The Oconee County Board of Education on Monday approved $150,000 in emergency funding to fix a sink hole at a storm water drain on the North Oconee High School campus.
Chief Operations Officer Ryan White told the Board that the sink hole was discovered last week at the rear of the campus behind the baseball stadium and tennis courts caused by a corroded storm water pipe and recent heavy rainfall.
It will be necessary to dig up the 3-feet-in-diameter pipe, which is 15-feet deep in the ground and 300 feet long, section by section “to see what's under the ground once we get in there,” White said.
White said the repair will not affect the day-to-day operation of the schools since it will take place in “the very back side of the campus" near the retention pond.
“We're working...to make sure it doesn't impact” the North Oconee versus Oconee County football Hog Mountain Bowl scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Friday at North Oconee, White said.
The repair will be funded by Education Local Option Sales Tax (ELOST) and General Fund monies, White said, and Interim Superintendent Debra Harden linked the spending to a referendum the Board is placing on the November ballot to renew that tax.
North Oconee High School is 20 years old, she said, and the Board is listing just this type of repair and update as one of its priorities for spending from the new tax, she noted.
Chief Financial Officer Peter Adams updated the Board on ELOST collections during his report to the Board. Adams also told the Board that the General Fund Cash Balance had dropped to $57.5 million on July 31 from $62.5 million on June 30.
White’s Report
White’s Report on the need for authorization of emergency funding for the stormwater repair at North Oconee High School was added to the agenda on Monday after the initial agenda was released on Friday afternoon.
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| Picture Of Sink Hole From Above (Courtesy Of Oconee County Schools) |
White spoke near the end of the 25-minute-long meeting, following Adams to the podium.
After describing the problem, White said “In order to conduct an emergency repair to replace the pipe and resolve any underlying issues, the superintendent's recommendation is for the Board of Education to approve up to $150,000 for emergency repairs to the storm water pipe at North Oconee High School.”
In response to a question from Board Member Ryan Hammock, White said he doesn’t know the scope of the needed work and won’t until actual work begins.
White didn’t mention it at the meeting, but a news release from Oconee County Schools that evening said that the “sinkhole was discovered by the grounds crew last Wednesday.”
Repairs were to begin today (Tuesday), the news release states.
When White had finished his report and responded to questions, Harden said “it's hard to believe but North Oconee is a 20-year-old facility and these pipes were put in 23 years ago.”
“So when we talk about water mitigation in the (proposed) ELOST,” she said, “these are the kinds of things that we want to take care of because our community has invested over the years a great deal in our schools.”
“And these are the hidden things that we don't see,” she said, “roofs, pipes, those kinds of things. But we need to be good stewards and so this is just an example of what the Board's looking to.”
At its meeting on Aug. 4, the Board voted to ask the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration to put a referendum on the ballot in November to authorize a new ELOST that would continue the 1 percent sales tax for five years or until $86.8 million is collected.
Financial Reports
Adams told the Board that Oconee County Schools collected $1.1 million from the current ELOST in June, up 3.4 percent from the amount collected in June of 2024.
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| Adams (L) And White After Meeting 8/11/2025 |
ELOST has brought in more than $1 million in revenue in 13 of the last 16 months, Adams reported.
Adams reported that total ELOST collections as of July 31 stand at $31.2 million, and he reported at the Aug. 4 meeting that he expects the tax to reach its cap of $48.5 million by the end of next year, necessitating voter approval for the tax to continue beyond that point.
Adams listed $14.3 million in available funding from ELOST as of July 31, but $37.6 million remains unpaid on the $46.7 million in bonds sold to finance the massive building projects undertaken in the current ELOST, including a $39.2 million new middle school and the $16.4 million Instructional Support Center.
The Board does not report a running list of ELOST spending on added projects such as the emergency $150,000 allocation for the storm water repair approved on Monday.
Adams began his comments on Monday with the Cash Balance Report, noting that “As of July 31st, the closing cash balance reflects a 8.619 decrease compared to the previous month.”
“Despite this month-over-month decline,” he said, “our cash balance for July remains strong, and we are well positioned to meet our financial obligations for the rest of the fiscal year.”
The Year-To-Date Budget Report released by Adams shows the system has collected no Ad Valorem taxes to date, since those bills are due in November, and only $5.8 million of the budgeted $69.4 million from the state Quality Basic Education (QBE) allocation. The school year began only last week.
The General Fund Cash Balance Report for July 31 of 2024 showed $50.2 million, compared with the $57.5 million Adams reported for July 31, 2025.
No Citizen Comments
The meeting on Monday was the first where citizens could address the Board since Superintendent Harden released an evaluation of air quality at Oconee County Elementary School by an outside team on July 28.
No citizen showed up to address the Board on Monday.
Geo-Hydro of Kennesaw reported that for 20 fungal spore types identified in the air inside and outside of Classroom 607 at the Elementary School on July 9, fungal spore levels inside the school did not exceed levels outside the school.
Sixteen fungal spore types were identified at the gym on that date, and in 12 of those cases, the level of spores per cubic meter of air were higher in air outside the building.
Geo-Hydro reported that the differences between the gym and outside air were small, however, and the observed concentrations inside the building “was low enough to not be a significant concern.”
Parents of students at the school had complained during several Board meetings this spring about the possibility of mold, focusing particularly on Classroom 607 and the gym.
The parents said they would contribute to the funding of evaluations by an independent group, but Harden told the Board she was seeking the outside assessment at the Board meeting on July 7, her first as superintendent.
Video
The video below is on the Oconee County Schools YouTube Channel.
I attended the meeting and recorded my own video as a backup, but the audio is much better on the video below.
I am restricted to video recording from the rear of the room, and the picture of Adams and White above as the meeting was breaking up and they were leaving the room.
Adams began his reports to the Board at 13:29 in the video.
White reported on the storm water problems at North Oconee High School at 16:24 in the video.
Note: In the original version of this post, I quoted White as saying the break was in “the very back side of the campus near the detention pond." He clearly said detention, but he clearly meant retention. I converted the direct quote to an indirect quote in this version to reflect what he meant, not what he actually said.
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