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Gaston County, NC (WNN) - The Gaston County School Board held its regular meeting on May 18, 2026. After an awards ceremony for exemplary students and teachers during the meeting's “Good News” portion, the public was quick to speak out against issues surrounding the system's funding.
The night’s comments came from students, teachers, counselors, and concerned citizens, all speaking up about issues surrounding the school system. The first to speak was a Gaston Early College High School student who is rightfully concerned about the consolidation of her school. Much like later speakers, one of her main worries is the increase in student-to-staff ratios. According to her, Gaston County Schools currently has 318 students for every counselor. This is above the recommended ratio of 250 per counselor, and the gap will grow as forces are reduced in Gaston County Schools.
Lindsay Weathers addressing the school board
One Gaston County School counselor spoke up about what she felt was the board of education's disregard for mental health needs. In the past year, she has personally overseen 32 suicide assessments, conducted 107 classroom lessons on life management and career skills, held 72 small group sessions, and made sure 100% of her eighth graders had career development plans. This is outside of her regular duties of consulting individually, not just with students, but with staff, parents, and teachers as well. Since 2025, she has conducted 3 meetings to address the needs of the student body, with the school board only having 50% rate of showing up. According to her, two members never opened the invitation to this year's meeting, which makes her feel that the work of mental health professionals in this system is undervalued.
The conversation began to shift the blame over current budget circumstances away from the Gaston County School Board and onto the Gaston County Commissioners. The “good ol’ boy” system, as brought up at the meeting, is something no resident of Gaston County is a stranger to. The public, however, wants to see this exact sort of system abolished, so handshakes behind closed doors don’t determine their children's futures. They would like to see more active attempts to inform the public and their staff, with materials prepared in advance on harder topics. They feel that when the public and employees learn about staffing losses via social media, the system is failing.
There were two topics outside of the breadth of budget issues that held concern for citizens. One of Gaston County's star students, who sits at the top of her class out of 254, did not receive junior marshal. She was told this was due to the factors considered in the GPA determinations for this position. She participates in dual enrollment with the college, and these advanced courses are not counted toward eligibility despite their added level of difficulty. She urged the board to look at and update the policy here, as it is unfair to students who are going above and beyond in these areas.
The second topic here was brought forth by one of Gaston County's own media professionals. Sherry Cole feels that Danny Eaker is fully deserving of re-examining a motion that was tabled at a previous meeting. This is in reference to Cherryville's Buck Fraley Field. The idea to rename Memorial Stadium and the Ronald "Scoop" Kiser press box was brought forth as a single motion, and she would like to see these separated and reexamined individually. The stadium would be renamed Henry Jones Stadium. The press box, currently dedicated to “Scoop” Kiser, one of the original reporters for the Cherryville Eagle, has been considered for renaming due to announcer Danny Eaker’s decades of service to Cherryville baseball programs. Eaker has been in poor health while battling ALS, so Cole feels that if renaming is to occur, it should be expedited to ensure Eaker sees the dedication in person.
Heather Holt, a member of the newly founded Cherryville Education Alliance, raised issues on behalf of the Cherryville community. She presented portions of a community-driven feasibility study to counter the numbers presented by the school board's own study. The numbers differ significantly, finding that the board stands to save almost $200,000 per year, less than the in-house study initially predicted. We have made both studies available here for you to compare yourself:
After a rehash of information from the Gaston County Schools Feasibility Study, the RIF portion of the Operations Committee meeting, and discussion from the Gaston County Commissioners' budget meeting, two board members decided to speak out on issues that have been brought up time and time again. The first to speak up in this manner was the board’s newest member, Janna Smith. Smith opened by describing her experience with the 2025-26 budget meeting on April 1st, 2025. She was in total shock by the tone of the meeting, which implied that the school board answers to the board of commissioners' wishes. She mentioned comments were made such as: “It's not our job to pay your employees,” and “What skin in the game are you going to meet us with?” These highly concerning comments led her to take action now to fight back.
Gaston County Regular School Board Meeting - Gastonia, NC - May 18, 2026
“Now, I know a little bit more than I did then, and it's time to speak with the fire that led me to run for this seat.”
- Janna Smith, Gaston County Schools Board Member
She feels that the “good ol’ boy” system isn’t helping meet the needs of the schools, despite bending to unreasonable requests. She wants to set the record straight that the current strategy isn't working. The results are laughable, with emails ignored, timelines of unreasonable scale, and hard data dismissed as offensive. She feels that it will cost the community millions in the long run. Of the millions spent on the top earners in Gaston County, most is spent outside the school system. She also feels this is a combined issue due to the state’s lack of funding for the education system. She sees this year as something that will change how the Gaston County School Board, with the board currently feeling defeated over the large losses the school system faces.
After Superintendent Houchard spoke on the feasibility study, he determined that option C would likely be the path the board pursued. Option C is to move both 4th and 5th grade to Cherryville Elementary, putting the school slightly over 100% capacity. Cherryville representative Robbie Lovalace then spoke on the potential closure of W.B. Beam Intermediate. She brought up “option D,” which would be the option to do nothing. She feels that the closure of Cherryville’s intermediate school is a “smokescreen” because $288342 does not fix the $10 million deficit the school system was just bailed out of. She said the man-hours dedicated to the study may have been better spent tracking down where the $10 million was spent. She also brought up inconsistencies in the feasibility study, such as the SRO’s $50000 being included, which is grant-based and not part of the system’s savings. The elementary school staff would also need an assistant principal, which was not considered in the study's staffing budgets.
Lovelace also noted that the needs of Cherryville have been largely ignored. The elementary school lacks a fenced-in area, and the windows present a fire safety concern. The windows open inward, which would pose issues during a fire rescue. Not only has she been asking for 5 years to replace the windows at the elementary school, but she has also asked that the broken windows at the high school be replaced. Neither concern has been addressed. Despite her raising safety concerns, the only issue resolved was the handrails at Rudisill football stadium. “I want everybody to know that the only accomplishment that I’ve made since I’ve been on this board.” She feels that these safety concerns make the consolidation unfeasible and that option C is not a good path to take. She also claims that the board did not make the decision to close W.B. Beam Intermediate; instead, it was presented as an option they had to vote on. “We are not employed by Gaston County Schools; we are employed by our constituents.” She is also concerned about the alternative options because the 5th-grade students at Chavis will not truly feel like part of the school. This is because those plans involve isolating them to a small portion of the school.
The meeting then proceeded to the Superintendent's Comment portion, and Houchard did not address Smith or Lovelace’s concerns directly. Dr. Houchard mentioned there would be a public hearing in the coming weeks regarding the closure of W.B. Beam Intermediate, as required by NC law. No exact date has been set.
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