High School Internet Network Wins Rhode Island School Association Endorsement; Association Joins Others Across the U.S. in Getting Into the Internet Game

Business Wire, April 5, 2000

Business Editors & Education Writers

PROVIDENCE, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 5, 2000

The Rhode Island Interscholastic League (RIIL) announced today that is has entered an exclusive arrangement with iHigh.com to provide the Association with an Internet site that provides high school news, sports statistics, schedules and student feature stories.

High schools in Rhode Island now can work with iHigh.com to design and maintain their school Web page, which will be linked to other high schools across the country. iHigh.com is the only web site exclusively approved by and partnered with the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS). Rhode Island is the 17th state to connect with iHigh.com.

The iHigh.com network gives the nation's high school students a school-approved Internet connection through which they can learn about each other, their schools and voice their opinions. More important, students gain technological skills, which are in great demand by employers nationwide. The agreement also allows schools to advertise local businesses on their page and use those advertising dollars for school programs.

"iHigh.com provides the RIIL and its member schools an opportunity to be a part of a national site that is singularly committed to the philosophy and mission of the 51 state high school associations under the umbrella of the NFHS," said Richard Lynch, Executive Director of the RIIL.

The arrangement allows Rhode Island high schools to produce world-class Web sites through iHigh.com's SchoolToolz(C) system. The service is free to high schools and allows them to augment their current Web sites with sophisticated and easy-to-use publishing tools through which all stories, schedules and stats tie into a network of sites across the country. Students create and maintain their sites under the direction of a teacher or coach to key in information.

"At iHigh.com, we are focused on enriching the high school sports and activities experience. This site is about high schools students, for high school students, by high school students," said Rick Ford, iHigh.com's CEO. "iHigh.com is the only site to include all the features important to students, including on-line surveys, music reviews and opportunities to email questions to celebrities. In addition, we offer schools a new fundraising opportunity - selling banner ads on their sites to local businesses."

Introduced last August in partnership with the NFHS, some individual state association members of the iHigh.com network include Massachusetts, Maine, California, Colorado, Illinois, Tennessee, Wyoming, Texas, New Mexico and North Carolina. iHigh.com has an office in each member state, with its national headquarters located in Lexington, Kentucky. The company employs 60 people, plus 11 high school interns who design Web sites, develop content and serve as a sounding board to ensure that the site appeals to high school students.

For more information or a media kit, log onto www.iHigh.com or call Henry Bebrowsky, iHigh.com Marketing, 800/648-7211.