🗞️ Twenty people applied to run Forsyth schools, at least until June

🗞️ Forsyth Pre-K reopened applications, and every new family starts on a waitlist

🗞️ Bishop McGuinness soccer is ranked No. 5 in 2A and plays at North Davidson tonight

🗞️ Classic cars fill downtown Saturday for the Cruise-In

☀️ Sunny | High: 91°F | Low: 69°F

Thursday is the hot one. Sunny, a high of 91, a southwest breeze of 6 to 10 miles an hour, and not a drop of rain anywhere in the day. Tonight stays warm at 69. Then the week turns humid and unsettled: Friday starts sunny but clouds build and there is a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2 in the afternoon, with a high still near 91, so the 8:30 AM ceremony at Fourth of July Park should be fine and Friday night football is the part to watch. Saturday is the wet day, with a 70 percent chance of showers and storms and a high of 86, which is worth knowing if you are headed to the Vintage Market or the Cruise-In (the Folly's rain date is Sunday). Sunday clears to partly sunny and 88, and Monday is back to mostly sunny and 89. Drink some water Thursday. Summer is not finished with us.

Twenty people want the job of running Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools on a temporary basis, and the school board has three weeks to pick one.

Superintendent Don Phipps retires Sept. 30. The board set a Sept. 2 deadline for interim applications, got 20, and had each member turn in an individual ranking of the candidates to the district's general counsel on Monday. Over the next few weeks the board will compare those rankings, settle on a short list, and decide whom to interview. The goal is to have an interim superintendent in the chair on Oct. 1, serving through June 30, 2027, while a full search for a permanent leader runs on a slower track.

Whoever gets it inherits a district that is still climbing out of a hole. WS/FCS ran a deficit in 2024-25 and balanced this year's budget by cutting expenses. Enrollment is falling, which the district projects will cost it about $11.5 million in state funding, on top of roughly $3.5 million less in federal carryover money and about $4 million in debt still to be paid down. An outside review by the accounting firm Mauldin & Jenkins, which cost $97,770 and involved more than 200 documents and 17 interviews, produced 10 recommendations for tightening the district's financial controls. The interim will be the one expected to start acting on them.

For Kernersville, this is the person who will oversee East Forsyth, Glenn, Kernersville Middle, Kernersville Elementary and Sedge Garden Elementary through the rest of the school year, and who will be making staffing decisions in a district that has fewer students than it planned for. The board has not said whether it will name the finalists publicly before it votes. We will pass along the name as soon as there is one.

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Forsyth County's free pre-kindergarten program started taking applications again Tuesday for the school year already underway. The catch is that every family who applies now goes straight onto a waitlist.

Smart Start of Forsyth County, which runs the program, had about 1,500 applications in hand by July for a little more than 700 seats. Last year 722 children were enrolled. "There are not enough seats and we need more," said Tabitha McAllister, the organization's chief program officer. Applications are processed in the order they arrive, so a spot opens only when a family moves, withdraws or turns one down.

It is still worth applying. The program is free for eligible 4-year-olds (a child must have turned 4 by Aug. 31), and a year of child care in North Carolina now averages around $11,000, so a seat that opens in November is a seat worth having. Classrooms are in WS/FCS elementary schools, Head Start sites and participating private child-care centers around the county, including in Kernersville. Eligibility is based mostly on household income. Transportation is not provided, and families cover before- and after-care fees where those are offered. To apply or ask about your place in line, call Smart Start at 336-725-6011.

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The Bishop McGuinness boys soccer team is off to a 5-2-2 start and sits at No. 5 in the state's Class 2A rankings, and the Villains have done it against a schedule that includes several much bigger schools.

The signature result so far is a 3-1 win over Reynolds on Sept. 1. Austin Stewart opened the scoring off a corner kick from Marcos Feliz Regalado, with Pablo Zevalo assisting; Zevalo added a goal of his own in the second half and Michael Murphy also scored, while goalkeeper Dominic Specht made eight saves. Bishop followed that with a 6-2 win at Trinity on Sept. 3 and a 2-2 tie with Forsyth Home Educators on Tuesday. The two losses came against East Forsyth (3-2) and Grimsley (4-1), both from the biggest classification in the state.

"Reynolds is very good and they are very attack-minded," head coach Jay Benfield told the Kernersville News. "If we play as good as we did in the first half against Reynolds, we are as good as anybody on our schedule." The Villains are at North Davidson (8-5-3) Thursday evening, then visit Reagan on Sept. 15 and West Forsyth on Sept. 17 before the next home match against Parkland on Sept. 21.

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The Old Salem Chapter of the Antique Automobile Club of America brings its Downtown Kernersville Cruise-In back to Main Street on Saturday from 4 to 7 PM, and if the forecast holds off, it is one of the easiest things to do in town this weekend.

Expect a few blocks of classic and antique cars parked nose-out for wandering, with DJ Barry Rentz, better known as the Mobile Jukebox, spinning oldies to match. There is a 50-50 raffle, door prizes, and the club sells baked goods and drinks. Everything raised from the raffle and the sales is pooled and donated to local organizations at the end of the year, so the cookie is for a good cause.

It is free to attend and free to show a car. Saturday carries a 70 percent chance of showers and storms, mostly in the afternoon, so check the club's page before you head out. If this one gets rained on, the last cruise-in of the year is in October.

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