Gastonia charter school wins $10k innovation award

By April 23, 2026 News

Congratulations to Piedmont Community Charter School! The Gastonia charter school’s Chick-fil-A Leadership Academy is the recipient of a $10,000 grant, one of just two schools across the country to receive the award.

We share more from Piedmont Community Charter below:

Congratulations to our PCCS High School Chick-fil-A Leadership Academy! Only two schools were awarded a national grant of $10,000 by Coca-Cola in partnership with Chick-fil-A — and Piedmont was one of them!

The Coca-Cola Sustainability Innovation Challenge encouraged students to develop a vision for a “world without waste.” From the hundreds of applications received, Piedmont’s proposal to construct an Aquaponics System for our school was awarded this grant. This initiative will have a lasting impact on our students! What an incredible achievement by our PCCS Chick-fil-a Leader Academy members led by Ruthie Howe and Breezy Howe. Let’s hear it for them!

Read more from PCCS in this Facebook post. Piedmont Community Charter School is a Coalition member school.

Above photo courtesy of PCCS.

Kristen Blair

Author Kristen Blair

Kristen Blair is the communications director for the North Carolina Coalition for Charter Schools.

More posts by Kristen Blair