minimum to have a conversation with an unbiased group of East Aurora board officials,” Paulson declared at the meeting. “This fight is long from over,” Paulson told me later. “He gives his heart and soul to those kids, and he got treated like a piece of crap.” [email protected]