• Behind Talks to Close CHCCS Schools
  • A Local Music Festival with DIY Spirit
  • Celebrating A Belgian Jazz Guitarist in Carrboro
  • What It’s Like to Be a Political Spouse in NC
  • Meet Cary’s Historical Heroines

Good morning, readers.

At least seven school districts across the state voted to close schools last year. Yet more are considering the move. 

Here in the Triangle, even one of the state’s most highly ranked districts, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (my alma mater), has not been spared as birth rates and enrollment fall, funding declines, and operational costs go up. And last week, INDY’s Chase Pellegrini de Paur reported Durham Public Schools are also starting to discuss consolidating older schools that are driving a $1 billion maintenance backlog.

For The Assembly, Carli Brosseau dives into what’s behind the need to close CHCCS schools, district leaders’ “meandering approach” in choosing them, and how districts around the state are facing similar challenges.

“Without reducing fixed costs, the district will have no money to reinvest in a new vision, [Superintendent Rodney] Trice and his staff have warned,” Carli writes. “They will have no money to expand pre-kindergarten programming, language programming, career and technical education, or any other community priority. Still, no parent wants their kid’s school to close.”

Read more below and have a good Tuesday.

—Chase

Read the Full Story on INDYWeek.com

The latest from INDY, plus other stories around the state you’ll want to read. Handpicked every day by INDY Editor-in-Chief Sarah Willets.

Attendees at 2025's Big Pop Show. Photo by Braeden Long.

Band Together

The Big Pop Show festival, which sprawls throughout the Triangle March 20-23, “will give visitors an authentic taste of what it’s like to live here and love music,” Brian Howe writes for the INDY.

Onyx Club Boys at the 2019 Django Reinhardt Festival. Photo by Brian Mullins.

Guitar Hero

Carrboro’s Django Reinhardt festival returns this weekend to celebrate the Belgian jazz guitarist and the communal spirit of his genre, Russ Campbell writes for the INDY.

Other Halves

The plus-ones of elected officials and candidates have to be an asset—whether they want to or not. Away from the cameras, they also cope with threats of harm, The Assembly reports.

Sponsored Content

STATE: NOTUS reports on the median net worth of North Carolina’s congressional delegates and their stances on whether lawmakers should be allowed to own individual stocks.

STATE: North Carolina counties are expected to pay an additional $69 million to fund SNAP food benefits after the federal share was reduced. Border Belt Independent has a county-level breakdown.

EDUCATION: The Duke Chronicle has a story on one business school professor who records classes and uses AI to analyze student participation.

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