Gaston County Schools superintendent will resign. District faced payroll issues
Gaston County Schools Superintendent W. Jeffrey Booker will resign, the district confirmed Tuesday.
Booker, who also worked for years in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools as an assistant superintendent, has led Gaston County schools since 2014. The district includes 56 schools, about 30,000 students and more than 3,800 full- and part-time employees.
In an emailed statement, the district said Booker told the school board about his resignation during Monday’s meeting. A livestream of the meeting doesn’t include the announcement, but the board was in closed session for about an hour and emerged only to adjourn without news about a resignation.
Payroll issues result in lawsuit
Booker’s resignation comes after the district faced sharp criticism for payroll issues. Though, it’s not clear how that factored into Booker’s decision.
Booker said he didn’t make his decision to resign quickly.
“It involved much thought, prayer, and input from my family,” Booker said. “In February, I celebrated my 60th birthday. The milestone caused me to reflect about my career and what I want to do during my last several years of professional work. Working for Gaston County Schools has been a humbling and rewarding experience, and I will always cherish my time with the school system. Now, I am ready to concentrate my attention on making an impact in other ways.”
The school system adopted a new payroll system in January 2022, in part, because of state system that would provide “large amounts of state funding” to schools that voluntarily adopted new technology — such as payroll systems, according to a lawsuit filed March 8 in the Gaston County Courthouse.
The system has been a headache for Gaston County School employees, and hundreds of the district’s educators in March announced they were suing the district’s school board over the ongoing payroll issues. The problem has left some without money to pay their bills and support their families, according to the North Carolina Association of Educators.
Some were underpaid, some were overpaid and some were paid too early, which pulled from medical coverage or summer salaries. Some are missing retirement funds, according to the NCAE.
Booker’s history
Booker joined Gaston County Schools in 2009 as the deputy superintendent of operations. He served in an executive leadership role and was the senior administrator for business and finance, technology, facilities and maintenance, bus transportation and school nutrition, according to the district’s website.
Booker was named the Southwest Region Superintendent of the Year for 2016-2017 and 2022-2023. The school superintendents in the Southwest Region, which includes nine counties across the greater Charlotte area, selected Booker for the prestigious honor.
Booker was the assistant superintendent of building services, executive director of facilities and directed finance and program management for CMS between 1994 and 2000.
Between the two school system jobs, Booker was an education consultant for about five years and assistant vice president for Carolinas Healthcare System from 2005-2009, according to his LinkedIn page. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree and doctorate from Garden-Webb University in Boiling Springs.
This story was originally published April 18, 2023 at 12:01 PM.
