Boone Mayor Dalton George Visits Watauga’s Civics Department

Dalton George during his visit to Mr. Vining’s civics class at Watauga High School on December 16, 2025. Photo Credits: Grant Painter

Grant Painter, Staff Writer for The Powderhorn

On December 16, 2025, Dalton George, Boone’s town mayor, visited Watauga High School. He met with the civics classes to talk about the roles of local government and answer questions from students. He communicated with Mr. Jacob Wallace, a history teacher at WHS, to coordinate his visit.

“I contacted Dalton via email and requested his visit. We had Dalton speak to our students last year, so he was familiar with us,” said Wallace.

Watauga’s civics classes generally have visitors, including politicians, to help students gain a more thorough and personal understanding of local government.

“The Civics Professional Learning Team splits up the networking required to bring public servants to the school,”  said Mr. Samuel Vining, a history teacher at Watauga. “One of our teachers was able to get in contact with Dalton, leading to the arrangement where he stayed at school to meet our civics classes. He literally stayed for 4 hours on his own time to support us.”

Prior to George’s visit, students in the civics classes researched the role of the mayor to gain a better understanding of the role’s purpose, using the opportunity to come up with questions.

“Students were versed in the role of the mayor at the local level before his arrival and many questions were coined with this in mind,” said Mr. Vining.

Despite being an experienced interviewee, George prefers to keep his conversations with students open and informal to ensure students feel comfortable asking him questions. He tries not to walk in with a rigid speech in mind so that he can easily switch the topic of conversation to what most matters to the people in the room.

“I like to just tell people a little bit about me, a little bit about what I've done, and then I can tell a little bit more about what the town's doing through the questions I'm getting,” said George. “It lets me tailor a little bit of what I'm talking about to what people are interested in. The last thing I want to do is come in and just talk about all the things I do and how great I am, you know, and don't really listen to what people want to talk about. So, I tried to come in pretty open and free flow.”

Students asked multiple questions, including those about the housing crisis, issues with traffic flow, and general development of Boone. Visits to each class lasted roughly 30 to 45 minutes.

“One of the things that really strikes me about the high school and its students is they really recognize the impacts of a growing town on just regular everyday people,” said George. “There were a number of questions about when these new properties are being built or when housing's getting online. What are we doing to look out for the people that live and work here? And it's a type of compassion and a perspective to politics and development that really isn't talked about a lot of times in other rooms. I think it's impressive, especially coming from younger people, in recognizing the shared stake we have and trying to look out for the folks that are already here and that make up Boone.”

Traffic tends to get rough in Boone during busy times of the day. Especially throughout common travel seasons, Boone’s layout can be problematic. George explained that traffic flow in Boone isn’t completely within Boone Council’s control.

“Students asked about what he could do about the traffic in Boone,” explained Wallace. “Dalton explained how limited the Town of Boone Council and Mayor is in managing the traffic flow due to who controls the roads. The state maintains the highways and the County controls all of the roads outside town limits. This creates a problem when roads flow in and out of each of the 3 jurisdictions.” 

Additionally, the High Country is experiencing a significant housing crisis. According to High Country Realtors, “There are an estimated 6,448 renter households and 5,524 owner households in the High Country that are cost burdened (that pay more than 30 percent of income on housing costs),” and “the High Country’s median home value of $223,906 is above the state’s estimated value of $217,574.” A big question students had on their mind was efforts to alleviate the housing crisis in Boone.

“Dalton expressed his desire to open up apartments for families and not just college students,” said Mr. Wallace. “He also explained that a major problem with the housing crisis stems from the lack of control Boone has over AirBnb’s.”

When it comes to local government, locals have more of a say in decisions than most realize. Even high school students can go to board meetings and speak their mind. Every voice matters, and every opinion can make a difference.

“I think it's so important that we have folks that have grown up here that understand the Boone experience and the Watauga County experience intimately, and that they're weighing in on these things,” said George. “The thing that has really amazed me about local government is, I've seen entire decisions be shaped and made as a result of one or two people coming to a meeting, making an impassioned public comment, and knowing what they're talking about. I have no doubt that if a couple of high-school-aged people came and said, ‘We’re Watauga High students and we think that you should vote this way or that way,’ that could change the outcome of really impactful votes.”

George often takes up speaking opportunities like this one at Watauga to hear the voices of the community. Not everyone goes to town hall meetings, so opportunities like this are great ways to better understand the needs of locals.

“The reason I take up speaking opportunities like this is because I think the worst thing an elected leader can do is get siloed or think that they have all the answers,” said George. “It gives me a better perspective. It makes me feel like I know what's going on. I know what people are feeling, and it reminds me that even though sometimes you might feel like you have all the answers, the best way to lead is just by listening to folks, and the high school is a great example of that.”