Photo: Gale Melcher for The Thread

Morning, gang.

In addition to our regular readers, we’re welcoming thousands of new subscribers today from the late Triad City Beat’s mailing list. When we brought in writers Gale Melcher and Sayaka Matsuoka to the Thread staff recently, we heard from many of you who were grateful their journalism would continue in Greensboro.

We hope you’ll enjoy and support their work with us, from arts and culture coverage to enterprise and investigative reporting. We’ll announce more in-person events soon, and want to hear from you about which stories hit home with you and what else you’d like to see.

Today, we’re bringing you a look at what’s happening in local government in the coming week and a story about the weekend’s NC Muslim Fest in Center City Park.

Let’s get into it.

— Joe Killian

Thanks for reading The Thread, a 3x week newsletter written by Greensboro editor Joe Killian and reporters Sayaka Matsuoka and Gale Melcher. Reach us with tips or ideas at greensboro@theassemblync.com.

Did someone forward this to you? Sign up here to get The Assembly’s locally produced newsletter covering Greensboro and the Triad.

The Agenda:
Your Look Ahead at Local Government This Week

Local government touches our lives every day, and there’s no better way to stay in touch than attending a local meeting. This week, the  Guilford County Board of Commissioners and Guilford County Board of Education will hold regular meetings, and the High Point City Council will have a special meeting and a finance committee meeting.

Guilford County Board of Commissioners

5:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 15 @ the Old County Courthouse at 301 W. Market St. on the second floor

The board’s agenda includes:

  • Approving a contract with Crisis Consultant Group in an amount up to $256,288 to train sheriff’s deputies and detention officers on de-escalation and crisis response.
  • Rezoning property at 209 Sheraton Park Rd. from agricultural to light industrial. According to the county’s staff report, the land is undeveloped and surrounded by a residential subdivision, single-family homes, and a woodlake wastewater discharge facility.
  • A presentation on DSS and child support mandated performance measures. So far during this fiscal year, the child support department has collected and disbursed $24.4 million as of March 31, 2025, which is 73 percent of its annual collection goal.
  • The county manager’s budget message.
  • A quarterly investment report that will supply a summary of the county’s investments.

Guilford County Board of Education

5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 13 @ 712 N. Eugene St. in the board room

The board will be going into closed session before the meeting. This meeting will include an opportunity for public comment. 

The board’s agenda includes:

  • Authorizing staff to negotiate design-build contracts for renovation projects at the Stokesdale Elementary School Gymnasium and swing space at the former Kiser Middle School.
  • Approving a $65 fee for students enrolled in driver’s ed. The North Carolina Driving School has upped its rate per student from $291.31 to $320. In 2015, the state legislature eliminated state funding for driver’s education programs. Per state law, local boards of education are allowed to charge students a maximum fee of $65 to offset the costs.
  • Approving Every Student Succeeds Act Alternative Schools Accountability Models, which will apply to eight specialty, alternative, or public-separate schools using weighted percentages for factors such as attendance, persistence, parent/legal guardian involvement, transition benchmark skills, and school performance. 

City of High Point

Special High Point City Council meeting at 4 p.m. on Monday, May 12, and finance committee meeting at 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 15 @ 211 S. Hamilton St.

The city council’s agenda for Monday’s special meeting includes:

  • Presentations on the 2025-26 budget.
  • Closed session related to personnel matters.

Next up for the city council is Thursday’s finance committee meeting.

Links to local board meetings and agendas:

Guilford County – Board of Commissioners

Guilford County – School Board

Greensboro – City Council

High Point – City Council

— Gale Melcher

Read this newsletter online or contact The Thread team with tips and feedback at greensboro@theassemblync.com.

Photo: Gale Melcher for The Thread

“All About Uniting People”

Bustling. Vibrant. United.

Center City Park was all that and more on Saturday as hundreds gathered for the NC Muslim Festival.

In a line along Davie Street that wrapped around the Friendly Avenue side of the park, vendors set up shop, selling traditional dress like taqiyahs, abayas, and hijabs as well as pies, coffee, chai, and artwork. Baristas at Kasbah Koffee, an Algerian and Palestinian-owned coffee stand, worked quickly to deliver drinks to customers.

Festival goers wore their keffiyehs proudly as they watched kids show off their tricks playing soccer.

“This is an opportunity for all cultures and backgrounds to come together, and just interact and engage with one another,” Robyn Abdusamad, who founded and directs the festival, told The Thread.

An estimated 130,661 Muslims live in North Carolina; 9,618 live in Guilford County.

The biennial festival welcomes non-Muslims, too, Abdusamad said. This year’s theme was  “celebrate diversity, embrace unity.”

“I’m all about uniting people,” Abdusamad said. “We have so much divisiveness in the world.”

People of all ages and backgrounds buzzed around the tents, stopping when an item caught their eyes or to ask questions. Music played over speakers. The all-day party, which lasted from 10 a.m.-6 p.m., featured a live performance from spoken word artist Saleema Abdullah.

Vendor Adilah Shabazz told The Thread she converted to Islam right before her son was born 44 years ago. After a career as a journalist and professor, Shabazz decided to carry on a family tradition through her business, Spreadable Delights, making fresh jams, salsa, and medicinal oils.

“My mom and dad used to can a lot and make preserves, and my grandparents were farmers,” said Shabazz, who started her business during the pandemic.

“I’m sitting at home, thinking, ‘Maybe I’ll start making preserves and jams like mom and dad,’” she said.

Alongside Shabazz’s wares were her son Naim’s, who made hand-sized bean pies, typically filled with a sweet custard with mashed beans and spices.

Shabazz said she enjoys the festival because it gives people the chance to “meet other Muslims and non-Muslims, and also just get out and hang out.”

People should focus more on the commonalities we all share, Abdusamad said.

“Like we’ll have today—food and shopping,” she said. “You can’t beat that.”

— Gale Melcher

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Joe Killian is The Assembly's Greensboro editor. He joined us from NC Newsline, where he was senior investigative reporter. He spent a decade at The News & Record covering cops and courts, higher education, and government.

Gale is a Report for America corps member and Greensboro-based reporter for The Assembly. She previously covered local government and community issues for Triad City Beat. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from N.C. State University.