Purchase set for new school site

    Andrews – The construction of Cherokee County’s new school of innovation is ready to begin in earnest, with a projected completion in spring 2022.
    The purchase of a 27.41-acre property adjacent to Tri-County Community College was approved during the Cherokee County Board of Education meeting Thursday night. The purchase price is $822,300, which – along with Wells & West’s bid for the design build project of $18.5 million – will keep the project under its $20 million budget, with just enough left for inside furnishings.
    The county is paying $5 million out of sales tax funds, with the other $15 million coming in the form of a state grant. The school will house Tri-County Early College High School, The Oaks Academy alternative school and a trade or vocational academy.
    The building is expected to be 70,000-80,000 square feet, and officials are expecting a plan from architects by Christmas. Some of the final things that need to be worked out will include whether the gymnasium is up to standards for varsity competition or just for physical education classes and recreational play.
    School board member Tim West asked whether the board could ask the county for assistance in making the gym a better facility that could also be used for other county purposes.
    In other school board business Thursday:
    * Principal Lance Bristol welcomed the board and assembled guests to Andrews Middle School with the news that $42,000 had been raised by the community to provide free lunches to his students. He thanked the numerous donors and churches that helped come up with that amount, including a recent donation of $4,000 by Junaluska Baptist Church.
    “Andrews takes care of its own better than anyone I have ever seen,” he said. “This shows the students that the community loves them, and that the staff and teachers here love them.”
    Bristol also touted the school’s improvement to a B school with exceeded growth.
    * Amid the craziness of the vote on the policy about valedictorians, another policy passed second reading regarding home-schooled students being allowed to participate in athletics and other extracurricular activities at public schools.
    Those students must take a half-load of classes and only participate in the school district they live in. Superintendent Jeana Conley said the arrangement could be voided if the enrollment numbers threatened to remove small schools funding from the state in the future.
    * Daniel McNabb was honored with the Dick Knox Award for his longtime work as a high school referee. Board member Jeff Martin joked with McNabb, asking, “Does that whistle even work?”
    In a strange coincidence, McNabb’s crew worked the Andrews-Cherokee game the next night and called 26 accepted penalties.