🗞️ The Great Gatsby opens at Kernersville Little Theatre next Friday

🗞️ School board members say teachers are at wits' end without special education support

🗞️ A free pharmacy filled 20,207 prescriptions last year, and a donor will match $100,000

🗞️ East Forsyth hosts Ragsdale tonight after coming up one yard short

☀️ Mostly sunny | High: 93°F | Low: 70°F

Friday is another hot one, and the hottest of the stretch. Mostly sunny, a high near 93, light and variable wind, and a dry day, so the 8:30 AM ceremonies at Fourth of July Park and in Oak Ridge are in the clear. The only question mark is a 20 percent chance of a shower or storm before 9 PM, which is worth knowing if you are headed to East Forsyth for kickoff. Saturday is the wet day: showers start in the morning, storms are possible from late morning on, and the chance of rain sits at 70 percent with a high of 88, so the Vintage Market and the Cruise-In are both on watch (the Folly's rain date is Sunday). Sunday clears to mostly sunny and 89 with only a slight chance of an afternoon storm, and Monday is sunny and 89. Hydrate today, keep the umbrella handy Saturday, and enjoy Sunday.

The champagne is chilling on West Mountain Street.

Kernersville Little Theatre opens its fall production of The Great Gatsby on Friday, Sept. 18, at 7:30 PM in the James Fitzpatrick Auditorium at Kernersville Elementary, 512 W. Mountain St. It runs two weekends: Sept. 18, 19, 25 and 26 at 7:30 PM, with Sunday matinees at 2 PM on Sept. 20 and 27. Plan on about two and a half hours.

This is the non-musical version, Simon Levy's stage adaptation of the Fitzgerald novel, which is the one most theaters use. If you read the book in high school and remember mostly the green light and the car, this is the whole story: the parties on Long Island, the guests whispering that their host was a bootlegger or a German spy or that he killed a man once, and the one thing Gatsby actually wants, which no amount of money buys him. It is the Jazz Age at full volume with a very quiet ache underneath it.

KLT is a volunteer nonprofit that has been putting on shows here for about half a century, and the Fitzpatrick Auditorium is a comfortable room for it. Tickets are on sale now through the theatre's online box office, and opening night tends to go first. If you are a fan of the Sunday matinee, the Sept. 20 show lands the day after the Vintage Market and the Cruise-In weekend, so it is a good way to close out a busy few days. The theatre is already looking ahead, too: callbacks for its November thriller, Deadline, are today.

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The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board got a hard look this week at how students with disabilities are doing, and the answer was not good.

District staff presented Exceptional Children data from the 2024-25 school year on Tuesday showing that reading and math proficiency for students with disabilities fell at every grade level. Board members tied the drop to what happened after the district's budget cuts: general education teachers were promised "push-in" support from EC specialists that never fully materialized, and the district let go a substantial number of EC teaching assistants at the same time.

"If I walk into a school, I'm getting people pulling me left and right, and I can see it for myself," said board member Trevonia Brown-Gaither. "A general ed class has a kindergarten kid that's nonverbal, not potty trained, doesn't eat like the other kindergarteners, they're drinking from a bottle. And the teachers are at a wit's end." Board member Leah Crowley said the support "did not happen," and then the staff reductions compounded it.

Chief Academic Officer Paula Wilkins did not argue with the numbers. "I am not going to negate we have work to do," she said, while asking the board to also look at where the district has made progress. She committed to bringing newer data, and the board said it wants to keep the topic on the agenda. For families at East Forsyth, Glenn, Kernersville Middle, Kernersville Elementary and Sedge Garden with a child on an IEP, this is the conversation to watch, and it is landing in the same month the board is choosing an interim superintendent.

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Here is a number worth sitting with: 20,207 prescriptions, filled for free, for 2,281 people in Forsyth and Stokes counties in a single year.

That is the fiscal 2025 tally from Crisis Control Ministry's pharmacy in Winston-Salem, which opened in 1987 as North Carolina's first licensed free pharmacy and is still the largest charitable pharmacy in the county. The medications it handed out were worth an estimated $3.89 million; the ministry's actual cost was $649,211. Now an anonymous donor has offered to match every gift designated for the pharmacy, dollar for dollar, up to $100,000.

The pharmacy serves people who are uninsured or underinsured, who cannot afford a prescription, or who have a gap in Medicaid coverage, which is timely given the Medicaid changes coming Oct. 1 that we covered earlier this week. It operates out of 200 E. Tenth St. in Winston-Salem, about a 20-minute drive from downtown Kernersville, and works alongside the Community Care Clinic and other free clinics in the county. Eligibility and medication availability both vary, so the first step is a phone call to 336-724-2649. Across all of its programs, including food, rent, utility and transportation help, Crisis Control served 21,680 people last year. If you want to give toward the match, the pharmacy designation is on the ministry's donation page.

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The Eagles had the defending state champions on the ropes last Friday. They just could not finish.

East Forsyth lost 13-7 at home to Grimsley, the reigning 7A champion, in a game that came down to a single yard. Quarterback Jackson Jordan ran for 84 yards and threw for 103 more, and the Eagles' defense forced and recovered three fumbles. But East Forsyth converted just 4 of 12 third downs and went 0 for 4 on fourth. "We had it at fourth and two with 1:20 left in the game on their 21-yard line, and we came up a yard short," head coach Todd Willert told the Kernersville News.

Tonight the Eagles (2-1) get Ragsdale (2-1) at home, 7 PM at 2500 W. Mountain St. The Tigers are coming off a loss to T.W. Andrews. Around town: Glenn (2-1) is at Southwest Guilford (0-2) at 7, Bishop McGuinness (0-3) is at Trinity (0-3) at 7 after a 36-7 loss at East Davidson, and Walkertown (2-1) plays at East Surry at 6 following a rough night at West Rowan. There is a slight chance of a storm before 9 PM, so bring the poncho just in case.

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