(enchanted music) - [Announcer] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

(cheerful music) - Just ahead on Carolina Impact.

- It's the sound of music and applause (audience applauds) as live concerts make a comeback after COVID.

I'm Jeff Sonier, outside the Belk Theater.

Stick around, we'll show you who's on stage and also who's in the audience.

- [Amy] Plus, we learn about a new ministerial Alliance committed to helping the educational disparities for African-American students.

And we'll have a business profile on a local company seeing success, while being committed to doing good.

Carolina Impact starts, right now.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Carolina Impact.

Covering the issues, people, and places that impact you.

This is Carolina Impact.

(upbeat music) - Good evening, thanks so much for joining us.

I'm Amy Burkett.

When's the last time you heard live music?

Not live online or live on television, but really live, in concert on a stage, sitting in an audience.

Well, after months of COVID cancellations, Charlotte summer concert season is unofficially underway.

With the first performance before a live audience in more than a year by the Charlotte Symphony.

PBS Charlotte's Jeff Sonier takes us inside Belk Theater with more.

- Yeah, for months here at the Belk and the Blumenthal and other Charlotte stages.

We've been on the outside looking in, but now, well.

(loud orchestral music) (scanner beeps) They're scanning our no-touch tickets again.

(scanner peeps) (musical ringtone) Showing us to our socially distanced seats.

- [Jeff] Any seat is a good seat tonight right?

- [Diane] Any seat is a good seat tonight.

- [Jeff] And treating us to what COVID took away from us.

- Coming to a concert is what is right for us.

- [Jeff] What we've all missed for so long.

- It's exciting to be back and know that this is the first.

(audience applauds) - [Jeff] Symphony fans standing and cheering again.

Symphony musicians hearing again, their applause.

The cheers' music to everybody's ears.

And then after more than a year, finally, the music itself.

(symphony music) (symphony music) (symphony music) - [David] And it's funny because, when you've been deprived of something, and you then get it back.

It sounds even bigger than before.

(Jeff chuckles) Bigger and richer.

- [Jeff] David Fisk is the new Charlotte Symphony CEO.

Talking about his orchestra, our orchestra.

And what it means being first.

Bringing back live music to Charlotte.

(symphony music) - Although we're the first, we want to make sure people feel extremely comfortable of the idea of coming back.

We have been playing with small groups of musicians through the pandemic.

Socially distanced, masked.

But now that we've got everybody vaccinated and getting a point of safety, for us to be able to welcome back more musicians on the stage.

(symphony music) - [Jeff] They're also welcoming back symphony fans, like Doug and Diane Doak.

- You know, we are so glad our names got picked.

- [Jeff] Feeling like they won the live concert lottery, getting two have those first 250 available tickets.

- [Diane] And we're not in our regular seats.

They couldn't promise our regular seats, but we don't care.

(all laugh) We'll be anywhere in the building.

(symphony music) Streaming is wonderful, but it's not like being here in person, members of the audience.

It's just, it's a community, that you don't have online.

(violin solo) - [David] And musicians need to play together.

You know, they're desperate to come back and be with each other again.

And the same thing with the audience.

You know, we've all been hungering for those social occasions.

And the way that music acts on us as humans, means that I think people will really almost feel it physically.

When they hear music again for the first time live.

There is nothing like it, in the best of times.

We've been through the worst of times.

- [Jeff] For music lovers, the absolute worst of times may have been summer 2020.

When we all missed out, not just on the Symphony's live concerts, but also a string of touring shows featuring some of music's biggest acts.

(The Rolling Stones "Little Queenie") ♪There she is again standing over by the record machine ♪ - [Rick] They're The Rolling Stones.

So they're kind of cemented in time.

And especially with these stadium shows, part of it is the spectacle of it.

And that you're up there with 50, 60 thousand other people.

(The Rolling Stones "Sympathy For The Devil") ♪ Pleased to meet you ♪ ♪ Hope you guessed my name ♪ - [Jeff] The first time Rick Johnston saw The Rolling Stones in Charlotte, it was 1999.

- [Rick] And my dad actually surprised me with tickets 'cause I was in college at USC at the time.

