Well, we made it through the longest night of the year. Nowhere to go but up from here! Today’s newsletter includes our last new story of 2025, which you will most certainly want to read.

The team is taking some much-needed downtime over the next two weeks, but I’ll still be sending some of our favorite work and recaps of the year that was. We’ll be back with more fresh reporting on January 5.

—Kate Sheppard

☀️ In Today’s Edition

1. Charter School Struggles
2. Evergreen Stories for the Holiday
3. Around Our Network
4. What We’re Reading
5. Our Recent Stories

Last spring, Dulce Garcia heard about Triad International Studies Academy (TISA), a soon-to-open school that would offer students immersion in both Spanish and Chinese. There was no other in High Point like it, and it didn’t charge tuition. It seemed like a way for Garcia, a restaurant worker, to give her children a long-term advantage. 

Her 6-year-old daughter, Aracely, seemed to thrive there this fall. But the school itself was struggling to enroll enough students to stay solvent, and soon found itself called before the state Charter School Review Board.

Most state funding is awarded on a per-pupil basis, and real estate costs—not covered by a state allocation—can be hefty, making it difficult for even charter schools with more students to remain solvent. TISA faced an acute version of the challenges that have begun to slow growth in the once-booming charter school sector, as Carli Brosseau reports.

If You Build It, Will They Come?

New charter schools in North Carolina are struggling to enroll enough students to stay solvent. One High Point school’s mid-fall implosion shows the consequences for families.

 “TISA,” said Office of Charter Schools Director Ashley Logue, “was a worst-case scenario.”

Have a news tip for our team? You can reach us at scoops@theassemblync.com.

Evergreen Holiday Stories

Here are a few favorite holiday stories from years past!

Black Santa Clauses are Coming to Town

For 12 years, a Raleigh man has been making Black Santas a holiday tradition.

The Race to Save America’s Favorite Christmas Tree

The Fraser fir is threatened by a nasty root rot. State scientists are trying to save the iconic species.

How Southern Season, a Chapel Hill Foodie Dream, Met Its End

It’s been nearly five years since the demise of the beloved food emporium. Many who loved it still wonder what went wrong.

Pining for Something Real At Frosty’s Tree Farm

In the Christmas tree capital of the world, Frosty’s Choose & Cut is a family tradition for those who want memories more than comfort.

Around Our Network

It seems that the only thing state Sen. Bobby Hanig and Army veteran Laurie Buckhout can agree on is that they spoke last week. From there, the two Republican U.S. House candidates have wildly different accounts of that phone call, as Bryan Anderson reports for The Caucus.

Syllabi for all courses in the UNC System will now be considered public records and made available online under a rule issued Friday. Korie Dean has more for The Quad.

A Fayetteville delivery company received city funding for a pilot program to employ people who were previously incarcerated or are recovering from addiction, per BBI.

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What We’re Reading

Shrink-Wrapped: ProPublica has a deep dive on everything Republicans in the General Assembly have done to take away power from North Carolina’s Democratic governors.

Laid to Rest: A public funeral for four-term Gov. Jim Hunt will be held this Friday in Wilson, per The N&O.

Capacity Concerns: Sheriffs are warning that the pre-trial release provisions in the crime bill the General Assembly passed in September could test capacity, staffing, and county budgets. N.C. Health News has more.

Our Recent Stories

Josh Stein’s Medicaid Mess

Facing lawsuits, Stein reversed his administration’s Medicaid cuts. But the crisis isn’t over.

The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur

How did the rapper, still omnipresent three decades after his death, come to rest in a Lumberton grave?

Spruce Pine Police Shocked a Diabetic Man. He’s Suing.

Dillon Ledford argues in his lawsuit that the department didn’t maintain adequate policies for the use of Tasers. Other agencies in the state have faced similar claims.