Premiering: 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM ET

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PBS FILM 180 DAYS: HARTSVILLE EXPLORES HOW ONE TOWN IS BESTING POVERTY TO EDUCATE STUDENTS

Premiering March 17 as Part of “American Graduate,”

a Public Media Initiative to Improve High School Graduation Rates NEW YORK (February 9, 2015)—A recent Southern Education Foundation report has uncovered that, for the first time in 50 years, the majority of students attending public schools in the U.S. are from low-income households. An inspiring new documentary 180 Days: Hartsville takes a fresh look at the nation’s poverty and education challenges from a rural South Carolina town triumphing in the face of extraordinary challenges. The two-hour special, co-produced by South Carolina ETV (SCETV) and National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC), airs on PBS from 8 to 10 p.m. ET on Tuesday, March 17 (check local listings). The film was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) as part of American Graduate: Let’s Make it Happen, a public media initiative to stem the dropout crisis by supporting community-based solutions. Co-directors Jacquie Jones and Garland McLaurin, the team behind the Peabody Award-winning documentary 180 Days: A Year Inside an American High School which premiered in 2013, joined SCETV in Hartsville, South Carolina for more than a year. They filmed in two elementary schools struggling with new curriculum standards and maintaining funding, while meeting the needs of individual students. South Carolina ranks 45th in the country in education. The majority of Hartsville residents hover on the poverty line with a median income of less than $30,000 and more than half of the city’s students qualify for free and reduced-price school lunches. Yet Hartsville is fighting the odds—and winning—with an astonishing 92 percent graduation rate in their city. This is a remarkable achievement considering that one-third of students from low-income families in many states did not graduate despite an increase in the national graduation rate of 80 percent for the class of 2012, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. “With poor children now representing a new majority of public school students, it is more critical than ever that successful models in education be explored to ensure the American dream is attainable for all of our children,” said Jacquie Jones, co- director and executive producer. “Hartsville has proven that if the right forces in a determined community come together to put children first, tangible results will follow.”

- more -

3 The series introduces viewers to a family struggling to make ends meet, including Monay Parran, a high school dropout and single mother struggling to raise three children while juggling two jobs, and her bright son Rashon, a fifth-grade student in West Hartsville Elementary, whose behavior is threatening his own educational future. Viewers will also meet the leaders and role models who are helping improve outcomes for other students through their heroic efforts and inspiring stories. These American Graduate Champions include: Thornwell Elementary School principal Julie Mahn, the daughter of sharecroppers and the first in her family to go to college; Tara King, a once troubled student now principal of West Hartsville Elementary School; Pierre Brown, one of the only male role models in his students’ lives;; Harris DeLoach, executive chairman of the Hartsville-based Sonoco Products Company, who has invested $5 million of Sonoco’s money in the city’s public school system to raise test scores;; and Darlington County Schools Superintendent Dr. Eddie Ingram, a 30-year veteran of public education and new kid on the block, mulling how his schools will fulfill the vision DeLoach describes. “The Hartsville story underscores that community leaders, educators, volunteers and parents working together as champions for students in high poverty neighborhoods, can help a young person succeed in school,” said Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. “These are American Graduate Champions—people who care about the children in their community enough to commit to keeping them on the path to graduation and lifelong learning.” The documentary 180 Days: Hartsville gives viewers a firsthand view of what it really takes for a child to succeed. “I think if you are a middle-class person, then sometimes you don’t understand the challenges that a person living in poverty has to deal with just to get to school,” said principal Julie Mahn of Thornwell Elementary School. In addition, more than a dozen stations around the country will partner with community organizations, educators, parents and local stakeholders to host town hall discussions, and to produce stories spotlighting local American Graduate champions. 180 Days: Hartsville is produced by SCETV and the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC). Executive producers include Leslie Fields-Cruz, NBPC’s executive director, Jacquie Jones and Amy Shumaker, South Carolina ETV executive producer of content. To find out more about 180 Days: Hartsville, including when and where to watch, check your local listings or visit www.PBS.org and www.blackpublicmedia.org. About American Graduate American Graduate: Let's Make it Happen was launched in 2011 with 25 public media stations in high need communities to spotlight the high school dropout crisis and focus on middle and high school student interventions. Today, more than 80 public radio and television stations in over 30 states have partnered with over 1000 community organizations and schools, as well as Alma and Colin Powell's America's Promise Alliance, Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University School of Education, Alliance for Excellent Education, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and

