Money to build new high school
Murphy – A new consolidated high school could break ground in Peachtree as early as March 2023 – paid for by a $50 million grant awarded to Cherokee County last week.
The N.C. Department of Public Instruction announced on Sept. 21 that nine school districts stretching from Hyde County in the east to Cherokee County in the west will share more than $300 million in new state lottery-funded grant awards for school construction, renovation projects and other capital improvements.
Cherokee County has long been seeking a solution for aging school facilities, including its three high schools that were built in the 1950s. The already-approved high school consolidation plan is designed to unify Andrews High, Hiwassee Dam High and Murphy High schools on the same campus as the soon-to-open Schools of Innovation & Technology, adjacent to Tri-County Community College.
“This grant is the best news we’ve heard from my perspective, from an academic perspective, for Cherokee County Schools,” said Jeff Martin, vice chair of the Cherokee County Board of Education. “My son just got through saying, ‘We’ve been trying to do this to some extent since World War II.’
“The first talk of consolidation was in the 1930s. I think it’s very exciting.”
The $50 million in funding is part of a 5 percent matching grant in which Cherokee County Schools is required to contribute $2.5 million of its own money toward the project. Those funds are already stored away courtesy of Article 42 and Article 46 local sales tax collections.
According to Superintendent Jeana Conley, $52.5 million should pay for the proposed consolidated high school with no burden to taxpayers.
“At the time the architect designed it, (the cost) had come in at $37.5 million, and that was with the 2,000-seat spectator gym and an auxiliary gym,” she said.
“Now it’s around $300 to $350 a square foot finished.
“This facility is 124,000 square foot by design. He’s said it’s probably around $300 (per square foot now), or to be safe, $350.”
Even at $350 per square foot, the facility would still come in well under budget at $43.4 million. The school must also pay its architect firm, LS3P, 6 percent of the total project fee.
“(The school) was designed to complement the existing School of Innovation and designed to take full advantage of all the amenities of Tri-County college,” Conley said. “That’s one of the reasons we could bring this in under budget.”
Like Martin, board member Jeff Tatham is eager to move forward with the next steps of the project as soon as possible.
“I’m sure (by the) next regular meeting at the latest, we’ll immediately start discussing plans and next steps,” Tatham said. “We’ve still got things like athletic facilities and things of that nature we need to discuss. I’m sure we’ll be getting into the nitty-gritty details very quickly.”
Conley said ground could be broken on the new school in as little as six months.
“If the board chooses to pick up where we left off, the firm has already sent all those blueprints through school planning (in the department of public instruction),” she said. “They’re at the schematics phase ... so if they pick up with that firm, bids can be taken and ground can be broken in March.”
Conley said athletic fields will be located on a different space “somewhere in proximity to the new school.”
By a 4-3 vote, the board of education approved a motion in January to allow the school system to apply for up to $50 million in funding for the new high school. Similarly, the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners followed by voting 3-2 to pursue the grant.
The boards’ narrow decisions to simply apply for $50 million in available state funding only underscored the fact that consolidation has been a divisive topic in Cherokee County spanning several decades.
Those arguing against a single Cherokee County high school are often vocal about their opposition, but motivations and reasoning can widely differ. Some are OK with the idea of a consolidated high school but believe it should be built in a different location such as Murphy, or a more “central” spot in the county. However, in Cherokee County, the Grape Creek area represents the center point of the map.
Small-town identity and traditions are sticking points for many of those who want to maintain the three current high schools, particularly in Hiwassee Dam and Andrews, where the schools are often viewed as vital pillars of the community.
Others have spoken in favor of a two-high school, east-west model. That scenario would reduce the time the high school students who don’t drive – typically freshmen and some sophomores – will spend on the bus. Conley said years of existing GPS data from busing students to Tri-County Early College show that the trip requires an additional 25-31 minutes of travel time from the farthest existing schools.
“Oftentimes you hear more from the detractors than you do the people for it,” Martin said. “When somebody is against something, they tend to be more vocal than the people that just accept it or are for it and move on.”
