Thousands of educators from across the state took over Raleigh's Halifax Mall Friday at a rally calling for higher school employee pay and more school funding.
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12:25 p.m.: March begins.
Noon: Demonstrators prepare to walk from the General Assembly building to the Capitol building back to the General Assembly building.
Demonstrators hold signs, one read The General Assembly gets an F.
11:45 a.m.: Students take to the stage to express their gratitude and concern.
Sadie Byerly is a college student studying elementary and special education, and daughter of a public- school teacher. "We are sending a message to students with disabilities that their needs are negotiable. They are not. Every student deserves the support they need to learn, grow and thrive."
A senior at Enloe High School in Raleigh spoke. "Throughout my time in public schools, I have seen the tireless work teachers put into their students. Wasswa Myers said. "I have seen educators work long hours to make sure all students are cared for and supported. I am who I am because of my teachers."
11:30 a.m.: PTA advocacy chair and parent of two children in Wake County Public Schools took the stage, "For 70 percent of the teachers at my child's elementary school, when they do leave that building in the afternoon, they go to a second job," Emily Malpass said, "We never stop doing our jobs, so we're calling on the ones who work for us to get to it. Their job is to fund Leandro, not burn it down."
11:15 a.m.: Parents and grandparents take the stage to express their solidarity with educators.
"You are stifling your educators, your teachers, and the children need them. You should not be making any cuts when it comes to education, you should be adding to it," said Nancy Cunningham, mother of two North Carolina teachers, and a grandparent of students in NC schools.
11:00 a.m.: Speaker Tamika Walker Kelly, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) and Music teacher in Cumberland County takes the stage and introduces the day's speakers.
"This is a statewide crisis," said Shana Richards, Guilford County School Counselor.
10:30 a.m.: Teachers line up at Halifax Mall in downtown Raleigh.
7:30 a.m.: Pitt County Schools staff began boarding busses to head towards Raleigh.
Why are teachers demonstrating?
It is one of several May 1 worker rallies across the country.
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.
Related: 'We're not being compensated fairly:' NC teacher struggles to raise six children
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.
More than a dozen school districts close ahead of rally
Dozens of school systems will be closed Friday because of the high amount of teachers expected to be at the rally. Some districts opted for a teacher workday and others remote learning for students.
Last minute decisions by two districts left some parents scrambling to get childcare for Friday.
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.