Superintendent, please support this program

This letter is addressed to the superintendent of Rowan-Salisbury Schools, Dr. Lynn Moody.

Today’s lead Salisbury Post article quotes you as saying, “It’s not the teaching, it’s all the social and emotional that goes on with the children,” to help clarify the problems in the RSS system and the low grades we received.

I couldn’t agree with you more! You are exactly right about that.

However, the program that Families First (a United Way agency) implements at nine elementary schools , which is free of charge to you at this point, is called The Second Step program, and addresses exactly those two elements — social and emotional growth of children. The problem is, Dr. Moody, we cannot get the Rowan-Salisbury SchoolSystem to help us with funding of this best practices program, and we are running out of grant money. We have tried to try to draw attention to the Second Step program, and get funding help from the RSS system, but to no avail.

Talk to the teachers and parents of K-1 students at Koontz Elementary School about the Second Step program and listen to what they are saying, please.

We want to be at every elementary school, not just nine, and we need money to continue this excellent service we provide for less than $31 per student per year.

By the way, do you know the almost 1,500 K-1 students that participated in our program received a beautiful brand new book at the end of the school year? Ask the Koontz teachers about that. I have been “their educator” since the school opened, and I know what they will say.

Please look at our program. Not just you, Dr. Moody, but everyone who controls the purse strings for the RSS system. The Second Step program needs help to survive and to continue working on the social-emotional growth of our children.

We can help if we can continue to present our program.

— Lea Silverburg

Salisbury

Silverburg is program manager and educator for The Second Step Program, based in Rockwell.

Makes sense to me

As a reformed Republican (unaffiliated), this week I attended the fundraiser dinner for Roy Cooper, N.C. attorney general, who is a Democrat running for governor. It makes a lot of sense what Democrats are talking about returning to North Carolina.

There was talk about raising the pay for teachers and correcting their lack of respect from current leadership and the legislature. I guess this is why there are so many vacancies in teacher staffing in the Charlotte area at the start of the school year. He talked of tax cuts for the middle class instead of corporations and the wealthy, and creating an environment conducive to establishing new jobs.

He asked why there was so much attention being given to fracking at the expense of renewable energy. I read the other day that courts had called a halt to fracking in one area of my former home state of Oklahoma because of its connection to earthquakes.

He doesn’t understand why the legislature has turned its back on federal health dollars, money we have paid into the IRS coffers. And he wants to insure safeguards for clean air and water and eliminate unnecessary roadblocks to voter registration.

All this sounds great to me. I wonder why many of these things are not already in place, regardless of the party in power. It all makes me wonder what Republicans talk about when they get together?

— Jack Connery

Salisbury

Good showing, Salisbury

The Preservation North Carolina Annual Conference was a tremendous success last week. Over 400 preservationists from around the state and country visited Salisbury, many for the first time. Preservation NC and Historic Salisbury Foundation celebrated 40 years of success with their revolving fund programs.

Salisbury-Rowan CVB estimated the economic benefit to the community to be in excess of $81,000 and over 250 room nights generated by this three-day event.

Thank you to the city of Salisbury, Downtown Salisbury Inc. and the Salisbury-Rowan County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau for all your hard work to prepare for the conference and to insure Salisbury looked its very best for our guests.

— Brian Davis

Salisbury

Davis is executive director of Historic Salisbury Foundation.