Marble – The Cherokee County Board of Education is expecting to propose a school consolidation plan after its next meeting Feb. 6.
The board will have a workshop at 4 p.m. before the 5:30 p.m. regular meeting to discuss three consolidation proposals put forth by school board members Steve Coleman, Jeff Tatham and Jason Murphy in 2024, plus one proposal from a 2017 study.
Coleman, visibly frustrated by the lack of momentum by the county to deal with a surplus of campuses, pushed for the board to take action early enough to qualify for state funding grants this year.
If all goes according to plan, the board will discuss plans at its Feb. 6 workshop, pick a plan at its regular meeting that day, then forward the plan to the board of commissioners in time for its Feb. 17 meeting, putting the ball in their court.
The board hopes to jump-start discussions with the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners so a decision can be made early enough to qualify for a state grant or grants to pay for construction of a consolidated school – or schools.
The issue
Cherokee County has 12 campuses. Andrews Elementary, Murphy Elementary and Murphy Middle schools are nearly full. Andrews and Hiwassee Dam high schools are less than half full. Other campuses are:
- Andrews Middle, 74%.
- Hiwassee Dam Middle, 61%.
- Martins Creek Elementary, 77%.
- Murphy High, 65%.
- Peachtree Elementary, 79%.
- Ranger Elementary, 74%.
Many of the campuses date back to the 1950s, with Peachtree dating back to 1947. In short, there is too much capacity, and many facilities are old and more expensive to maintain.
The county was awarded a $50 million needs-based grant to consolidate Andrews, Hiwassee Dam and Murphy high schools in 2023, but the plan failed when commissioners refused to approve the mandatory $2.5 million local match in December 2023 after the school board – the same board that sits today – rejected the grant during its first meeting that month.
Since that time, board members have looked at approaching school consolidation from the opposite direction of high schools – consolidating lower grades.
In 2024, the school board closed middle schools in Martins Creek and Ranger, and the elementary school in Hiwassee Dam, while expanding Hiwassee Dam’s middle school as well as Murphy’s middle and elementary schools.
The plans
One proposal comes from the 2017 LS3P study, which includes five options:
- renovate all schools at a cost of $79.4 million;
- priority renovation at a cost of $27.4 million;
- two new K-12 schools, one in the west and the other in the east, plus an early college at a cost of $156.2 million;
- three new K-12 schools spread evenly throughout the county and an early college at a cost of $179.1 million;
- and one new 9-12 campus, including an early college and alternative school, at a cost of $55.0 million.
That last option was already executed with the opening of the Schools of Innovation in Peachtree in 2024. That campus also included The Oaks Academy alternative school.
Tatham’s plan would use plans provided by the LS3P study for a high school consolidation, housing grades 6-12 beside the Schools of Innovation. That new campus would house middle and high school students from Martins Creek and Murphy.
Pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade students would move from Peachtree and Martins Creek into Murphy Elementary, creating a consolidated pre-K through second grade school. Grades 3-5 would move into the current Murphy Middle along with the main hall at Murphy High.
Part 3 of his plan has already occurred in Hiwassee Dam and Ranger, with Hiwassee Dam sending its elementary school students to Ranger and Ranger sending its middle schoolers to Hiwassee Dam.
Tatham’s plan would close Martins Creek and Peachtree schools.
Coleman’s plan would close Murphy Middle, along with elementary schools in Murphy, Martins Creek and Peachtree. His plan would build a consolidated pre-K through eighth-grade campus beside the Schools of Innovation.
Coleman’s plan would later build a new Murphy High building while, in Andrews, relocate Andrews Elementary to Andrews Middle and Andrews Middle to Andrews High, then build a new Andrews High building. It would also close Ranger and relocate its students to a new facility in Hiwassee Dam.
Coleman’s plan would hinge on more than one state grant, each with its own multimillion-dollar local match.
Tatham said he could support Coleman’s plan in large part.
Murphy’s plan aligns with Coleman’s but offers three options: construct east and west K-8 campuses, combine Martins Creek and Peachtree elementary schools and create a K-12 school in Hiwassee Dam including Ranger students. A fourth option to combine Andrews Middle and High schools while moving Andrews Elementary into the Andrews Middle campus is essentially the same as Coleman’s proposal.
The land
Another consideration is land. All proposals assume that some part of consolidation would be built beside the Schools of Innovation. That campus, which opened in 2024, occupies about a quarter of a 27.41-acre parcel that the school district owns.
The school district also owns a 99-acre parcel of rugged terrain just southeast of Murphy High/Middle campuses, just over the four-lane highway. Many people, including Coleman, say the property is too difficult to affordably grade for a new campus. The property was declared surplus in 2019 and has been in limbo ever since.
However, other school board members aren’t ready to give up on it. James Ellis and Tatham want an engineering firm to look at the property and see if it is worth developing for a campus.