- [Jeff] So Dad got tickets the first time, - [Rick] Mhmm.

- [Jeff] at the old Colosseum, - [Rick] Yup.

- [Jeff] and you got them the second time?

- [Rick] Yeah.

And I've got them for this one.

- [Jeff] But that was last summer.

And Rick, his dad, and thousands of other Charlotte Stones fans have been waiting ever since.

After COVID put the Stones' show and a whole series of Charlotte concerts at the stadium on hold.

(The Rolling Stones "Start Me Up") ♪ You make a grown man cry ♪ - Live music has been high on our list.

It's been our priority.

And so we're incredibly excited to announce this morning that we're back in the concert business.

(crowd cheering) - And now here it is, that brand new song from Garth, who will be in town before you know it.

A little help from Blake Shelton, it is called Dive Bar.

On Country 103.7, Carolina's new country.

(Garth Brooks "Dive Bar" feat.

Blake Shelton) ♪ Turn that bottle up and drank it ♪ ♪ Crank that jukebox up and hank it ♪ ♪ Bartender pour another round ♪ - [Jeff] Last summer's sold out Garth Brooks show in Charlotte has been scheduled and rescheduled five times.

From May, 2020 to June, 2022 to October, 2020 to April, 2021.

And now finally, hopefully, in September.

(Garth Brooks "Dive Bar" feat.

Blake Shelton) - You ready?

- Well it's about time.

(chuckles) Was our first reaction.

- [Rob] It's not just a concert.

Garth is an event.

That you don't wanna miss.

You wanna be there.

To say years from now, "that I was at the show when Garth was in town at the Bank of America Stage".

(Garth Brooks "Dive Bar" feat.

Blake Shelton) - [Jeff] And while Charlotte's biggest stages for touring concerts figure out what comes next.

(electric guitar solo) - Sing it with us!

♪ And the lights go down in the city ♪ - [Jeff] Community concerts, like this one in Matthews, are already scaling down, spacing out, painting socially distance circles in the grass.

Where concert fans can sit on their lawn chairs and enjoy the music.

♪ Ohhh, ohh ohh ♪ - [Jeff] Matthews does this every two weeks on Friday nights.

Local bands on a local stage, all summer long.

(crowd cheers and claps) - We're really happy to be able to fill that void for people.

Until those large shows come in, while we love having our big crowds, we'll be very happy with 350 safe people.

- [Jeff] Yeah, safe and small, that's not so bad.

- It's not so bad.

It's been a change for us.

(concert music) - [Jeff] But a change, that for now, we can all go along with, and maybe even sing along with.

(concert music) (chuckles) Yeah, whether it's a concert sing along in Matthews or a symphony standing ovation here at the Blumenthal.

For live music fans, well, it really is starting to feel and sound like normal again.

Amy.

- Thank you so much Jeff.

Hearing that applause, really was music to my ears.

If you're craving concerts again, or looking for tickets to the next Charlotte Symphony performance, check out our website, www.pbscharlotte.org We'll link you to the Symphony's summer schedule with dates and tickets for all upcoming live performances.

There's also a link to the town of Matthews summer long outdoor concert series.

Let's turn to education now.

Disparities in education, here in Charlotte Mecklenburg schools has prompted the formation of a Ministerial Alliance, that is calling on the public and parents to take a closer look at widening education gaps for African-American students.

As Bea Thompson explains the ecumenical organization says the consequences of no action will affect generations to come.

(swoosh sound) - Can everybody see?

Adriana wrote nice and big.

I can clearly see her letters.

(swoosh sound) (upbeat piano music) Looks really nice.

- Pa-ii-gg.

Very good, great jobs guys.

- [Dr. Monte] There was no one willing to face the facts about our situation.

- [Bea] An educational alarm is being raised in Charlotte.

- My concern is, why is it we're not holding the School Board accountable for what they were elected to do?

- And so if you're in the test, go ahead and exit out of it.

- [Bea] And voices of concern are also being raised.

- To sound the alarm, to let the various members of our community at large know how bad the failure rate is amongst African-American students in Charlotte Mecklenburg schools.

