By Miles Layton

GATES COUNTY — The Gates County Board of Education tackled a wide-ranging agenda Monday night, hearing an emotional plea from an elementary principal about unpaid school meal debt, considering a new corporate sponsorship program for high school athletics, receiving updates on the district’s ongoing school consolidation, and reviewing enrollment numbers that show several classrooms already at or above state-recommended class sizes.

And a separate story about Central’s Beta Club success is ahead.

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Nutrition Debt: “No Child Should Be Embarrassed”

Before the board heard a formal presentation on the child nutrition application process, Gatesville Elementary School Principal Kristal Brooks used the public comment period to raise concerns about what happens when families can’t pay for meals as the district moves away from universal free breakfast and lunch this year.

“Last year, our students benefited from universal free breakfast and lunch, and families did not have to worry about meal costs,” Brooks told the board. She warned that the return to paid meals means the return of a familiar problem: unpaid balances that individual schools are left to absorb.

“When student meal accounts carry unpaid balances at the end of the school year, those balances often become the responsibility of the individual school,” Brooks said. “In many cases, schools must use their general operating funds to cover those debts. Those are dollars that could be otherwise used to support other areas like classroom instruction supplies, student programs, teacher resources, academic interventions, and school improvement initiatives.”

She asked the board to consider a district-wide solution rather than leaving each school to fend for itself, floating ideas such as a student meal assistance fund built on donations or grants, and consistent district-wide procedures for handling unpaid balances.

“Our goal should be simple: no child should be embarrassed because they cannot pay for a meal,” Brooks said. “At the same time, schools should not have to choose between paying meal debt and purchasing instructional resources for students.”

Child Nutrition Director Dr. Paula Simpson followed with an update on the mechanics of returning to family meal applications. She said the application packet was submitted to the state on the 15th and the district is “just waiting on final approval to move forward.” Once approved, applications will go out to schools, be available at the central office, and be posted on the district website.

“Only one application is needed per household,” Simpson said. “If you got multiple children, you still only need one application.” Applications will be processed in the order received, and every family will get a “30-day grace period” — 30 operating days — to file paperwork before a child’s account reverts to paid status.

Board member Danny Hale pressed Simpson and Board Chair Leslie Byrum on how the district would manage the shift from an all-free lunch budget model back to one with real revenue and expenses. Byrum explained that the board had originally budgeted $125,000 to help cover free meals for every child but never identified a funding source, so that money had to be pulled back.

“The general statute states that the funding for each individual school is designated from the general fund,” Byrum said. “It is not a restricted fund.” He noted that the board has, in past years, approved budget transfers moving money from the general fund into the cafeteria’s enterprise fund to zero out shortfalls, and that no child in Gates County has ever been turned away without a full meal.

Simpson confirmed that covering unpaid charges isn’t a nutrition department policy choice but a state requirement: “It’s not a child nutrition rule. It’s the state regulations that the LEA is responsible for paying those unpaid meal charges.” Byrum and Simpson estimated the shortfall typically runs under $2,000 a year per school, though Brooks said she wasn’t sure what to expect this year “coming off of free and reduced” lunch status.

Athletic Sponsorships Could Fund Gym Logo, Scoreboards

Gates County High School Principal Jonathan Hayes asked the board to consider a tiered corporate sponsorship program to help fund athletic department needs, starting with a worn logo on the gymnasium.

“What we’re seeking is to find some corporate sponsorship,” Hayes said, noting the district would also welcome smaller local businesses despite the “corporate” label. He outlined three sponsorship tiers: $10,000 for one year, $15,000 for two years, and $17,000 for three years, with sponsor logos placed near the school’s “big GC” on the gym exterior.

Hayes said the current gym logo is deteriorating and needs roughly $9,000 in repairs using a proper heat shield to prevent it from “cracking and peeling” again within a few years — a fix the school has had to make at least twice in the past 16 or 17 years. He also mentioned interest in eventually adding sponsor recognition to the baseball and softball scoreboard, an area that once featured a Pepsi logo before it was destroyed in a storm.

Board members pressed for details. BOE member Terri Riddick asked how sponsors would be solicited; Hayes said the school plans to send letters, make phone calls and, if approved, promote the opportunity on social media. Board member Danny Hale asked whether the program would conflict with the athletic boosters’ existing $500 banner sponsorships or come with perks like seating or parking.

“Right now what we were looking at was just recognition,” Hayes said. “We weren’t trying to overtake any special seating, parking, anything like that.” He said sponsors would get logo placement, mentions on the school’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, and recognition at athletic events.

