.
Marble – Cherokee County school board members returned from a field trip to Union County, Ga., last week and, for the first time during the tenure of this board, agreed unanimously on a school consolidation plan.
The board’s monthly meeting Thursday followed a trip to Union County Elementary School in Blairsville, Ga., where a new elementary school campus serves grades 3-5, while a primary school in that county serves kindergarten through second grade. The county also has a middle school and high school.
Cherokee County Board of Education members believe they can use Union County Elementary School as a template for a K-8 school in Cherokee County, serving the Murphy area. It would replace elementary schools in Martins Creek, Murphy and Peachtree, as well as Murphy Middle School, allowing them to close four campuses and replace them with one.
It would also be eligible for a $40 million needs-based grant from the state, which school officials say will be sufficient to pay the entire cost of the project, including furnishings.
The board was convinced enough that they brought it to a vote, passing it unanimously. The next step is to present the plan to the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners. If commissioners support that plan, the county would next apply to the state for the needs-based grant.
Earlier, the school board pitched a grades 6-12 high school somewhere in the county to replace Murphy high and middle schools. However, commissioners instead favored a grades 9-12 school in Peachtree.
The school board never discussed the commissioners’ proposal, other than to comment that there would be difficulty obtaining the necessary state grant to fund such a project.
At Thursday’s meeting, the school board also rescinded its earlier grades 6-12 proposal and voted unanimously for the new plan.
Cherokee County Commissioner Alan Bryant accompanied school board members on the Union County tour. The two school board members who did not attend were Jason Murphy and Jeff Tatham.