The Oconee County Board of Education on Monday night received a partial preview of its Fiscal Year 2026 Budget, showing $120.5 million in expenditures, an increase of 4.9 percent from the current Fiscal Year.
Chief Financial Officer Peter Adams told the Board that he will have a complete budget for it to review at its work session on May 5.
Adams listed out just less than $117 million of the projected expenses, showing increasing costs for instruction, educational media services, school administration, maintenance and operations, and student transportation.
The largest increase in the reported expenditures is for School Safety and Security, budgeted at zero in the current fiscal year and at $2.8 million in Fiscal Year 2026, with $2.5 million of that for the new school resource officer program.
Adams provided no projected expenditure for four categories in the current budget, Central Administration, Support Services–Business, Support Services–Central, and School Food Services. In the current budget, those four categories account for $3.3 million.
Adams also told the Board that Oconee County Schools received a score of five on the 2024 Financial Efficiency Star Rating (FESR) released last month by the Georgia Department of Education and the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement and was the only system in the state with a perfect score.
Mandy Moreira came forward in the Public Communications section of the meeting on Monday and, in an impassioned presentation, voiced her concern about potential mold at Oconee County Elementary School–echoing a complaint about that school voiced by parents in 2018.
The Board allowed Moreira to speak for twice the allotted three minutes, but no one responded to her plea for action at the meeting on Monday, and Oconee County Schools has not provided publicly information about any action it has taken to address parental concerns about mold at the school.
Budget Preview
Adams presented the preliminary information on the Fiscal Year 2026 Fiscal Year Budget as part of his financial report to the Board on Monday.
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| Adams Before Board 4/21/2025 |
“As you know,” he told the Board, “we budget at the expenditure level.”
The Board has the ability to adjust the millage rate each year to generate through property and other local taxes roughly half of the revenue to support the school system. The other half comes from the state.
Adams presented the Board with 12 slides outlining $116.97 million in expenditures, with the largest of those $84.1 million for Instruction. In the current Fiscal Year 2025 Budget, that figure was $81.8 million.
The total Fiscal Year 2025 Budget includes $114.9 million in spending.
The School Safety and Security budget of $2.8 million includes $2.5 million for salaries for the school resource officer program and $200,000 for salaries for traffic control.
Adams did not explain on Monday why he left out of his presentation four categories of spending listed in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget and did not answer email questions on Tuesday about those expenditures as well as an inconsistency in his presentation on the School Safety And Security budget.
Adams told the Board that “The Fiscal Year 26 budget will tentatively be presented to the Board on the May 5th work session.”
Regular Financial Reports
Adams told the Board that Education Local Option Sales Tax (ELOST) revenues for February remained under $1 million for the second month is a row but were up by 5.1 percent over February of 2024.
For the last 14 months, ELOST collections have run ahead of those from the same month a year earlier.
Revenue has been more than $1 million all but five of those months, with the largest amount received of $1.3 million in December of 2024, up from $1.2 million in December of 2023.
To date, the current ELOST has generated $26.7 million, with almost three years of collections remaining.
The report on ELOST expenditures Adams gave to the Board on Monday showed $69.7 million in project spending, with $75,697 in added spending for the Instructional Support Center, bringing the total to $16,378,916.
The Board on Monday approved spending $722,315 for intercom and audio equipment upgrades at two of its middle schools, with some of that coming from ELOST. To date, Oconee County Schools has spent $2.8 million in ELOST monies for technology systemwide.
Adams told the Board that the General Fund Cash Balance stands at a healthy $70.7 million, down from $73.5 million a month earlier.
The March Year-To-Date Budget Report released by Adams shows ad valorem tax collection at $48.6 million, or 98.8 percent of the budgeted amount, and investment income of $1.6 million, up from $1.4 million a month earlier.
The Board budgets only $50,000 for investment income each year and usually runs large surpluses in revenue in that category.
Financial Efficiency Star Ratings
The legislature requires the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA), in coordination with GaDOE, to create a financial efficiency rating for school systems in the state.
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| Adams and Kevin Yancey 4/21/2025 |
The 2024 school district FESR is based on a three-year average (2018-2019, 2022-2023, and 2023-2024) of per pupil expenditure (PPE) and College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) scores.
