Think big
While Rowan-Salisbury school administrators talk about banning mini-refrigerators and spreading out bus stops to save money, students at Mooresville’s intermediate and high schools are about to receive their own laptop computers for home and school use. They have only to pay $50 for insurance.
Mooresville Graded School District has the advantage of being small, with only a handful of schools and rock-solid community support. But it can still be a model for Rowan-Salisbury and other systems as they try to leapfrog into the information age.
The biotechnology industry is taking root in Kannapolis, and public schools have to embrace radical change to grow with it. That means bigger, more aggressive thinking, beyond outside the box. It might also mean seeking much more money from private foundations and businesses, and not waiting for county commissioners to catch on. (Though Commissioner Chad Mitchell suggested supplying laptops a couple of years ago.) The schools are forced to be penny wise when the community should be investing pound after pound into better technology and training. It’s time to shake this mindset and move forward.