High Point University is new home of Governor's School West

The eastern campus of the Governor's School — a summer program for accomplished high school students — will remain at Meredith College in Raleigh.

In a release, Sandra Doran, Salem's interim president, said hosting the Governor's School "would have been difficult" because the school is planning maintenance and repairs at several academic buildings and residence halls this summer.

Salem has been the host of the Governor's School since the program was established in 1963. The state added a second campus in 1978 at St. Andrews University in Laurinburg and moved the program to Meredith in 2000.

In a news release issued by the State Board of Education and the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, state education officials said High Point University "offers an innovative and transformational campus" for the western campus.

Each Governor's School campus can take up to 325 rising juniors and seniors, who are nominated by their schools and school districts to attend. During the five-and-a-half-week program, students can take classes in liberal arts, language and performing and visual arts. The curriculum is largely the same at the two campuses.

North Carolina's Governor's School is the nation's oldest statewide summer residential program for talented high school students.

Students selected for this year's Governor's School were notified earlier this month. The summer 2019 program starts June 16.