Murphy – Citizens appear to be justified in their complaints about a lack of responsiveness from Cherokee County Board of Education members to emails.
The Cherokee Scout submitted a Freedom of Information Act request on March 13 to Cherokee County Schools for all emails – internal and external, incoming and outgoing – about school consolidation, reorganization, zoning, infrastructure, funding and staffing since Jan. 1.
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Except in situations including litigation, personnel, student privacy and real estate transactions, every email received or sent within Cherokee County Schools is a public record. Documents containing exempted information should be provided as well, with the exempted information redacted.
The school district responded with the requested documents on March 26, just shy of two weeks after the request. The documents it provided were in paper form and totaled 16 pages – including news media requests for information, one email supporting a proposed school reorganization and the remainder consisting of emails opposing the plan. The majority of the 16 pages are attachments to emails.
Taking the school district’s response to the FOIA request at face value and assuming that the request was fully complied with, there was not a single response from school board members nor administrators to emailed comments or inquiries.
The school board continues to be confronted by parents and faculty upset about the looming redistricting of elementary and middle school students at several schools. Six people spoke at the March 12 school board meeting seeking for the board to reconsider the redistricting decision.
That decision affects the 2024-25 school year, following $276,500 in upgrades, retrofits and renovations – mainly at Murphy Middle School. Redistricting will move Martins Creek middle-schoolers to Murphy Middle, Ranger middle-schoolers to Hiwassee Dam and Hiwassee Dam elementary school students to Ranger. The move eliminates the last remaining K-8 schools in Cherokee County.
Among the complaints at the March 12 meeting was about a lack of responsiveness from school board members and Superintendent Keevin Woody.
“How do people get in touch with you?” Judith Johnson asked the board during the public comment portion of the meeting.
School board vice chair Steve Coleman posted a Facebook video in late February responding to complaints about the reorganization, in which he said, in essence, that he did not care what people think about the reorganization, which he sought when he asked for a study of the proposal back in December.
The school district has also refused to respond to a request for a joint meeting with the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners about school facilities and reorganization. Coleman addressed that issue in his video as well, saying county commissioners are responsible only for school facilities, not education, and the school board does not need help from commissioners on education issues. At Monday night’s commission meeting the impasse seemed to be resolved.
The board of commissioners has delayed approval of $203,800 in half-cent sales tax proceeds for an HVAC in the Andrews Elementary School kindergarten class, an HVAC coil replacement at the Murphy High School vocational building, a new gym floor at Murphy Elementary School, carpet for eight classrooms at Ranger Elementary/Middle School, relocating a shed at the Schools of Innovation & Technology in Peachtree and for a chiller service agreement at Andrews High School.
The school district needs approval from the board of commissioners to use proceeds from sales taxes. However, the school district’s fund balance – a kind of rainy day savings account – reportedly has more than enough to pay for the construction needed to carry out the reorganization plan without the permission of commissioners.