Good morning! It's Monday.

🌧️ Today's weather: Showers and thunderstorms, with a high of 82 and a low of 71.

🎂 Happy birthday to our member Marcia Kennedy!

Today's newsletter is 1,068 words — a 4-minute read.

The high-end, AI-powered private school Alpha Schools plans to grow from a dozen to roughly 50 campuses in the 2026 school year, its founder tells Axios.

• The school is currently enrolling for its Raleigh location.

Why it matters: While traditional schools navigate how to adopt AI, Alpha Schools has created an AI-dependent classroom model that the company claims reduces screen time and increases human interaction.

• Tuition costs $45,000 to $75,000 a year.

State of play: This school year, Alpha plans to open campuses in 27 markets, including Raleigh, Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver and Nashville.

• Some of those campuses were previously announced and delayed, largely because of issues with the real estate. Raleigh's Alpha School is in a temporary location at 12600 Spruce Tree Way.

How it works: Students spend no more than two hours a day on AI software to learn core subjects, Price says.

• They spend the rest of the day developing life skills in workshops. (For example, students have organized a music festival for a nonprofit.)
• Instead of licensed teachers conducting lessons, Alpha Schools hires "guides" whose jobs are to motivate and coach students. They're paid at least $100,000 a year.

The big picture: Many public schools have been slow to put clear guardrails around AI.

• Just 18% of teachers in public K-12 schools in a recent Gallup study said they've received formal guidance from school administrators on how to use AI tools.
• Meanwhile, parents are balancing whether letting their children use AI strengthens digital literacy or results in cognitive decline. The research is limited.

Friction point: Penn State professor Gerald LeTendre says his concern with AI education models — including Unbound Academy and Khan Lab School — is they risk conflating teaching and tutoring.

• "AI tutoring can help, but it has to be within an atmosphere where there's deep human contact with a highly qualified teacher," he adds.
• He argues helping teachers become proficient in AI is a more promising strategy than replacing them.

Go deeper

Carrboro-based author Elisa Faison's recently published novel "Skin Contact" is drawing widespread attention a month after its release.

• The work of literary fiction follows a married couple who decide to open their marriage after a loved one's death.

Why it matters: Buzz from major publications, including The New York Times, BBC, Financial Times and Marie Claire, is shining a national spotlight on the debut novelist.

What they're saying: Faison, who grew up in Alabama, first moved to the Triangle for graduate school. After earning a Ph.D. in English from UNC-Chapel Hill, she decided to stick around.

• "I just loved the area so much … and I just couldn't imagine living anywhere else."

We spoke with Faison for our latest Local Limelight conversation.

📚 What has the past month been like for you? Crazy. Really a surprise. I had a big launch event at Flyleaf Books — which, I used to work there as a bookseller.

• And then I pretty immediately went on a tour of some bookstores in the Southeast. … I got to see friends and family, and also meet a lot of readers, and hear what the book was meaning to people firsthand, and it was so wonderful and great.

📱 What's your first read in the morning? Horrible. It's my email.

• And then the second thing is always I go into my audiobook, like pretty immediately. I'm a real audiobook person.

☕️ What is your favorite coffee shop in the Triangle? Open Eye in Carrboro. I wrote like my entire dissertation there, and I wrote a little bit of "Skin Contact" there, too. It's my living room.

🍣 Favorite restaurant? If I'm really wanting something nice, it's M Sushi. I'm also really loyal to Pizzeria Mercado in Carrboro. I think it's the best pizza in the Triangle.

Keep reading about Faison's life here in the Triangle

💰 The penthouse at the Novus tower in downtown Durham broke the state's record for a condo sale at $5.65 million. The buyers are a couple from Austin, Texas. (Triangle Business Journal🔒)

📚 A former Barnes & Noble in Cary will become a Crunch Fitness. (News & Observer)

⚖️ Court interpreters staged a walkout Friday to protest low pay. (WRAL)

🖼️ The Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill will be undergoing a $70 million expansion. (WCHL)

Editor's note: The roundup has been corrected to say that court interpreters (not court reporters) staged a walkout Friday.

Highwoods Properties, Raleigh's largest office landlord, has filed plans with the city for a 13-story office building in downtown.

Why it matters: The Raleigh office market has been in flux for years coming out of the pandemic, as remote work led to many prominent firms shrink their office footprints.

• Not counting new government buildings from the city of Raleigh and the state government, this could be the first new office tower built downtown since 400H in 2021.

Driving the news: Highwoods filed plans for 333 W. Hargett St. last week with the city. The Triangle Business Journal was the first to report the filing.

• Highwoods has not yet responded to a request for comment, but the firm has been investing heavily into its office buildings on Fayetteville Street, especially the former Wells Fargo building.

Zoom in: The new plans call for more than 390,000 square feet of building space. Nearly 170,000 square feet will be office space and around 5,000 would be for retail.

• Six of the 13 floors of the building would be set aside for parking.
• The 1-acre property is currently a surface parking lot with a former Goodwill donation center. Highwoods bought the property back in 2019 for more than $6 million.

Go deeper

Raleigh's newest bar is actually a boat.

Why it matters: Ajja, one of Raleigh's favorite restaurants, is upping its outdoor patio game this summer, and part of that upgrade includes a new bar built inside of a repurposed ski boat.

• The restaurant has begun hosting more live music in its patio and has added a private event space next door called Ajjette.

😵‍💫 Mary Helen will crash out if an AI-generated design wins the Durham "I voted" sticker contest.

🚂 Zachery is grateful to Amtrak for a smooth ride to High Point this past weekend.

Thanks to Mike Szvetitz for editing this newsletter.