Gaston County gives school district $5M as it faced another round of layoffs
Gaston County commissioners voted Tuesday night to increase its investment in county public schools by $5 million, reversing its previous decision to keep funding flat.
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Commissioners voted in a 4-3 decision to answer the district’s calls for more funding, after Gaston County Schools Superintendent Morgen Houchard warned he would need to slash 75 positions this fall without an influx of more cash.
The district already laid off 175 staff members this spring. It’s unclear to what extent the new cash infusion will prevent layoffs next fall.
“Supporting one essential service should never require neglecting another,” Gaston County Board of Commissioners Chairman Chad Brown said in a news release. “We must support our schools and protect the County’s financial future.”
Gaston County gave $54 million to GCS for operating expenses for the 2025-26 school year. The district requested $60.5 million for the coming school year, but county commissioners voted May 12 to keep the county’s portion of the district’s budget stagnant.
What followed were some tense budget discussions and a financial report from an independent consulting firm called Hurd, Isenhour and Lopes. It looked at the school district’s financials as well as county revenues and expenses over a four-year period. The Observer obtained the report through a public records request.
Consultants found the county was spending less on public education than its peers.
“The district cannot continue operating at the current level without additional funding from the county,” the report stated.
In the following weeks, commissioners met with school board members in a series of private meetings to discuss the possibility of additional funding for the district.
The additional $5 million will go primarily toward staff pay and benefits as well as keeping W.B. Beam Intermediate, a school the district had previously decided to close, open for one more year.
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The bulk of the money – about $2.1 million – will go toward increasing teacher pay.
“This is the single largest one-time increase to county-funded teacher salary supplements in Gaston County history,” the district said in a Tuesday news release. “It also strengthens Gaston County’s hand in both recruiting and keeping great teachers against neighboring counties competing for the same talent.”
In Gaston County, supplemental teacher pay ranged from $3,562.30 to $5,451.90 during the 2025-26 school year, on top of state funded teacher salaries. That brought pay for most starting teachers in the district to around $44,500.
Meanwhile, in Mecklenburg County, starting teacher salaries came in at around $48,000. In Union County, it was more like $47,300. Just across the state line in South Carolina, teachers in Clover School District made a minimum of $51,500.
Gov. Josh Stein last week signed a long-overdue state budget, which included pay raises for educators, especially beginning teachers. It will bring base starting teacher pay in the state to $48,000.
Around $1.6 million of Gaston County’s increase for GCS will go toward funding state-set increases to health insurance premiums and retirement contributions for every district employee.
About $1 million will go toward funding pay for employees that are entirely paid by the county, not the state.
Approximately $275,000 will go toward keeping W.B. Beam Intermediate School open for the 2026-27 school year, delaying consolidation plans. However, commissioners emphasized that this is not a long-term fix.
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