North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 03/14/1994

I'm John Bass and I'm watching Kate's melee tonight should the state adopt a year round school policy. And some straight talk about women and men of all this is not our line now. Good evening everybody thanks for joining us. Students usually look forward to summer when school ends and pure recreation or summer jobs began. But I guess Miss Caroline Massengill advocates year round schools and with females of the baby boom generation on the brink of menopause age. A large percentage of women are preparing for this change of life. Reporter Mary Lou our chart brings us some straight talk about this sometimes frustrating time in women's lives. Today was sunny and pleasant across North

Carolina. Highs were in the upper 50s and low 60s except in the northern mountains where it only reached about 50 degrees tonight skies will be clear and temperatures will be in the 40s in the Piedmont and the southeast. The mountains and the extreme northeast will have partly cloudy skies and lows in the mid 30s tomorrow highs will be in the upper 60s and low 70s and skies will be partly cloudy almost everywhere in the state. State lawmakers are working tonight to beat a deadline to prevent over 3000 inmates from being released from prison. Raising the prison population cap was one of the main reasons for calling a special session on crime. But so far the issue has failed to be resolved unless the cap is raised by midnight tomorrow thousands of inmates will be out on the streets. About twenty eight hundred above is the number of inmates that are in the system above the camp. And so that number will have to be released plus an additional 600 or

so that come in each week for total about thirty five hundred in the next week. Each house has passed its version of increasing the prison camp but now both houses must agree on one version of the bill. Pollution levels in the south fork at the top of a river have gotten so bad that an environmental group is calling for drastic measures to improve the quality of the water. The Clean Water Fund of North Carolina is urging the state to re-examine the permits of factories and sewage plants currently allowed to discharge waste into the river. That discharge is polluting the drinking water supplies of North Carolina communities near gas Tonia in the Southwark River Basin and communities downstream in South Carolina. The study released today also urges increased monitoring of the Catawba River. Advocates of year round education are urging parents to support the idea of putting schools on a Four Seasons calendar. Caroline Massengill president of the year round Educational Institute of North Carolina says input from parents is crucial as more and more schools lean toward year round education. Currently 70 schools in North Carolina operate on a Four Seasons calendar and

many other schools throughout the state are looking into adopting a year round schedule. An audit of motor fleet management has uncovered wide ranging problems at the agency state auditors say they found evidence of mismanagement and professional misconduct by former director Michael Hall. The audit shows Holness misuse state time and purchased used cars from his brother in law during the investigation employees of motor fleet management complained to state auditors that hall would criticize and mistreat his workers. A professor who was fired from Elizabeth City State University has returned to work. Dr. Carol Carr was fired for refusing to submit to a teaching evaluation. Carr said the evaluation was to be done by an inexperienced professor a professor she was in competition with for a Job Corps appealed her firing to the University of North Carolina system board of governors. When Dr. Carr was ordered reinstated by the board she said she would not return to the school. But now Cora's changed her mind and is and is back at school today. A calm has settled over Charlotte now that the cease tournaments has ended.

However that calm will be short lived. Charlotte will be back in the spotlight in early April when the 64 team field of the NCAA basketball tournament has been reduced to four teams. Some Charlotte homeowners who were hoping to make a little money on the side during the final four may be out of luck. The home owners thought they would be able to rent out space in their homes for fans who can't find hotel space. But some Charlotte neighborhoods have rules prohibiting such short term rentals. Meanwhile fans of four North Carolina teams are anxiously awaiting the first round of games this week starting times were announced today. Wake Forest place the College of Charleston at 12:35 on Thursday afternoon. North Carolina faces liberty at 12:20 on Friday afternoon. Duke will play Texas Southern at 7:35 p.m. Friday night and North Carolina A and C takes on Arkansas at 10:40 that night. North Carolina's ports are bustling with activity A new study about

Wake Forest Professor Gary Shoesmith shows that the ports have been a big boost to our state's economy in recent years. In 1992 the ports contributed more than 41000 jobs and 131 million dollars in taxes. The study shows that 5 million tons of cargo moved through the ports in Wilmington in Morehead City last year. Two pharmaceutical companies based in the Research Triangle Park are included in an antitrust lawsuit over the prices they charge for prescription drugs. Pharmacy chains nationwide are complaining that major drug companies like Glaxo and Burroughs welcom offer discount prices to hospitals HMO and mail order pharmacies but charge a higher price to pharmacy chain stores Glaxo spokesperson Nancy Pickard says Glaxo is pricing structures are fully within the law. In a written statement released by Burroughs welcom states that the company is confident that anti-trust laws have not been violated. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit hope to force drug makers to stop offering discounts to chosen customers. The suit also seeks unspecified punitive damages. The stock market closed slightly higher today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up

fractionally and closed at 3 8 6 2.9 8 advancing stocks led declining ones by 5 to 4. Volume was heavy with three 259 million shares traded. The Standard Poor's 500 index was up nearly a point and the Nasdaq composite index was up about three and a half. The Dow industrials were trading in a narrow range throughout today's session. The financial markets were waiting for a government report on the producer price index due out Tuesday and the consumer price index due on Wednesday. And now for some stocks of North Carolina interest. Springtime usually brings thoughts of summer vacation to many public school children but more and more students

