NEWTON — The Catawba County Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 to approve a proposed plan to merge the three school systems in the county — Catawba County Schools, Hickory City Schools, and Newton-Conover City Schools — into one district, effective July 1, 2028, the county said April 21, 2026.
Under North Carolina state law, the merger plan will now be submitted to the North Carolina State Board of Education for approval. If approved by the State Board of Education, the new school system will be known as the Catawba Valley School District. State law requires a merger plan to establish an effective date, a new governance structure, and a transition process for the new district, the county said.
The first step in the transition period is establishing the Catawba Valley Board of Education to guide planning and execution for the merger. Members of that board would be appointed by the Board of Commissioners and would include current Board of Education representatives from the three existing systems and at-large representatives from within the county. Appointed members would serve beyond the effective merger date until successors can be elected and sworn in.
All three school systems and their respective boards of education would continue to operate during the transition period. On July 1, 2028, the Catawba Valley Board of Education would assume authority for administering and operating all public schools in the county, and the existing school systems and their respective boards of education would cease to operate.
The county pointed to conditions outlined in the merger plan at https://www.catawbacountync.gov/county-government/schools/. A hard copy of the plan is available for review in the Catawba County Clerk’s office.
“We five commissioners are products of all three public school systems in Catawba County,” Board Chair Randy Isenhower said. “I think I speak for all of us when I say we know exploring a merger is fraught with emotions and questions.
“The Board of Commissioners took our governance responsibility to evaluate the possibility of merger seriously. When we learned the enrollment challenges our school systems were facing – through no fault of their own – were expected to continue into the future, we realized we had to take a closer look at some things. This led to hard conversations and, ultimately, the decision made by the County Commission to approve the merger plan.
“There is no doubt in my mind that everyone who engaged in this debate wants what is best for our students. It is my sincere hope that, now that a decision has been made, we embrace moving forward together, as one community, to ensure positive outcomes for our students and our schools.”
The county said the Board of Commissioners is chiefly responsible for funding public school facility construction. Increasing student enrollment in Catawba County Schools has created a demand for more classroom capacity, both now and over the long term. At the same time, student enrollment declines in both Newton-Conover City Schools and Hickory City Schools, which have already led to significant under-utilization in existing school facilities, are projected to continue over the next decade. As a result of that student loss, both districts are expected to continue losing state operating funding at a rate that raises concerns about maintaining existing student services, the county said.
The county is required by state statute to fund all three systems on an equal per-pupil basis, which the notice said is becoming increasingly problematic as the systems experience their own unique enrollment trends. Driven by those dynamics, the Board of Commissioners began evaluating merger as a strategy to address school capacity needs.
The April 21 notice does not name which three commissioners voted yes and which two voted no.
Official release from Catawba County Government, April 21, 2026. https://www.catawbacountync.gov/news/commissioners-vote-to-approve-school-merger-plan/