- more -

4 Newman’s Own Foundation to help the nation achieve a 90% graduation by 2020. With primetime and children’s programming that educates, informs, and inspires public radio and television stations — locally owned and operated — are important resources in helping to address critical issues facing today’s communities. According to a report from the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University School of Education, American Graduate stations have told the story about the dropout crisis in a way that empowered citizens to get involved, and helped community organizations break down silos to work more effectively together. About the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government's investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,400 locally-owned and -operated public television and radio stations nationwide, and is the largest single source of funding for research, technology, and program development for public radio, television and related online services. About the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) The National Black Programming Consortium is committed to enriching our democracy by educating, enlightening, empowering and engaging the American public. We support diverse voices by developing, producing and distributing innovative media about the Black experience and by investing in visionary content makers. NBPC provides quality content for public media outlets, including, among others, PBS and PBS.org and BlackPublicMedia.org, as well as other platforms, while training and mentoring the next generation of Black filmmakers. Founded in 1979, NBPC produces the AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange documentary series and manages NBPC 360, a funding and training initiative designed to accelerate the production of important Black serial and interactive content. About South Carolina ETV (SETV) South Carolina ETV is the state's public educational broadcasting network with 11 television and eight radio transmitters, and a multi-media educational system in more than 2,500 schools, colleges, businesses and government agencies. Using television, radio and the web, SCETV's mission is to enrich lives by educating children, informing and connecting citizens, celebrating our culture and environment and instilling the joy of learning.

###

For interviews or press inquiry, contact:

Cheryl L. Duncan Cheryl Duncan & Company Inc. cheryl@cherylduncanpr.com 201-552-9239 (O)

Melanie Scharler Cheryl Duncan & Company Inc. melanie@cherylduncanpr.com (917) 304-6492 (C)

Synopses

SHORT

In 180 Days: Hartsville, viewers will experience a year in the life of one Southern town’s efforts to address the urgent demand for reform in American public schools. They’ll watch what happens when the systems that can either fuel or diffuse that reform—bureaucracy, economic opportunity and fixed mindsets—interact and intersect.

MEDIUM

In 180 Days: Hartsville, viewers will experience a year in the life of one Southern town’s efforts to address the urgent demand for reform in American public schools. They’ll watch what happens when the systems that can either fuel or diffuse that reform—bureaucracy, economic opportunity and fixed mindsets—interact and intersect. Is Hartsville an anomaly, or do its successes point towards some transferrable and sustainable solutions? Can a community really change the fortunes of a generation by doubling down on their neighborhood schools? Or does the stark reality of the 21st century global economy outweigh the impact of one rural town’s efforts to prepare its children to compete in that economy?

Directors’ Statement Last year, on the Fourth of July, USA Today published an article with the social media-ready title: “Price tag for the American dream: $130K a year.” Though the dollar amount can easily be parsed and argued, at even roughly half that amount, the American dream is simply unaffordable to nearly 80% of residents in Hartsville, SC, a small town in the middle of one of our poorest states. And Hartsville is not alone. With a median income of less than $30,000 per year, Hartsville is firmly seated in a band of Southern States that extends from the Atlantic coast into the West, in which a majority of the population finds themselves on similar footing, hovering slightly above or below the poverty line. The children in these states make up a new majority where, for the first time in 50 years, low-income children outnumber their middle class peers in public schools, per a new study. When releasing that study, the Southern Education Fund opined that, “How the Southern states recognize and address this new majority is the most important challenge that the region and perhaps the nation will face in the early 21st century.” Hartsville is taking that challenge seriously. Far from the raging debate in Washington, or indeed the state capitol Columbia, over education reform or the headline grabbing systemic failures in big cities like Chicago or Detroit, Hartsville is facing its poverty problem and winning. In just four years, the little hamlet, population 7,764, has gone from one of the lowest performing districts to number three for academic achievement and number one for its graduation rate in the state. One school, Thornwell School for the Arts, saw a 16-point gain on standardized tests in just one school year. 180 Days, the award-winning PBS series, spent a year in two elementary schools in Hartsville, one, the lowest performing and one, the most rapidly improving, letting teachers, principals, district administrators, community leaders and families tell their own stories. From a single mom, working two low wage jobs with high aspirations for her three young sons to a veteran principal who was the first in her family to go to college, their stories give viewers intimate access to just what it takes to give even the most vulnerable members of our society, poor kids, a chance at the American Dream. Jacquie Jones and Garland McLaurin

