Murphy – Cherokee County has formally declined a $50 million state grant that was awarded for a unified high school.
Cherokee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Cal Stiles informed the N.C. Department of Public Instruction of the move in a Jan. 4 letter to State Superintendent Catherine Truitt. The superintendent wrote to Stiles in December and asked for a decision by Jan. 4.
“The Board has determined not to reinstate the local funding match of $2.5 million required for the $50 million Unified High School Project grant,” Stiles said in the letter.
“The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners will be working with the Cherokee County Board of Education and our citizens to arrive at a new plan for Cherokee County Schools that our citizens will be more supportive and accepting of. It is our hope that such a plan will be developed in time for the next round of grant applications in the Fall of 2023.”
Commissioner Randy Phillips made a final plea to his fellow board members to reinstate the required $2.5 million match during the Jan. 3 meeting. The funds would have been paid out of Cherokee County Schools’ own Article 40/42 sales tax fund.
“If the school board wants to return (the grant), let them return it, not the commissioners,” Phillips said.
Phillips’ motion died due to the lack of a second. Commissioner Dan Eichenbaum, who has consistently voted in favor of the match, was not at the meeting.
Although Stiles noted that the county can apply for new grant funding next year, commissioners and school board members have thus far been unable to come anywhere close to an agreement on an alternate plan.
Stiles has previously said he believes the citizens of Cherokee County should be allowed to vote on consolidation as a ballot referendum, which likely would not happen until 2024. That timetable could leave Cherokee County applying for grant funding of a new, voter-approved solution in 2025 or beyond.
School board members have also said they plan to hold public hearings before any campuses are consolidated in the future, especially in the affected areas.
Additionally, multiple commissioners have signaled an unwillingness to raise taxes to pay for the costs of new school facilities not covered by grant funding – especially while taxpayers are already on the hook for half of a $48.5 million settlement against the county and Department of Social Services. Those settlement payments will continue through the early 2030s.