The past five years, I have watched the Alcovy Tiger band improve; that is thanks to one man who has come to work on his furlough days (that is days the BOE did not pay him and other teachers) with students to prepare them for the upcoming football season.

He ran a program that was unfunded from the BOE and with limited sponsorship from the business community, but consistently out-performed other who were well-funded.

I have personally watch him pay for things out of his own pocket that a student needed but their parents could not afford. He would stay after away games with students whose parents have not picked up. Amazingly enough, sometimes he’d wait for hours before they came.

In the Newton Citizen on June 22, 2012, there was a quote for an NCSS official saying, "As for missing band funds (cash), clearly school officials should have kept better records in this particular account."

These funds should have gone towards the band trip but were used somewhere else. Well, a few parents and a few generous donors and Johnny and Beth Hallman stepped up and made up the short fall so the students could take a band trip.

The Hallmans did not have to do this but they did because they cared about our children as they always have since the day they stepped into this community.

Saying all this, I give my thanks to Johnny and Beth and say, "Congratulations on a new job in another community. This is Newton County’s loss and their gain. Good luck and thanks for what you did for my daughter and other students."

Mark Harrah

Covington