North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 01/29/1998

It's Thursday January 29. Tonight helping students to cope with going to a North Carolina ne. Good evening everyone and welcome to this Thursday edition of North Carolina now. Tonight my guest is Mike McLaughlin the editor of North Carolina inside a publication by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research. He'll join us a little later to tell us why North Carolina's top problem for the next century may be rule economic

development. Plus we'll go to chapel hill to look at the legacy of a Tarheel publishing company that for 75 years has challenge the status quo to publish books of interest to North Carolinians. But we begin tonight in Cumberland County. Whenever a disaster strikes on a school campus or the disaster involve students we often hear news reporter say counselors are on hand to help with this tragedy. Well those counselors are part of a crisis intervention team in most schools across the state have one. Tonight we take you to Cumberland County where Sanya Williams takes a closer look at their crisis plan from the perspective of one of the best teams in the state. We've got a very structured supervisor of students close to the campus. That supervision enables us to prevent a lot of problems from occurring.

We use a sort of discipline here school while we let our students know what we expect of them as far as their behavior is concerned and we give them that information at the beginning of the year and we give it clearly. Dr. Anthony Parker principal of South View High School says outlining specific ground rules for students helps maintain peace and order on this campus. Most of the time but at a school with over 2000 teenagers there are still times when problems arise. But a number of different situations ranging from student suicide to protest over clothing issues to fires that have occurred and sat in the school. You name it it can occur and it's a matter of evaluating each situation and dealing with the situation based on the immediate necessity of that particular

thing the group that evaluates and deals with these critical situations is the quizes intervention team. Dr. Parker his assistant principals the administrative staff guidance counselors psychologists social worker and a school improvement officer make up south used team as a member of the process to notify one of the first ones when a crisis does occur in the plane is immediately put into action as to what needs to be done. Sometimes of course it has to be dealt with within the school. Sometimes it actually has to take place away from school and I'm willing to work those places. Sometimes we need to go in the home like a home visit sometimes and always to be down here school be with other kids that are involved or maybe upset everybody has on a crisis team has a responsibility in an area of focus and maybe accountability of students it may be. The building itself and and making sure that appropriate steps are

taken to lock things down or to obtain certain equipment that may be required. Somebody coordinating emergency the EMT folks that didn't respond the ambulance. If you have a situation where there are a number of injuries who goes with the ambulance who deals with the parents who deals with all the public affairs kinds of things. To help answer these questions the Cumberland County school system devised a comprehensive crisis management and emergency handbook. It covers thirty seven types of incidents ranging from energy failures to major accidents with multiple injuries. The handbook thirds of the basic checklist for schools throughout the county where we put this book together was we brought all fire. Law enforcement emergency management we tried. We brought a team together of about 45 to 50 people and and we had

them help us construct this thing so that when a fire department responded our plan responded showed indicated that response. And that's really really helped. So while we hope we don't have to to refer to that plan a whole lot. We we do several times a year with the school system of our size. Cumberland County has the fourth largest school system in the state. And with a total of over fifty one thousand students. Officials say Cumberland County Schools have had their share of crisis situations. We had a custodian who had a heart attack and died last year and some students found him. We had a foot. I mean we had a coach that passed away. We had a situation where student didn't show up. One of our high schools last year was subsequently found murdered off campus. Tragic incidents like these don't just happen in Cumberland County they can occur anywhere. That's why officials like Sandra Peizer and Cynthia Howard at the Department of

