Dear GCS family and friends,

We hope each of you and your family are truly enjoying our Christmas vacation. With our second semester just around the corner, it is now time to prepare for the 2024-25 school year. One critical component of our planning and preparation is the determination of budgeted expenses, and from that the establishment of the tuition and fees for next year.

It has been and continues to be our priority to keep our tuition rate as low as possible while also providing competitive salary packages for our staff and faculty in order to attract the best talent possible. It is critical to our mission to provide a truly Christian education offering to the community that does not sacrifice quality across any dimension – spiritual, academic, artistic, physical and social – in order to prepare students to pursue their calling after high school, yet only doing so at a price point that is not out of reach. Our tuition continues to be significantly cheaper than similar area private schools; however, achieving this has required our dependence on gifts and supplementary income to help us break even. Furthermore, if classes had open seats, the addition of new students helped bridge the gap for the upcoming year. Our Finance Committee, administration, and Board of Trustees make any changes only after serious prayer and deliberation.

Currently, we are filled to capacity on our main campus from Preschool through 9th grade. This year we had to decline enrollment to over 150 new students. We only have a few spots in the 10th and 11th grades and we typically don’t accept seniors, so the prospect of increasing the student-teacher ratio is very slim. Additionally, Elevation Church has rented our facilities for the past five years. Each Sunday, they transform our space for their church services. However, December 17 was their last use of our buildings as they moved to a permanent location in Belmont. To keep tuition as low as possible over the past several years, supplemental revenue streams, such as rent from Elevation, have been used to cover various operating expenses that continue to exist, so these revenue streams must be replaced.

Gaston Christian School continues to provide an excellent biblical worldview education to our students, but we need to make sure we are doing everything we can to maintain our commitment to “Prepare People, Teach Truth and Glorify God” And to do so in a fiscally, responsible manner. This involves increasing our security on campus by adding an additional School Resource Officer, expanding our electives for our high school students, increasing our STEAM Program in elementary, middle, and high schools, doing everything we can to retain and attract excellent staff and faculty, and managing through high inflation across most every recurring expense.

Attached, please find our new rates for the 2024-25 school year. Given the above, you will notice an increase in tuition and some of the fees. Please know that we are balancing our efforts to maintain an excellent program while trying to keep our tuition as low as possible. A review of comparable schools will attest that we are still the best value in our region.

We realize that the tuition increase may put some families under financial pressure. Therefore, we have significantly increased our financial aid for the upcoming school year. We certainly do not want to lose any of our current students as a result of our necessary increases.

In closing, it is a true honor and privilege to serve at Gaston Christian School. Our prayer is that each of you will continue to be part of the GCS families for many years into the future. May your upcoming year be a time of joy and peace as you seek to honor King Jesus with your lives.

In His service,

Jesse Bachman        Dr. Marc Stout

Board Chair              Head of School

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Please find PDF attached:

• Gastonia Tuition Schedule 24-25
• Shelby Tuition Schedule 24-25
• 2024 2025 GCS Gastonia Master School Calendar_DRAFT
• Before and After School Care fee changes

Gastonia Tuition Schedule 24-25

2024 2025 GCS Main Master School Calendar_FINAL

Shelby Tuition Schedule 24-25.docx

Before and After School Care fee changes

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