Hayes confirmed the money raised would go strictly to athletics and would be handled through the school’s own fund account, managed by the bookkeeper, athletic staff and himself rather than through a separate booster-style account. The board voted to add the sponsorship proposal to its consent agenda as a new item.

Consolidation Work Continues, Science Lab Renovation on Track

Maintenance Director Johnny Greene told the board that the district’s school consolidation is progressing, with most furniture and equipment moved out of Buckland School, though the T.S. Cooper library still needs to be cleared. Remaining items will eventually be stored at Buckland for future use across the district.

Greene said the high school’s science lab renovation is on schedule, with demolition finished and crews now “roughing in new piping” before concrete work begins. “Hoping to have everything completed for our students to get back on August 24th,” Greene said, adding that because the work is indoors, it isn’t weather-dependent like other consolidation projects.

Two remaining major projects — expanded car rider drop-off and pickup areas at both elementary schools — have bids in hand, Greene said, and are “well below budget” against the roughly $150,000-$175,000 the board had estimated. A walk-in freezer replacement at Gatesville Elementary is still awaiting bids, though Greene hopes to have it installed before school starts.

Greene also described plans to ease traffic congestion in the afternoons by reversing the flow of car traffic through what are normally bus exit driveways, along with new asphalt aprons developed in coordination with the NC DOT. Board members approved giving Greene’s summer maintenance crew — including student workers — an additional week to finish clearing out both elementary campuses.

The district has spent $3,600 on custodial support, $2,758.75 on technology, and $11,522.87 on teacher relocation stipends for June and July, with other invoices, including moving trucks, still outstanding.

Enrollment Numbers Show Crowded Classrooms

Director of Curriculum and Instruction Susan Casper presented current enrollment figures and class-size projections for the district’s two remaining elementary schools following consolidation. According to the enrollment report she distributed, Gatesville Elementary currently has 45 kindergartners, 56 first-graders, 54 second-graders, 44 third-graders, 57 fourth-graders and 49 fifth-graders. T.S. Cooper Elementary reported 29 kindergartners, 40 first-graders, 44 second-graders, 44 third-graders, 45 fourth-graders and 51 fifth-graders. The district’s maximum class sizes are set at 21 for kindergarten, 19 for first grade, 20 for second grade, and 20 for third grade, with no maximum for fourth or fifth grade.

Casper said staffing is adequate for kindergarten and second grade at both schools, but third grade is “highlighted in red” because the district currently has only two teachers for a grade level that needs three — a hire the board had already authorized. She said fourth and fifth grade have no official class-size cap but still need a third teacher each: fourth grade includes 17 students, among them several “transition students” who didn’t meet Read to Achieve requirements and need smaller literacy groups, and fifth grade is a tested grade level in all three core subjects.

Hale raised concerns that current enrollment already exceeds optimal staffing ratios in some grades even before accounting for transfer requests. “So when I look at Gatesville and I look at first grade… I see one teacher is going to have eighteen and two teachers are going to have nineteen,” Hale said, noting the same imbalance exists in second grade.

Casper confirmed the district can go up to three students over the state-funded ratio before needing to report overages — and potentially seek a waiver — to the state.

Hale said keeping schools balanced matters for fairness among teachers. “It doesn’t seem fair to have a teacher in first grade at one school having nineteen students and a teacher in first grade at another school having thirteen students,” he said.

Gatesville Elementary’s Shawn Wilson, who helped draw new district attendance lines this year, said the boundaries hadn’t been redrawn “in forever” before this process and acknowledged the lines may need periodic review now that the district operates two elementary schools instead of three.

Personnel Vacancies Remain in Several Key Areas

Dr. Chante Jordan closed the informational reports with the district’s monthly personnel vacancy update. Current openings include a school finance director; an exceptional children’s program teacher at both Gatesville Elementary and Central Middle School; two K-5 elementary teacher vacancies at T.S. Cooper, one in third grade and one in fifth grade; an NJROTC teacher and a CTE teacher at Gates County High School; and an ongoing need for bus drivers districtwide.

Jordan said interested applicants can apply through the Gates County Schools website and are welcome to contact her office directly with questions about the openings. She said she would continue providing vacancy updates at each board meeting “until we have all of our positions filled.”

The board ultimately amended its meeting agenda to add the athletic sponsorship item and the additional week of consolidation staffing as new consent-agenda items before voting unanimously to approve the amended agenda.