2 Durham Schools Polish Academy Plans: Nortel to Lend Assistance in Establishing New Tech High on Hillside Campus
By Samiha Khanna, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
Jan. 24–DURHAM — School administrators have less than six months to finish planning two small academies opening this fall, and on Tuesday announced they would get a boost from an international company with Triangle ties.
Nortel, a communications corporation with an office in Research Triangle Park, has agreed to help establish New Tech High School, a mini-high-school being launched next year at Hillside High, a news release said.
New Tech High will be a school within the main campus, with its own principal and a freshman class of about 100 students enrolling this fall.
The details of the partnership have not been finalized, but Nortel employees could end up giving guest lectures, mentoring students, collaborating with teachers on projects and even establishing internships or apprenticeships for students, the release said.
Hillside and Southern high schools both are creating these small schools as part of a mandate from a judge to improve test scores or face state intervention.
The two high schools are among more than a dozen across the state that Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr. has challenged to change because fewer than half the students at each school were performing at grade level.
Hillside Principal Earl Pappy has worked to plan the technology-driven high school in which every student has his own computer, uses electronic materials and textbooks and works on a shared network.
Southern High School Principal Rod Teal opted to start a small school of engineering. Both principals received $40,000 planning grants in the fall to do research and start the schools. Administrators are now looking for principals for each school.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
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