Buncombe schools close May 1 amid Raleigh education rally absences

Buncombe County families will need a new plan for May 1, after the school system closed classrooms for the day because nearly 600 employees requested leave to join a statewide education rally in Raleigh. District leaders said they could not safely operate schools with so many absences, leaving too few adults to teach and supervise students.

Buncombe County Schools had initially planned to stay open, but the growing number of requested absences changed that calculation. The district said May 1 would become an optional teacher workday instead, and it apologized to families for the disruption. More than 100 Buncombe educators were projected to travel to Raleigh for the demonstration, turning a political protest into a direct schedule change for students, parents and school staff in Asheville and across the county.

To preserve required instructional hours, the district proposed moving Tuesday, June 9 from an early dismissal and the last student day to a full student day. Under the plan, Wednesday, June 10 would become the last student day with a two-hour early dismissal, and Thursday, June 11 would become a teacher workday. That means students will make up the lost day through the revised calendar at the end of the school year.

The absences are tied to the North Carolina Association of Educators’ Kids Over Corporations Rally at Halifax Mall in Raleigh. The group says thousands of educators, parents and community allies are expected to gather to press for more public school funding, tighter oversight of voucher spending and an end to policies that favor tax cuts over students. The association says North Carolina went through 2025 without adopting a budget, leaving the state as the only one in the nation without one, and says the state ranks 50th in school-funding effort.

The rally has already rippled beyond Buncombe County. By April 24, at least nine North Carolina districts had canceled classes or shifted to teacher workdays, including Asheville City Schools, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, Chatham County Schools, Durham Public Schools, Guilford County Schools, Kannapolis City Schools, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, Wake County Public School System and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg officials reported 1,934 unfilled absences for May 1 by Friday, rising to 2,622 absences requiring a substitute when filled absences were included. District leaders said close to a third of teachers had requested the day off, and board chair Stephanie Sneed said the board did not take the decision lightly and saw it as part of a broader funding fight. In Buncombe County, the same statewide pressure is now showing up on family calendars, with one missed school day turned into a late-year schedule shift.