Seventeen different scenarios originally were considered for future Cherokee County high school facilities after the county boards began to pursue a long-range plan in 2017. A two-school proposal received serious consideration, but Conley said that plan would have doubled the county’s price tag into the $80-100 million range.
The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 in March 2021 to commit $40 million to a new school through a 4-cent property tax increase, and directed the school system to move forward with the project. Those funds have been getting collected but not designated for the school. Thanks to the grant, that may now be a moot point.
“At this point, I sure hope no one would turn their back on $50 million,” Martin said. “The sooner we can get this done, the better, is my attitude toward it.”
Money was one of the key issues in the decision to build a unified high school. Conley said Cherokee County Schools’ current campuses cost an average of about $50,000 a month to maintain their facilities.
“That is pure patching,” Conley said earlier this year.
“From a utilities point of view, with a new school that combines the three high schools, we will save almost $300,000 annually on electricity alone. That’s not even factoring in the diesel that it takes to run the boilers, that’s just one savings.”
Perhaps more importantly, North Carolina’s state school funding is allocated by county and number of students – not by individual school. That leaves local educators with difficult choices about how to allocate staff and other resources.
Cherokee County Schools is expected to have to pay for 24 of its teachers this year out of Article 46 sales tax funds, financing positions not covered by state funding.
That burden was heightened this year, after commissioners reduced the board of education’s annual appropriation by $600,000. The school system had asked for a $300,000 increase to cover rising general operating expenses and cost of living increases. However, even with the cuts, taxpayers still saw an 11-cent property tax increase due largely to the county’s $48.5 million settlement that resolved more than 20 lawsuits related to past practices by the Department of Social Services.
“The state is trying to use its money from lottery funding and through this grant to influence districts to go with the most economical models,” Conley said. “Counties don’t have to do that if they have enough local dollars to supplement what they want, but if the county can’t supplement it, then we need to go to an economical model that the state will support.”
Additionally, certain elective classes, advanced placement courses and athletics programs popular in neighboring school systems are often a luxury that Cherokee County Schools cannot afford – at least not in every high school.
Officials say unification will significantly close those gaps among local students.
“For example, let’s say for every 450 students you have, the state will give you one shop teacher,” Conley said. “Where do I put that shop teacher?
“In Union County, Ga., in Clay County and Robbinsville, you can begin taking AP classes when you’re in ninth grade. ... If teachers are peanut butter, they’re spread so thin (in Cherokee County) that we can barely cover the piece of bread, let alone be able to offer advanced classes or the electives that draw students and keep them there.”
Further complicating matters is the fact that all three of Cherokee County’s high schools operate well below the student capacity they were built for. A 2020 study by the school system showed that Andrews High clocked in at just 39.6 percent capacity (208 students), while Hiwassee Dam was at 49 percent (163) and Murphy was 69 percent full (462).
Conley said that imbalance often forces the school system to allocate teachers toward teaching required courses in classrooms that may have only eight or nine students.
The makeup of the board of education and the board of commissioners, combined with the timing of future votes, will play a role in decisions related to the consolidation project. A majority of the board of education will consist of new members once the newly elected officials take their seats in December. Martin and Joe Wood chose not to run for re-election in their seats, while board members Keesha Curtis and Joey Shore were defeated in the Republican primary.
Cherokee County Schools has already paid $721,000 to LS3P. If a new board somehow scraps the current consolidation plans, the better part of $1 million – paid for out of the Article 46 sales tax fund – will have been wasted on the project. That figure is the entirety of what is currently owed to the firm.
“The grant was specifically written for the unified high school,” Conley said. “On the (grant) rubric, we would not have been selected to receive the grant unless we were consolidating.
“Even in places like Alleghany (County), replacing one existing school, Alleghany consolidated a couple of decades ago. So, now it’s time to replace the one high school they built a couple decades ago.”
Cherokee County was one of four school districts within the state to receive a full $50 million for a new high school. Awards are capped at maximums of $30 million for an elementary school project, $40 million for a middle school project and $50 million for a high school project.
“We are so pleased that NCDPI has recognized the needs of our county and this school coming to fruition will provide the opportunity for every single Cherokee County high schooler to complete an associate’s degree or receive certification for a trade free of charge per the state’s career and college promise program,” Conley said.