HICKORY — The Hickory City Schools Board of Education is asking the N.C. State Board of Education to reject Catawba County’s plan to merge the county’s three public school systems. In a brief filed Oct. 5, the board argues the county has not met a legal requirement for the merger it seeks and has not shown students would be better off.
Commissioners approved the plan 3-2 in April. It would combine Catawba County Schools, Hickory City Schools and Newton-Conover City Schools into the Catawba Valley School District on July 1, 2028. Raleigh firm Poyner Spruill filed the brief.
Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Griffin announced the filing Tuesday in a message to the Hickory City Schools community. “The proposed merger has not been approved by the North Carolina State Board of Education,” she wrote.
The boundary question
The main argument is legal. The county used G.S. 115C-68.1(a), which lets county commissioners merge school units only when every unit is “located wholly within” the county. Under G.S. 115C-67, the State Board may approve a merger plan only if it is “consistent with the General Statutes.” The brief says the county must prove that.
Students who live in the Burke County part of Hickory have attended Hickory City Schools for decades, the brief says. It says the State School Commission set the territory of the Hickory City Administrative School Unit after a 1933 state law abolished the old Hickory School District, and that the commission’s order has not been found. In an attached affidavit, Griffin says it is not in State Board, State School Commission or Department of Public Instruction files at the State Archives.
The brief says the county relies instead on GIS maps, voter-eligibility affidavits and a 1971 local law, which the brief calls an election statute that divides the unit into board wards. If the unit does extend into Burke County, the brief argues, state law required a joint two-county process under G.S. 115C-68.1(b) or 115C-68.2.
Money, buildings and programs
The brief also argues that the plan fails on its merits:
- State funding. A county community meeting presentation asks, “Will the schools really lose $2.7M in State funding per year?” It answers that “some state formula funding would be reduced,” calls the cut under 1% of a $248.3 million countywide education budget and says enrollment growth would offset it. The brief says that total includes construction and debt costs, and that the state pays some allotments once per district, including career and technical education teachers, school health staff and English-learner assistants, so one district would get them once instead of three times.
- Construction savings. The county projects a merged board could avoid more than $145 million in construction by filling empty seats in existing schools. The brief says those savings depend on a future board redrawing attendance lines for the 21,539 students in the three systems, something the plan does not decide.
- Program protections. The merger plan keeps seven named programs, including Hickory’s Orchestra, Advanced Placement Academy and Career & Arts Magnet, “for the first two academic years following merger.” According to the brief, that protection runs through the 2029-30 school year.
- No outcomes study. Griffin’s affidavit says the Hickory board passed a non-binding resolution in August 2025 asking for an independent study of the merger’s financial, operational and student impacts. She says she asked the county for it at an Oct. 22, 2025, public meeting and again by email to commissioners on April 17, 2026. “The County did not fund that study,” Griffin wrote Tuesday.
The brief says denial would not rule out a merger: the General Assembly could approve one by local act, or the county could refile jointly with Burke County, or alone once the boundary question is settled.
The county’s side
On its Schools page, the county says enrollment declines in the Hickory and Newton-Conover systems have left buildings underused and strained state funding, while Catawba County Schools needs more classroom space. Commissioners filed the plan and an opening brief this summer, according to the State Board. They may reply to the districts’ briefs by Oct. 26.
Newton-Conover City Schools and Catawba County Schools also had until Oct. 5 to file. The Hickory brief was served on lawyers for both boards. As of publication, Catawba First News had not reviewed those filings.
What happens next
The State Board approved this timeline on Sept. 3, according to its September bulletin:
- Oct. 26: deadline for the commissioners’ reply.
- Nov. 4–5: the plan comes before the State Board as a discussion item.
- Dec. 2–3: formal hearing. Each party gets up to 20 minutes to present, followed by questions from board members. The board is expected to vote at that meeting or as soon as possible afterward.
At an Oct. 1 League of Women Voters forum, the six candidates for three seats on the Board of Commissioners split 3-3 on the merger, Catawba First News reported.
Earlier coverage: Commissioners vote 3-2 to approve plan merging three school systems · State Board sets December hearing on Catawba school merger · School districts’ merger briefs due Oct. 5 · Commissioner candidates open League forum at Newton library · League sets Oct. 1 and Oct. 8 candidate forums · Hickory superintendent reports a decrease of about 100 students
Source note
As of publication. Hickory City Schools Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Griffin’s message, “Hickory City Schools Submits Formal Response to Proposed Merger Plan,” was posted Oct. 6, 2026, on the district website and the district’s Facebook page. The Brief of Hickory City Schools Board of Education was filed with the State Board on Oct. 5, 2026; the 83-page PDF, including exhibits and Griffin’s affidavit, was reviewed in full. Catawba First News checked the $2.7 million, $248.3 million and $145 million figures against the county’s community meeting presentation, and the program language against the April 20 merger plan. The review schedule comes from the State Board’s September 2026 “From the Boardroom” bulletin. The Catawba County Board of Commissioners may reply by Oct. 26. Catawba First News found no primary source for the positions of the other two districts, so none are reported here.
