Marble – Cherokee County Schools has applied for a state grant it needs to fund construction of a new school that would replace and consolidate four older campuses – Murphy Middle School as well as elementary schools in Martins Creek, Murphy and Peachtree.
Whether the board of commissioners will sign off on the required local match is another question. County commissioners have pushed for a new Murphy High School campus and opposed the school district’s pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade plan.
The 2025 recipients were announced by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction on Nov. 18. Ten school districts across the state were awarded a total of $392 million under the grant program, but Cherokee County was not among them.
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On Thursday, the Cherokee County Board of Education had a related problem to deal with. Although Cherokee County’s application was submitted in time for the current funding cycle’s October deadline, according to board attorney Chad Donnahoo, it was done so without approval from the full board.
Superintendent Keevin Woody, with Chair Shannon Raper’s approval, submitted the grant application on Sept. 4, beating the deadline of Oct. 3, but he did so without a vote of the full board.
On Thursday, the board voted 4-3 to retroactively approve the grant application. School board members Jason Murphy, Arnold Mathews and Jeff Tatham voted against it, with Steve Coleman, James Ellis, Shannon Raper and Jeannie Gaddis voting for it.
The application did not come before the board, at least publicly, when it was submitted in September. The board had little discussion about the grant beyond the vote Thursday.
The grant
The state’s Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund, funded by N.C. Education Lottery proceeds, provides up to $42 million for an elementary school, $52 million for a middle school and up to $62 million for a high school.
Cherokee County’s application seeks a $52 million grant that would require a $2.6 million local match coming from Article 40/42 sales tax proceeds, spread over three years, according to the application.
It would consolidate the four schools into a single pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade campus, with 1,149 students – 470 from Murphy Elementary, 157 from Peachtree Elementary, 162 from Martins Creek Elementary and 360 from Murphy Middle schools.
“Putting all the students on a single campus to share resource,” the short description on the application said. “The school resources are stretched thin and fiscal support has decreased.”
More detailed information in the application describes the county’s low wealth, decreased funding and $48.5 million lawsuit settlement involving Cherokee County Department of Social Services that resulted in an 11-cent millage rate increase.
Some information in the county’s application may be misleading. The application says advanced planning was done for the project. While the board discussed the plan after a tour of a Georgia campus the local plan is modeled after, Cherokee County’s application lacked architectural plans, formal cost estimates and any public meetings with affected constituents other than regular school board meetings and meetings with the board of commissioners.
The application does admit that construction documents were not completed, but a bid date of September 2026 was listed, with construction to start in January 2027 and completion in August 2030. Construction must begin within 24 months of grant approval.
Previous grant
Cherokee County Schools won a $50 million grant in 2022 following an exhaustive process that resulted in a detailed plan and public involvement. That plan would have consolidated Andrews, Hiwassee Dam and Murphy high schools. School board elections in 2022 changed the mix of the board from favoring the plan to opposing it, but it was the board
of commissioners that
killed it when it refused to approve the required local match.
The school board discussed alternative plans in 2023 but shelved further discussions until this year, when it came up with its K-8 plan.
The school board presented the plan to the board of commissioners over the summer, but found little support. Despite that, the K-8 plan was hastily completed and submitted to the state.