Oconee County Schools received a score of 95.3 in 2024 on the CCRPI.
The average PPE listed for Oconee County was $10,514, which includes local, state, and federal spending.
Oconee County Schools receives relatively little federal funding because of the level of household income of the county.
According to the Georgia Department of Education calculations, Oconee County spent $11,475 in state and local monies per student in 2024 and $377 per student in federal funds.
By contrast, Barrow County, which received a FESR score of 4, spent $11,630 per student in state and local monies and $1,136 per student in federal dollars.
The Department of Education also excludes certain types of expenditures as well as out-of-district students in its calculations.
The Fiscal Year 2025 Budget approved by the Board last year based on state and local funding listed per student spending at $13,595.
No other system in the state other than Oconee County had a perfect score of 5, and only 14 of the state’s 180 city and county systems had a score as high as 4.5.
Among neighboring counties, only Walton County and Jefferson City had scores of 4.5.
Public Comment
Moreira told the Board she is a parent of an Oconee County Elementary School student and Oconee County Middle School student, and “I'm here to discuss the potential presence of mold at OCES.”
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| Moreira and Branch, Ransom, Adam Hammond Brock Toole 4/21/2025 |
Before spring break, she said, she and “dozens of parents were notified of potential mold in the gym floor and the outside pod, Third Grade, where my child is.”
Teachers reported being sick,” she said. “There were pictures of mold under the carpet in the third grade pod and mold in the cracks of the floor of the gym.”
“These two teachers that said they were sick,” she said. “One performed a mold test. She was immediately moved to the inside pod for next year as her new place of teaching.”
Moreira said parents contacted Principal Jennifer Laughridge, “who did a great job at fielding a ton of calls from what I've been told.”
“She's the one that emailed and spoke with everyone,” Moreira said.
“I called Dr. Branch's office and I spoke with your secretary,” she continued. “They referred me to Mr. Ryan White.” White is the Chief Operations Officer for Oconee County Schools.
“I had a nice conversation with him and he explained to me that there's only a two step process that Oconee County does to make sure there's no mold, which is a humidity test in the air based on the HVC units and a moisture test from the concrete slabs of that third grade pod,” Moreira said.
“And those two things said, no mold,” Moreira said. “Parents are not convinced. We feel further testing should be done.”
Petition
Moreira then read to the Board a petition drafted by Kara Fresk.
Fresk forwarded to me before the meeting on Monday an email she sent to Branch and White on April 4, before Spring Break, “urging the district to reconsider its decision not to conduct professional mold testing prior to flooring replacement.”
“As of today, we have 72 signatures, and that number continues to grow,” Fresk wrote to Branch and White. “This response reflects a strong, shared concern about the health and safety of both students and staff.”
Fresk told me she attached that petition with her April 4 email to Branch and White.
In an April 21 email, Fresk said she did not receive any response to her April 4 email to Branch and White.
“To my understanding,” Moreira said when she finished reading the petition, “there was no testing done. The gym floor was sealed and that one class the pictures came from had carpet replaced.”
“We just wanted the school to come in and say, yeah, we'll support. We don't want our kids sick. We don't want teachers sick.”
“It breaks my heart that this school system is not supporting the parents,” she said. “My kid is being exposed potentially--and teachers. It's heartbreaking. It's sad to me that this is where we're at, and that people are talking bad about all of our people that are running the county.”
“I just hope that the Board and the superintendent and anyone involved would reconsider looking at these schools,” she said. “They're old.”
“Go in there and look around,” she said, “because I have and it looks horrible. We have to rethink these things before building new schools and adding to these existing beautiful schools. Our old schools need some attention.”
“Time has expired,” Ransom said after Moreira had spoken for nearly six minutes. “Thank you for coming and sharing your concerns.”
Prior Complaints
In October of 2018, Ashley Templeton, then Oconee County Elementary School Principal, sent a letter to parents and staff regarding a potential mold problem at the school.
Templeton took the action following a statement by a parent to the Board of Education earlier that she had been told of a “mold or mildew problem” at the school.
Templeton said that the air quality of a classroom where a leak from a clogged drain in a heating, venting and air conditioning unit had been discovered had been tested and found to be normal.
