Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I am a resident of Gloucester County, where I went through segregation, integration, the polio vaccine and now COVID. I decided to become a teacher because of my first grade teacher, Mrs. Thompson at T.C. Walker School. She represented us as a teacher, mentor, mother figure and she had her students’ best interest.

I have had the honor of teaching in Gloucester for over 28 years, but a total of 39 years in education. I am still employed as a coach at Gloucester High School. You can imagine all of the changes I have seen in my county. Some have been good and others not.

Elected officials can’t straddle the fence and must realize it’s not about winning a popularity contest with their district or even their board members. I have attended school board meetings where I couldn’t tell who some were really representing. In my mind, they had no idea of what they were voting about, but they wanted to please their district so they could still be friends and not l...