The Oconee County Board of Education on Monday approved a Memorandum of Understanding with the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office and the county Board of Commissioners to provide school resource officers (SROs) for Oconee County Schools.
The Memorandum states that one resource officer will be assigned to each of the system’s two high schools for the remainder of this year.
For the next school year, 12 deputies are being requested, and the Sheriff’s Office will provide the school resource officers “as they become available/meet training requirements.”
The document now goes to the Sheriff’s Office and the county for consideration.
The School Board also received on Monday a presentation on creating its own school police force but took no action on that possibility. The MOU is for one year, but it is renewable.
At the meeting on Monday, the Board also received a lengthy presentation from Chief Financial Officer Peter Adams on the impact of Georgia House Bill 581 on Oconee County Schools. The Bill goes into effect Jan. 1 as a result of voter approval on Nov. 5 of an amendment to the state Constitution.
House Bill 581 creates a floating homestead property tax exemption to offset the impact of inflation on property assessments.
Adams told the Board that it can opt out of the homestead exemption, but to do so it will have hold three public hearings and then vote by March 1 to not participate in the exemption.
Adams also reported, as part of his monthly financial updates, that spending on the Instructional Support Center, which is ongoing, now stands at $16.3 million, nearly double the projected cost when voters approved the project in March of 2021.
School Police Force
Kevin Yancey, Director of Student Services, told the Board on Monday that discussion with Oconee County Sheriff James Hale on a Memorandum Of Understanding for the provision of School Resource Officers (SROs) has been ongoing.
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| School Police Force Slide 12/9/2024 (Click To Enlarge) |
“In addition to working on an agreement for a formalized Memorandum of Understanding with our Sheriff's Office,” he said, “we have, at your request, continued to review the current models of school resource officer programs within systems and districts around the state.”
Yancey said that he and his colleagues had identified 27 school systems around the state “who fully employ their own accredited police force.” The state has 180 school systems.
Yancey said “to inform our research of school-based police forces we have spoken with several systems and districts around the state including Cherokee County, Clarke County, Elbert County, Habersham County, Muscogee County, Newton County, and Union County.”
Yancey then listed five “common steps” identified from these conversations for creation of a school police force.
The Board would need to pass a resolution to establish a school-based police force, complete “needs assessment and strategic planning” for the police force, and “define a leadership structure and hire a qualified candidate for the chief of police position,” Yancey said.
After hiring a police chief, the “chief would work with the superintendent's office and Human Resources Division to create job descriptions, pay scales, and hire the necessary members of the police force,” according to Yancey.
Finally, Yancey said “we would need to begin the acquisition of equipment and implementation of training of the officers.”
Next Step
Yancey advised the Board that while “this may be a simplified presentation on what is certainly a complex process, we wanted to provide an update to the Board on a few steps necessary to develop a school police force.”
“We will continue to gather information related to establishing a school based police force,” he said, “but know the formalization of a Memorandum of Understanding with Oconee County Sheriff's Office remains the priority.”
Board Member Tim Burgess told Yancey that “I appreciate you providing that presentation. It's an interesting concept, and it's also an alternative to the approach we've been talking about for several months to go forward.”
Burgess asked why these districts chose that option “as opposed to the path that we've been talking about, and are they generally satisfied with what they've done and the way it's working for them?”
Yancey said he didn’t know every reason, but some preferred creating their own force “versus working in conjunction with the local law office. Some are satisfied. Some are works in progress.”
With that, Yancey turned the podium over to Human Resources Offer Justin Cofer to update the Board on the latest version of the Memorandum of Understanding with the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office.
Memorandum Of Understanding
Cofer said that discussions have continued since he presented a draft of a memorandum at the November Board meeting “that would create a partnership with the Oconee County Sheriff's Office to provide SROs for our schools under a contracted Services agreement.”
“While the financials are still to be decided,” he said, “tonight's MOU does represent an agreed upon understanding of the roles and responsibilities of all involved organizations.”
Cofer then went through the revised document and spelled out the changes that he had made since November.
“We have added the Board of Commissioners to the agreement per advice of (legal) counsel,” he said.
While the Sheriff is elected as specified in the state Constitution, the budget of the Sheriff’s Office is set by the county governing body, the Board of Commissioners. The Board of Commissioners and the Board of Education are separate governing authorities in the county.
