A little over a decade ago, Chris Gillespie was close to his goal of serving on the Guilford County Board of Education. He had just been chosen by the members of the school board to complete the unexpired term of Carlvena Foster, who left after winning a seat on the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. Three months in, they discovered a problem: he didn’t reside in District 1, where he had been appointed.
Now, 11 years after resigning that seat, Gillespie wants to make up for lost time.
“I want to be a connector,” he said. “To connect the school system and organizations, companies, and faith organizations.”
The fact that he was previously chosen and served, however briefly, shows his commitment and readiness to serve now, Gillespie said.
“I think they saw what I brought to the table and the passion I had at the time,” he said. “We had a really great working relationship for the short time I was there.”
Gillespie is running in District 6 this time around, facing incumbent Khem Irby in the Democratic primary. Early voting for the primary elections began on Feb. 12 and runs through the end of the month. Primary election day is March 3.
Gillespie, who has lived in Guilford County for close to four decades, currently resides in High Point. He’s worked at various nonprofits in the area, including at West End Ministries, where he was the program director. He currently works as the executive director of The Bridge, a nonprofit helping residents access workforce development, healthcare, education, and childhood development. He also previously worked at Habitat for Humanity in Alamance County.
While Gillespie didn’t grow up in Guilford County, he has three children who attended Guilford County Schools.
He taught within Guilford County Schools at High Point SCALE in the early 2000s and worked part-time as a tutor at Kirkman Park and Parkview Village Elementary Schools and Ferndale Middle School. Around 2006, he worked as the After-School Care Enrichment Services (ACES) director at Gillespie Park Elementary School.
His work with the community and background in Guilford County Schools inspired this run for school board, Gillespie said.
“What I see with people I work with in the community, I see home insecurity, food insecurity,” he said. “If they are dealing with it, you know their children are dealing with it as well, but they don’t have the voice to speak up about it.”
Recently, Gillespie said, he was speaking with a social worker. A child in one of the schools couldn’t access translation services because the ESL teacher was busy, and they had to use their phone for translation.
“If the district had access to a community contacts list, they could have taken care of that very easily,” Gillespie said.
Increasing teacher pay, ensuring school safety, and increasing student literacy are also priorities, he said. His connections with community organizations and businesses can help in these realms, he said. He envisions looking at different corporations or nonprofits to help address gaps in teacher pay or even doing fundraising events for teacher bonuses. Businesses moving into the area could get tax credits that go directly to funding public education, he said.
School safety involves metal detectors and school resource officers, he said—but also safe, modern facilities. Part of the issue with passing bonds to fix facilities is that it takes a long time, he said.
“If you have a 2026 plan and you don’t do any actual repairs until 2036, you have 10 years of additional issues that are not addressed in the initial bond,” Gillespie said. “I want to make sure we’re a good steward of the funds.”
In 2019, Guilford County school board members and county commissioners worked to identify more than $2 billion in facility needs within the school district. That resulted in a $300 million bond referendum in 2020 and the passage of a $1.7 billion school bond in 2022. Updates to facilities can be viewed on the district’s website.
While Gillespie said he doesn’t know much about his opponent, he said he wants to serve to represent High Point, where he lives.
“There’s no representation in High Point,” he said. Irby, the incumbent, lives in Greensboro.
If elected, Gillespie said, he would work to make sure students have the resources they need.
“I’m not a politician,” he said. “But I’ve been in service for a long time, and I just want people to know there’s a difference between service and running and make sure they have someone in place who’s ready to serve.”