Character Profiles

When it comes to the town of Hartsville, South Carolina, what you see depends on whom you ask. For Julie Mahn, Hartsville is not just her hometown;; it’s the best place to live in America. It’s where she met her husband—in middle school. It’s where the entire community came together in prayer to pull her teenage son back from death’s door. And it’s where she now serves as the white principal of the city school with the highest concentration of black children living in poverty. The daughter of sharecroppers and the first person in her family to ever go to college, Julie knows the barriers those children are struggling to overcome. In a lot of ways, she’s still struggling to overcome them herself. For Pierre Brown—recently relocated from his childhood home in Timmonsville, SC—Hartsville is a new adventure. Pierre developed a passion for education as a young boy, in part to fill a void in his life for a male role model and the kind of teacher he never had. And just a few short years into his teaching career, Pierre is beginning to understand the magnitude of his role in the lives of his students, many of whom he hopes to encourage enough to be—like Julie—the first in their families to graduate college or even high school. Tara King understands what it will take to engineer such a massive shift: finding a way to overcome the weight of local history and bringing about a systemic culture shift in how the people of Hartsville see themselves, each other and the world. It’s a history that began back in 1817 when Captain Thomas Hart bought 500 acres of virgin pine forest, purchased hundreds of enslaved Africans, and made a fortune growing cotton and raising cattle. Tara—a graduate of Hartsville’s first desegregated high school class in 1997—is beginning her first year as a principal. And, as the new head of Hartsville’s most underperforming elementary school, she is giving everything she’s got to upgrade the spotty learning environments that young people have been exposed to at her school. Monay Parran personifies the significance of what’s at stake. As a child, Monay’s own life path veered irretrievably off course when she dropped out of high school and never completed the coursework to receive her GED. A single mother of three children, Monay must now work two minimum-wage jobs in two different cities. Most nights, she doesn’t get home until 11pm. And although she knows her children’s education is the key to their own chances of forging a different path, she is limited in her ability to keep them on the straight and narrow. Indeed, her

