Moms on Proms + Why Schools Are Closed Friday + May Market Watch

April is Autism Acceptance Month, and one of the things I love most about Chapel Hill and Carrboro is that we don't need a designated month to remember that inclusion matters here. We've been building this for a long time.

Lisa Kaylie and her team at Extraordinary Ventures have spent years quietly making this community more welcoming — not by talking about inclusion, but by building businesses that practice it. The Extraordinary Thrift Store that opened on West Main in Carrboro this past February is the latest example. We featured it shortly after the ribbon-cutting — a thrift store designed from the ground up around the principles of Universal Design, where employees with intellectual and developmental disabilities can do their jobs confidently and independently. As Lisa told me at the time: "It's not just for them. It's better for all of us."

That's the version of inclusion I love best — the kind that doesn't ask anyone to be the project. The kind that just makes the world bigger.

This week, I want to introduce you to another local mother who's quietly building something differently, but with the same instinct.

Her name is Max'ine Huggins. Her seventeen-year-old son Darius is on the autism spectrum. He couldn't find a date to prom. So one night in their kitchen he turned to her and said, "Mommy, won't you just go?"

What happened next has the makings of a movement. Read the full story here.

When teachers ask off in numbers, schools close. Earlier this month, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education voted to make Friday, May 1, an optional teacher workday with no students. The reason wasn't ideological. It was logistical: so many CHCCS educators had requested personal days that the district couldn't realistically fill the classrooms with substitutes.

CHCCS wasn't alone. Chatham County, Orange County, and Guilford County school boards made the same call earlier in April, and Durham Public Schools followed at a special meeting on April 20. Wake County had already marked May 1 as a teacher workday. The volume of personal-day requests was the practical reason cited across districts. Translation: a lot of local educators are taking this seriously enough that the district itself had to plan around it.

May 1 is International Workers' Day — the 140th anniversary this year of the 1886 Haymarket events in Chicago that gave the date its meaning. The 2026 campaign is organized under the banner "Workers Over Billionaires," with hundreds of cities joining a coordinated day described by organizers as "no work, no school, no shopping."

Three things are happening within reach of Chapel Hill that day. Locally, a Chapel Hill rally is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the corner of East Franklin Street and South Elliott Road, volunteer-organized through the May Day Strong network. If the corner sounds familiar, that's because it's the same intersection where Mobilization Mondays demonstrations have been held weekly since early 2025. Regionally, Durham is hosting a rally and march from 5–6:30 p.m. at CCB Plaza ("The Bull"), 211 W. Parrish Street. At the state level, the North Carolina Association of Educators is hosting a "Kids Over Corporations" rally at Halifax Mall in Raleigh, just north of the General Assembly. Organizers expect thousands of teachers, parents, and supporters from across the state — that's the rally many of our local educators are heading to.

The NCAE's central message is about state funding for public schools. The lack of an enacted state budget has meant no teacher raises and no new school funding this year. NCAE is pushing for an investment of $20,000 per student in public schools by 2030. NCAE Vice President Bryan Proffitt told WUNC he expected the trend of districts closing to keep growing — that principals, school boards, and superintendents would line up to say educators belong in Raleigh that day. By the count above, he wasn't wrong.

While the rally is happening at Franklin and Elliott, a few blocks west at Carrboro Town Commons, the Carrboro Police Department and the REACH social worker program are hosting the first-ever local Mental Health Fair, 4–8 p.m. It's separate from the May Day events, but the timing is fitting — May is Mental Health Awareness Month. There'll be providers on hand from El Futuro, UNC STAR, NAMI North Carolina, and others; yoga on the lawn (bring your mat), a DJ set, free sno-balls from Pelican's, BBQ from Big Boy's, and free swag bags including diapers and hygiene packs while supplies last.

No school in CHCCS or Orange County Schools on May 1. Plan childcare, lunches, and pickup accordingly. Expect heavier traffic and pedestrian activity near East Franklin and Elliott during the day, and on Franklin Street more broadly. For the full national event map and local listings, head to maydaystrong.org.

Fri, May 1 – Sun, May 3 A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Stone Soup Theatre Company, Honeysuckle at Union Grove, 3501 Dairyland Rd., Hillsborough | Fri & Sat 7:30pm, Sun 2:30pm | $30, $25 students | If Steel Magnolias made you cry, this one will make you laugh — fairies, love potions, and a group of amateur actors who have no business being on stage. Pay What You Can on Sun, Apr 26. | stonesouptheatreco.com

Fri, May 8 2nd Friday Art Walk | Downtown Chapel Hill & Carrboro | 6–9 pm | Galleries, studios, shops, and restaurants stay open with art, live music, spoken word, and street life across both downtowns. Ackland Art Museum extends its hours 5–9 pm. Free. | 2ndfridayartwalk.com

Fri, May 1 Melt | Cat's Cradle, 300 E. Main St., Carrboro | Doors 7pm, Show 8pm | The shape-shifting Brooklyn six-piece pulls jazz, hip-hop, and synth-pop into one envelope. | catscradle.com

Sat–Sun, May 2 & 3 Wednesday | Cat's Cradle | 8pm both nights | Asheville's gnarly, gorgeous shoegaze-country band, two sold-out nights — a sign of how big they've gotten in the past two years. If you weren't paying attention, now you know. | catscradle.com

Tue, May 5 Cass McCombs | Cat's Cradle | Doors 7pm, Show 8pm | Two decades of literate, slow-burn American songwriting. | catscradle.com

Thu, May 7 Florence Dore with Juniper and Davie Circle | Cat's Cradle Back Room | Doors 7pm, Show 8pm | UNC English professor by day, songwriter by night — Dore's new album "Hold the Spark" came out May 1. Local. Under-the-radar. Worth your Thursday. | catscradle.com

