Cherokee County Schools (North Carolina)

Cherokee County Schools manages the 13 public schools in Cherokee County, North Carolina, United States, with an enrollment of 3,081 students and a 12.7:1 student-to-teacher ratio.

The school superintendent is Dr. Keevin Woody. As of 2023, Cherokee County Schools' graduation rate is 92 percent. The state average is 86.5 percent.

Elementary schools

 * Andrews Elementary serves Pre-K through 5th grade. The school has an enrollment of 335 students and a capacity of 390 students. The school building was built in 1951 as the Andrews Primary School. The adjacent Andrews Grammar School was destroyed by fire in January 1971 and relocated in 1979 to the Andrews Primary building, making the Andrews Elementary School. The building had an expansion in 1979 to accommodate the 800 children attending the school at the time. In 2003 a gymnasium was constructed on the west end of the building after the closure of the former 1934 rock gym that closed in 1999 due to the structural problems deeming it unsafe. This cut off a road and created a new hallway system on what was the west entrances. The rock gym was demolished that same year.
 * Murphy Elementary School serves grades Pre-K-5 and has an enrollment of 521 students and a capacity of 547 students.  The school was destroyed by a fire in January 1961 and rebuilt. The school had an expansion in 1998 which added classrooms and new offices.
 * Martins Creek Elementary School (formerly Martins Creek Elementary Middle) serves grades K-5. The school building was constructed in 1997 while the old building about a quarter-mile away was demolished and a new school was built. The 61-acre campus includes playgrounds, hiking trails, mountain biking trails, and a multi-functional gymnasium. This school served grades K-8 until 2024. As an elementary-middle school, the school had received numerous awards and distinctions, including being in the top 25 Schools of Excellence in the North Carolina ABC program, a School of Distinction, a School of Exemplary Growth, and was included in PC Magazine's Top 100 Wired Schools in the nation. It is also one of the few schools in the state to be recognized as achieving exemplary growth every year since the ABCs Program began
 * Peachtree Elementary has an enrollment of 161 students and a capacity of 190 students. The building is the second constructed on its site. The current Peachtree Elementary building was built in 1989.
 * Ranger Elementary (formerly Ranger Elementary Middle) offers grades K-5 in Murphy, North Carolina. The Ranger School building was rebuilt in 1997, as part of a project to reconstruct two schools and build two new schools from 1997-1998. The building had an expansion in 2009 that added classrooms. This school served grades K-8 until 2024.

Elementary-middle schools
Elementary-middle schools are schools that teach kindergarten, or pre-kindergarten, to the 8th grade. Cherokee County Schools operated 3 elementary-middle schools (the schools were named as "elementary middle", or "elementary & middle" rather than "elementary-middle") until 2024 - Martins Creek, Ranger, and Hiwassee Dam. These three schools taught K-8.

On January 18, 2024, Cherokee County's school board voted to move Hiwassee Dam Elementary (K-5 Students) to Ranger Elementary School and move Ranger middle school students to Hiwassee Dam, leaving only Ranger Elementary and Hiwassee Dam Middle School (and High School). They also voted to move Martins Creek Elementary Middle students to Murphy Middle School. The reorganization will go into effect for the 2024-2025 school year. In March 2024, the Cherokee Scout wrote the school board also plans to combine Peachtree Elementary School and Martins Creek School in the 2025-2026 school year.

The school board’s decision to reorganize multiple schools and rezone children ignited heated opposition. The board made the choice without public notice, took no public comment about the changes during that meeting, and did not seek feedback from staff or principals who were there. The Scout reported that multiple citizens and the newspaper itself had difficulty getting any response from school board members. The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners called for a joint meeting with the school board, but the school district did not respond, prompting commissioners to delay approving school projects. In March 2024, the Scout wrote that the school district is “at odds with a growing list of local institutions and individuals that includes county government, the county’s Needs and Solutions Advisory Committee, parents, faculty, staff and even the Cherokee Scout.”

Middle schools
Cherokee County Schools operates 3 middle schools, one of which was made into a middle school in 2024.
 * Andrews Middle School in Andrews, North Carolina serves grades 6-8 and is one of only four middle schools in the Cherokee School District. Andrews Middle (AMS) was established in 1999, after separation from Andrews High School, being named the Andrews Junior High. It was the newest facility in the school system, being built in 1998 and opening in 1999, until 2023. As of 2023 it had an active enrollment of 194 students and a capacity of 390 students. As of 2007 it had a full-time teaching staff of 24 teachers.
 * Hiwassee Dam Middle School (formerly Hiwassee Dam Elementary Middle) offers grades 6-8 and is located in Murphy, North Carolina. It served grades K-8 until 2024.


 * Murphy Middle School is a middle school located in Murphy, North Carolina. It serves grades 6-8, and enrolls approximately 301 students. This school was built in 1997 next to the Murphy High School campus. It has a capacity of 332 students.

