In May, the Gaston County Commissioners approved the Gaston County Schools budget. It kept funding flat from last year – and at about $54 million in operating costs, fell below the district’s ask of around $60.4 million.
It capped off weeks of tensions around school funding – including the county’s emergency infusion of $10 million to address a midyear shortfall, layoffs ahead of next school year, and significant community outcry over the district’s tenuous financial situation.
Months later, the questions about school funding in Gaston County remain unresolved.
The county’s budget approval came with a caveat – the county called for joint meetings between commissioners and school board members to come up with a “master plan” that could better identify the district’s needs. Based on those talks, more funding could then come in the form of a one-time expenditure from county fund balances – and then potentially folded into future budgets.
“We have never done that,” said Gaston County Commission Vice Chair Bob Hovis at the May 12 meeting. “There's never been an opportunity for the two entities to sit down like that.”
A group consisting of two school board members and two county commissioners have since held several meetings. But those meetings were not open to the public – garnering scrutiny from residents and, now, an organization focused on open government in North Carolina.
The Sunshine Center at Elon University’s Open Government Coalition has written a letter to the county, calling the meetings a “potential violation of the Open Meetings Law.” The group says the county’s May 12 vote essentially created an advisory committee – one that should be providing written notice of meetings, keeping minutes and opening its doors to the public.
“The Gaston County BOC voted to create an advisory committee – a public body as defined by state law – to study public school funding,” the letter, dated July 1, states. “This committee includes two BOC members and two Board of Education members. Subsequently, the committee has been meeting in secret – no public access, no public notice, and no publicly available minutes.”
Neither Hovis nor School Board Chairman Josh Crisp – who are both part of the group that is meeting – responded to requests for comment on the meetings.
In a statement to WFAE, Gaston County spokesman Adam Gaub said the meetings have been "misunderstood" and he disputed the notion that the meeting group was meant to be an official task force or advisory committee. Instead, he described it as a "series of informal meetings between staffs."
"On two occasions, two members of each elected body joined staff from both Gaston County and Gaston County Schools," Gaub said. "There were no votes or any action taken by meeting participants as a whole."
Samantha Easters, parent to a rising first grader at Gaston County Schools, has been advocating for more school funding and calling for more transparency in funding talks. After she and others raised concern about the closed door meetings, the county agreed to allow two members of the public into the next meeting. Easters will be one of them.
“I feel very fortunate to … have been offered that seat,” Easters told WFAE. “I do think that it’s better to have some eyes and ears in there to try and see what is going on, what is being discussed.
“But I have always been very vocal that, regardless, the public should be able to understand how decisions are being made. I am encouraged that they are talking and that they are meeting., But I think it’s very frustrating – I know for myself, as well as many others – that we have been told nothing about these four [previous] meetings.”
Easters said she’s been told that the next meeting has not yet been scheduled.
The Sunshine Center’s letter also addresses the county’s decision to allow just two members of the public into the meetings, noting: “Transparency is guaranteed by law to all citizens of North Carolina – it’s not a matter of discretion or choice for public bodies.”
At stake in these talks are questions about Gaston County Schools’ financial stability, which has been in the spotlight since March, when Superintendent Morgen Houchard asked the county for a $10 million infusion to shore up a mid-school-year budget shortfall and save up to 400 jobs.
Houchard told the county the shortfall was the result of a reduction in low-wealth supplemental funds from the state, inflation, the loss of federal pandemic relief funding and “staffing not aligned with declining financial resources.” He also said he’d been assured by a “trusted, long-term employee” that the budget would be balanced, but it was not.
But the budget process has also prompted questions about whether Gaston County is adequately funding the school system. Even before that $10 million infusion, Gaston County Schools made cuts ahead of last school year – and afterward, it had cut 184 jobs ahead of this coming school year. Houchard said at a May school board meeting that all told, the district has cut 243 school level positions and 47 central office positions between July 2024 and July 2026.
And, he warned, the flat budget from the county would lead to another 75 cuts.
“A flat budget is certainly not what’s best for the children of Gaston County,” Houchard told the board. “I am hopeful that the recommendation for the county commissioners to work together to find a solution will yield more needed local funding.”
Easters said she feels that funding for Gaston County Schools hasn’t kept up with its needs. She said that’s been evident at her child’s school, where beloved staff members have voiced uncertainty about their job statuses.
“There is a lot of public trust that they have lost with different things that have gone on, and there’s going to be work that’s needed in order to earn back public trust,” she said.
In his statement, Gaub said the county would continue to update the community, and that any actions taken would be brought before the full board of commissioners for a vote.
"There have been a number of productive conversations that have furthered the county's understanding of the school district's financial situation," Gaub said.
