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Bill Belian/Contributing Photographer Members of the community came together to celebrate and introduce the new Cherokee County Schools of Innovation & Technology in Peachtree on Aug. 22 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Murphy – Cherokee County Schools has 12 campuses, including four serving high school students. Many officials believe that for a county with less than 30,000 residents, that number is too large and too costly.
Deteriorating facilities, changes in the way school systems are funded, and a growing demand for advanced courses and extracurricular programs are challenges facing educators.
Years of effort resulted in a plan to consolidate the three traditional high schools into one. That was thwarted in late 2022, when the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners refused to pay a $2.5 million match needed to receive a $50 million state grant to pay for the project.
The issue came down to community identity and high school sports – residents in the Andrews and Hiwassee Dam districts didn’t want to lose their high schools nor sports programs.
Rejecting the match was the first major act of the current board of commissioners following the November 2022 general elections, which changed not only the makeup of the county board, but the Cherokee County Board of Education as well.
Three school board members have developed plans that reduce the number of campuses from a different direction. Rather than consolidate high schools, they would merge elementary and middle school campuses.
Cherokee County Schools staff evaluated the three competing plans, including how they stack up against state guidelines for class size and campus size – important considerations since all three plans hinge on the county being awarded one or even several new grants to fund new campus construction.
