Two major North Carolina school districts have made last-minute decisions to close schools to students on Friday, sending parents scrambling to find last-minute care for their children.
Schools in Wake and Cumberland counties are making the decision ahead of expected high numbers of teachers not attending school on Friday, opting instead to attend a rally in downtown Raleigh calling for higher school employee pay and more school funding.
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The rally, called "Kids Over Corporations," is organized by the North Carolina Association of Educators and is one of several May 1 worker rallies across the country.
NCAE is expecting thousands of educators and others from across the state.
"We don't have what we need in our classrooms, and it is time for us to get what we need," said Taylor Cordes, a substitute teacher.
Dozens of school systems have closed already, with boards in Durham, Orange, Chapel Hill-Carrboro, and Chatham school systems deciding earlier this month to close schools.
"We need those educators to be 100% committed to education, not having to figure out how to pick up three, four, 10 jobs just to barely make ends meet," said Turqouise Parker, a Durham teacher and parent.
The Wake County Public School System announced Thursday, just after noon, that Friday would be a remote learning day for all students on calendars other than traditional calendars at more than 40 schools. Traditional calendar schools already had May 1 as a scheduled teacher workday. It's unclear how many teachers had called out on May 1.
One Wake year-round parent, who is not a school employee, told WRAL News she was glad schools were closed because it meant she could bring her children with her to the rally.
On Wednesday night, the Cumberland County school board voted to close schools to students on May 1, after about 800 teachers had called out that day and only 60% of those absences had been covered by substitute teachers. School system staff said they'd been overwhelmed by recent requests for the day off and determined that having school that day would be unsafe.
That frustrated parents like Shawniqua Boisher, who has a 15-year-old at E.E. Smith High School.
"A lot of parents who have younger kids are going to be scrambling for care," Boisher said. She knows because she's a caregiver and has already heard from four different families asking if she can take care of their children tomorrow.
Boisher said the school system should have told parents much earlier that closing schools was at least on the table, so parents could form contingency plans sooner.
NCAE is asking for 25% increases in pay for school employees, a request that would cost about $2.6 billion for pay alone, if the raise were the same for everyone.
NCAE is also asking for $20,000 of spending per student by 2030, a request that would cost more than $10 billion in new funding, based on about 1.5 million students in traditional public and public charter schools.
Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said Thursday that teacher pay is a priority for the Senate.
"One of the concerns I have about the whole debate is we spend so much time, and there's so much attention on the inputs in education, how much are you paying?" Berger said. "How much are you funding? How much are you spending, that sort of thing, and not enough attention to what the what the outcomes are and how well we're doing. Quite frankly, North Carolina is actually doing fairly well with reference to outcomes."
The Senate and House, both led by Republicans, are at odds on passing a budget for the current fiscal -- and school -- year. Among the issues they're far apart on is how much to raise teacher pay.
The House budget would give teachers an average raise of 8.7% over two years. The Senate budget would give an average raise of 3.3% to teachers over two years.
Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, who could sign into law or veto a budget bill, most recently proposed an average raise for teachers of 11% over two years, while also restoring extra pay for teachers who have master's degrees. The proposal would also provide a $1,000 bonus for all teachers and local education employees, with an additional $500 bonus for those who make less than $75,000.
North Carolina ranked 43rd in average teacher pay for the 2024-25 school year and is projected to drop to 46th for the current school year, if figures hold.