Guilford County Schools is a large district, featuring 126 schools located across Guilford County. The district's size means we can offer more programs and opportunities to our students, but we also want to ensure all principals and teachers have the support they need.

Starting in the 2017-18 school year, GCS created a new structure to provide support to schools, replacing the previous system of four geographic regions with 12 learning areas. The new structure, which aligns to extensive research regarding effective schools and instructional leadership, provides greater support to principals as the district works together to improve learning and life outcomes for all children.

“Teaching, learning and leading schools are the core business of the district, and we have to invest more in these areas if we want to see our students make significant gains in academic achievement and if we’re going to close the gaps that exist between various groups of students,” says Sharon L. Contreras, GCS superintendent.   

Each of the learning areas is supervised by a principal supervisor. Families are encouraged to address questions or concerns first with their child's teacher(s), then the school principal, before reaching out to the principal supervisor. Issues that cannot be resolved at the classroom or school level will now go to the principal supervisor. In other changes, the curriculum and instruction team within Academic Services has been strengthened to provide more support to school leaders and teachers, while also investing more resources into professional learning and development.