Surf legend caught in budget riptide

It was last July, just before he took the Huntington Beach High

School Surf team on its annual safari to an exotic location, that

Andy Verdone stood like the Duke himself, carving a soulful image of

humility. The lineup on Main Street was a parade of surfing legends

who praised the impact this man has had on the young people of

Huntington Beach over the years.

His family and friends were there, hundreds who have surfed for

him, and with him. Now, he was being honored with a plaque, right

there on the sidewalk as part of Surf City’s Walk of Fame. Within the

year, he would also become a prominent part of the display across the

street at Huntington Surf & Sport.

Andy seemed in humble disbelief that his 30 years of work with

Huntington Beach High School students were so appreciated.

Less than one year later his disbelief is replaced by shock. Is he

appreciated after all? Thanks to the state’s fiscal crisis, Verdone

might see his teaching job at Huntington High go over the falls with

budget cuts.

This is not the story of a dead-weight jock coach who doesn’t pull

his own weight in the academic world. This is the story of a man who

has risen before dawn year-round for nearly three decades to provide

leadership and guidance, teaching surfing to the hundreds of young

men and women who have taken part in the Huntington Beach High School

surf team. A non-CIF program, the surf team has no booster club, no

massive budget, just Andy and his volunteer assistants who have

worked with him over the years. And he does not turn would-be surfers

away, meaning some mornings he is responsible for more than a 100

young men and women before they go to school.

Then he goes to school, Huntington Beach High School, where

Verdone teaches special education. The challenges in the modern

classroom are great, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find an educator

who doesn’t hold special ed teachers in the highest regard. They are

the ones who must try to reach the seemingly unreachable student with

emotional and educational challenges. They are the teachers who must

show the greatest patience. They are the ones whose parents and

families often come to school with little hope of seeing their child

grow intellectually.

Only 41, Verdone is not some grizzled veteran hanging on until

retirement. And truth be told, Verdone’s job is not in jeopardy

because he is a surfer. It is in jeopardy because not enough

politicians are. In a time in American history when education is

being overlooked to the point of national crisis, California is faced

with severe budgetary decisions. A federal government willing to

spend a couple hundred dollars -- oops, a couple hundred billion

dollars -- to secure the freedom of people with oil halfway around

the globe, is content to leave the question of educating America’s

future in the hands of states ill-equipped to know where their energy

comes from, much less where not to cut their budgets.

So teachers are losing their jobs. Verdone is among those with the

longest tenure in special ed at Huntington Beach High School, and

although he completed his dissertation last summer and is set to

receive his doctorate in special education, he’s looking for work.

Verdone’s job could be saved, or he could be transferred to another

school. It is difficult to see why education would make a plausible

career when those with Verdone’s credentials are faced with such a

lack of job security.

Soon, he will be Dr. Verdone. Yes, he’ll likely be called doctor

of surfology or some other such name by his friends, but that title

he already has earned. There are life lessons on those waves, and

Andy Verdone has handed those lessons down by the thousands. Lessons

like compassion and respect, persistence and accountability.

Funny thing; surfers used to be considered the slackers of the

bunch, you know, “You can surf all you want, son, but there’s no

future there for ya. You’ll still have to get a real job.” But walk

down Main Street and notice the handprints and footprints embedded

there, read the names carved there; you’ll see the name of at least

one man who’s done everything to make himself the best teacher he can

be and that’s why he belongs.

We as a community are speaking loud and clear; we can not afford

to let teachers like Andy Verdone go. Try and imagine where those

students might have gone, how many might have wandered. How many

young people lost if not for a man who showed them the way in the

classroom ... and in the ocean. He is a teacher, he is our teacher,

and we need him now more than ever.

Hopefully, Andy Verdone won’t find, in the end, that the waves

provided more stability than a so-called real job might have after

all.

* BRENT WEBER is a Huntington Beach resident. To contribute to

“sounding Off” e-mail us at hbindy@latimes.com or fax us at (714)

965-7174.