News Release

Radio station to host forums in Durham,
Greensboro on state of N.C. high schools

CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC (91.5 FM) will host the first of two public forums on "The State of High School Today" at 6 p.m. Monday (April 17) in Bay 7 of the American Tobacco Historic District in downtown Durham.

The 90-minute forum will feature Howard Lee, chairman of the State Board of Education, as well as other experts on the current state of high schools in North Carolina and nationally. A live audience is invited to ask questions and share their views. Attendance is free to the public; however, space is limited. Those who wish to reserve a seat should call (919) 966-5454 or go to http://www.wunc.org/events.

Frank Stasio, host of North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC’s midday talk program "The State of Things," will moderate the forum. The event will be taped and edited and broadcast on "The State of Things" at noon May 15 as part of "North Carolina Voices: Studying High School," a documentary and expanded news series that will explore the changing role of high schools and how to make secondary school education more valuable and relevant for students. The series runs from May 15 through 26. Monday’s forum is co-sponsored by Motricity and McKinney.

"North Carolina Voices: Studying High School" will feature a series of in-depth news reports, interviews and documentaries examining the challenges facing high schools today, how schools are changing to meet these challenges and the impact of current education reform efforts in North Carolina and nationwide. The series also will explore policy issues such as the role of private money in public education, the small schools movement and the dropout rate.

In addition to reports from high schools and communities around the state, the series will take listeners inside Western Guilford High School in Greensboro, where a team of reporters has been documenting the life of the school since December. 

North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC also will host a public forum on "The Future of High School" at the Western Guilford High School auditorium at 7 p.m. May 3 for broadcast on "The State of Things" during the series. Parents, students and educators in that community are invited to participate. This forum is co-sponsored by the Guilford Education Alliance and the North Carolina Humanities Council.

The "Studying High School" series will air within North Carolina Public Radio’s broadcasts of "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" and during "The State of Things." Stories also may be aired by other public radio stations statewide and nationally on NPR or other stations.

"North Carolina Voices: Studying High School" extends an approach piloted by North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC in 2002 to transcend daily news coverage by taking an in-depth look at large-scale, complex issues that deeply touch the lives of North Carolinians. Previous "North Carolina Voices" series have explored issues such as unemployment, war and poverty. Last year’s "Understanding Poverty" series won several national and regional awards, including the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Broadcast News Award.

North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC is a service of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, broadcasting at 91.5 FM in the Triangle and Triad, at 90.9 FM in Rocky Mount/Wilson, and at 88.9 FM on the Outer Banks.

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Note: Contact the series’ senior editor, Emily Hanford, at (919) 966-5454 or ehanford@wunc.org

News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu