Murphy – Cherokee County commissioners have until Jan. 4 to decide whether or not to formally accept a $50 million grant for a new consolidated high school.
New board Chairman Cal Stiles said he intends to tell the State of North Carolina to keep its money.
“Technically, the decision has been made, because the commissioners have said they’re not going to support this plan,” Stiles said. “Whether or not something is presented in the meantime that can change that, we’ll have to wait and see.
“As it sits right now, the $2.5 million (grant match) was rescinded, and we did a resolution that we wouldn’t fund (the school), wouldn’t support the plan as it is. If there were no meetings until Jan. 5, it’s already decided.”
The Cherokee County Board of Education will hold its December meeting Thursday, when four new board members will be seated and architect firm LS3P is expected to deliver a new presentation that includes the cost of athletic fields. The school board voted Nov. 10 to update its contract with LS3P to reflect a current estimated cost of $48 million for the new Cherokee County high school. Members of the firm stated during the board’s October meeting that a complete set of athletic fields would add another $11.5 million or more to the project.
“I feel like it’s up to the school board,” Stiles said. “They’re the elected officials for the school system.
“My personal opinion is, I feel like it’s up to them to present a plan. It’s up to us as commissioners to see what we can do as the governing board to be able to afford to pay for it.”
But not if the new school board sticks with the consolidation plan tied to the $50 million grant. Stiles said he believes 70-75 percent of county residents don’t approve of that plan, which was narrowly approved by the previous board of commissioners and school board. The plan would unify Andrews, Hiwassee Dam and Murphy high schools – three aging structures built in the 1950s. Stiles also said he is not inclined to commit to the project without knowing a precise final cost.
“This architect is supposedly coming Thursday night,” Stiles said.
“They’ll throw out some numbers, but we need finite numbers. If you get a guesstimate and they lowball the guesstimate and (say), ‘Oh yeah, we can build that for $48 million and the bid comes in at $60 (million), you know, I don’t know. ... We’re going to have to have a lot more evidence than we’ve got right now as to what the cost is going to be. We’ll have to be persuaded.”
By a 3-2 vote, commissioners withdrew authorization of the $2.5 million match for the $50 million grant on Dec. 5, just one week after the previous board approved it. The funds were to be pulled from the school system’s own Article 40/42 sales tax fund.
Commissioners Dan Eichenbaum and Randy Phillips voted against the withdrawal of the match.
“I’m not saying this is the perfect plan, but we have a chance to get $50 million here,” Phillips said. “This is a free $50 million that is not going to cost the taxpayers.”
By a 4-1 vote, commissioners also approved a resolution opposing the current high school consolidation plan. The resolution stated that “better use can be made of the $50 (million) grant” and requested that state Sen. Kevin Corbin and state Rep. Karl Gillespie ask the N.C. Department of Public Instruction to alter the terms of the grant.
State Superintendent Catherine Truitt sent a letter to Stiles in which she clarified that grant awards do not work that way.
“As you know, in each annual NBPSCF grant cycle, applications are evaluated according to criteria in the state statute,” Truitt said. “... Grants awards are made to address critical facility needs based on the project scope and purpose identified in the application submitted.”
Truitt went on to say that switching to a “different strategic plan” or changing “the scope” of the work would nullify the award.
“If, after further consideration, the board decides to move forward with the new Cherokee County High School project as awarded, and reinstates the required local match funding, then please let my team know so we may proceed accordingly,” Truitt wrote.
“If, however, it is the desire of the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners to move forward with a different strategic plan, then we ask that you make your intentions official by letter, which would thus relinquish the grant that was awarded earlier this year. ... If the $2.5 million is not reauthorized for this project by Jan. 4, 2023, the Department will deem the grant statutorily invalid, and the money will automatically revert.”
Stiles said commissioners previously believed they had five years to approve the grant match and complete the construction project, if they chose to do so. He noted that the county can apply for future funding for a different project but acknowledged that in turning down $50 million now, there is a risk that Cherokee County could eventually be stuck with the full bill for a future facility.
“There’s another round of funding next fall,” Stiles said. “There will be approximately $300-400 million available then. If this doesn’t work out, there’s nothing to keep us from reapplying.”
However, Stiles also said he believes the citizens of Cherokee County should be allowed to vote on consolidation as a ballot referendum, which likely would not happen for at least two more years.
“It would be pretty hard to get anything on until you have another statewide election, which would be 2024,” Stiles said. “I don’t know if we could get one on the ballot before then.”
That timetable would leave Cherokee County applying for grant funding of a new, voter-approved solution in 2025 or beyond.
“If we have a good plan and present a good application, we have an opportunity to get some additional funds again,” Stiles said. “Would it be for this exact type of project?
“Would it be for some other project of consolidation somewhere else or whatever? In my capacity, it’s not up to me as a commissioner to determine where it needs to be or what it needs to be or how many of them it needs to be.”
Stiles acknowledged that he and other commissioners did, however, make a determination about where and what the facility should or should not be by rescinding the grant match and approving the resolution opposing the current consolidation plan.
“We did, but my judgment is based on a couple or three parameters,” Stiles said. “One, I know a majority of the citizens are opposed to this plan and the location. Two, I’m opposed to it because I don’t know how much it’s going to cost.”
Location has been a common sticking point with opposition to a consolidated high school. The current plan could also require more land in order to accommodate all new athletic fields, including a football field with a track and a baseball field.
Alternative locations for the school have not appeared to garner any greater support. Though some have argued for a “more central” location, the geographic center of Cherokee County would fall in the Hanging Dog or Grape Creek area.
Others have argued for putting such a facility near Murphy, or keeping the current plan to build the school in Peachtree while using Murphy High’s athletic fields as a cost-saving measure. However, board of education member and Andrews native James Ellis said those proposals amount to building a new Murphy High.
Stiles said he does not know a preferable location for the school.
“That decision is above my pay grade,” he said. “That’s for them (the school board) to try to figure out something on where they might put it.
“There’s going to have to be something done, I don’t know what. We have a lot of campuses and there will be at some point, some type of consolidation of the campuses. I don’t know what that picture is going to look like.”
Commissioners have scheduled a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday in order to meet with the board of education and school officials to discuss the fate of the $50 million grant award.