Earlier versions of the Memorandum of Understanding did not make any reference to the Board of Commissioners.
Coffer said the section of the report dealing with working hours of the deputies had been amended to alleviate any potential miscommunication as well as provide for 85 working hours for the SROs over a two-week period. This aligns with the working hours of other deputies at the Sheriff's Office.”
The new memorandum lists “a cost per day per deputy versus an annual cost,” Cofer said. “Additionally we have added language to clarify that total compensation will be determined by the number of deputies and days worked.”
The draft Cofer presented to the Board leaves unspecified the amount of money that Oconee County Schools will provide to the county and Sheriff’s Office, listed as a “per day per deputy sheriff” amount.
Cofer said that “12 deputies are being requested for the FY 26 (Fiscal Year 2026) school year, but that the Sheriff's Office and Board of Commission will provide them as they become available.”
Cofer ended by saying “it is the superintendent's recommendation that the Board vote to approve this MOU.” No Board member responded at that time, though Burgess did when final action was taken on the recommendation at the end of the meeting. No citizen spoke during the public comment section of the meeting.
House Bill 581
Chief Financial Officer Adams turned to House Bill 581 and its impact on homestead exemptions at the end of his financial report to the Board on Monday.
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| Argo, Burgess 12/9/2024 |
The General Assembly earlier this year put onto the November ballot a request for approval or disapproval of an amendment the state Constitution to authorize the General Assembly “to provide by general law for a state-wide homestead exemption to limit increases in the assessed value of homesteads.”
Across the state, 62.9 percent of the voters approved the amendment. In Oconee County, the percentage of voters approving was just higher at 64.3 percent.
The General Assembly passed House Bill 581 during the session this winter to implement the change in homestead exemptions pending approval by voters. With passage of the amendment, House Bill 581 goes into effect on Jan. 1 of the new year.
House Bill 581 sets up what is called a floating homestead exemption, so named because the value of the exemption increases to offset inflation.
If a homestead property has an increase in assessed value from one year to the next, the increase would be reduced for tax purposes to offset inflation.
The Georgia Revenue Commissioner is tasked with selecting the inflation indicator, with the expectation that it will be the Consumer Price Index.
“There is an opt out provision,” Adams told the Board several times. “You have one chance to opt out to maintain local control.”
“The opt out process is kind of similar to our millage rate hearings,” Adams said. “You have to have three hearings. You have to start by Jan. 1 and be done by March 1. And by March 1 you have to have the document submitted to the Secretary of State's Office.”
Adams presented to the Board a time line, with the first hearing on Jan. 7, followed by hearings on Jan. 14, and Feb. 4, and a final vote at a called meeting on Feb. 12. The Board next meets on Jan. 13.
Impact Of Not Opting Out
Adams said the floating homestead exemption “could significantly impact property taxes for the school district.”
“It may significantly reduce our property tax revenues,” Adams said, “and it reduces the flexibility to meet our local needs that we've already established.”
Adams said he went back to 2018 and calculated what impact the floating homestead exemption would have had if it been been in effect those years.
The cumulative loss to Oconee County Schools would have been $13.9 million across seven years, he said, with the loss greater in the last three years, when inflation has been greatest.
Another change in the law also would negatively impact Oconee County Schools, he said.
As part of the Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula, School Systems have to offset or take a reduction in their state funding based on calculation of the revenue that five mills produces in property taxes.
That calculation will be based on the tax digest prior to the floating homestead exemption, Adams said. “I think that it's kind of a double dip if you will,” he added.
Finally, the bill changes the way tax bills are labeled.
“Your tax bill, it'll have another disclaimer saying what entity created the tax increase for not meeting the roll back millage rate,” he said. The Board of Education generally has not met the rollback rate.
Board Reaction
“At this time we are not making any recommendations on this matter,” Adams said as he ended his comments.
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| Hammock, Adams (Back To Camera) 12/9/2024 |
“We just wanted to share more information as we've been through the trainings that we've been to,” he said, “and we've gotten this information for you to have as you make our budget as we go forward.”
Board Member Burgess told Adams ‘Maybe it's a good thing this is my last (meeting).” He is stepping down from the Board at the end of the month.
Turning to the other Board members, he said, “I wish you guys well with this. What he's describing is a big change in the calculation from the state in terms of what our QBE earnings will be and then not limitations but interference with the ability to set the millage that you need to set based on whatever budget you believe is necessary to properly fund the school system.”