Fri, May 8 Cosmic Charlie | Cat's Cradle | Doors 7pm, Show 8pm | The Triangle's beloved Grateful Dead band, perennial good time. | catscradle.com

Sun, May 10 Failure with All Under Heaven | Cat's Cradle | Doors 7pm, Show 8pm | Heavy alt-rock catharsis on Mother's Day evening — make of that what you will. | catscradle.com

Tue, May 5 Cass McCombs | Cat’s Cradle | catscradle.com

🎷 Music Festival

Thu–Sun, May 7–10 22nd Annual Spring Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance | Shakori Hills Community Arts Center, 1439 Henderson Tanyard Rd., Pittsboro | Four days of music, dance workshops, kids' activities, art, and great food. This year's lineup includes Donna the Buffalo (the festival's founders), Rising Appalachia, Lila Iké, Jim Lauderdale, Chatham Rabbits, Bella White, Ryan Montbleau Band, Preston Frank, and dozens more across multiple stages. Camping available; kids 12 and under free. | shakorihillsgrassroots.org

Fri, May 1 Workers Over Billionaires May Day Rally | East Franklin St. & South Elliott Rd., Chapel Hill | 10 am – 6 pm | Volunteer-organized through the May Day Strong network. See the article above for context. | maydaystrong.org

Fri, May 1 Carrboro Mental Health Fair | Carrboro Town Commons, 301 W. Main St. | 4–8 pm | First-of-its-kind locally — providers from El Futuro, UNC STAR, NAMI NC, animal adoption from Orange County Animal Services, yoga (bring your mat), DJ set, free food, free swag. | townofcarrboro.org

Wed, May 6 Chapel Hill Town Council Vote | Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | 6 pm | The vote on reducing council size and extending the mayor's term. Public welcome. | townofchapelhill.org

Wed, May 13 Orange County Land Summit | Bonnie B. Davis Environment & Agricultural Center, Hillsborough | 9 am – 4 pm | A working day on local land use, conservation, and farm policy — for landowners, farmers, and the curious. | orangecountync.gov

Sun, May 10 Mother's Day | All day | A few free, easy ideas: walk the North Carolina Botanical Garden (1,200 acres of native plants, no cost) or Coker Arboretum on the UNC campus. For brunch, The Carolina Inn's Crossroads does Sunday brunch from 8 am–1 pm — book early; Mother's Day fills up. Other local favorites — Lula's, Hawthorne & Wood, Lantern, Vimala's — typically book up a week out. | ncbg.unc.edu

Fri, May 1 No school, CHCCS and Orange County Schools

Sat, May 9 UNC Spring Commencement | Kenan Stadium | 7 pm | Eric Church delivers the address. Expect serious traffic and parking pressure across central campus and Franklin Street starting Thursday. South Road between Country Club and Columbia and Raleigh Street south of Cameron will see closures. Departmental ceremonies run May 7–10 across Memorial Hall, Carmichael Arena, the Smith Center, and Friday Conference Center. | commencement.unc.edu

Ongoing UNC South Campus road closures for the steam tunnel replacement project — give yourself extra time if you commute through that side of campus.

Orange County hits pause on data centers — and Chatham heads to court. The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on April 21 to enact a one-year moratorium on large-scale data centers, including AI training centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities. The pause gives county staff time to study water and energy demands, environmental and noise impacts, and ratepayer costs before any such facility could be approved. Chatham County passed a similar 12-month pause back in February — and on April 23, a Sanford-based developer sued Chatham, claiming it had already spent over $11 million on a planned 750-megawatt data center in Moncure before the moratorium took effect. It appears to be the first lawsuit in the state challenging a data center moratorium, and the outcome could shape how counties across NC respond to the AI infrastructure boom. There are currently no large-scale data centers in Orange County — county attorney John Roberts noted there's actually limited geography here where one could even be sited, due to lack of available water.

Council size, mayor's term: vote coming May 6. The Chapel Hill Town Council held its public hearing on Wednesday, April 29, on a proposal to shrink the council from eight members to six and extend the mayor's term from two years to four. A vote is expected at the May 6 meeting. The current eight-member structure has been in place since 1975, and Chapel Hill's council is unusually large for a town this size — Durham, with more than four times the population, has six. Supporters say a smaller council and a four-year mayoral term would create steadier governance; critics, including Council Member Paris Miller-Foushee, argue the change deserves a full referendum, not a single hearing. Whatever you think, it's worth knowing this decision is happening fast.

Two raccoons rabid in Orange County in three weeks. Orange County Animal Services confirmed a fourth rabies case of 2026 last week, after a raccoon attacked a dog near Cates Hickory Hill Lane, just southwest of downtown Hillsborough, on April 24. That follows two cases earlier in April — a raccoon in Chapel Hill and an outdoor cat near Holiday Park Road in Hillsborough — and another raccoon in Chapel Hill back in March. Reminder: North Carolina law requires that all dogs, cats, and ferrets older than four months have a current rabies vaccination. If your pet is overdue, OCAS hosts low-cost rabies clinics throughout the year. And if you encounter wildlife behaving strangely, don't approach. Call Animal Control.

Chatham Schools picks Kelly Batten as next superintendent. Dr. Kelly Batten will become Chatham County Schools' new superintendent on July 1, replacing Anthony Jackson, who's retiring after five years to lead the Public School Forum of North Carolina. Batten is a 14-year veteran of the district, currently serving as Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources. There's a local twist: from 2008 to 2012, Batten was principal of Carrboro High School. He earned both his master's and doctorate in education at UNC-Chapel Hill. Board Chair Gary Leonard called him "a proven leader who understands our schools, our community, and our commitment to excellence."

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Until next time,

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