.
Peachtree – The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners gave the board of education a homework assignment ahead of a Sept. 16 meeting between the two boards, but it’s unclear whether school district leaders will be able to finish the assignment in time.
County commissioners are asking the school board for a long-term specific plan. While the school district has a 50-year plan (visit tinyurl.com/5edhwzx30), it was last updated in 2020 under the previous board of education and superintendent.
The current school board – which includes three new members, not to mention a new superintendent, since the 2020 plan was adopted – has not updated the plan and barely even discussed it in open session. Since 2023, the school board has sorted over numerous school consolidation proposals from members Steve Coleman, Jason Murphy and Jeff Tatham, but has not taken action on any of them.
Meanwhile, as an intermediate step but without any discussion about how the measures would affect long-range planning, the school board closed middle schools in Martins Creek and Ranger, as well as an elementary school in Hiwassee Dam, then expanded middle schools in Hiwassee Dam and Murphy. The measures did not change the number of campuses in the district, which remains at 12 – a number commonly regarded as excessive for Cherokee County’s size.
The school board is not scheduled to meet until after the joint meeting, so unless it has a special called meeting in the meantime – or meets secretly among schools leaders – it has no updated plans that it can present to commissioners. The next regular school board meeting is three days after the planned joint meeting.
The letter
The county sent Superintendent Keevin Woody and school board members a letter on Aug. 20 outlining expectations for the meeting.
“The hope of Cherokee County government is that this meeting will be the dawn of a new relationship between the governing boards,” Maria Hass, clerk to the county board, said in a letter to the school district leaders. “We anticipate a healthy, productive conversation between the boards and the public that we serve.”
In the letter, Hass said, “It is the sincere desire of Cherokee County Government to make the most of the joint meeting. … While it is easy to spend an inordinate amount of time talking about disagreements and controversies of the past, we wish to make this meeting focused on moving forward to the future for the benefit of all citizens of Cherokee County and most especially our children.
“Cherokee County government welcomes the Board of Education’s presentation of its vision for the future. We also welcome input from the public and its views on the future of education in our county.”
The Sept. 16 meeting will begin with a public forum, Hass informed the school leaders.
“It is the intent of the Board of Commissioners to hear from all members of the public that wish to speak,” she wrote. “The time for each speaker shall be determined by the Chairman (Randy Phillips). Presentations by the Board of Education will then be made, discussion among members of the boards will follow.”
Hass said there are eight areas of concerns that will be addressed:
- Commissioners expect to see a long-term specific plan or plans from the school district.
- Commissioners asked for an explanation of how reorganizations of schools in Hiwassee Dam, Martins Creek and Ranger have helped move the plan forward.
- Describe phases in the plan and priority for implementation of the phases.
- Describe plans for renovating existing structures and provide information about the age and condition of existing facilities.
- Describe plans for upkeep and expansion of existing facilities.
- Describe expected costs for new construction, and renovation and maintenance of existing facilities.
- Describe how Cherokee County Schools plans to pay for new construction and major renovations. If grants, where would any matches come from? If loans, how would the school district repay the loans while maintaining facilities and funding operations costs?
Finally, the commissioners ask whether the school board would agree to joint meetings at least every six months to evaluate progress and plan immediate steps.
Hass said Cherokee County government looks forward to the upcoming meeting and is open to communications – administrator-to-administrator – to exchange information “to foster greater understanding and progress as we move into the future.”
The existing plan
The 2020 plan on the school district’s website describes conditions, options and projected costs for Cherokee County Schools and was used as the school board developed a consolidation plan to merge Hiwassee Dam, Andrews and Murphy high schools into a single campus that would be built adjacent to the Schools of Innovation & Technology in Peachtree.
The plan describes conditions as they existed in 2020, describing falling enrollment, high facilities costs ($55,000 per month just for maintenance), declining birth rate and myriad other factors.
While much of the data is a little stale and doesn’t take into account current political will of local leadership, it is still a wealth of information about each campus and district-wide, including age of campuses, enrollments at the time, bus ride times and other important information.
Oddly, there are randomly placed weather maps about Hurricane Irene that appear to have been mistakenly added by the plan’s graphic designer.
The high school consolidation plan crashed when a new school board majority opposed it and county commissioners refused to approve a local match for a $50 million grant that had been approved by the state. The county turned away the grant and won’t be able to apply for another grant until 2025 because of the previous rejection.