What exactly does it mean to be a student at North Rowan? It is more than just a place to learn. It’s a place to make friends; it’s a place to prosper and form dreams. It’s a place to succeed, a place where each individual student can find their purpose. More important, it is a place to meet a new family.

Each day that I pull into the parking lot of NRHS, I start a new day waiting to see what I can accomplish. From the second someone walks into North High, you feel safe, important, loved and accepted. I am greeted by staff members, students, administrators and support staff, but never by a school board official. Never while I’m in school do I see the people that want to shut us down.

As the saying goes, “If I can’t see you, you can’t see me.” This plays into effect because no one is looking at the work that people are doing at North. We are the forgotten school. We are at the bottom of the food chain,left to help ourselves after everyone else gets what they need.

When I moved here three years ago, I heard only negative things about North. Three years later, and not one thing that people told me has ended up being true. I know that whenever I walk into North, people there have my back. There are teachers that will give their all to see me succeed, support staff to make sure I get the education that I have a right to and deserve, and a phenomenal group of administrators that are there for everyone at the end of the day to keep us together as a family.

I am proud to say I go to North Rowan High School, but I am ashamed to say I am a student that is a part of Rowan-Salisbury Schools.

The individuals that make up our school board are not in our favor and do not want to be in our favor. It crushes my heart to go to school and think that I might not get to graduate from North. It hurts to hear that we are only worth $700,000 and a demolition crew.

Out of over $116.5 million dollars our district plans to use in Tier 1, North Rowan High School would only get $700,000. Each and every school on the Three-Tier Consolidation Plan would get something new or renovated, except North Rowan.

Whenever I am at North, I am at home. I leave my house at 8  in the morning Monday through Friday just to go to another home. I know that when I am at school, there is a new challenge that will be proposed, there will be new ideas on how to make our school better. I will get to learn, and there is another day that I get to cherish as a Cavalier.

Rowan-Salisbury Schools System has made a mistake by simply mentioning the idea of closing North Rowan. Until you walk in the shoes of a student or staff member at North Rowan, you will never experience the bond that we have with each other. Until you walk in our shoes and experience what we have experienced, you will never understand our school and how we work. You will never experience our ideas or dreams that we have, and you will never experience why we are so insistent on remaining open.

Until you have come to visit us and look into what we are doing and dig into the positive changes we have made, you have absolutely no right to blast our school.

Allen Hicks is a student at North Rowan High School.