By Joe Bott, Guest Columnist
I’m writing this as both a taxpayer and a father with a child who will be in Cherokee County Schools for a few more years.
My family moved here a few years ago because of the small schools and quiet county living. I was against consolidation at first, but as I learned more of why the school board wanted to and saw what surrounding districts offered, I learned that it is something that has to happen in one of two ways:
- 1. The state will step in and do it for us, and we have no choice;
- 2. We make a plan that benefits both students and taxpayers.
We are paying more for less. Because of our number of campuses, the state will not pay for 32 teachers. That is about $1.4 million that has to be cut from school programs or come from taxpayers. County commissioners said they can only pay for 16, cutting the school budget by $600,000.
We continue to lose students, teachers and families to surrounding school districts because our schools can’t afford to offer what they need. So, consolidation needs to happen.
I have an idea to not just consolidate the schools, but bring in millions in tax revenue and jobs.
Murphy area K-8 consolidation: Martins Creek pays no electric bill due to the solar panels. Temporarily move Peachtree there. With Peachtree closed, build a new K-8 at its current location that will hold Martins Creek, Murphy and Peachtree students.
Murphy High: Utilizing the $750,000 plan we already have, build a smaller version of that attached to the Schools of Innovation & Technology. High school students could take advantage of career programs at the School of Innovation and Tri-County Community College. The cafeteria is already designed to handle the student volume.
That puts all of the Murphy area schools close together, making Peachtree the education hub of Murphy. Plus, no more dangerous parent pickup traffic clogging the four-lane.
With the Murphy High campus empty, it frees up the best commercial property in the county. It would be a perfect spot for an outlet mall providing a ton of jobs. Plus it would generate millions in tax dollars for the county, drawing in people from other counties to spend their money here.
The unused school owned land across the four-lane doesn’t have highway access, but there is a road bed that comes out under the bridge at the softball field. That land could be sold to a housing developer or deemed forever wild for the school to use for ecology studies.
Murphy Elementary’s location is another good commercial or professional location that can be sold off.
This plan would consolidate five campuses and seven schools down to two campuses, all within minutes of each other. Busing would be more efficient, traffic wouldn’t be an issue and the money generated from the sale of the old properties and taxes from the new businesses would pay for a huge chunk of it in the short term, and all of it in the long term.
Andrews area schools: Andrews should really think about becoming their own district. They might get more state funding that way, and it would guarantee a two high school plan for the county. But they could build a new K-8 where the elementary school is to get down to just two campuses.
Hiwassee Dam/Ranger: The school board’s plan is the best for now. There does need to be a K-8 on that end of the county. If the population of students continues to drop over there, we’d have no choice but to consolidate Hiwassee Dam High into Murphy, but if the new opportunities from the consolidation plan above bring in more families, it is possible it could save other schools from being shuttered.
The writer is a resident of Murphy.