.
Murphy – An assessment of public school buildings required by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction is giving both the Cherokee County Board of Education and Cherokee County Board of Commissioners an idea of what projects may be needed at each school as well as the estimated costs of those projects.
The Facility Needs Survey needs to be certified by both boards and sent back to the state by the end of January. Nothing the boards will approve will be a commitment to do the projects outlined in the survey. It is a document the county is asked to prepare for the state every five years.
The survey breaks down projects to 0-5 years needs and 6-10 year needs. Cost estimates came from 2-3 sources, primarily from the 2017 facilities survey completed by LS3P.
While the document is mostly for the state to see what the needs are for its financial planning purposes, the document also fits with the county’s long-range plan discussions.
The new Schools of Innovation in Peachtree is not included as it is a project already in progress, and needs at The Oaks Academy and Tri-County Early College High School were not included as a result. However, the $38 million cost estimate from Wells & West for a potential new single high school building adjacent to the Schools of Innovation was included under Murphy High School’s assessment, as it was the easiest place to include those estimates in the survey system.
The survey also includes $25 million in additions and renovations for all three existing high schools to help board members compare costs and see what is needed in those buildings for potential future uses.
Superintendent Jeana Conley said she didn’t know what the county may want to use those buildings for in the future, but added that it would help to know how much it would cost to fix issues in those buildings.
While discussing the facility needs, Conley said having a central high school in Peachtree will open up many opportunities to all county students due to its proximity to Tri-County Community College and Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital. She added that there are several programs – ROTC, accounting, automotive systems technology and early childhood education, for example – students will be able to access on that site that they cannot at the three existing high schools.
“I think that’s going to be a real game-changer for our kiddos,” Conley said. “This is what’s exciting.”
She noted that only one school has an agriculture program.
“We’re in the heart of farmland here, and we have nothing to show for it,” Conley said.
The survey also suggests a $1 million addition at Andrews Elementary School to bring fifth grade back from Andrews Middle School to that campus.
The survey did not include the district’s needs for food storage and bus garage improvements. Justin Clapsaddle, director of school nutrition and transportation, said the district stores food in two locations – at the bus garage in Murphy, and at a county warehouse in Ranger – causing food to have to be delivered and picked up from two different locations.
There are also capacity and security issues. The garage was built when buses were smaller. When work needs to be done on a bus, it first has to be carefully maneuvered into the bay, then it sticks out, meaning heat is escaping through the open bay as a bus is worked on and repairs must be done in a manner so the building can be secured at the end of the day.
He said both have been issues for a while and provided a few solutions, including adding on to the existing bus garage toward U.S. 19/74 to create a larger bay to fit a bus. The existing building could be converted into a nutrition warehouse.
Conley said COVID-19 made the need for improved food storage a higher priority. The district has had to turn away food because it did not have the capacity to store it.
The board plans to consider the survey during its regular meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.