.
Marble – Cherokee County Board of Education members will meet in two weeks to discuss where to go after county commissioners rejected their plan to address aging campuses in Murphy but sidestepping issues in Andrews and Hiwassee Dam.
School board members were smoldering at their March 6 meeting about the decisions by their counterparts on the county board. Two days earlier, county commissioners passed a resolution calling for a new Murphy High School to be built in Peachtree and committed to supporting a $3.1 million local match needed to be eligible for a $65.1 million needs-based grant to fund the project.
Both boards support a new campus for the Murphy area, but differ in details. The school board, on a 4-3 vote, backed a new high school for grades 6-12 to be built beside the Schools of Innovation and Tri-County Community College in Peachtree.
The thinking there was that the 6-12 configuration would combine a middle and high school and qualify the county for the state grant, which generally aims for school consolidations, although it has funded at least one replacement campus. A new high school in Franklin was built to replace an old campus using such a grant, which became available in January 2023 after school board members and commissioners declined to match a grant building a new consolidated high school in Cherokee County.
County commissioners rejected the concept of combining such a wide age range on a campus better suited for high school-age students. The commissioners rejected the school board plan in February and followed up at a special called meeting March 4 to sanctify their February decision with a more detailed resolution.
The school board will discuss next steps at a workshop at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 3, at Central Office, 2230 Airport Road in Marble. The regular meeting will follow at 5:30 p.m.
The resolution
Cherokee County commissioners sketched out their preferences in February, then formalized it with a resolution on March 4.
Previously, the commissioners supported a grades 9-12 high school beside the Schools of Innovation and near Tri-County Community College that would include a cafeteria and gymnasium. The commissioners also called on the school board to allow open enrollment, which would allow high schoolers who would normally attend Hiwassee Dam or Andrews high schools to attend school at the new Murphy campus to take advantage of its more robust program selection.
The commissioners opposed a consolidated high school like that proposed in 2022 that was recommended by the school board at the time. With that plan, county commissioners refused to approve the local match required for the construction grant, but a newly constituted school board was opposed to the consolidation, as well, to preserve Hiwassee Dam and Andrews high schools.
The commissioners’ latest resolution is a “clarification of the parameters” of commissioners’ support for grant application.
The resolution supports a new Murphy High School in Peachtree but not a consolidated high school. Between it and the existing Schools of Innovation, they would house the high school, Tri-County Early College and The Oaks Academy. Enrollment would be capped at 800 students.
The commissioners require a contractual obligation to maintain that organization for 15 years. The resolution further encourages students at the new facility be allowed to take classes at Tri-County Community College to simultaneously earn their associate’s degree or certification in a trade.
Commissioner’ budget support would be capped at the $3.1 million county match, and they remind the school board that grant applications require commissioners’ approval, further reminding the school board that commissioners also have final approval of the architect and engineer as well as plans selected for the project.
Three school board members were at the commissioners’ meeting on Mach 4 – Steve Coleman, Jeff Tatham and Jeannie Gaddis. Coleman asked to speak but was not allowed. Schools Superintendent Keevin Woody was also at that meeting.
School board’s turn
School board members Coleman, Tatham and Jason Murphy each developed school facilities plans in 2023, but no action was taken on those plans until early 2025. In an attempt to apply for a new state grant as early as possible, the school board, at Coleman’s urging, dusted off the 2023 plans along with an older plan submitted by consultants.
The board was given a further kick in the pants when county commissioners repurposed a quarter-cent sales tax from school facilities to county government uses during the last budget cycle in 2024.
That decision left the school district with enough funds to supplement facilities maintenance for about two years, but that’s all.
Following a workshop in February, the school board voted on two plans – one proposed by Coleman that was more far-reaching and would require two or more state grants to pull off, and Tatham’s plan.
The board rejected Coleman’s plan on a 3-4 vote, then passed Tatham’s plan on 4-3 vote. The board of commissioners’ rejection of Tatham’s plan leaves the school board with a few options:
- Submit a plan formulated by Coleman, Murphy or consultants.
- Agree to the county commissioners’ plan.
- Start over.
- Do nothing, but run into a funding shortage in about two years.
School board member James Ellis asked Central Office staff to provide financial numbers for the various school district plans. Staff has never evaluated the plans or provided any data about them, other than the basic concepts spelled out by school board members two year ago.
School board members did not ask for a financial evaluation of the plan spelled out by county commissioners, but Ellis said that plan would “get us laughed out of the state. This will do nothing but build one high school.”
Ellis has backed Coleman’s plan and advised the board to start there. Regardless of which direction the school board takes, Ellis said the plan must result in better education and better circumstances for the communities they affect.