This story originally published in The 9th Street Journal.
Over half of Durham Public Schools high schoolers were chronically absent in the first six months of the current school year — yet another challenge for a district already facing state underfunding and declining enrollment.
“In no way are we where we need to be with this data and with our students…,” school board member Natalie Beyer lamented at Thursday’s school board meeting. “This is grim…It’s just embarrassing for Durham to be this egregiously bad.”…