carolinapublicpress.org – Sarah Michels – 2025-04-25 06:00:00

by Sarah Michels, Carolina Public Press
April 25, 2025

There’s going to be a full house in Ashe County’s public schools this summer.  After a mix of bad weather and severe storms closed schools there for 47 days, Superintendent Eisa Cox plans to take full advantage of a Helene learning loss summer school program. It’s funded by the legislature in its most recent recovery bill.

The $9 million School Extension Learning Recovery Program is open to schools in 13 impacted Western North Carolina counties: Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Rutherford, Transylvania, Watauga and Yancey. 

It covers grades 4 through 8 and focuses on intensive recovery in math and reading. Each participating school will receive at least $20,000 for the program and possibly double that, depending on how much state money is left over after all schools get initial funding. 

While one of the lower-dollar items in the $524 million recovery package, the summer school program could mean a lot for Ashe County students. The school system already uses grant funding to run summer programs for various grades. Still, without state funds, having a “robust” learning loss program serving multiple grades in different schools would have been impossible, Cox said. 

“That’s a hefty price in order to be able to do that for kids,” she said. “You’re talking about feeding them, transportation, the cost of the teacher over the summer, and, of course, you don’t want to put 30 kids in a class. That’s not going to achieve what you want for students who are already struggling to be on grade level.”

Helene learning loss overlooked — at first

While Gov. Josh Stein’s Helene recovery request included a summer learning loss program, the first version of the General Assembly’s Helene recovery bill didn’t offer a penny for public schools. 

State Rep. Marcia Morey, D-Durham, took note. She recalled a retreat where she spoke with public school leaders from Western North Carolina who told her how “dire” the need was to get back in the classroom. Four years out, students were still recovering from pandemic learning loss. Helene only exacerbated the issue. 

“We have eight counties. We have at least four schools (where) kids couldn’t go back — they had to go to other facilities,” she said in February on the House floor. “We have two schools totally decimated. And so we’re not doing it today, but our public school kids need a place to go. They need a facility. I hope in the next bill we will address the children out west in these affected counties.”

Morey tried to file an amendment to the legislature’s initial bill, but was told she was too late. 

The next version of the bill included a $9 million summer learning program. 

Morey said she wasn’t directly involved. 

“I think they just knew they had to respond to it,” she told Carolina Public Press. “It was astounding that nothing was included in the first relief bill.”

Lessons from the pandemic

Not all missed school days are created equal. Losing one day could take a few hours, a day or a week to recover, depending on the grade level and subject matter. 

For example, earlier grades typically learn a “mile wide” and an “inch deep,” covering a broader range of subjects than later grades, which tend to focus on one or two concepts, explained Jeni Corn, the impact evaluation and strategy director for the North Carolina Collaboratory. 

This can make it harder for younger students to make up for lost time. Additionally, math concepts typically take longer to recover than those involving social studies. 

The legislature first partnered with the North Carolina Collaboratory, housed at UNC-Chapel Hill, to research the impacts of the pandemic on K-12 education. Among the various studies was one looking at the effect of a state-funded summer school program designed to address pandemic learning loss. 

That study now forms the basis of the Helene summer school program, Corn said. 

Researchers found that higher summer school attendance correlated with better attendance the following academic year for students in grades 4 through 8 and seventh and eighth graders. They also discovered modest gains in math test scores among students who had high summer attendance, but no impact on reading scores.

Summer school programs can’t cure all learning loss, but they can improve student engagement through continued connection with their fellow peers and teachers, the researchers concluded. 

Cox, the Ashe County superintendent, came to the same determination. A dozen days of summer school is never going to be enough time to recover from weeks of learning loss, but it can still help. 

“When kids aren’t in school, they may not have a meal,” Cox said. “When kids are not in school, they may not have an adult around them during most of the day that can help them provide the structure to be able to read to them, to be able to provide them with direction.” 

This article first appeared on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Lesson learned: How the pandemic provided a teachable moment for NC lawmakers in latest Helene relief bill appeared first on carolinapublicpress.org

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Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The content presents information regarding a summer learning program in Western North Carolina aimed at addressing the educational impact of the pandemic, specifically referring to "Helene learning loss." The mention of lawmakers and educators collaborating to implement a state-supported program suggests a mildly progressive viewpoint, as it emphasizes government involvement in addressing educational challenges. Additionally, the sourcing from Carolina Public Press, described as an "independent newsroom" committed to uncovering overlooked issues, aligns with narratives often found in Center-Left media that advocate for social responsibility and public welfare initiatives. Overall, while the content is informative and not overtly biased, the context indicates a leaning towards Center-Left perspectives related to governance and education policy.

carolinapublicpress.org – Jane Winik Sartwell – 2025-04-24 06:00:00

by Jane Winik Sartwell, Carolina Public Press
April 24, 2025

Six months ago, Washington Regional Medical Center in Plymouth declared bankruptcy for the second time in five years. Now, hospital leadership hopes that the facility will emerge from this latest financial hardship by late May.