- [Bea] In a year where a pandemic has dominated the headlines, there's an ominous educational reality, with an even deeper impact for African-American students.

That has been brewing, right here in Charlotte.

- We were talking about the number of African-American kids who were performing below grade level, and not even talking about career and college ready.

That's a higher standard.

But just kids who are reading and doing on grade level.

And that number was over 65%.

- [Bea] Dr. Dennis Williams knows education.

The former West Mecklenburg principal, and interim superintendent, for Charlotte Mecklenburg, reached out to other pastors.

Who then form the African-American Faith Alliance for Educational Advancement.

(children cheering) Representing various denominations and thousands in the community.

For these church leaders, the lack of progress being made by minority students is striking.

- We've received things, reports and things that we've known already but, we haven't seen a plan.

We haven't received a plan, heard a plan, that we're, we think are suitable to really turn this dire bleak picture around.

And I'm.. That certainly is no understatement for African-American students.

(melancholy band music) - [Bea] Their collective concern prompted the Alliance to take out a full page ad in the Charlotte Observer, to point out the disparities, and the dismal rates of passing by African-American students as noted by CMS.

- One number that really blew me away.

If you look at math at the high school level in terms of those kids who are African-American who are ready for college or the workforce, only 10%.

- [Bea] A closer examination of the numbers also shows CMS may not be providing the plans that the state requires to aid faltering students.

- 65% or below.

The state says that if you below grade level, there's a state mandated plan that you must have in place, a multi-tiered system of support.

And when we look to see for these kids, these 65% that are below grade level, do they have a plan in place?

No.

3% of them do.

That's inexcusable.

- The lowest performing schools are in my district.

District Two, District Three and District Four.

- [Dr. Dennis] And they are majority African-American.

- They are African-Americans, African-Americans.

- [Bea] The former teacher and widowed, former First Lady of a major Charlotte church, Commissioner Vilma Leake also points out churches offered to aid in closing the educational divide during the pandemic.

- During this period, you had over 3000 or 6,000 black children that were never found and brought into the process, who did not have computers, who were not afforded the opportunity as was offered to the school system.

To utilize churches who have wifi, who have teachers in their buildings as members of the congregation.

(children talking) - [Bea] Yet the Alliance points out, the disparities were apparent long before the pandemic.

- Even before the pandemic, students were failing.

African-American students were failing.

These numbers that we've shared, that we share with them and that we're sharing with you.

This did not happen as a result of the pandemic.

How do we answer this problem after the pandemic?

And once things have gotten worse?

- [Bea] The Mecklenburg County Commission provides 64% of the school budget.

And Commissioner Leake says, parents have to demand accountability.

- I'm so tired of the community saying we're not giving them enough money.

Is it money?

Or is it making sure that we hold these people accountable for producing programs that will help our children read and write and do arithmetic?

- [Bea] The faith Alliance has talked with the superintendent and provided a call to action plan.

As for the ministers, they know this battle will take prayers and much more.

- We do want everyone to know that the success of students, particularly black and brown students, are our primary concern.

And we will be unrelenting until we get a right course of action.

- At the end of the day, if we don't, kids and families are going to suffer for generations to come.

- [Bea] For Carolina Impact, I'm Bea Thompson reporting.

- Thank you so much Bea.

We requested an interview from CMS superintendent Earnest Winston, but were told by a communication staff member that he would not be available until after our deadline.

Well, in terms of population and growth, the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District ranks in the top 20 of largest systems in the United States.

With that many students, it's sometimes may be hard for those with special needs to get the personalized attention they require.

That's where one prominent Charlotte philanthropist and her team have stepped up to help.

Carolina Impact's Jason Terzis has more.

(swoosh sound) (upbeat music) (vehicles passing by) - [Jason] From the outside, it looks like an ordinary old house and it is.

There's a family inside.

But it's not your typical family.

- The children that we serve are uniquely different.

- [Jason] This is the Halton School in Huntersville.

A private independent school created specifically to serve children on the autism spectrum.

It's the first of its kind in the area.

- And there's a huge need.

