County’s fund balance dwindling
Part of the county’s dwindling fund balance reflects the $3.2 million spent on a deteriorating building that is the Salisbury Mall. No amount of name change for confusion sake can alter that.
Now our county’s children are being asked to foot the bill for incompetence at the county commissioner and school board level. While a cut of 47 teacher assistants may sound meager to the average person on the street, this amounts to a major loss of human contact that involves teaching skills, love and understanding for in excess of 2,350 pupils each day in our school system.
In addition to the $3.2 million pulled from our children’s daily life, the county is spending upward of $17,000 per month for upkeep, repairs and insurance on the old mall. Think of the impact of this when monies spent in one month would provide for one teacher assistant so 50 local school children would have that human contact each day. That is gone at this point for 47 classrooms.
And now a note of warning to any and all educators that think computers are the do all and end all in the classroom. The year was 1951 when the genius Albert Einstein made this observation: “I fear the day when technology becomes so advanced that it replaces human interaction, for when that day comes we will raise a generation of idiots.”
The citizens who care in Rowan County have made an attempt to turn the tide on the above mentioned issues during the 2014 elections. Unfortunately, this has occurred too late for 2,350 of our children. Hopefully, none of your family will be involved.
— Terry Julian
Faith

If you are a Trojan
In an article titled “Teaching will always be a challenge,” Phil Kirk thanked teachers for being at Knox Middle School and to forget about the past at Knox except to learn from it. As a former Knox Middle School English language arts teacher from 1995-2007, I want those new to Knox to know that all of Knox’s past is not littered with low performance in reading and math. Our students have gone on to become fashion designers in New York, doctors in Maryland and lawyers, news reporters and biologists in North Carolina, just to name a few. I found that my students always stepped up when challenged. They give 110 percent when you invest into their lives. So, welcome to Knox.
I am forever a Trojan. Goooooo Knox!
— Cynthia M. Sloan
Salisbury