“So it's going to be much more difficult, I predict,” he said, “much more difficult to generate the revenue that you believe you're going to need for your school system without making some pretty difficult budget decisions about those things that you're not going to do in a school system as good as ours because you can't generate the revenue.”
Board Member Ryan Hammock asked Adams if there would be changes to the QBE formula to offset the impact of the floating homestead exemption.
“I would hope so,” Adams said, “but QBE is a complicated formula.”
The Georgia School Boards Association (GSBA) had opposed House Bill 581 during the legislative session. Prior to the election in November, I asked Kim Argo, Chair of the Oconee County Board of Education, if “someone has analyzed the impact for Oconee County Schools of Constitutional Amendment #1 on the ballot.”
She told me that Superintendent Jason Branch or Director of Communications Steven Colquitt would respond. Neither did.
Instructional Support Center Costs
As part of his reports to the Board on Monday, Adams listed current spending amounts for Education Local Option Sales Tax (ELOST) projects, including the $16.3 million for the Instructional Support Center as of Nov. 30. That figure had been $15.6 million on Oct. 31, and $15.4 million on Sept. 30.
Costs of the Instructional Support Center have been elusive from when the project was first proposed to voters leading up the current ELOST referendum in March of 2021.
In December of 2020, then Chief Financial Officer Saranna Charping listed the Instructional Support Center as one of the projects to be funded by the ELOST renewal, but she did not give any estimate of costs of the individual projects.
After then Communications Director Anisa Sullivan Jimenez launched the actual campaign for the ELOST in February of 2021, I asked for a copy of the cost estimates for all of the proposed projects. Jimenez refused to give the costs estimates to me.
When I obtained them through an open records request in August of 2021, the estimated cost for the Instructional Support Center was $8.3 million.
In January of 2022, then Oconee County Schools Chief Operations Officer Brock Toole reported to the Board at its retreat held in Barrow County that the estimated cost of the Instructional Support Center had increased to $12.7 million. (Toole was elected to the Board of Education at the Nov. 5 election.)
In March of 2023, the Board of Education awarded a contract of $14.5 million to Kevin Price Construction of Oconee County for the Instructional Support Center.
Expected Costs
In his report to the Board on ELOST spending through Sept. 30 of this year, Adams listed the “Estimated” cost of the Instructional Support Center at $14.5 million, or the cost of the contract with Kevin Price.
In that same report, Adams listed the “Estimated” cost of the Dove Creek Middle School at $39.6 million.
The contract with Bowen and Watson Construction Company of Toccoa for Dove Creek Middle was $34.4 million, though Oconee County Schools Superintendent Jason Branch said at the time that the total cost of the project would be $39.6 million, including furnishing and technology.
No comparable estimate of total costs for the Instructional Support Center was released to the Board when it approved the bid for that project, though it did approve at the same time a bid for $148,649 for the Instructional Support Center network components
In response to a question I posed to Board of Education Chair Kim Argo late on Wednesday (12/11/2024) night, current Communications Director Steven Colquitt said “The Instructional Support Center project is not over budget.”
“The amount of $14.5 million is for construction costs only,” he said. “The additional expenditures are for furniture, technology, and professional services.”
Colquitt, in response to my request for final expected total costs for construction of the Instructional Support Center, said in an email on Friday (12/13/2024) that the Board had approved the $14.5 million contract and “The expenditures for furniture, technology, and professional services are expected to be finalized and reconciled at the conclusion of the current fiscal year.”
In the ELOST report released to the Board on Monday, Adams listed construction for both the Dove Creek Middle School and the Instructional Support Center as “In Progress,” meaning future costs are still expected. Both are fully operational.
Dove Creek Middle School is listed with currents costs of $39.2 million, against the “Estimated” cost of $39.6 million, and the Instructional Support Center is listed at $16.3 million, against the “Estimated” cost of $14.5 million.
Other Financial Reports
Adams also told the Board on Monday that the General Fund Balance at the end of November was $77.8 million, up from $43.1 million at the end of October.
The Budget Report, which Adams also gave to the Board, shows that Oconee County Schools had received by the end of November $43.2 million of the projected $49.2 million in ad valorem taxes, or 87.9 percent. Property taxes were due on Nov. 15.
