🗞️ Forsyth opened the year with nearly 2,000 fewer students

🗞️ Four sand volleyball courts are open at Ivey Redmon

🗞️ Mae's filled its parking lot on comeback day

🗞️ Five things that came before the aldermen Tuesday night

☀️ Sunny | High: 96°F | Low: 73°F

Thursday is another hot one. Sunny, a high near 96, a west wind around 6 miles an hour, and a heat index the National Weather Service puts as high as 101. Overnight goes mostly clear with a low around 73. Friday is the top of this stretch, sunny and 97 with a heat index as high as 103. Then it finally gives: Saturday comes down to 93 with a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2 in the afternoon, and Sunday drops all the way to 83. Early morning is still the only comfortable window for anything strenuous outdoors, and it is worth another look in on neighbors without reliable air conditioning, but the break is close enough now to see.

The number that shapes school budgets came back smaller again.

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools counted 47,093 students in its 10-day tally this year, down by nearly 2,000 from last year's average daily membership. That comes on top of roughly 1,500 students the district lost the year before. Glenn, East Forsyth, Southeast Middle and the Kernersville elementary schools are all WS/FCS, so this is our district too.

The 10-day figure is internal tracking rather than the official count. The state uses whichever is better of the Day 20 and Day 40 counts, and neither of those is out yet. The direction is what matters at the moment, because North Carolina ties school funding closely to how many students are actually enrolled.

That is why the district is leaning hard on attendance right now. "If you're a student who should be with us and haven't come to school yet, we miss you, and we want you to be there," Superintendent Don Phipps told the school board.

Forsyth is not alone in this. Districts across North Carolina lost nearly 24,000 students over the past year. What makes the local number worth watching is that it is compounding, two straight years of decline running against a formula that counts heads.

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The number of courts is the whole story here.

Kernersville Parks and Recreation has added four sand volleyball courts at the Ivey Redmon Sports Complex. Four is the operative word, because one or two courts get you pickup games and not much else.

"With four courts available at Ivey, KPRD can accommodate a wider variety of activities than would be possible with only one or two standalone courts," Parks and Recreation Director Ernie Pages said. "We're excited about the possibilities for organized programs, leagues and tournaments, while also making the courts available for people who just want to come out and play."

In practice that puts leagues, organized programs, rentals and tournaments all on the table at a site that could not host them before. It also keeps the casual option open, which is the part that matters if you just want to show up on a Saturday with four friends and a ball.

There is a grand opening celebration set for 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, though that part is invitation only, with open play following. Anyone with questions about the courts or about reserving one can call the department at 336-564-1624.

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Earlier this summer the place was uninhabitable. Saturday the lot was full.

Mae's Beauty Bar & Bridal at 309 Pineview Drive held its grand opening Saturday, and close to 200 people came through over four hours. "We had close to 200 people come out over the four hours, and the parking lot was full. I was not really expecting that," owner Mary-Ann Autrey said.

The turnout reads differently once you know what preceded it. A sewage flood earlier this summer left the salon unusable and put five years of work in question.

"Watching years of hard work, memories, and investment be damaged was one of the most difficult moments I've experienced as a business owner," Autrey said. "There were days when the future felt uncertain, but one thing never changed — the incredible support we received from our clients, our team, fellow small businesses, and the Kernersville community."

The salon did not simply restore what was there. Among the additions on the way back is a Korean head spa, which Autrey believes is the only full-body-submersion setup in the area.

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One meeting packet turns out to be a decent map of where town is heading.

We read through the agenda for the Sept. 1 Board of Aldermen meeting. Five items in it say something about the next few years around here. One thing to be straight about before the list: as of Wednesday evening no minutes had been posted and no outlet had covered the meeting, so what follows is what was proposed and heard, not what was decided. We will come back with the outcomes once they are on the record.

A BMX facility study at Ivey Redmon. The agenda item reads "Discussion and Consideration of a Notice to Proceed with a Feasibility Study for a BMX Bicycle Facility." The packet behind it is a Phase 1 scope of work with ACTION Sports Design LLC of Austin, Texas, for a lump sum not to exceed $25,845.50: $21,655 for schematic design and master plan vision, $2,165.50 for USA BMX administrative and program services, and $2,025 in direct expenses. Parks and Recreation Director Ernie Pages wrote that the town and USA BMX "have been working towards the installation of a BMX Supercross facility since 2024," when the aldermen approved a letter of interest. Phase 1 is meant to answer the open questions about cost, layout, placement and capacity, and Pages noted the agreement leaves it to the town, not USA BMX, to decide whether later phases begin.

An ABC store on South Main. Docket K-751.A1, filed by Abigaile Pittman as agent for Greenwood & Charles, Inc., asks to rezone 1.51 acres at 803-811 Old Winston Rd. and 816-822 S. Main St. from HB-S to HB-C. "ABC Store (Liquor)" leads the list of requested uses. The Planning Board recommended approval 10-0 on Aug. 10.

A Carolina QuickCare on Rosewater. Docket K-654.A3, filed by MOC Kernersville LLC, covers 0.55 acres at 3981 Rosewater Ave. for medical and surgical offices. The rezoning site plan in the packet, drawn by The Nau Company, is titled CAROLINA QUICKCARE. The Planning Board also recommended this one 10-0.

An Outback Steakhouse off Glenn View Drive. Public Services Director Chris Jensen recommended a revised stormwater allocation for two Mount Oak Capital projects: a 2.4-acre site listing Outback Steakhouse, Carolina QuickCare and Caribou Coffee, and a 2.6-acre site with a daycare and medical offices. The revision cuts built-upon area from 69.7 percent to 60.0 percent, and the combined projects scored 250 points on the density-bonus checklist against a 200-point minimum. Caribou already has a storefront on Rosewater, so the genuinely new names here are Outback and Carolina QuickCare.

Fifty-five acres asking to join the town. Linville Family, LLC petitioned for voluntary annexation of roughly 54.695 acres east and west of NC 66 South and north of Interstate 40, in the corridor around Novant Health Kernersville Medical Center. Annexation Ordinance A4-2026 would extend town taxes and services to the land. The packet lists no proposed use for the tract, so we are not going to guess at one.

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