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Marble – Opposition to a consolidated kindergarten-through-eighth grade school serving the Murphy area is growing, with a group represented by former Martins Creek Elementary School principal Paul Wilson urging school board members to change their minds.
Two former school board members and one retired principal asked school board members to reconsider a plan to consolidate Murphy Middle School and elementary schools in Murphy, Martins Creek and Peachtree into a new campus that would be mostly grant-funded, with a location still to be determined.
Dennis Curtis worried about safety and long bus travel for small children, while David Liden warned that the school district is unprepared to apply for a needs-based, lottery-funded grant from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction without holding public meetings to discuss and revise the plan.
Wilson also expressed concerns about the school district’s plans.
“I am part of an organized group of a little more than a dozen people who oppose the building of a consolidated preK-8 school in Cherokee County,” Wilson told the Cherokee Scout.
The group consists of parents, grandparents, physicians, at least four retired educators and at least two former school board members.
Favoring high school
No commissioners are a part of the group. The board of commissioners has leaned in favor of a new Murphy High School to be built next to the Schools of Innovation and Tri-County Community College in Peachtree.
“Though we have at times contacted commissioners to express concerns and ask questions, no commissioners sent us to last night’s meeting nor encouraged us to attend,” Wilson said.
Several board members said a school they visited in Union County is “exactly” like the one they will need to build for the consolidated school, Wilson said. He worries that the Georgia elementary school is not exactly a match for the combined elementary-middle school the Cherokee County board is planning to build.
“Wouldn’t we be better off taking a year to prepare a much stronger and more competitive application for funding a new Murphy High School consolidated with the community college and the School of Innovation, a project the state has already invested in?” Wilson said in a prepared statement.
“This would replace the oldest and most expensive school to operate, greatly expand the educational and career opportunities available to those kids, and contribute to our workforce and economic development. We could use the next 12 months to work with the DPI planning staff to do a detailed feasibility study, as required, to fully document the need, the advantages, the design and the cost to the county and our taxpayers.
“This could also help keep kids in our school system rather than closing community elementary schools and encouraging families to look elsewhere to educate their kids, such as homeschool.”
Around the region
Out of 122 applications, the most recent round of needs-based grants were announced in October and affected just seven campuses, including Graham, Jackson and Swain counties in western North Carolina.
u Graham County Schools was awarded $42 million to construct a new elementary school designed to be a multi-level building that will centralize essential spaces like cafeteria, gymnasium, auditorium and more, while aligning academic planning and other student services.
u Swain County Schools was awarded $52 million to construct a new middle school that will integrate buildings to reduce transition time, enhance classroom size and cafeteria capacity, while creating new athletic fields to support student involvement.
u Jackson County Public Schools was awarded $52 million to construct a middle school that will consolidate five middle school programs into one location to better support student access to advanced coursework, career and technical education programs, visual arts, and to support teachers’ planning, training, and more.
As Liden explained to Cherokee County commissioners, although some of the successful grants accomplish consolidation, several of them also centered on access to career and technical education (as would be viable with a new high school located near the community college), Wilson said.
Then-state superintendent of public instruction Catherine Truitt said in 2024 that needs-based grants continue to help districts across North Carolina ensure that students have access to high-quality learning environments that are clean, modern and inviting to better serve student learning.
“Hurricane Helene has reiterated the necessity of our students having access to safe, modern and structurally sound learning environments,” Truitt said. “Each year, this funding does so much to support districts in modernizing infrastructure to improve safety and to enhance access for students to specialized learning facilities where they gain hands-on experience in new facilities like STEM labs, media centers and in career and technical education fields.
“I’m so thrilled to see these grants get into the hands of some incredibly deserving districts as we seek to help every student in the state reach their full potential.”
In total, the N.C. Department of Public Instruction received 122 applications totaling $1.78 billion in requested funding.
The NBPSCF grant program is funded annually through budget appropriations of N.C. Education Lottery revenue. The next grant cycle for the 2025-26 fiscal year is anticipated to be open in the fall of 2025, following completion of the next biennial budget.