Public Instruction said materials on how to organize a crisis intervention team to schools throughout the state. Currently schools are not required to have a crisis plan. But with the passage of the Safe Schools at last legislative session more schools are including crisis management in their safety plans. The school legislation directs every school in North Carolina to have a safe schools plan that addresses disruption. The plans are to keep the school safe and to keep to keep learning going on but it also addresses how to help students who are at risk for disrupting. And as part of the prying. And it encourages everybody to have a component for crisis intervention. Because a crisis doesn't happen every day but when it needs to be planned for and that's the message part of you and other school officials stress to school systems

across the state. About two thirds of the state's schools already have a crisis plan in place and the others are encouraged to follow the lead of groups like South believe it's the same with anybody. If you plan ahead and you're prepared then you're much better able to deal with the situation when it occurs. You're also better able to prevent situations from occurring. Without a plan you're just hoping that you can deal with whatever happens when the crisis hits. It's not the time to try to figure out what to do. You don't get a second chance in a crisis. You can go by the seat of your pants and a lot of people do an excellent job of going by the seat of your pants. But when you have something that you can turn to to make sure that it's kind of a checklist to make sure that you know you're covering all areas. It helps you to be able to I think manage your crisis better.

For more information on starting a crisis team contact the Department of Public Instruction at 9 1 9 7 1 5 1 2 5 1. Coming up while rural economic development may be North Carolina's toughest challenge in the next century. But first let's check in with Michel Louis for a summary of today's statewide hommage. Hello Shannon. Good evening everyone. The first judicial debate in the history of North Carolina was held last night in Raleigh. Nine candidates for the North Carolina Supreme Court and Court of Appeals were present for the history making event. The forum was hosted by the North Carolina Academy of trial lawyers and gave the candidates the opportunity to discuss their views on legal and political issues that exist in North Carolina. This past fall the North Carolina Supreme Court removed a condition of the judicial code of conduct that prevented judges from discussing their personal views on disputed issues. Beginning Monday anyone who wants to become eligible for welfare cash assistance must first register for work with the Employment Security Commission. This latest step in the state's

welfare reform effort is called The First stop program under the program once an applicant is deemed ready to enter the workforce. He or she will receive training through community colleges. The Department of Health and Human Services will help those with transportation and substance abuse problems that may hinder employment. Nearly 7000 people a month are expected to register under for stop. A three million dollar federal grant is making the creation of a new center on minority aging possible in North Carolina. The research center will be a part of the newly created University of North Carolina Institute on Aging. The center's director says this is an opportunity for the state's universities to address the concerns of the over 65 minority population a population which Dr. Elizabeth movement says is one of the fastest growing segments in North Carolina and in need of greater medical attention. One of the things we know is a minority Elders do not use certain health services as much as whites and yet their health care their health status on many criteria is much

lower in terms of nursing home and institutionalized care. The US is different than mine and so we want to understand that difference. The Center for minority aging will be based at USC Chapel Hill and address health related issues and promote the growth of research partnerships. Governor Jim Hunt spent the day flying over parts of western North Carolina to assess the extent of winter storm related damage. The governor visited Haywood and Madison counties this morning where two feet of snow fell this week. Nearly forty four thousand people in the mountains are still without power. Interstate 40 reopened to traffic yesterday afternoon after being closed since Tuesday. However some secondary roads still remain impassable. Officials are now concerned about cresting rivers and possible flooding as the snow melts. The eastern half of the state is experiencing some weather related problems of its own. Some cities are reporting untreated sewage spills from local treatment plants and some area hog farms are

having trouble with waste after heavy rains this week. State officials also cited a number of farms for spraying waste on already saturated fields. Other farms were found to have their waste lagoons to full. But as of today there were no reports of any hog way spills. And now for a look at tomorrow's weather highs will be reaching into the 50s for most of the state except for the mountains which will have highs around 35 in Boone and the mid 40s for Asheville North Carolina will see mostly sunny skies Friday with some early morning cloudiness in the mountains and in the northeast corner of the state. And business news negotiations are continuing on two fronts for ownership of the Minnesota Twins North Carolina business when Don beaver is still in negotiations with team owner Carl Pohlad to buy the twins franchise and voters in Guilford and Forsyth counties will decide May 5th whether to impose a 1 percent tax to pay for a major league baseball stadium. How's the club in the Triad. But lawmakers in Minnesota are still working to keep the Minnesota Twins in their state with new legislation to fund a 250 million dollar stadium.

