Land Purchase For New Cherokee High School Approved

CANTON, GA — The Cherokee County School Board during its meeting Thursday approved the purchase of land for the potential site of a new Cherokee High School.

The 88-acre site is north of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and adjacent to the current Teasley Middle School campus in Canton’s Riverstone area, and the land cost is $87,500 per acre to be paid for with current Education SPLOST funds.

Whether to construct the school at the new site to replace the 64-year-old Cherokee High School would be up to the school board and would require the approval of voters in November to renew the 1-percent Education SPLOST. If the Education SPLOST extension is approved by voters, the $90-100 million in funding needed to build the new Cherokee High School would be available in 2022; the new campus would take three years to construct, allowing for a possible opening as soon as 2025.

Superintendent Brian Hightower shared at the meeting that the new property already has been approved by the state as a school site, and that the project would be eligible for state school construction funding, which would decrease the Education SPLOST funds needed.

“We’re very excited about the potential for this project,” he said.

Cherokee High School’s current campus on Marietta Highway is both the oldest and the largest in the district, with significant funds invested in renovations and expansions over the decades - including the recent addition of the neighboring Canton Elementary School campus, now known as Cherokee North. The high school, which serves 2,850 students, has seen its enrollment jump by more than 25 percent in the past decade.

If construction of a new Cherokee High School campus is approved, the school board could opt to reopen the former Canton Elementary School as an elementary school and return its students home, as since the consolidation they have been split between Knox and R.M. Moore Elementary School STEM Academies. The main high school campus could be repurposed, possibly as a magnet school or special program such as a career and technical education center.