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Parents, teachers and NAACP urge Gaston County to stop flat budgets and fund schools
Summary
Dozens of residents, teachers and leaders from the Gastonia NAACP told commissioners during a May 12 public hearing that Gaston County must prioritize school funding to avoid staff losses and service declines in local schools.
Dozens of parents, teachers and community leaders used a May 12 public hearing to press the Gaston County Board of Commissioners to increase recurring support for Gaston County Schools, citing staffing cuts, declining proficiency and equity concerns.
Speakers described recent and prospective staffing losses and said children are losing access to counselors, nurses and specialists. An anonymous teacher read by Andrew Bridal said the district is "losing nearly half of their employees" at some schools and urged the county to act to keep educators from leaving. "When educators are overworked, undervalued, and unsupported, they cannot effectively nurture, teach and lead," the statement said.
Parents gave concrete examples: Taylor Sanders described buses arriving late and students picked up early; Lisonbee Carpenter, a Belmont parent, said her daughter shares a nurse across multiple schools and urged the board to keep the 174 positions the county discussed restoring.
Advocacy groups also spoke. Sean Bates, president of the Gastonia NAACP branch, said the monument outside the courthouse symbolizes systemic wrongs and demanded an agenda slot to discuss relocation; multiple speakers tied school underfunding to broader civic priorities and fairness.
Superintendent Dr. Houchard told commissioners an outside firm (JLL) is assisting the district with forensic accounting and recommended systems improvements and a conversion to a different Oracle implementation partner; he warned that persistent reporting errors have made budgeting difficult and noted the district remains without a permanent chief financial officer.
Commissioners acknowledged the concerns. Several cited options explored by staff, including targeted use of fund balance, discussing a voter referendum on a sales-tax repurposing, and working with the school board to produce a multi-year plan. Some commissioners said they opposed an immediate tax increase but supported analytic work to identify sustainable revenue and staffing levels.
The public hearing fed directly into the board's budget deliberations later in the meeting, where the commissioners adopted the manager's budget with a requirement that county and school staff jointly produce a master plan identifying sustainable staffing and funding needs.