High schools
Cherokee County Schools operates 3 main high schools in the county, the oldest high school facility being Hiwassee Dam High (1956) and the newest being Andrews (1963). Murphy High School was also built in 1956, but construction of the school ended later in the year than Hiwassee Dam.
 * Andrews High School has an enrollment of 221 students and a capacity of 530 students. The school was incorporated in 1893 as a private school. The school became a public school around 1905. It opened its second building in 1915 and was rebuilt after a fire in 1962.
 * Murphy High School has an enrollment of 431 students and a capacity of 746 students.
 * Hiwassee Dam High School has an enrollment of 147 students and a capacity of 361 students. It is the oldest school building in use in Cherokee County, being built in 1956.

Consolidation effort (2020-2022)
In May 2020 the Cherokee County Board of Education voted to build a new high school near Tri-County Community College in Peachtree to consolidate Andrews High, Hiwassee Dam High School, and Murphy High. In September 2022 the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction awarded Cherokee County Schools a $50 million grant to move forward with consolidation. After public outcry, in January 2023 new members of the Cherokee County Board of Education voted to return the money to the state rather than consolidate the schools.

Other schools
Cherokee County Schools also operates an alternative school and an early college. The early college was founded by CCS and Tri-County Community College.
 * The Oaks Academy is a middle-high alternative school in Murphy, North Carolina. The school was located at the former Marble Elementary School until 2023. The school had an enrollment of 39 students in 2023.
 * Cherokee County Schools of Innovation is the newest school in the county and holds The Oaks Academy, Tri-County Early College, and a new Career Academy.

Former schools

 * Marble Elementary School located in Marble, North Carolina. Marble's building is the oldest school building in Cherokee County, being built in 1955. It is the new site of the Cherokee County Schools Central Office.
 * Unaka Elementary School located in Murphy, North Carolina, now the Unaka Community Center.
 * Mountain Youth School was located on the former Martins Creek campus and was built in 1997. The school, originally named Mountain Youth Center, was an alternative school for those needing extra assistance in education. The school was renamed Mountain Youth School and operated until 2017. In 2017, the school relocated to the former Marble Elementary building and was re-established as The Oaks Academy.

Other facilities

 * The Cherokee County Schools Central Office is now located at 2230 Airport Road in Marble, NC, as of July 2024. This is the management facility of all campuses and other facilities owned by Cherokee County Schools. The superintendent, board of education, and other higher staff have offices here. The CCS Transportation office is not located at this facility, but instead located at the district's bus garage. The property is the site of the former Marble Elementary School building. This facility was also home to The Oaks Academy until 2023. The Central Office has had many location changes over the last few years. The Central Office moved to downtown Murphy because its site next to Murphy High School would become the site of Murphy Middle School. Then, Cherokee County Schools started leasing a county-owned facility at 911 Andrews Road from 2001 to 2024, when CCS was evicted. Now, the Central Office is a the old Marble Elementary building at 2230 Airport Road in Marble.

Demand to surrender Central Office property (2024)
On May 23, 2024, the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to make an alternative use for CCS's Central Office at 911 Andrews Road. The board gave CCS until August 2, 2024 to surrender and vacate the property. A statement from the letter given to Cherokee County Schools on May 24:

"Should Cherokee County Schools fail to vacate the premises by the 2 August 2024 at 5 p.m., Cherokee County Government reserves the right to seek summary ejectment..."

The above statement tells Cherokee County Schools that if they don't vacate the property before August 2, then they will be evicted. An offer was made to Cherokee County Schools by the Board of Commissioners to use the former National Guard Amory at 188 James A. Mulkey Drive. Now a county-owned facility, the building is stated to have a comparable size to the current office. The county is willing to give funds for any renovations to the building for when CCS moves. It was also stated that the Board of Commissioners will be glad to take any requests for other properties CCS would like to use for their Central Office and that they would still fund the renovations.
 * The Cherokee County School Bus Garage located near Murphy Middle maintains all school buses for the school district. The garage is a dated building constructed between 1950 and 1960. Buses have low clearance and low parking space inside the garage, due to size changes within buses since the garage's construction. Cherokee County has 41 yellow school buses and 20 activity buses, a total of 61. The first bus was purchased in 1926, serving the Andrews community. School activity buses for the district were purchased in 1950 by Andrews City Schools, 1966 by Hiwassee Dam School, and 1969 by Murphy City Schools (the individual districts merged into CCS in the 1980s).

Superintendents

 * 1) Lloyd Hendrix (1939-1969)
 * 2) John Jordan (1969-c.1973)
 * 3) William R Pipes (1983-????)
 * 4) Dr. Donald Bentley (c.1991)
 * 5) Gary Steppe (????-2002)
 * 6) Dr. Jeanette F. Hedrick (2002-2008)
 * 7) Dr. Stephen Lane (2008-2014)
 * 8) Dr. Jeana Conley (2014-2022)
 * 9) Dr. Keevin Woody (2022-present)