🌳 DPS Graduation Rate Hits 10-Year Low
TL;DR — 3 Things to Know This Week
Durham Public Schools' four-year graduation rate fell to 80.3% last year, a 10-year low and fifth-lowest in North Carolina, even as test proficiency hit a 12-year high.
The Festival for the Eno is skipping its traditional July riverfront gathering this year for a downtown Durham benefit concert, citing heat and flooding risk, with plans to shift to spring and fall events starting in 2027.
Durham's council unanimously backed tenant unions like Ashton Seniors in Action, then split late into the night approving Oak Grove Landing (4-3), Page Road Townhouses (5-2) and unanimously the Doc Nichols Road annexation.
Durham Public Schools' Graduation Rate Falls to a 10-Year Low
Durham students are testing better than they have in over a decade, but fewer of them are finishing high school on time.
The four-year graduation rate dropped to 80.3%, the district's lowest mark in 10 years and fifth-lowest of any district in North Carolina, well below the 88.8% state average.
The decline lands hardest on specific groups: Hispanic students graduated at 71.7% and students in foster care at just 44.4%, far below the districtwide figure.
Test proficiency hit its highest level since 2013-2014, and for the first time on record no Durham school received an F, with more than two-thirds earning an A, B or C.
Not every school shared the gain. Y. E. Smith and Eastway elementaries, both slated for possible consolidation, earned D ratings, while Eno Valley Elementary climbed to a C after replacing a principal who was criminally charged in an incident involving a student tied to a chair.
Why it matters: Superintendent Anthony Lewis called the results outstanding, but the graduation number means one in five Durham students isn't finishing high school in four years, a gap the district's own release doesn't explain.
Festival for the Eno Ditches Its July Weekend for a Fall Concert
Nearly 50 years of Fourth of July tradition are giving way to heat, flood risk, and a downtown concert instead.
Eno River Association director Ryan Fehrman says hot, unpredictable July weather has been driving off attendees and volunteers, and the group expects to move to annual spring and fall events.
Tropical Storm Chantal flooded the Eno one day after last year's festival ended. Fehrman said the storm could have cost the festival six figures had it arrived a day and a half earlier.
Saturday's replacement event marks the association's 60th anniversary with a $60,000 fundraising goal: a free afternoon celebration outside the Durham Convention Center followed by a ticketed evening concert at the Carolina Theatre.
West Point on the Eno, the festival's longtime home, closes next week for accessibility construction and will not host the event again in 2027.
Council Backs Tenant Unions, Then Splits Repeatedly Over New Subdivisions
Durham City Council · Regular Meeting · September 8, 2026
Council unanimously stood behind tenant organizers fighting broken elevators and rats, then spent past midnight fighting itself over how fast Durham should keep growing outward.
Council unanimously adopted a resolution affirming tenant unions' role in housing, backing groups like Ashton Seniors in Action and Willett Street United and calling on landlords who take city money to negotiate in good faith without retaliating against organizers.
The council voted 4-3 to annex and rezone land for Oak Grove Landing, a 50-home development on Sherron Road, with Nate Baker, Shanetta Burris and Chelsea Cook dissenting after residents said the area lacks adequate EMS coverage, sidewalks and road improvements.
Council Member Matt Kopac got staff to confirm the city's cost-benefit analysis for such projects excludes county costs like EMS, and calculated that the developer's $96,000 housing contribution equals roughly two subsidized units, about 4% affordability versus the 8-9% typical on larger projects.
Page Road Townhouses, allowing up to 35 units near Shakespeare Drive, passed 5-2 with Baker and Burris again voting no, while a fourth annexation at Doc Nichols Road passed unanimously.
Why it matters: The Oak Grove Landing fight exposed a gap in how Durham weighs growth: the city's own analysis doesn't count county-funded costs like EMS, even in cases where residents' central complaint is that EMS can't keep up.
Quick Hits
Durham School of the Arts families report hour-long waits under DPS's new express bus-stop system, though some say it improved chronic lateness.
Durham County projects losing about 1,600 more acres of farmland to development by 2040, a trend a 15-member advisory board has tried to slow since 1996.
Duke will now accept transfer credit earned in online courses, reversing a ban after staff found the university out of compliance with its accreditor. Trinity College's website still says otherwise.
NCCU enrollment reached 10,124 students this fall, crossing 10,000 for the first time and hitting a 2029 growth target three years early. Online enrollment jumped 81% and first-year retention climbed to 78.5%.
Research Triangle Park biotech Merakris Therapeutics won a $2.2 million NIH grant to advance a diabetic foot-ulcer drug already in Phase II trials for a related condition.
Three rare Declaration of Independence copies, including one of fewer than 40 surviving Stone engravings, are on free public display at Durham's Main Library through Sept. 20.
Waterline work resumed Sept. 8 with Arnette Avenue closed and Morehead Avenue down to one lane through Sept. 18 as crews continue the West End water and sewer project.
Events
Marcus King
Fri, September 11 · Red Hat Amphitheater
Movie Screening: My Name is Pauli Murray
Fri, September 11 · Durham Central Park
16th ANNUAL DURHAM OKTOBERFEST
Sat, September 12 · Motorco Music Hall
Eno River Association’s 60th Anniversary Celebration
Sat, September 12 · Carolina Theatre
Triangle Vegfest
Sun, September 13 · Durham Central Park
Ray LaMontagne
Tue, September 15 · DPAC
Pat Metheny: Side-Eye III+
Wed, September 16 · Carolina Theatre
CenterFest Fine Arts Festival
Sat, September 19 · Downtown Durham
Young Thug
Sat, September 19 · Red Hat Amphitheater
Real Estate
1004 Sycamore St
$1,600,000 · 4 bed, 4 bath, 3,340 sqft
A moody new Forest Hills build with zero-entry primary shower and deer antler chandelier.
309 Edward St
$835,000 · 3 bed, 2 bath, 2,182 sqft
The 1912 Scruggs-Fowler House, a historic Victorian recognized for preservation in its own right.
4504 Carpenter Pond Rd
$925,000 · 3 bed, 2 bath, 1,788 sqft
A 1978 home on 5.61 acres with pear trees and a private, wooded back porch.
From Reddit
A shoutout for the Green Room, a spot to grab a game of pool or chess.
The Green Room · r/bullcity