By Miles Layton

GATESVILLE — Three unrelated items from Gates County schools: a water line break sent students home early on Wednesday; the school board approved a $100,000 budget amendment tied to an unrecoverable day care loan; and 12 people were inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame.

Yes, I’m on vacation; however, these are important things from Gates County that I need to report. The Gates water tower photo is a file photo – not directly related to the location of the water line break, though I’m sure water flows from that tower to wherever.

And I mentioned the Hall of Fame inductees again to end the story on a positive note.   

Wednesday, Superintendent Chante Jordan said in a message about the day’s schedule that a water line break in the Gates area left multiple school sites without water. Dismissal was set to begin at about 11 a.m. as drivers were put in place. T.S. Cooper students on a field trip were to return to school at the regularly scheduled time, and arrangements were to be made to get them home at the end of the day.

Sunny outside, so I’m sure these students will like the break — see what I did there — in their school day.

Separately, the Gates County Board of Education dealt with a budget matter of its own. Thanks goes to Chairman Leslie Byrum for getting back to me.  

A $100,000 increase in the board’s local budget traces back to money the school system loaned to its day care and could not recover, Byrum said.

The board approved its sixth budget amendment of the fiscal year at its meeting Friday. The amendment covers the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2026.

In a written explanation, Byrum said the board loaned the day care, an enterprise fund, $50,000 during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024. During the next fiscal year, ending June 30, 2025, the board loaned it another $75,000. That brought the loan due from the day care to $125,000, owed to the school board’s general fund.

Closing the day care from July 1 through Dec. 31, 2025, cost the board an additional $78,862.62.

“Therefore the expenses for the closing year exceeded the revenue in that amount,” Byrum said.

When the district closed out the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026, the loan could not be recovered.

“Since the DayCare had closed the total loan amount had to be removed from the General Fund,” Byrum said.

Byrum said the district did not spend the budgeted amount in four budget lines during the year, totaling $103,862.62. The money came from Alternative Programs and Services, School Leadership Services, Co-Curricular Services, and Policy, Leadership & Public Relations.

“This allowed us to bring a net for Budget Amendment # 6 to $100,000.00,” Byrum said.

He said programs were not affected.

“The Programs were not cut, we just had not spent the amount budgeted in those four areas,” Byrum said.

Byrum said the greatest cost to the day care came when the state changed the minimum starting pay to $15 an hour for all employees.

“Our revenues drop some too,” he said.

The amendment was needed to allow the district’s auditors to complete their audit work for the year that ended June 30, 2026, Byrum said.

Also in Gates County schools’ news, the 12 inductees into the Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2026 were honored at a recent Friday ceremony at the Red Barons’ football field. Seven were athletes and five were supporters, and the class spans graduating years from 1968 to 2016.

Benjamin C. Saunders Jr., founder of the Gates County Community Partnership and a Hall of Fame Committee member, served as emcee.

“Tonight, we celebrate achievements that brought pride to our school, but we also recognize something that cannot always be measured by a scoreboard: character, commitment, and service,” Saunders said.

Kaila Ballard, Class of 2016, was a three-time conference player of the year in basketball and returned to lead the Lady Red Barons to this year’s 2A state semifinals. Five of the seven athletes played on the 1973 football team that reached the Eastern Regional Finals. Others honored include Dr. Jalisa Bradley Parrish, Class of 2007, and John Ward, Class of 1987, who has won 15 Sports Emmy Awards as a technical producer.

Supporters included Kaye Hollowell Barker, Class of 1968, who helped create the Hall of Fame, and Danny Byrum, Johnny Savage and Perry Tyler, who have staffed the football press box since 1996.

Saunders closed with the school’s familiar line: “Once a Red Baron, always a Red Baron!”