And now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today. North Carolina could be said to be enjoying a golden age with growth in key jobs sectors like financial services and high tech industries. But not all areas of the state

are benefiting from this growth. And according to a new study by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research rural economic development will be our state's biggest problem over the next decade. Here to tell us why is Mike McLachlan editor of North Carolina inside the center's Journal which included the study. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. Thank you very much for having me. In your report you describe North Carolina is kind of going through a golden age of prosperity almost in some sectors of the state. What did you mean by that. Well North Carolina had lagged behind in some areas such as per capita income and so on. But now what we're seeing is some tremendous growth along that corridor or the Charlotte Mecklenburg area the Research Triangle Park area Raleigh. Kerry that that region of the state. So we're seeing some real growth and development in North Carolina are making a lot of number one lists for places to do business places to raise a family that sort of thing. And

that's all very good but not all of the state is sharing in that prosperity. One part of the states particularly is not sharing in this growth. Well I think it's the more isolated rural counties the ones that are not adjacent to a thriving urban area the ones that do not have the infrastructure the water and sewer the transportation network even natural gas and that sort of thing that you really need to attract industry and to expand local business that already exists. So it's isolation. It's the counties that do not have mountains beaches you know we're famous for those but not everybody has one. Now you study these areas for year compiling your report. Why aren't these particular areas in the state able to build on some of the growth going on in other areas. Looks like there perhaps might be some spill over to them. Why isn't there.

Well I think there is some spillover and that's where we get to the adjacent rural counties that are doing quite well. But some of these counties are just too if too far away from the growth centers and they don't have the critical mass to achieve it on their own. So I think they have to look within discover their natural strengths and try to try to build on what they do have and sometimes that can be difficult. Are there any trends in North Carolina's economy itself that would lead for this kind of disparity between counties that are doing extremely well in the counties that perhaps are not enjoying this growth. Well I think that perhaps counties highly dependent on agriculture are highly dependent on manufacturing where there are some mechanization and so long international competition having an impact. These these kinds of counties. It could be hurting so. I think you're much better off if you have a diverse economy and some rural counties do have that. But by and large they are more or excuse me more dependent on

agriculture and manufacturing and some of them really don't even have very much in manufacturing to speak of. You talk about labor intensive industries like apparel are often located in rural areas and they're the kinds of industries that are suffering from international competition in particular for these rural counties. Is there anything that they can do to bring more business to their counties or to perhaps improve their infrastructure so that a few years down the road they might be more attractive. Well I think that there was a bond issue a bill that would have called for a bond referendum for one billion dollars in water and sewer improvements. That was before the last session of the General Assembly that did not pass it. It will be a law for the next session. That's one thing that can help rural areas need to really work on workforce development this is something that increasingly industry is asking for a better trained workforce you can do that through community colleges which most rural areas have some good access to improving the public schools in whatever way that you can.

So raising the level of workforce preparedness is quite important. The second thing is are seeking out new infrastructure through whatever means possible. And finally I think. We isolated rural areas need to band together take a regional approach to problem solving. Whether it's tourism promotion solid waste disposal or what have you. Some of them just don't have the numbers to call attention to themselves and get things done but if they work together they have a better shot at it. Was there anything about this study that surprised you. Well I think it's always a little bit surprising when you go to an area where there are a lot of have nots and you're coming from a thriving area like Research Triangle Park for example. We visited Hyde County. The poverty rate is 24 percent the unemployment rate nine point six percent and they've been losing population every year leaving leaving the state in population loss going backwards in population.