across North Carolina the traditional summer vacation is a thing of the past more so called year round schools operating in the state. Miss Caroline Massengill is president of the year round Educational Institute of North Carolina. The organization strongly advocate statewide implementation of year round schools. We'll hear from her right after this preview of tonight's important features a. Later on North Carolina now reporter Mary Lou her chart examines the sensitive subject of Mina Potts. As women become more open about all facets of their lives it becomes increasingly important to separate myths from reality. Should the state implement a year round school policy many feel the system offers students a better education experience. Our guest is Carolyn Massengill is principal of a year round school and is president of an organization advocating state wide implementation of policy. We thank you for

joining us. Thank you. So glad to have you here. Now your organization does advocate year round schooling. What's the reasoning behind this. This idea behind that a view around schools. We just think it's a better way to educate children. Why. Because we go out there and their learning is more continuous that without that long summer break that their experiences in school that they were remember what they've learned. OK. Well there will probably be a lot of problems inherent with that at least I would think there would be administrative keeping up with the books. Could you briefly talk about the kinds of schools that exist they are. Well let me just tell you for us there are problems but we tend to look at those as challenges rather than problems and we decided that a long time ago. There are there are three different basically three different models in North Carolina. One is called just the straight single track model. And we call that a 45 15 calendar. Everybody in the school is on the same counter in school for 45 days and after 15 that's one model. A second model is what's known as a school within a school and you have some children on the traditional calendar in

that school but also about choice other children in the same building are in the same school only year round calendar. The third model that we see in North Carolina right now that that's only in White County is what we call a multi track school. And in the multi-track school there we're running four different calendars in the same building but all year round. How do you convince parents who are who grew up themselves in the traditional school year model. How do you convince them that this is a good idea. Because there I know there are some natural hesitance there right. Well it's change and I think that's hard for anybody. Basically there are two reasons to look at your own counter. One is educational benefits for children and the other is that there is a cost savings with some of the models. And I will tell you that that most parents they're interested in the cost savings because they're all taxpayers basically for their children they want to know about educational advantages and I think that's what most people in North Carolina are looking at most of the school systems across the state are what we see as educational advantages. Now we you say that you know is is one of those year round schools what benefits

the SATs educational advantages are there for the families of children in the year round school. We just say we say motivated children we say parents we say children who when their nine weeks are up they're excited about being able to take that three week break but when they are out of that three week break and then come back. They are excited about being back in school and they're ready to go again and we can keep that excitement about learning throughout their whole school year. We're getting a lot more education for our children. We're not at the beginning of the school year we're not having to review what the children learn the year before because their learning is continuous. The most exciting and the best part is that during that three week break we're able to offer extra learning time for our children. We use our summer school fund instead of leaving that to the end of the school year where you set during those three week breaks to give children catch up time when they need it and said them being behind the whole school year plus we're able to offer enrichment activities for children. Parents Consent children to learn they would it

be great to know that your child had an interest in architecture and you could let them come to school to learn about that. And a small group can get involved with that. How was it how was this decision being made across the state is it. Is it school bus school system bus system or basically still a school bus school people educators parents getting interested in the idea taking it back learning as much as they can talking to other people. And that's what the Iran education institute in North Carolina wants to do is just to support those people who have an interest. They go back to their community and get people excited about it and the opportunities in the things in their area that they can do and then it gets started and basically that's why so far almost all the schools in the state have been a choice program and parents of able to choose this for their families of course that that's much easier to do than Then when it becomes a mandatory program. Very quickly on the economic side I know my mother was a teacher and sometimes in summer she'd have a second job. You don't have that opportunity with this program where you wouldn't accept and Moscow which is a multitrack program teachers can substitute in

Moscow. OK. Because we always have children there so they can earn extra money that way. My teachers can also teach in the intercession program is extended learning in the discovery programs. So if my teachers wanted they could have a job all year long. All right well we thank you so much for being here and explaining the process to us. Now don't you go away. There is much more in store. Tonight at 8:00 it's straight talk on menopause. This revolutionary three part special offers a comprehensive overview of this transition with Dr. Judith Reichman a leader in women's health issues at 10:40 NBC News woman Jane Pauley host of the breast care Test A Timely and informative special on the serious health issues for women followed by Charlie Rose at 11:30. That's all tonight on US TV. It's a medical fact that women go through more physical changes during a lifetime than men. But one of the

changes rarely discussed by women is men of hos. The average age most women began experiencing then a pause is 51 years old. But symptoms may begin in the mid 40s and last into the mid 50s. So as the Baby Boomer generation is now in that age group more women in the population are experiencing menopause than ever before. As Mary Lou her chart tells us health specialists in North Carolina say now is the time to start talking about it. There are many cycles in a woman's life. Adolescence marks the beginning of a woman's reproductive years when many women will experience pregnancy childbirth and parenting a little one. But as a woman matures she enters another stage rarely talked about menopause or the change of life. We've heard the myth that we're over the hill. Women become less desirable. Women become more wrinkles less productive men become more distinguished as they get older.

