N.C. high schools earn educational grants

A new $515,000 grant will help 10 high schools across North Carolina, including two in Durham County, continue with a program that uses science, technology, engineering and math to try and improve chronic poor academic performance.

The grant comes from GlaxoSmithKline and was announced today by the North Carolina New Schools Project, an independent, not-for-profit corporation supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It will provide a quarter of the project's assistance to the 10 schools through the 2010-11 school year.

The schools are in their second year of enrolling students.

The programs were created at high schools identified by the state Department of Public Instruction as needing "turnaround" due to low student performance. The schools are know as STEM schools, short for "science, technology, engineering and math" schools.

In Durham, the two schools involved in the project are Hillside New Technology High School, which has an enrollment of 189 students, and the Southern High School of Engineering, which has an enrollment of 141 students.

Initially, the state legislature provided planning grants to the schools. Local school districts cover the costs of the schools' ongoing transformation. The GlaxoSmithKline grant, part of a public-private partnership, supports the schools' continued progress.

"As a district, we always are striving to do the very best for students, including giving them the math and science skills that are essential for our workplaces in the years ahead," said Durham school superintendent Carl Harris in a statement. "Having a partner in that effort like GSK makes success much more likely."

Other schools involved in the project are: Anson New Technology High School in Anson County, Bertie STEM High School in Bertie County, James B. Kenan School of Engineering in Duplin County, Northampton-West STEM High School in Northampton County, Warren New Technology High School in Warren County, Wayne School of Engineering at Goldsboro High School in Wayne County, Weldon STEM High School in Weldon, and Jacket Technology High School in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system.