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U.S. Selects Greensboro Site To House Unaccompanied Minors

In this June 20, 2018, file photo, children walk in a line outside the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children, a former Job Corps site that now houses them in Homestead, Fla. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

The site of the former American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro will become a housing and education facility for unaccompanied refugee children. 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has selected the location to serve as a self-contained transitional campus for unaccompanied refugee minors.  

Guilford County and City of Greensboro officials confirmed on Friday that HHS has signed a lease with the academy, whose grounds have been vacant for several years.

Guilford County Board of Commissioners chairman Skip Alston released a statement praising the decision and emphasizing that this will be a transition site for unaccompanied minors, not a permanent home.

Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan also welcomed the news and noted that since the federal government is providing services, the site will not be a burden on local resources.

According to a news release, hiring for about 800 positions is underway, with a particular need for Spanish-speaking professionals. Officials with the academy say that children will start arriving on-campus in July. 

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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