And I don't think people realize how big the need is.

- The need is growing.

It's not getting smaller.

It's not going to get smaller.

It's only going to get bigger.

- [Jason] The school is the brainchild of philanthropist Dale Halton and executive director, Jennifer Nichols.

The ladies started by creating the nonprofit Aspire, Carolina's foundation with a goal of creating schools to help underserved children.

- Well, it goes back to my first experience dealing with children with learning disabilities.

I was a little bit involved with Door Academy.

I would read to them, and I love to read to children.

And these little kids, just stole my heart.

And then we realized that, there's not enough help for these children in their public school system.

- So when the board approached me and explained that this is going to actually fill that void, I was all over it.

- [Jason] Veteran special educator, Heidi Bertino-Daum was hired to lead the school.

She was tasked with hiring teachers, and creating an entire academic program to best serve students' needs.

- I've been given the latitude to hire the best of the best.

- This tells you that you have two have those, right?

- [Jason] Housed in the historic Barnett and McCoy homes, both dating back to the 1880's.

The Halton School officially opened in the fall of 2019 for students in grades three through eight.

- It was a dream come true.

Like when you spend a year thinking that you're going to spend the rest of his school career homeschooling because there aren't any other options, it can be a little down sometimes.

But finding the right option, or the right fit for him, it was life-changing.

- [Jason] Offering smaller classes, increased individual attention, and a curriculum designed for kids with autism, Asperger's, Attention Deficit Disorder or anxiety.

One of the school's main goals is to create a home away from home.

- Unfortunately, the experiences that our kids had in previous settings have made it so that they don't trust adults.

- And many of them have been traumatized in other school settings.

By the time they get to us, they have lots of individual needs.

- It's just, (sighs) some stories bring tears to your eyes.

And sometimes when I talk about it, (voice shakes) I have a hard I'm not crying.

Because these are the children that need our help so desperately, and we can change lives, and we can make them successful.

(joyful ukulele music) - [Jason] Contrary to what some people may think, these are smart kids, with average to above average IQ's.

They do their best with hands-on, project based learning but it's the social communication where many need the most assistance.

- [Dale] Are you reading the Harry Potter book?

- Yeah.

- Are you enjoying it?

- Yeah.

- We had children who came to us who had not been on play dates, who hadn't been to birthday parties or sleepovers with someone other than family.

- [Jason] Nuances like body language and facial expressions, where most people innately pick up on, these kids need to be taught.

- Social skills, making friends, keeping friends.

The soft skills that we talk about as adults, greetings and simple conversations are really, can be very challenging.

- Given the opportunity and taught the way they learn, they can Excel.

They have that ability.

That's what we want them to do.

- [Jason] Serving five children its first school year, the Halton School has 11 students this year.

With one of them, coming all the way from Winston, Salem.

Enrollment is expected to double again next fall.

- We've seen a tremendous amount of academic growth from them, which is wonderful.

But probably more importantly, we've seen the social growth in them that truly is unimaginable.

- So he was really able to just feel comfortable with everybody and the other kids.

And he's grown so much, and he's confident and he has friends.

And he's kind of like the cool kid, that everybody wants to hang out with, which is nice to see.

- [Jason] The school is named in honor of Halton, who has supported a wide range of educational advancements in the area.

And as it turns out, this is just the beginning.

Plans for the 25 acre campus include a private K-12 school for students with learning differences and a public charter high school, focusing on technical and career training.

Things like HVAC, plumbing, electrical, IT and culinary.

It too, will be the first of its kind in the state.

- So we're ready.

We have our permit, we have everything we need.

We just need to raise the funds.

And then we can build that building.

- Once people come here and see the facility that we have and what we've got planned, most people are extremely impressed with what we've done in a very short time.

- [Jason] Helping those with special needs reach their full potential.

It's what the Halton School is all about.

For Carolina Impact, I'm Jason Terzis reporting.

- Thanks Jason.

If you'd like to help with the expansion of the school, you can find more information about the May 15th fundraiser on our website at www.pbscharlotte.org And finally, tonight.

We've got a business profile for you.