That’s good news to the 10,713 residents of Washington County who need the hospital to stay in business. It’s the only one around.

The bad news is that it has never been harder to keep a rural hospital afloat, especially one that’s not connected to a larger health system. In adjacent Martin County, Martin General Hospital closed its doors in 2023. Thirteen more counties in the northeastern region of the state don’t have hospitals at all.

Should Washington Regional get through this, it will serve as a rare example of a rural hospital taking control of its shaky finances and preserving essential services for North Carolinians.

The good doctor

When Washington Regional Medical Center filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it owed millions to a long list of creditors.

Dominion Energy is due roughly $300,000. The Washington County Tax Office is asking for over $150,000. Washington Regional also owes money to General Electric as well as a number of vendors, including the company that handles the hospital’s pharmaceutical operations. The full list of creditors includes more than 70 companies and organizations. 

Texas-based Affinity Health Partners purchased the Washington County hospital after a catastrophic 2019 bankruptcy that led to liquidation under its previous owners. But by the end of the year, patients were back on the hospital floor. 

Washington County, one of the poorest areas in North Carolina, also hosts some of the highest rates of infant mortality and other adverse health conditions, such as obesity and heart disease.

That makes Washington Regional Medical Center, with its 25 beds, a lifeline in an otherwise barren health landscape. It’s why the facility is designated as a “critical access hospital” by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

When neighboring Martin General Hospital closed, emergency room visitation at Washington Regional increased from 450 patients per month to over 600. 

“The importance of the hospital cannot be overstated,” Plymouth Mayor Brian Roth told Carolina Public Press. “Especially since we’ve gotten all the patients who would have gone to Martin General.”

Washington Regional is ‘here to stay’

If Washington Regional did close, residents would have to drive hours to reach the nearest hospital — ECU Health Medical Center in Greenville. The flat, piney swampland on the Albemarle Sound is not easy to navigate, and public transit is pretty much nonexistent.

“We cannot lose the hospital here,” Roth said. “It just cannot happen.”

CEO Frank Avignone promises that it won’t.

“We used bankruptcy as a tool to reorganize our debt,” he explained. “We basically did it for one vendor who was giving us a hard time, and now that that is taken care of, the hospital is doing well. Patient volumes are up. We have a brand new CT scanner so we are increasing cardiac and pulmonary care. We have new doctors on staff. A new OB/GYN on staff. We’re not some fly-by-night community hospital being run by a crook using it as an ATM machine.

“The hospital is here to stay unless it burns to the ground.”

Washington Regional is not currently performing surgeries. Hospitals typically use specialty procedures as a way to generate revenue and offset the high costs of, say, operating an emergency room. The hope is that the hospital will renew surgical procedures at some point, adding a layer of financial security.

Meanwhile, another threat is looming: the $880 million cut to Medicaid currently being discussed by Republicans in Congress. 

At Washington Regional Medical Center, 60% of patients are covered by Medicare or Medicaid, making the program a crucial source of funding for the hospital. 

If that coverage goes away, the hospital’s finances may be thrown back into peril. 

“We treat folks on Medicaid. That’s our population and that’s what we’re designed to do,” Avignone said. “We just have to balance the books. That’s what I’ve been trying to do — and it’s working.”

This article first appeared on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Washington Regional expected to emerge from bankruptcy by May appeared first on carolinapublicpress.org

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Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This assessment considers the overall tone and context of the content. The article discusses the challenges faced by rural hospitals, particularly Washington Regional Medical Center, and highlights the importance of public health services like Medicaid for vulnerable populations. It presents a sympathetic view of the hospital’s financial struggles, linking them to broader public policy issues (e.g., potential cuts to Medicaid proposed by Republicans). The emphasis on social welfare and the vital role of community health services reflect a center-left perspective focused on the importance of public healthcare systems and support for low-income residents. However, the piece does not overly politicize the issue and maintains an informative, fact-based approach, which prevents it from being categorized as far-left.

www.youtube.com – WYFF News 4 – 2025-04-23 22:17:09

SUMMARY: A contentious development in Pickens County proposes building 140 homes along Malden Lake Road, discussed at a recent town hall meeting attended by many residents. Developers have revised their plans to feature larger, more expensive homes on bigger lots. The site, less than a quarter mile from city limits, requires annexation and rezoning, with a development agreement that mandates stringent conditions on green space and home numbers. Public sentiment was largely against the project, with residents concerned about losing agricultural land, while some called for growth. The mayor urged collaboration to balance development with the community’s identity.

140 new homes could be coming to Pickens, if plans get approved

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