- more -

oldest son, Rashon, has begun to spend increasing amounts of time with the wrong group of older boys in the neighborhood. A bright boy with decent grades, Rashon’s behavior has begun to concern his teachers, to the point that Monay is wondering if, despite all her efforts, the son is destined to follow the same path as the mother. For Harris DeLoach, executive chairman of Sonoco Products Company, Hartsville is, historically, a place he’s struggled to “sell” to prospective new talent. Yes, there’s the side of town with the private college, the elegant mansions that line Home Avenue and the reputation as “the little town with the big heart.” But there’s also the other side—the one with the crime rate three times the state average and with rising levels of unemployment. To recruit top talent, DeLoach knows one thing will matter more than anything else: the ability to offer a world-class public school system that can instill in each child the skills required for lifelong success—and he’s decided to spend $5 million of Sonoco’s money to make it happen. Working with community leaders, he’s created the Partnership for Unparalleled Local Scholastic Excellence (PULSE) program to provide students with incomparable educational opportunities designed to help them excel. A thirty-year veteran of public education, Darlington County Schools Superintendent Dr. Eddie Ingram is surprised by the inconsistencies of his new home. Hartsville has high rates of poverty—and it has a graduation rate of 92%. Hartsville has (thanks to the desegregation) richly diverse schools, yet its residents still lead, in most other aspects, segregated lives. And Hartsville has a zip code that places it squarely in the center of what has become known as the “corridor of shame,” a stretch of rural, impoverished South Carolina schools along I-95, yet its learning institutions intend to become a national model for excellence. As Ingram walks and listens, however, he wonders how his schools will fulfill the vision DeLoach is describing. On one level, they have all the elements of success in place: $5 million of funding from Sonoco to fuel their efforts; a district that already boasts some of the highest-achieving schools in the state; and a coalition of all the town’s key partners pledging to do whatever they can to help. On another level, though, Ingram knows that American public education is in the midst of its biggest tectonic shifts in a generation. He knows that the higher-level thinking skills young people need to navigate the 21st century global economy don’t align well with a policy climate that measures schools solely by basic-skills standardized test scores. And he knows that even the best interventions at the school-level are often powerless to impact the economic prospects of a community’s poorest families. Together, these adults are hoping that Hartsville’s public schools can become a model for all schools across the country—not just by preventing kids from dropping out, but by inspiring them to reach for the highest levels of success. “I realized we may have a situation here that is small enough that we might be able to control it, and that if we could figure out a way to get it right, then others might try to replicate it,” DeLoach explained one summer day while giving Hartsville’s new superintendent of schools, Edward Ingram, a tour of the his company’s manufacturing plant. “Folks don’t realize that this is where it all begins.”

Statistics

EDUCATION AND POVERTY

As of 2013, low-income students are now a majority (51 percent) of the schoolchildren attending the nation’s public schools, according to data collected from the states by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

Though most of the states with a majority of low income students are found in the South and the West, it is a problem across the country. In 40 of the 50 states, low income students comprised no less than 40 percent of all public schoolchildren.

EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA

In 2013, seven of the 10 states with the worst scores on standardized tests were in the South.

By one measure, South Carolina ranked 45th out of 51 states and the District of Columbia.

HARTSVILLE SCHOOLS

West Hartsville Elementary and Thornwell School of the Arts are two of six elementary schools in Hartsville, SC.

Title I is a federal program that provides funding to schools with a high percentage of students from low-income families. In 2013, nearly all of the students at Thornwell met the definition for Title I.

During the 2012-2013 school year, Hartsville’s Thornwell School of the Arts saw a 16-point gain in standardized test scores. It is now one of the most rapidly improving schools in the state of South Carolina.

In 2009, Darlington County Schools, which includes Hartsville, were rated "below average" on the South Carolina State Report Card. In 2013, Darlington Schools were rated "excellent." Also in 2013, the district was ranked third out of 81 in the state for academic achievement.

Hartsville is unique in its ability to leverage numerous public and private partnerships to promote scholastic achievement at all grade levels. Local businesses, industries, schools and other enterprises work together to offer students academic opportunities that are not available in other school districts in South Carolina.

POVERTY

In 2013, the federal poverty threshold for a family of four was $23,550.

A worker that earns the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour has to work more than 60 hours a week to reach the threshold for poverty.

A minimum wage worker must work more than 100 hours every week to reach South Carolina's median income of $38,560.

SONOCO

Founded in 1899 in Hartsville, Sonoco Products Company has 19,900 employees in more than 335 operations in 33 countries. Five thousand employees are based in the Hartsville area.

In 2011, Sonoco, together with the Darlington County School District, the Governor's School for Science and Mathematics and Coker College founded Partners for Unparalleled Local Scholastic Excellence (PULSE) to support students in Hartville's schools. PULSE provides professional development for teachers, a mentoring program, Boy Scouts and accelerated learning opportunities.

Since PULSE was founded, Hartsville schools have reached and are already in the top 25% of test scores in the state.

Credits

180 Days: Hartsville is produced by SOUTH CAROLINA ETV (SCETV) and THE NATIONAL BLACK PROGRAMMING CONSORTIUM (NBPC)

And distributed by PBS

Executive Producers LESLIE A. FIELDS-CRUZ, JACQUE JONES, AMY SHUMAKER

Series Producers and Directors Jacquie Jones Garland McLaurin

Music Derrick Hodge

Editor Adam Lingo

Funders

With additional funding by: South Carolina Educational Communications, Inc. and Wyncote Foundation.

