CENTRE — At a public meeting in Leesburg last week, School Superintendent Brian Johnson told a crowd of concerned citizens if he made one mistake in closing the area vocational school, it was in not giving the people a chance to have their voice heard before the decision was made. 

At tomorrow night’s meeting of the Cherokee County Board of Education, anyone who has asked to be placed on the agenda will be given that opportunity. 

“If there is one thing I have heard over the last week or so -- and I have talked to a lot of different individuals, students, parents, concerned community members, employees -- was their concern of a lack of knowledge before the decision was made,” Johnson said Friday night. “And I want to personally apologize to you for that.” 

Earlier today, Johnson told The Post that when they meet Tuesday night at 6 p.m.,  the members of the Board of Education will revisit their July 5 vote to enact a reduction in force plan that cut 15 employees from the county payroll and closed the Cherokee County Career and Tech Center (CCCTC). 

“We certainly agree with everyone else about not wanting the career and tech center closed,” Johnson said. “But unfortunately, the budget we were given by the state is what it is. We’ll listen to what people have to say and then we’ll re-vote on the reduction in force plan.” 

Johnson said he is open to hearing a productive flow of ideas, but said he expects many suggestions — such as closing smaller schools in the county — will be similar to those he and Board members have already considered and rejected. 

“We want to interact with the people as much as we can, but our $1.5 million budget shortfall is not going away,” he said. 

Johnson said the decision to shutter the CCCTC was a tough one that no one wanted to make, but the reality of the nation’s current economic malaise has finally trickled down to Cherokee County. 

“We’re now up to 23.5 percent proration, since 2006,” Johnson said. “Fortunately, we’ve been able to dip into our reserves for a couple of years where some other school systems have already had to borrow money just to meet their payroll. Now we are being forced to make some of those tough decisions that we’ve been able to put off” by using reserve funds, he said. 

Johnson said there was more than a small amount of good news that got lost in the community’s reaction to the closing of the CCCTC campus.  

“Closing the Career and Tech Center and moving the programs to the individual campuses actually allowed us to save jobs here in the county,” Johnson said. “And we were able to save the overall program.” 

Four of the CCCTC’s 11 programs – collision repair, carpentry, cosmetology and art  — were lost through retirements and non-renewal of instructor contracts. Seven other programs – health occupation, auto mechanics, welding, three business-related classes, and the off-site cooperative work program — will be doled out to the county’s five high school campuses and offered almost exclusively to the students at the school where the class is offered. 

Johnson has said some students entering their final year of vocational classes may be given the chance to complete the program in their senior year by driving themselves or carpooling to other campuses. 

Johnson said he and the Board members will listen to anyone who has asked to be placed on the agenda at tomorrow night’s meeting, then re-vote on the 2011-12 budget cuts that included closing the CCCTC.