On a company that started out in a garage and has grown to a full service print and apparel store in Camp North End.

Macfly Fresh has a mission to help businesses and artists market themselves.

And to give back to the community, not just locally but internationally.

Producer, Russ Hunsinger has details.

(swoosh sound) (upbeat piano and tambourine music) - [Eric] One of the things that we said, when we first started was that we wanted this place to be the Motown of screen printing and fashion.

(Barry Gordy Motown music) And not really understanding what I was saying there but I knew Barry Gordy was the man.

And he produced so many hits out of his spot, up there in Detroit, out of Motown, right?

So Macfly, we have the studio space.

Same thing as a music studio, right?

We have multiple artists that we work with, right?

We want these artists to come in here, get the best quality experience, learn their process, learn the screen-printing game.

We want them to have that knowledge and understand what quality looks like.

Understand what customer service looks like.

You know and understand what good business as a whole looks like.

(spray paint hissing) (Barry Gordy "Money") ♪ What I want ♪ ♪ That's what I want ♪ - Macfly for us, is a full service creative design firm, specializing in apparel decoration.

So that means screen printing, embroidery, transfers.

- [Eric] We wanted to offer access and knowledge to the community to help uplift the economic mobility situation here in Charlotte.

But Macfly roles in the artist community is that we help show artists other ways to monetize what they do.

- [Ramon] I'm a local artist.

I do a lot of work, acrylic on canvas.

And I came over here to collaborate with these guys, to give them my idea on what I wanted on a denim jacket, kind of sketched it out, gave my idea.

They printed it.

I was able to come up with a concept with these guys and get it out a lot quicker than just me free handing it.

- [Eric] We do a lot of work with nonprofits, schools, and universities.

Because in addition to the screen printing, we do kind of live activations.

Where we go out to schools, museums, festivals, and do printing on location, and really teach the art of screen printing.

Here at MacFly, we like to work with a lot of young people and we have an internship program.

That's an example of how we like to teach the community but also bring them in and actually empower them to actually make money from an art or skill that they feel like they really have passion for.

Right?

And there's nothing like making money from your passion, especially at a young age.

(calm, hopeful music) I am Congolese.

Born here in America, right here in Charlotte, North Carolina.

We took a trip to Goma in 2014.

And while we were there, we taught for three weeks, these youth from the ages of 12 to 18, how to screen print, how to market a fashion business.

From there, those students connected me also with individuals and artisans in the community.

So we decided at that point in time, that since we were there, we wanted to create partnerships.

To where they could use our designs, create fashion forward products using their materials in the Congo, ship them to us, for us to be able to distribute to the global market.

Right?

So this way now, the artisans are getting paid.

We have a continual pipeline of sustainable business that continues.

- [Taj] You know, we could do a hundred piece, 200 piece, thousand piece jobs all day and all night.

That's fine.

That's what keeps the lights on here.

But at the same time, it's when we go out into the community and teach the art of screen printing at a school or a festival, that we really feel like our day was worth it.

And that we're making a change, we're making a difference.

(Marvin Gaye "What's Going On") ♪ Ohh what's going on ♪ ♪ What's going on ♪ ♪ What's going on ♪ ♪ What's going on ♪ ♪ What's going on ♪ ♪ Yeaah ♪ - [Eric] This place is life.

It's the heartbeat of everything that I want to leave as a legacy, here on this earth, here in Charlotte.

You know, and I want this legacy to stretch from Charlotte to the Congo.

♪ Yeah yeah yeah ♪ - Thanks Russ.

That's one of those stories that just makes you smile.

Congratulations Macfly Fresh, on all your success and commitment to doing good.

(cheerful music) Well, that's all the time we have this evening.

Thanks so much for your time, we always appreciate it.

And we look forward to seeing you back here again.

Next time, on Carolina Impact.

Good night my friends.

(cheerful music) (cheerful music) (cheerful music) (cheerful music) (cheerful music) (cheerful music) (cheerful music) (cheerful music) (cheerful music) (cheerful music) (cheerful music fades) (enchanted music) - [Announcer] A production of PBS, Charlotte.