Cherokee High School Opens New $179 Million Campus in Canton

The Cherokee County School District celebrated the opening of its new Cherokee High School campus Monday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and community open house at 1500 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., adjacent to Teasley Middle School. Alumni spanning decades, current students, educators, and families turned out to mark the occasion together. The school opens for the first day of classes Aug. 3.

The $179 million project replaces the district's oldest high school, which first opened its doors in 1956 and has educated generations of Cherokee County families. Funding came through Education Special Local Option Sales Tax revenue and associated bonding, a mechanism Cherokee County voters approved specifically to invest in school construction without raising property taxes. The state contributed an additional $31 million, reducing the district's net cost to $148 million. The project was completed within budget and on schedule, a milestone worth noting for a public construction project of this scale.

The new campus is designed for the school's current enrollment of approximately 2,600 students, with capacity to grow beyond 3,000 as Cherokee County's population continues its steady climb. Attendance boundary lines remain unchanged. The facility includes 152 classrooms with flexible seating and smart boards, a 1,000-seat auditorium, a 4,500-seat football stadium, and a 3,000-seat competition-level gymnasium. A dedicated Career Pathway building houses job-preparation programs in fields including healthcare, welding, construction, automotive, and agriculture, hands-on training that connects students directly to industries hiring across Cherokee County and the broader metro Atlanta region.

Fine arts programs gain purpose-built band and music rooms designed for acoustics, and Special Education students gain larger classrooms, a life skills learning space, a playground, and a new permanent home for the Warrior Grounds coffee shop, a student-operated business that has become a point of pride for the program. The cafeteria, equipped with multiple serving lines, can accommodate all students and staff in a single location, replacing the split setup that had been a logistical challenge at the old building.

School Board Vice Chair Patsy Jordan, a Cherokee High alum from the Class of 1973, put it plainly. "Cherokee High School is more than a place to learn," she said. "It's the heart of our community." Board Chair Janet Read Welch addressed the crowd of alumni, retired and current educators, students, and families: "Thank you for your perseverance, positive attitude, and Warrior spirit. We've made it."

Few moments captured the day's emotional weight better than the presence of Senior Class President Aven Wright, who had stood at the construction site to help place the building's last beam and returned Monday to see the finished result. "It's incredibly exciting to know future generations will build on the legacy we preserved," she said. Past Superintendent Dr. Brian Hightower, who played a key role in advancing the project during his tenure, also participated in the ceremony alongside current Superintendent Mary Elizabeth Davis.

For a school whose original building predates the interstate highway system, the opening marks something more than a construction milestone. Cherokee High has been Canton's anchor institution for nearly seven decades, the place where the county's athletes competed, its musicians performed, and its graduates launched careers and families. The new campus is built to carry that role forward for the next generation, with the physical infrastructure to match.

Staff toured the new facility earlier this month, and open house events for current students are planned during summer break ahead of the August opening.

The new Cherokee High School is one of four major construction projects currently underway across the district. A classroom addition at Woodstock High School and a second gym addition at River Ridge High School are both set to open in August, while a second gym addition and athletic improvements at Sequoyah High School are scheduled to open in phases over the coming school year.