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DURHAM – Southern High School will next year transition to an all-STEM school anchored by energy and sustainability studies, Durham Public Schools administrators said Monday.
Southern High and Southern School of Engineering, which already operates on a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) model on the Southern High campus, will – with the support of the North Carolina New Schools Project, an education reform nonprofit – merge to create the Southern School of Energy & Sustainability.
Within the redesigned school, there will be four specialized academies, or themes: the existing School of Engineering, the School of Business Management & Sustainability, the School of Biomedical Technology and the School of Infrastructure Engineering.
The change, which will have no impact on current School of Engineering students or rising juniors and seniors at Southern High, will be “a game-changer and a life-changer” for Southern High and the students, parents and community members who make up the school’s family, said James Key, area superintendent for high schools, during a presentation to school board members Monday.
A big focus of the school is to get students ready for careers and college studies in the growing STEM fields through project-based learning, said Dana Diesel-Wallace, NCNSP’s vice president for school development. Students will identify real problems in their school and in the wider community.
“When they design solutions – because they most surely will design real solutions for this community – those can hit the ground in Durham,” she said.
Key said the concept is unique from the district’s existing small, specialized high schools and from the ideas proposed in the application for Research Triangle High School, a STEM-focused charter school that aims to open next fall, in that it’s a STEM program in a comprehensive setting.
“Our kids are going to be able to experience these wonderful educational opportunities like you would get at a [Hillside] New Tech or a School of Engineering or a City of Medicine [Academy], but still enjoy the comprehensive experience, which is what a lot of people still want – band, the arts, being in the school play, being on a championship football team,” he said.
Students will be required to take at least one course related to their academy’s theme each year, although Key said he expects that most students will take many more. A few school board members raised concerns that students districted for Southern might use a disinterest in STEM as an excuse to transfer elsewhere, but the requirement that students just take four theme-specific courses should answer the concerns of Southern-districted students who aren’t particularly interested in a STEM career, he said.
At least for the first year, the School of Engineering will technically remain its own school with its own principal, but that seems likely to change after a transition period. Each of the other three academies will be led by a director – technically an assistant principal – who will report to Southern High Principal Kenneth Barnes.
Each director will work closely with a lead teacher who will help with NCNSP training. Since the four lead teachers will be given an extra planning period, it’s likely that Southern will need to hire an additional teacher, Key said.
Other expected costs for the school district include teachers’ travel expenses and pay for substitute teachers when regular teachers undergo project-based learning training, which is itself being provided by NCNSP. Those costs will be provided through Key’s budget.
Also, an estimated $50,000 will be needed to get the School of Biomedical Technology – which will partner closely with N.C. Central University’s BRITE (Biomanufacturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise) program – up and running with refurbishment of the space and new computers and supplies, Key said, but that money has already been encumbered in the career-technical education (CTE) program’s budget.
The Southern School of Energy & Sustainability will not function as a magnet school, Barnes stressed. It will continue to serve all students who are districted for Southern High, which was at 83 percent capacity at the beginning of the 2011-12 school year.
Students districted elsewhere who are particularly interested in the energy and sustainability focus will be allowed to apply to attend the school by submitting a pathway application, just as they would if they were interested in, for example, the agriscience/biotechnology pathway at Jordan High School. Those applications are not yet available but should be soon and will likely be due sometime in March, said Rick Sheldahl, CTE director.
The school district plans to embark on a recruitment effort in the coming weeks that will include a promotional video on Channel 4, visits to middle schools, community forums and newspaper ads. The promotional video, which was played for school board members Monday, asks that students who are interested in attending the school contact either Southern High School (560-3968) or the district’s Office of Student Assignment (560- 2059).
While the school board’s approval of the plans for the Southern School of Energy & Sustainability wasn’t required, those in attendance for the most part expressed excitement over what’s to come. An abbreviated version of Monday’s presentation will be made at the board’s Feb. 23 meeting, slated for 6:30 p.m. at the Fuller Central Services Building.
