Schools in the UNC System will soon have new company once the General Assembly approves the addition of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, a public residential high school for advanced juniors and seniors located in Durham.

The Board of Trustees for NCSSM accepted the UNC Board of Governors’ invitation to the system and the school expects to soon be under UNC governance, Craig Roe, director of communications at NCSSM, said.

“We’re glad to be affiliated with a university system as reputable as North Carolina’s,” Roe said.

While the change in governance will do little to affect the funding or day-to-day operation of the school, Roe said he hopes the school will have access to greater resources through its inclusion in the system.

Access to labs at universities and the opportunity to work with higher-level researchers are possible benefits that the school might accrue from the change, he said.

According to Roe, the university system is also interested in the distance learning program at NCSSM, which he said ranks as one of the best in the state.

“[The addition of NCSSM] will allow everybody to benefit from our complimentary efforts and it will improve the accountability,” Leslie Winner, general counsel for the UNC system, said.

The Board of Governors extended the invitation to the school to help coordinate its efforts to improve math and science education throughout the state with those of the UNC system, efforts that system president Erskine Bowles has emphasized in recent weeks, Winner said.

The move will also clarify the management and accountability of the school, she said.

With the addition, NCSSM will have input on decisions made by the Board of Governors, although it is uncertain what their relationship will be with the other schools in the system.

“The leadership of the School of Science and Math will be at the table,” Winner said.

The students of NCSSM will likely be viewed differently than students from the peer universities, Lee Hyde, vice president of finance for the Association of Student Governments, said.

ASG represents all the 190,000 students who attend institutions in the UNC system. However, Hyde does not believe that students from the Science and Math school will join ASG if the school is admitted to the system.

“There have been absolutely no talks, and there would be no reason. They have completely different interests,” Hyde said.

Hyde did note that the students would have the option of joining ASG if they chose to pay the membership fee of $1. But since the school charges no tuition or fees, he viewed that as unlikely.

“It would be irresponsible for the school to pay $500 for their students to become members of ASG because they wouldn’t get the same benefits,” Hyde said.

NCSSM currently enrolls 612 students from 90 of the 100 counties in North Carolina, Roe said.

“No high school represents a better cross-section of the state than ours,” Roe said.

The earliest that the school could be officially admitted into the system is when the General Assembly begins its session in May, Roe said.

“North Carolina has one of the best Science and Math schools in the country, if not the best,” he said.