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The former Marble Elementary School became The Oaks Academy for several years before shutting down for good in August.
Marble – Cherokee County Schools will attempt to sell the old Marble Elementary School campus, which has sat vacant since The Oaks Academy moved to the Schools of Innovation & Technology in Peachtree in 2023.
The school board voted 5-1 on April 18 – with member Jeff Tatham voting no and James Ellis absent – to put the surplus property up for sale. Tatham suggested that the school system consolidate its district offices, maintenance and food services departments – all three which are housed in buildings owned by the county – to the Marble campus, which is owned by the school district.
“It would make a great Central Office,” Tatham said, adding that he would not oppose selling the property if that becomes the best available option.
A similar proposal has been pitched by some county commissioners, but Tatham’s proposal got nowhere with the school board Thursday.
“Put it on the market and get good money out of it,” school board member Steve Coleman said.
The old Marble Elementary School sits on 9 acres and includes a 15,861-square-foot school building constructed around 1992. The tax value of the property was listed between $1.9 million (the value shown when you click on the Cherokee County GIS map) and $2.3 million (the value when it was appraised in 2017 and shown on the property record card).
The school board is hoping to get at least the tax value for the property. Any offers to buy it will be subjected to a 10-day upset bid process and school board approval, so unloading the surplus property is far from a done deal.
Getting an appraisal for the property is a bit of a problem, since surplus school properties seldom come to market. Fairly recent sales of school campuses, including The Learning Center in Murphy and Unaka School, are not comparable because of smaller campus sizes and building square footage.
The school district was obligated to first offer the surplus property to the county, which rejected the offer and put it back into the school board’s court. The district is still paying for maintenance, utilities and insurance for the property.
Murphy Middle School restrooms
The board is also looking to solve a restroom shortage at Murphy Middle School.
The school has just one boys restroom and one girls restroom, both located in a part of the school that gets congested between classes. The problem will only get worse in the 2025-26 school year, when more than 50 middle schoolers from Martins Creek will be moved to Murphy Middle School.
If nothing is done, it will compound an already bad situation, Tatham said.
The board will consider three options during its meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 16, at Central Office: expand the existing restrooms, add restrooms elsewhere on the campus or adding restrooms, a locker room and coaches’ offices on one end of the campus.
Early cost estimates between the three options range from $200,000 to $750,000.