🗞️ A Kernersville school just landed in the state's top 12

🗞️ A regional hiring event brings local government jobs to the Rec Center

🗞️ The trinket box on Sun Brook Drive

🗞️ What is already on the calendar between now and October

⛈️ Showers and thunderstorms likely | High: 86°F | Low: 67°F

Friday is the wet one. Showers and thunderstorms are likely through the day with a high near 86 and a light east wind, and the chance of rain sits near 60 percent before climbing to 80 percent after dark. Figure on a half inch to three quarters of an inch during the day and another three quarters of an inch to an inch overnight, with the heaviest stretch running from late afternoon into midnight. Anything outdoors after work is a coin flip, so keep an eye on the radar. The good news is that it moves out quickly. Saturday comes back to 85 with only a 20 percent chance of a late-afternoon storm, which should leave the Home Grown Arts Festival in good shape, and Sunday is sunny and 85 with a low near 62. Take the umbrella today and save the outdoor plans for the weekend.

Rankings are rankings, but this one is worth a minute.

N.C. Leadership Academy, the charter school here in Kernersville, came in at No. 12 among North Carolina high schools in the 2026-27 U.S. News & World Report Best High Schools rankings, released Aug. 18. That is the highest finish of any school in Forsyth County.

U.S. News ranked 604 North Carolina schools this year using data from the 2023-24 school year. Alongside the state finish, NCLA came in at No. 99 nationally among charter schools and No. 69 nationally on the magazine's separate STEM rankings, which is third best in the state on that measure.

It is worth being clear about what a ranking like this does and does not tell you. The formula leans on college readiness, advanced coursework and how well a school serves its underserved students, and all of it is measured two years back. It is a snapshot, not a verdict, and it says nothing about the schools that did not make the list.

Still, a small charter school in a town our size finishing ahead of every other school in the county is a real thing, and it is worth saying out loud.

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If you or someone at your table is looking, this one is close to home.

The Piedmont Triad Regional Council holds its Local Government Hiring Event on Wednesday, Aug. 26, from 10 AM to 1 PM at the Kernersville Recreation & Event Center, 1020 Shields Rd. Employers from local governments across the 12-county Piedmont Triad region will be on site with current openings.

"Local governments need talented people in a wide range of roles, and we want to make it easier for job seekers to connect with these employers and find opportunities to build a rewarding career while serving their communities," said Wendy Walker-Fox, the council's workforce and economic development director.

The council has not published a list of which governments will have tables, so it is worth walking in with a broad idea of what a local government job looks like. Advance registration is encouraged and runs through piedmonttriadbizhub.org, the regional workforce site the council relaunched under that name in July.

Aug. 26 turns out to be a busy Wednesday in town, with the aldermen meeting that evening as well. This one is a morning stop, so there is room for both.

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Sometimes the local news is just a nice thing somebody built in their front yard.

Erica Gibson keeps a small take-one, leave-one box outside her house on Sun Brook Drive. She calls it the Echo Strings Trinket Exchange, and the rule is exactly what it sounds like. Take something you like, leave something behind for whoever comes next.

The idea came home with her from a music festival in Florida in early April, where she found a bowl of trinkets, ducks, stickers and intentions set out on a take-one, leave-one basis. Her version has grown a companion piece since then: a Take One, Leave One Duck Pond sitting beside the box, full of rubber ducks.

She has been at it since at least the spring and posts about it on Instagram as echostringstrinketexchange, mostly evening box checks to see what turned over during the day. The Winston-Salem Journal photographed her with it on Tuesday.

We are leaving the house number out of this. If you want to find it, her page is the place to start.

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It is going to rain all day, so let us look at something further out.

The back half of August is mostly about getting through the heat and the storms. But the fall calendar is already filling in, and several of the better days of the year are on it. Here is what is booked.

Taste of History: Revolution in the Piedmont opens the run at Körner's Folly on Saturday, Sept. 5, from 10 to 11:30 AM. Archaeologist and historian CJ Idol walks through the local events that shaped how the Revolution played out here, presented as part of the America 250 commemoration. It is free and no registration is required.

A week later the Fall Vintage Market takes over the Folly grounds on Saturday, Sept. 12, from 9 AM to 3 PM, with more than 45 dealers and a rain date of Sept. 13. Then Movies in the Park returns to Harmon Park on Friday, Sept. 18. Vendors and games start at 6:30 PM and the film rolls around 8 PM, billed by the parks department as Minions & Monsters, with goodie bags for the first 100 people through.

Music at Twilight brings Xcentrix to the Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden on Thursday, Sept. 24, from 6 to 8 PM. Free, outdoors, bring a lawn chair. And the 16th Annual Kernersville Oktoberfest lands at Körner's Folly on Saturday, Oct. 3, from 1:30 to 6 PM. That one is ticketed and 21 and up.

Five dates for the fridge. Something to think about while the wipers are going.

See the full Körner's Folly calendar