In the letter, Templeton stated that “there is no mold issue” at the school.
In its last Education Local Option Sales Tax (ELOST) building program, the Board had spent $4.6 million for renovations and modifications at Oconee County Primary, Oconee County Elementary, and Oconee County High School.
According to the 2019 Five Year Facilities Plan, one of the buildings that makes up Oconee County Elementary School was constructed in 1969, with other buildings constructed in 1978 and in 1981.
Modifications planned included in that Facilities Plan included a new car rider canopy, new HVAC units, and a new roof.
The building accommodates the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Grades, with nearby Oconee County Primary School with facilities for PreK through Grade Two.
Open Records Request
In an attempt to confirm that Branch had received the petition from the parents and to learn about the response, I filed an open records request on April 7 with Steven Colquitt, Director of Communications and Open Records Officer for Oconee County Schools.
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| Colquitt 4/21/2025 |
Colquitt responded on April 16, repeating my request and then offering his response.
Dr. Becker:
Good afternoon. Following up your open records request:
1. Please send me a copy of any correspondence Dr. Jason Branch and/or the Oconee County Board of Education has received since Jan. 1, 2025, regarding the possibility of mold at Oconee County Elementary School.
As a preliminary matter, Oconee County Schools is not required to interpret terms such as "regarding" for a particular person or topic. This phrase requires OCS to make judgments and interpret your request, which is outside the scope of the Georgia Open Records Act. Please specify the correspondence you are requesting.
2. Please send me a copy of any documents produced by Oconee County Schools or any of its contractors since Jan. 1, 2025, regarding mold or the possibility of mold at Oconee County Elementary School.
As a preliminary matter, Oconee County Schools is not required to interpret terms such as "regarding" for a particular person or topic. This phrase requires OCS to make judgments and interpret your request, which is outside the scope of the Georgia Open Records Act. Please specify the documents you are requesting. Also, please note that OCS may not have access to materials produced by "any of its contractors."
3. Please send me a copy of any work orders for and modifications, upgrades, or repairs planned for Oconee County Elementary School in the coming six months.
Oconee County Schools is prepared to search Operations, Maintenance, Transportation, Technology, and Nutrition for "work orders for and modifications, upgrades, or repairs planned" as each department falls into this category. This is a broad request that could require several hours for which you would be billed. Please let me know if you wish to proceed with this request. In addition, please provide a specific timeline to replace "the coming six months."
I told Colquitt I did not wish to elaborate on my questions or pay for a search.
Ransom Comments On Branch
At the beginning of the meeting on Monday, Board Chair Michael Ransom noted that this was the first meeting since Branch had announced his retirement, effective at the end of June.
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| Branch And Ransom 4/21/2025 |
“I would like to take a second to thank him for his time here,” Ransom said.
“This is his 13th year of service to Oconee County,” he continued, “and I believe that's one of the longest serving superintendents in the state.”
“I would like to wish his family best in the future as they move on to other things,” Ransom said.
“They're going to keep living here, so we'll keep getting to see them,” he said.
“If you’ve got any payroll or retirement questions,” he said, “you’ve got a guy in that office to call.”
Branch will become chief operating officer/deputy executive director of the Georgia Teacher Retirement System on July 1.
“I really want to thank you for your service,” Ransom said.
Recognitions
During the recognitions section of the meeting on Monday, the Board recognized employees who had served more than 25 year, 30 years, 40 years, and 50 years in the system.
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| Harris And Board 4/21/2025 |
Special awards were given to Gail Goolsby in Transportation for more than 40 years of service and and Robert Harris, Colham Ferry Elementary School Custodian, for more than 50 years of service.
The Board also recognized student award winners from the systems middle and high schools in chorus, wrestling, a variety of state FFA competitions, technology, business, health occupations, and leadership.
The Board also received and recognized the 2025 4A Boys Basketball State Champions from North Oconee High School.
Video
The video below is of the entire meeting of the Board of Education on March 21, including of the brief open meeting after the Board returned from executive session.
I am required by Colquitt to locate my camera and tripod at the rear of the room as I video record the session.
Ransom made his comments about Branch at the very beginning of the video.
Adams began speaking at 32:17 in the video.
Moreira began her comments at 43:49.
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