Peggy Matthews is the director of women's education at the Women's Hospital of Greensboro. She knows how important it is for women to be aware of the changes in their lives. That's why she participates in health fairs like this one the fairs are designed to provide medical information to women like Ella is 50 years old and began experiencing the symptoms of menopause. About 10 years ago she realizes it's important that she knows about her body. The only person who can determine. There were changes even to be able to ask the questions I have to make sure it's the first step in understanding your body is to understand mental pause. Dr. Ann Brown of Duke University Medical Center explains their pride two terms two to use one term is meant a pause and that actually means the sensation of having menstrual periods and that that's and it's a definition you have to have a no period for six months and then you have menopause. If you're a certain age. But then there's another term the climacteric and that refers to the

time leading up to the actual cessation of menses during that time a woman's estrogen level falls. That's when women like Ella will experience symptoms where the onset was not severe it's just a heavy regular periods and down the road. Maybe after a couple years when I stop that ministration hot flashes bother me. That's why it's going to be about to get there when I can sleep. Classically what happens is people will wake up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat and not surprisingly interferes with sleep. And so people are slim and become sleep deprived very irritable and that may account for some of the mood the mood disturbances that they experience. But mood alterations is another thing that people notice. The other thing that people notice is dryness and sex becomes uncomfortable.

And I would say that those are the two major. Symptoms that women experience it is vital that women like Ella see a physician when they experience the symptoms of menopause because even though every woman will experience different symptoms one thing is universal. Men a pause is a time of prevention. The reasons that it's important for a woman to be evaluated is that hormone replacement therapy has a tremendous impact on some of the major killers of American women and in particular it may have a very pronounced effect on heart disease in women and heart disease heart attacks is the number one killer of women over age 65. Research shows a change in good cholesterol when estrogen decreases thus affecting the heart. In addition women should be educated about hormone replacement therapy because the loss of estrogen may trigger

bone loss or osteoporosis. But again this is a field still being were searched like you should consult your doctor. There are also psychological changes women experience in the Med appalls all yours even if it's not a matter of having children. It may just be the fact that you realize that you're aging you're actually getting older whereas you never thought of yourself as. As far as anything but young and healthy. That's why it's important for women like L.A. to be able to talk openly about meto pause with their doctors and the people closest to them. Because these changes should be positive changes. After all this is a time for a woman to enjoy her wisdom and creatively express herself in new ways. Other than raising a family. Nepal's women are becoming the focus of more research in fact a Federal Women's Health Initiative is now underway in the Piedmont is one of only four locations in the

south where women will be studied focusing on a number of health issues including the effect of hormone replacement therapy on heart disease and osteoporosis. Now tonight following North Carolina now is a special program devoted entirely to this life's transition. It's called Straight Talk all men appalls. That's at 8 o'clock tonight so stay tuned. Now we want to hear from all of you to get your reactions to North Carolina now and your suggestions as well. And there are several ways to let us know what's on your mind. You can call our viewer comment line at 9 1 9 5 4 9 7 8 0 8. Or you can write us at P.O. Box 1 4 9 0 0 RTP NC 2 7 7 0 9. Or if you prefer backset 9 1 9 5 4 9 7 0 4 3. But don't forget to give us your daytime phone number in case we need to talk to you. Recapping tonight's news starting times have been announced for the first round of games for the NCW tournament. Among area teams Wake Forest will play first taking on Charleston at 12:35 on Thursday

afternoon. North Carolina plays at 12 20 on Friday afternoon their opponent will be Liberty Baptist. Duke takes on Texas Southern at 7:35 Friday night and finally North Carolina and tee will face Arkansas at 10:40 on Friday midnight Tuesday as a deadline facing state lawmakers they must raise the prison cap by midnight tomorrow where thousands of inmates will have to be released. The House and Senate have each passed separate versions of a bill that would raise the cap. They'll have to reach agreement quickly to avoid the mass release of more than 3000 prisoners. Recapping the weather tonight will be clear in the Piedmont and the southeast where lows will be in the 40s. It will be a bit cooler in the mountains in the northeast. Their skies will be partly cloudy and lows will be in the mid 30s. Tomorrow will be another nice day with partly cloudy skies and highs in the upper 60s and low 70s across the entire state. And that's a wrap for this edition of North Carolina now thanks for watching. We hope you'll join the thousands of viewers who have already become contributors to UN CTV during our fund raising drive. We need your

help. Tonight's a special night for festival the entire evening is devoted to women and their health. In addition to the program one minute pause will be a presentation designed to give women a realistic look at breast cancer so important programs all women and anyone who cares about a woman should watch tomorrow in North Carolina now will return to the North Carolina Zoo for a look at the Sonoran Desert exhibit part of the continuing expansion there till now until then rather. That's all for now. I'm John basin and I'm watching Kate's Vallely the entire crew encourages you to watch and pledge Festival tonight.