And it's a struggle for these kinds of counties they do have some tools in their tool kits. They have tax credits for job creation. For example a higher level of tax credits that they can offer. That's one thing that that the state is trying to do to help distressed counties. But. It's a difficult one for my last one. Interesting study. And thank you very much for sharing it with us. Thank you. For more information on the Center for Public Policy Research a study on rural economic development you can check out their Web site at endo dot net for Slash insider board slash in c c p p r. Here's an exercise you might find interesting take the time one day to go through your personal

library books and look for the names of the publishers among the assortment of publishing giants like Random House and Doubleday. You may find more than a few selections from you when See Press y Atlee nestled on the outskirts of the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. You and the press has been supplying readers with fine books for generations. Producer Paul Addison takes us there in this story narrated by Robin Meade. You know you've read a good book J.D. Salinger once wrote when you wish that the author that wrote it were terrific friends of yours for three quarters of a century. You NC press has been in the business of making new friends for authors by publishing books of the highest caliber. This mission says Tori has remained constant throughout the company's 75 year history. The press from the start has mirrored the mission of the university in teaching in research and in public service. And I think it's the combination of those three aspects of our

publishing program reflected in our scholarly books and our regional books. Which have been known for decades for their excellence and for their contribution to the people of the state. That contribution first began in 1922 during a very different time in North Carolina says Jacqueline Dowd hall a professor at USC Chapel Hill and an author published by you and see press the cause of a long legacy of slavery and segregation. The South was a region in which there were many things that could not be talked about. It was the vision of William T couch president of u and C press from 1932 to 1945. That helped change that legacy. And he and other people that worked with him determined that you NZ press would not be afraid to publish things that might cause controversy. And at that time practically anything

could cause controversy certainly anything that had to do with race. Those kind of books included works by John Hope Franklin published by the press in 1943 and other black writers as well. This is well before. There was an organized civil rights movement well before the university was segregated. And in fact that wasn't unique to this region of the country either. This is well in advance of a national awareness. Mark A. Yeah. Another point of pride for you and see press is its relationship with the authors it publishes one Simpson a pianist and singer for the Red Clay Ramblers as well as a prolific author of original works. Appreciates the attention you NC press has given his books. The press is an enormously thoughtful careful and I mean cautiously careful I mean taking care of

the authors and the works and that really goes from you know the initial conversation is in the acquisition process editorial design. So you're marking the city and not just at the time of it the exact time of publication but for weeks months and in my case years thereafter it's that dedication to excellence that has seen you in say press through some tough times. In December of 1990 the building that housed the press was completely destroyed by a fire. Kate Torrey remembers the devastation. We lost our review files we lost all of our exhibit materials we lost. Our lists of reviewers we lost our published city contact list. We lost everything that we use to let the world know about our books. And it was a

terrific challenge to rebuild that rebuild they did. And now you will see press drives in the new building on the same grounds as the old one. But new challenges abound to Kimberley in the age of technology. David Parry editor in chief at the press recognises the issue at hand. I feel like we're competing for people's time and people have a lot of options for the time. I think that especially the rise of the Internet television of course. So we are we have to compete for people's attention and and for their dollars. And we're only one of many children that they have. So how do we how do we get their attention and and get our books in front of them is a challenge for us. Nonetheless Perry and the rest of the U.S. press staff have every confidence that the fruits of their labor will survive this battle and that books will continue to nurture and

entertain readers for another 75 years and for centuries to come. I continue to be optimistic about publishing. We're going through some adjustments now with the rise of superstores with the rise of online bookselling. There are a lot of changes in the way books are sold in the way books get to their audiences. I'd like to think that for the future for the future for the forseeable future that books will continue to be something that people rely on and that good books that serious books will find an audience. In addition to John Hope Franklin and Jacqueline down the hall you went to the Press has published three thousand five hundred other all those many of them negatives of the Tarheel State. Well that's it for tonight's show please join us again tomorrow night when our guest will be Jackie Boise with the IRS Tax time is just around the corner and Jackie Boise will give us some good tips on just how to jumpstart our taxes. Plus Derek long will take a fascinating look at the southern drawl and how a shot

professor is teaching two actors what many North Carolinians take for granted. There are some that Maxence have a great evening everyone will see again tomorrow night.