The Budget Report also shows that Oconee County Schools has received $714,891 in Invest Income, though the budgeted amount was only $50,000. Last year, the Board approved a budget also projecting $50,000 in Investment Income but received $2.7 million.
ELOST revenue in November (for October collections) increased 1.6 percent over the same month a year ago, the lowest month-to-month increase since February of this year.
Collections have been more than $1 million each of the last six months, and same month-to-same month a year earlier collections are averaging a 5.84 percent increase over the last 16 months.
To date, Oconee County Schools has collected $22.3 million from ELOST, with just more than three years remaining in collection.
Collection is capped at $48.5 million.
Board Recognition Of Argo
During the recognitions part of the meeting on Monday, Superintendent Branch said “it's my pleasure to take a few moments tonight to recognize our Board Chair Miss Kim Argo on the outstanding service that she's provided Oconee County Schools over the last 16 years.”
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| Recognition For Argo 12/9/2024 |
Branch said, based on records going back to 1955, Argo “is the longest serving Board member in the history of Oconee County Schools.”
Argo has served nine years as Board Chair, Branch noted, and has approved budgets “equaling $1.19 billion.”
Branch continued with a long list of changes in the school system since Argo joined the Board.
Board Member Amy Parrish told Argo that “I just want everybody to know that all the time you were servant leader and you always did what was right for the students and what our community wanted, and I thank you very much for your service.”
Board Action
At the end of the meeting, the Board voted to change its Board Policy to specify that the Board “shall elect by majority vote at the regular January Board meeting a chairperson, a vice-chairperson, who shall preside in the absence of the chairperson for terms to be set by the Board, and a legislative liaison.”
Voters elected current Post 5 Board Member Michael Ransom as Post 1 Board Chair in November, but they also approved a change in local legislation that allowed the Board to elect its own chair, negating the designation of Ransom as chair.
The Board also put a calendar for School Year 2026-2027 on the table for public input that includes a fall break of a full week. The Board will be asked to approve that calendar when it next meets on Jan. 13.
The Board also approved the Memorandum Of Understanding for school resource officers provided by Cofer.
Before the vote, Burgess said Yancey had “talked to us about other approaches that other school systems have successfully used when they've gone a different way.”
“But we've been trying to make this partnership work,” he continued, “and I'd personally--if I was still here I'd still be pushing on that and promoting that partnership to be the successful solution to this.”
Burgess said “we've now included the Board of Commissioners in this agreement based on conversations from our attorneys, and I think that was a good move because clearly to make this partnership work it's going to take participation by the Board of Commissioners as well.”
“The Sheriff, his operation, is funded by the Board of Commissioners,” Burgess said, “and a true partnership in addition to sharing responsibilities is a shared responsibility for the financial burdens of this operation.”
“I hope that's what you guys are able to work out in the months ahead,” he said. “So good luck.”
Video
Correction: The original story indicated that the next meeting of the Board of Education is Jan. 6. The Board is not holding a work session in January, and the next meeting will be at 6 p.m. on Jan. 13. The original story also incorrectly reported that the academic calendar on the table is for next year. It is for Academic Year 2026-2027. I apologize for the errors.
The video below is on the Oconee County Schools YouTube Channel.
Harold Thompson, at my request, also recorded the meeting as a backup to the video recorded by Oconee County Schools.
He was restricted to recording from the rear of the room. The still images below are from the video he shot.
The recognition of Board Chair Argo begins at 10:27 in the video embedded below.
Yancey began his comments to the Board at 36:23 in the video.
Cofer began his update on the MOU at 41:31 in the video.
Adams began his financial report at 51:19 in the video and initiated his discussion of House Bill 581 at 54:18.
Burgess made his final comments on the Memorandum Of Understanding at 1:14:22 in the video.
4 comments:
Excellent reporting Lee. Thank you.
How is it even remotely legal, ethical or sane to approve a document that does not specify costs?
Ian Taylor.
Cofer said that “12 deputies are being requested for the FY 26 (Fiscal Year 2026) school year, but that the Sheriff's Office and Board of Commission will provide them as they become available.”
Maybe it's semantics, but is there really an expectation that the BOC is responsible for hiring SROs? Do you they routinely screen/hire regular sheriff deputies?
Yes, Lee, thanks for the reporting.
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