The Oconee County Board of Education on Wednesday completed the first phase of its screening of the 19 applications it received for superintendent of Oconee County Schools.
Board Chair Michael Ransom said in an email on Wednesday evening that the Board had interviewed seven applicants in the three sessions it has held and that the Board “in the weeks ahead” will review notes from the interviews.
Oconee County Democratic voters joined with the majority in the state in naming Peter Hubbard as the Party’s nominee to challenge Republican incumbent Fitz Johnson in November for District 3 representative on the state Public Service Commission.
In Tuesday voting in the Democratic Party Special Election Primary runoff, 178 Oconee County voters joined the 192 county voters who had cast a ballot in the five days of Early Voting to give Hubbard 79.1 percent of the vote to 20.9 percent for Keisha Sean Waites.
Both the Oconee County Board of Education and the Oconee County Board of Commissioners are poised to adopt property tax millage rates for the 2025 tax year and Fiscal Year 2026 that are rolled back sufficiently to avoid a state-defined tax increase.
The Board of Education plans to adopt a rate of 13.962 mills, which is calculated to produce $53.1 million in revenue, up from $51.2 million last year, or an increase in property tax revenue of 3.67 percent.
Oconee County Schools took in $3.6 million more in revenue than anticipated in the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget, which ended on June 30, and spent $0.5 million more than expected when the Board of Education approved the budget in June of last year.
Oconee County Schools received $0.3 million less in federal funding in Fiscal Year 2025 than budgeted, and reduced the amount of spending by that same amount.
Only 192 Oconee County voters cast a ballot in the five days of early voting in the Democratic Primary Runoff for District 3 on the state Public Service Commission.
As a result, Democrats are going into election day on Tuesday 50 votes down from the number they had cast in the 16 days of early voting leading up to June 17 Special Election Primary.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners, in a 3 to 1 vote on Tuesday, turned down a request for a commercial development on Mars Hill Road at Bell Road that would have included offices and warehouses.
The Board denied the request by Chad Keller’s CK Capital after more than 60 people filled the Commission Chamber at the Oconee County Administrative Building for three rezone hearings.
Oconee County School Superintendent Debra Harden has asked school Chief Operations Officer Ryan White to have a third party conduct testing for mold at Oconee County Elementary School.
Harden made that announcement to the Oconee County Board of Education on Monday in her first report as Interim Superintendent.
