NEWTON — Catawba County Schools is not asking the N.C. State Board of Education to approve or reject the county’s plan to merge the three public school systems, Catawba Valley News & Weather reported Tuesday. The outlet said it obtained a 23-page brief due Monday that calls itself “informational in nature, rather than a position paper,” and that board Chair Tim Settlemyre and Superintendent Matthew Stover signed it.
Commissioners approved the merger 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. The three districts’ response briefs were due Oct. 5 under the State Board’s review schedule.
Catawba First News has reviewed Hickory City Schools’ Oct. 5 brief, which asks the State Board to deny the plan. As of publication, this paper had not independently obtained the Catawba County Schools or Newton-Conover City Schools PDFs. Figures below about the county-schools filing come from Catawba Valley News & Weather’s account of that brief, unless noted as checked against other public documents.
No side, then and now
After the April vote, Catawba County Schools said in a statement carried by Spectrum News that it “did not have a vote in the merger decision, and our role is not to take a position on it.” Settlemyre’s separate statement said the board respected the commissioners’ process and would work as a partner if the merger moved toward July 2028.
According to Catawba Valley News & Weather, the Monday brief keeps that stance and does not ask the State Board to stop the merger. Hickory’s brief, which this paper reviewed in full, does ask for denial, mainly over whether the Hickory unit is “located wholly within” Catawba County. Queen City News and Catawba Valley News & Weather have reported that Newton-Conover also filed in opposition; Catawba First News has not reviewed that filing and is not reporting its arguments here.
Crowded elementary schools
Catawba Valley News & Weather said the brief reports 10 of the district’s 16 elementary schools are over capacity now. A county facilities master plan by McKissick Associates shows Campbell and Banoak elementary schools at about 120% of adjusted capacity in 2024-25, with Claremont near 119% — matching the outlet’s note that two schools ran about 20% over, with Claremont close behind.
The same McKissick table projects about 2,991 additional Catawba County Schools students from 2024 through 2029, with large shares in the Bandys feeder area. Catawba Valley News & Weather said the brief puts last year’s kindergarten-through-12th-grade count at 15,689, down from 15,996 the year before, and says the district plans to move all sixth graders into middle schools by August 2028 — weeks after a July 1, 2028, merger effective date.
A county community meeting presentation cites mobile classrooms and Bandys-area growth among the pressures on Catawba County Schools. On its Schools page, the county says the city systems have empty seats while the county system needs classroom space.
The repair list
According to Catawba Valley News & Weather, the brief lists $98.9 million in repairs and upgrades across the district’s buildings, with about $50.7 million flagged for the first two years. It said Maiden Middle has the largest share at $10.4 million, followed by Bunker Hill High at $8.9 million and Bandys High at $8.5 million, with plumbing, heating, air conditioning and electrical work making up the biggest categories, and that 13 of 28 campuses were first built before 1970.
The outlet said the brief argues those needs would carry into a merged district’s building plans, and noted that the county’s budget already sets aside school building money for all three systems.
What a merger would still have to sort out
Catawba Valley News & Weather said the brief also flags pay supplements (9% for licensed staff and 5% for other employees), teacher assistants who also drive bus routes, free breakfast and lunch at 22 of 28 schools under a federal program, and a fleet of 212 yellow buses that includes routes for Newton-Conover students under an existing agreement. It reported a $237.1 million budget, 2,226 employees and a preliminary 91.7% graduation rate last year, above the state’s 88.8%.
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.
Catawba Valley News & Weather said Catawba County Schools plans to present to the State Board as well. As of Tuesday evening, the outlet said neither the district nor the county commissioners had issued a public statement on the brief.
Earlier coverage: Hickory City Schools board asks State Board to deny county merger plan · 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
Source note
As of publication. Catawba Valley News & Weather’s Tuesday evening Facebook post about the Catawba County Schools brief was recovered from the public Facebook post embed (story_fbid 1699074155560312 / page 100063732303697); Catawba First News has not independently obtained the 23-page brief PDF. Campbell, Banoak and Claremont utilization and the roughly 2,991-student 2024–29 growth total were checked against the county’s McKissick facilities master plan. The merger effective date and district name come from the April 20 merger plan. The State Board schedule comes from the September 2026 “From the Boardroom” bulletin. Hickory’s position and Burke County boundary argument come from the Brief of Hickory City Schools Board of Education filed Oct. 5, which this paper reviewed in full and reported separately. The April “not to take a position” language was checked against Spectrum News 1’s April 23, 2026, report quoting Catawba County Schools. Repair totals, supplement rates, free-meal and bus figures, the 15,689 enrollment count, the sixth-grade move and the claim that 10 of 16 elementary schools are over capacity are attributed to Catawba Valley News & Weather’s account of the brief and were not independently verified against that PDF. Newton-Conover’s filing was not reviewed. Neither Catawba County Schools nor the Board of Commissioners had posted a public response to the brief on their websites as of publication.
