By Sarah Nagem
snagem@salisburypost.com
Two familiar faces within the Rowan-Salisbury School System have been chosen to lead South Rowan High School and Knox Middle.
Dr. Don Knox Jr. will take over the top job at South Rowan. Knox is currently an assistant principal at North Rowan High.
Gerald MoragneEl will lead Knox Middle. He has served as an assistant principal at the school for nearly a year.
Knox, who worked at North for two years, said he will miss the students and faculty there. But now he’s heading to South, where he served as an administrator from 2000-2004.
“I’ve been lucky in my career to work with a couple of great schools with great faculty,” Knox said.
Knox earned a bachelor’s degree from Biola University in California and a master’s degree in school administration from Appalachian State. He went on to earn a doctorate in educational leadership in 2004 from Nova Southeastern University in Florida.
He taught in California before starting a career in Rowan County, where he became an instructor at North Hills Christian School.
He also taught at China Grove Middle School from 1995-2000.
For two years, Knox served as the school system’s athletic director.
Knox said he realizes he is leaving North as its school leaders have a lot of work ahead of them. The school is on the governor’s watchlist of poor-performing schools and must implement programs in the hopes of boosting student achievement.
Knox said North is making gains, and he thinks it will continue to improve.
“It was starting to become very student-centered,” Knox said.
At South, Knox wants to implement professional learning communities ó a system that focuses intensely on helping students by putting in place things like mentor programs.
“My goal anywhere that I am is to be part of a team that makes it the best school in the county,” he said.
Knox will take the place of Judd Starling, who accepted a job in South Carolina. Starling had held the top spot at South for two years.
At Knox Middle, MoragneEl said he looks forward to continuing his work at the school. He came in on a temporary 60-day appointment last September, and he says the school system asked him to stay.
“The children have a lot of potential” at Knox, MoragneEl said. “The parents are very supportive.”
MoragneEl said parent involvement often drops off after elementary school. At Knox, he wants to increase the role parents play in their children’s education.
MoragneEl earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Towson University in Maryland. He then went on to earn a master’s degree in educational administration from the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore.
He served in the Maryland National Guard in the late 1980s and later worked for an organization in which he coordinated conflict resolution programs in Maryland’s schools.
He taught seventh-grade social studies at two middle schools in Maryland, one being an inner-city school in Baltimore. He also served as an assistant principal at a Pennsylvania high school for about two and a half years.
MoragneEl said he has received more offers to teach in Baltimore, where he is from, but he turned them down.
“I wanted to be in Salisbury,” he said.
“[Knox] is a school that’s full of potential.”
MoragneEl is taking the place of Susan Heaggans at Knox. Heaggans has accepted another position within the Rowan-Salisbury School System.