By David Liden, Guest Columnist
If you care about our kids and have been watching the Cherokee County Board of Education’s confusion and infighting in recent months, you would have been pleasantly surprised by the county commission’s response to the latest merger proposal.
Based on a split 4-3 vote, the school board sent a weak and convoluted proposal to the commission in hopes of getting enough approval to submit to the state for funding consideration in the next grant cycle.
The proposal involved:
1) building a large combined grades 6-12 school in Peachtree for Murphy High, Murphy Middle and Martins Creek Middle schools, then splitting younger kids by;
2) moving grades 3-5 from Peachtree, Martins Creek and Murphy Elementary into a retrofitted Murphy Middle building;
3) moving pre-kindergarten through grade 2 from Martins Creek and Peachtree into Murphy
Elementary. This would close successful community schools and bus pre-K-5 kids to Murphy.
The commissioners unanimously opposed the idea of a grades 6-12 middle/high school combination, recognizing that it would not be suitable for younger students to be in a high school environment. They thanked former school board member Dr. Brian Mitchell for his comments supporting that. Paul Wilson, a retired principal with middle school experience, has also testified to this.
Commissioners also chided the school board to remember that it is not the county commission’s job to endorse moving kids, consolidating grades nor closing schools. Implicitly recognizing the opposition it would create to close community schools, split grades and bus little kids, they avoided those pieces of this jigsaw plan.
There were no financial projections as to how
closing community elementary schools, one of them one of the newest buildings in the system, while spending millions to build a huge new school would save money nor improve educational quality. It’s revealing to note that not one member of the school board was present to explain or support this plan.
As each commissioner spoke, they admonished the school board to work and come up with something that would address the needs of entire county. They reminded the school board that they, like the commission, were elected by the whole county and have an obligation to serve everyone.
For example, most commissioners strongly recommended that the board instead consider a new high school next to the Schools of Innovation and Tri-County Community College in Peachtree. The key to this idea would be that rather than a consolidated high school, it would offer open enrollment to any student in the county who might want to take advantage of the new technology and resources that would be available at the combined campus.
In order to do its job, the county commission made it clear it wants to see consensus on the best plan for moving forward in the best interests of the whole county. Tell them what a united school board wants to build, explain why and tell them how much it will cost, then they can consider what it will take to get it done.
Implicit in this is the recognition that the county cannot fund the next step by itself, but the state is not likely to provide essential funding for anything that is poorly thought out and conflicted. The board’s inability to agree is at best embarrassing and at worst self-defeating.
The commission’s conclusion was to “go back to the drawing board and do your job.” If you had been at the meeting on Feb. 17, you would have seen our county commission at its best.
The writer is a resident of Murphy, a former college professor and retired assistant administrator for planning and development at Murphy Medical Center.