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Marble – A school consolidation plan the Cherokee County Board of Education approved enthusiastically and unanimously at its June 5 meeting met with a divided board of commissioners Monday.
The plan – which would consolidate Murphy Middle School into a new campus combined with elementary schools in Martins Creek, Murphy and Peachtree – seemed to have three members of the board of commissioners in favor – Ben Adams, Alan Bryant and Mark Stiles.
Commissioner Dan Eichenbaum, chairman of the board, stood fast in his preference to build a new Murphy High School beside the Cherokee County Schools of Innovation and Tri-County Community College in Peachtree, while Commissioner Cal Stiles wanted to see more details about the plan.
The board took no action on the plan, asking the school district to come back with more specifics.
Schools Superintendent Keevin Woody presented the plan to the board of commissioners Monday, with school board member Steve Coleman there as well.
Coleman responded to concerns about the plan, telling Eichenbaum the school district will go broke in a few years without reducing the number of campuses. He told Cal Stiles the details he wants would be too costly to generate without assurance from the commissioners that they at least support the concept of the plan.
Woody, meanwhile, said more schools consolidated in a single project enhance the county’s chances of being awarded a $42 million state needs-based grant to fund the project.
Both boards want unanimous approval between them for a new plan, with the thinking that unanimity will also enhance the county’s chances of being awarded the grant.
The tour
The school board, except for two members, toured a newly built Union County Elementary School and returned to Central Office in Marble convinced they were on to something.
The new school in Union County has about 900 students in grades 3-5, compared to the 1,125 enrollment in kindergarten through eighth grade that a consolidated school in Murphy would serve. Woody said officials believe they can use the Union County school as a template for a new school in Cherokee County.
School board officials believe the new consolidated school can be entirely funded by the grant and reduce the number of campuses in Cherokee County from 13 to 10 – four schools would get consolidated and close, while one new school would get built.
Once that happens, officials can turn their attention to remaining pressing needs, such as building a new Murphy High School.
Adams said he was excited about the plan and urged the board to approve it.
“This is step one of a lot of steps,” Mark Stiles added.
Eichenbaum said grades 9-12 are the most in need, especially since high school is the last chance to get the tools necessary to succeed in life. The school board’s latest plan is “foolish and short-sighted,” he added.
Cal Stiles said the plan as presented lacks specifics like cost estimates and land, saying a bank would never approve a loan without such details.
“I don’t see anything to approve,” he said, urging school board members to do more homework and bring back a more fleshed-out plan.
Missed steps
Paul Wilson, a retired Martins Creek Elementary School principal who ran unsuccessfully for the school board in 2024, said he does not support the board of education’s latest plan.
In a letter to the board of commissioners, Wilson said, “Although I believe the K-8 model is the best configuration, we will be unable to maintain the level of quality that our students and parents deserve with a school of 1,200-1,300 students.
“In their last meeting, the BOE never identified the location for the proposed school. I believe it makes no sense to place elementary students and middle school students on the property beside Tri-County Community College.”
Several members of the current board worked to stop the building of a consolidated high school on the Peachtree property, saying the school could not be finished for $50 million, he added.
“I cannot understand why they now believe that a much larger school could be built for only $40 million, especially when construction costs have increased by more than 100% in the interim and their own AI models predict much higher costs,” Wilson said.
The proposal would merge four existing schools into one, relocating 500 students just from Murphy Elementary.
“As you’re aware, North Carolina General Statute 115C-72 requires a local board of education to hold a public hearing before closing or consolidating a school,” he said. “The board has held no such meetings in Martins Creek, Peachtree or Murphy.
“It seems to me that if they hold those meetings after requesting your support for this plan and submitting a grant request to NCDPI, those meetings would not truly meet the criteria of public input meetings.”
Previously
Earlier, the school board pitched a grades 6-12 high school somewhere in the county to replace Murphy high and middle schools. However, commissioners instead favored a grades 8-12 school in Peachtree.
The school board never discussed the commissioners’ proposal, other than to comment that there would be difficulty obtaining the necessary state grant to fund such a project.
At its June 5 meeting, the school board also rescinded its earlier grades 6-12 proposal and voted unanimously for the new plan.
County Commissioner Alan Bryant accompanied school board members on the field trip to tour the school in Union. County. School board members Jason Murphy and Jeff Tatham did not attend.