Early voting has already started for the Tuesday, March 3, primary elections across North Carolina. Why some people’s votes are primarily based on personalities, others make informed decisions based on policies, and which candidates have the best ones to lead Cherokee County into the future.
Everyone taking the time, and spending the money, to run for elected office deserves for their viewpoints to at least get a fair hearing before their candidacy is written off. Whether someone has a D or an R after their name shouldn’t play a significant role in whether they deserve your vote, especially in local elections.
The biggest dollar item being discussed in elections this year involves Cherokee County’s public schools – namely, what to do about our aging campuses. The Cherokee County Board of Education discussed several similar options before unanimously settling on a plan that would close Martins Creek Elementary, Murphy Elementary, Murphy Middle and Peachtree Elementary schools, placing around 1,200 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grades onto one consolidated campus at an unknown site.
To help pay for it, the school board has requested a state grant of $52 million for construction costs, which doesn’t include buying land. The local match of county funds would be $2.6 million, which would still have to be approved by the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners. That’s hardly a given considering the controversial nature of this plan as well as other vital school needs – which would include a new Murphy High, the oldest building in the district.
A guest column by Dr. Brian Mitchell, a former member of the board of education, in the Feb. 4 edition of the Cherokee Scout makes great points as to why a new consolidated pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade school is not in the best interests of the school system – and especially not the students. He shared how the process is missing two key elements – specific details and public support.
Mitchell also asked a series of questions that should have been answered by a thorough feasibility study before the grant application was submitted:
u Would this cause the loss of schools’ connections to their communities?
u How would the location of the consolidated school affect bus routes, and would it cause longer travel times?
u How would it affect parking as well as parent drop-off and pick-up efforts?
u Would architectural plans being drawn up consider future school enrollments and appropriate class sizes?
u How much money would – if any, in fact – be saved with this project?
And most importantly to me:
u How would this plan improve the value of the education of its students?
Four years ago, the Cherokee County Board of Education voted “yes” on a plan that would have consolidated Andrews, Hiwassee Dam and Murphy high schools, and commissioners agreed to the local match. However, after the state approved a grant worth what would have been $52 million, one seat flipped on both the school board and board of commissioners in that November’s general election, swinging the board’s decisions to a “no” vote on both sides.
That seemed to settle the matter of whether our community wanted to consolidate campuses or keep our community schools, which were a source of local pride for many years. After all, high school students are older and more mature, need to be prepared to take much larger classes in college and many drive over their last couple years in high school – unlike younger students, who demand more one-on-one attention from teachers and constantly need to be kept on task.
I’m proud of the commissioners who have demanded more answers about the school board’s plans instead of blindly voting yes. While I understand the desire to get as much grant money as possible from the state, and consolidating campuses is one way to do that, I wouldn’t want my grandchildren to have to attend a mammoth school for 10 different grades in the Murphy area. We can, and should, come up with a better plan.
David Brown is publisher of the Cherokee Scout. Call him at 828-837-5122 or email dbrown@cherokeescout.com.