Bios

JACQUIE JONES, Executive Producer, Producer and Director Jacquie Jones is a producer, writer and director of documentary films. Her 2013 series for PBS, 180 Days: A Year Inside an American High School, won a Peabody Award, a Gracie Award and was a finalist for the Media for a Just Society Award for best film and an IDA Award for best limited series. Her other work includes Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery (also a Peabody winner), From Behind Closed Doors: Sex in the 20th Century and the series Matters of Race. Jacquie was formerly the executive director of the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC), a 30-year-old media arts organization that funds, distributes and produces public interest media for all platforms, where she instituted a range of innovative digital initiatives.

GARLAND MCLAURIN, Co-Producer and Co-Director Garland McLaurin works in television and film in the United States and abroad. He recently co-directed and co-produced a second installment of the Peabody winning documentary series, 180 Days, the latest being 180 Days: Hartsville. He served as co-cinematographer on Wes Moore’s Coming Back documentary series, highlighting veterans and for the award-winning documentary The New Black by filmmaker Yoruba Richen, which explores the fight for marriage equality in the African American community. His other professional credits include: field producer on CNN’s Black in America 4, as well as producer/shooter for WAMU 88.5 American University and BET’s special Homecoming: The Killing of DJ Henry. Additional past digital media work includes work for Black Public Media, Time.com, the New York Times video división and the National Geographic digital news division.

LESLIE FIELDS-CRUZ, Executive Producer Leslie Fields-Cruz joined NBPC in 2001 and was appointed its Executive Director in November 2014. Prior to her appointment she was the organization’s VP of Operations and Programs overseeing the Program Development Fund and supervising program distribution to PBS including producing all previous seasons of the documentary series AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange.

Leslie has served on funding juries for ITVS, The Jerome Foundation and The Bush Foundation. She is often invited to speak on panels at conferences and festivals in the US and abroad.

Prior to joining NBPC, Leslie served as a Program Coordinator at the Creative Capital Foundation and was the Membership Director at the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers (AIVF). She served on the board of Women Make Movies from 2004 to 2013.

AMY SHUMAKER, Executive Producer Amy Shumaker is Executive Producer of Content at the South Carolina Educational Television Network with more than 25 years of experience in public television. She is currently the executive producer for SCETV Presents national programming which includes the Peabody Award-winning series A Chef’s Life, Expeditions with Patrick McMillan, The Blueprint: The Story of Adventist Education, Journey to Planet Earth – Extreme Realities, The Education of Harvey Gantt and For Your Home with Vicki Payne.

She was the Executive Producer for SCETV’s weekly independent film series Southern Lens and launched the regional Emmy award-winning documentary series Carolina Stories. Amy serves as the U.S. National Coordinator for INPUT- International Public Television Screening Conference and manages the U.S. INPUT Secretariat at SCETV.

Community Engagement Programs As part of the efforts surrounding the broadcast of the American Graduate special 180 Days: Hartsville, public televisión stations across the country will partner with community organizations, educators, parents and local stakeholders to host town hall discussions and produce local stories spotlighting American Graduate champions. American Graduate Champions are parents and volunteers who play an active role in improving educational outcomes for students. Participating stations/cities include:

CA: Los Angeles: KLCS

Oakland: KQED CT: Hartford: CPBN FL: Jacksonville: WJCT

Tampa: WUSF GA: Atlanta: Public Broadcasting Atlanta MD: Baltimore: Maryland Public Television MI: Detroit: Detroit Public Television Jackson: WKAR—Michigan State University MO: Warrensburg: KMOS MS: Jackson: Mississippi Public

Broadcasting

NC: Research Triangle Park: UNC-TV Charlotte: WTVI NY: New York City: WNET OH: Toledo: WGTE PA: Philadelphia: WHYY RI: Providence: Rhode Island PBS SC: Hartsville: SCETV TX: Houston: Houston Public Media VA: Norfolk: WHRO WI: Milwaukee: MPTV

Some additional cities may be added.