Cherokee County Schools had a busy summer – building classrooms at Murphy Middle School and reconfiguring classrooms at other campuses that swapped middle schoolers for elementary schoolers and vice versa.
Combined elementary/middle school campuses in Cherokee County are now a thing of the past. The school board discontinued middle schools in Martins Creek and Ranger, along with the elementary school in Hiwassee Dam.
The new year opened with students, faculty and staff criss-crossing the western half of the county amid school reconfigurations.
Cherokee County continues to have 13 schools spread out over 12 campuses, numbers widely regarded as excessive for the local population. The school board and county commissioners are holding a joint meeting Monday to discuss long-range plans.
Meanwhile, attendance numbers for the new school year show both the impacts of the school reorganizations and the overall status of Cherokee County Schools.
Cherokee County – which has the second-oldest median age in the state behind only Brunswick County – started the new year with enrollment up 145 students, compared with the start of the previous school year.
Cherokee County ended the 2023-24 school year with 3,229 students, just five more than when it started the new school year on Aug. 26. Enrollment tends to increase as the school year progresses for a variety of reasons – some families haven’t completed their summer vacations, for example.
Student changes
According to Cherokee County Schools, Ranger sent 69 middle schoolers to Hiwassee Dam, while Ranger received 61 elementary school students from Hiwassee Dam.
Enrollment at Ranger Elementary so far shows enrollment at 255 – a decline of 20 students since June. Enrollment at Hiwassee Dam Middle School was 126, down 10 from the previous semester.
Martins Creek, which closed its middle school and sent 54 middle schoolers to Murphy Middle, had opening enrollment of 169 students, a decline of 62 students since June.
Murphy Middle School acquired 54 students from Martins Creek, increasing its enrollment by 59, with total enrollment of 360. Out-of-district placements may account for the extras.
The schools unchanged by reorganizations are Andrews high, middle and elementary schools; Murphy high and elementary schools; Peachtree Elementary School; Tri-County Early College High School; The Oaks Academy alternative school; and Hiwassee Dam High School.
Among those schools, declines were reported at Andrews Elementary (-20); Andrews Middle (-31); Hiwassee Dam High (-10), The Oaks Academy (-42); Murphy Elementary (-32); Murphy High (-28); and Peachtree Elementary (-3).
Just two school unaffected by reorganization did not see declines: Andrews High (no change) and Tri-County Early College High (plus 20).
District-wide by grade, increases occurred in third (plus 27), ninth (plus 22) and 11th (plus 42).
There were declines in pre-kindergarten and grades 1, 2, 4, 5 6 7, 8, 10 and 12, with the biggest declines in grades 1 (-38) and 8 (-43). Increases were in just three grades, 3 (plus 27), 9 (plus 22) and 11 (plus 42).
Wheels on the buses
To avoid a mass reorganization of bus routes throughout the western half of the county, children are still being bused to schools they would have attended before the reorganizations. Once there, they board transfer buses – one between Hiwassee Dam and Ranger, and one between Martins Creek and Murphy.
The transfer routes added 10,320 road miles per year at a cost of $35,706 for the first year, with the state picking up the tab after that – a fraction of the mileage and cost had the district used direct bus routes.
Faculty changes
In the Hiwassee Dam/Ranger reorganization, five teachers and two teacher assistants moved from Hiwassee Dam to Ranger Elementary, while four teachers were transferred from the former Ranger Middle School to the expanded Hiwassee Dam Middle.
Martins Creek sent three teaching positions to Murphy Middle.
