The Oconee County Board of Education on Monday voted to increase the pay scale for mechanics by more than 22 percent at the entry level and by more than 29 percent at the top pay scale in an effort to recruit and retain employees for that job.
The pay increase follows similar adjustments for bus drivers, and supervisors and school food nutrition workers, identified, along with mechanics, as positions that are hard to fill and hard to retain.
The pay increases for the mechanics will go into effect on Jan. 2 of the new year.
At the final meeting of the Board for the year, the Board also voted to spend $452,020 for 1,165 Chromebook computers, $49,620 for 60 laptop computers, and $55,406 for widening the driveway at Oconee County Primary School.
These project will be paid for using Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST) and General Fund monies.
Chief Financial Officer Peter Adams told the Board on Monday that Oconee County Schools collected just less than $1.1 million in ESPLOST revenues last month, up just less than 2.1 percent from November of last year. The 1 percent sales tax has generated more than $1 million each of the last eight months and all but two of the last 16 months.
Adams also told the Board that the current ESPLOST already has generated $35.6 million in revenue, or just under the $37.9 projected for the tax.
If the average of just less than 1.1 million per month over the next 12 months holds, the tax will reach its cap of $48.5 million at this time next year.
Oconee County voters on Nov. 4 approved an extension of the sales tax to take effect as soon as that cap is reached.
Salary Increase
Chief Human Resources Officer Justin Cofer, in his report to the Board on Monday (Dec. 8), said that “one of the primary functions of the Human Resources Division is the recruitment and retention of both certified and classified staff.”
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“Over the last year and a half,” he continued, “we've conducted a comprehensive salary study focused on some of our harder to fill and harder to retain positions.”
“As a result of that work, you have already taken action to enhance the pay scales for our bus drivers, and supervisors and school food nutrition workers,” he said. “Tonight, we bring forward our next targeted position, our mechanics.”
“Our proposal this evening is to enhance our mechanic pay scale to ensure we remain competitive with neighboring districts,” Cofer told the Board.
The pay scale Cofer presented, and the Board approved, increases the entry level pay from $19.36 per hour to $23.67 per hour, or $45,446 annually, and the top pay at 30 years of service from $28.93 per hour to $37.45 per hour, or $71,904 annual salary.
Board members asked no questions of Cofer, but he said in an email message on Friday (Dec. 12) that Oconee County Schools currently employs three mechanics.
The projected cost of the pay scale adjustment for the remainder of the current fiscal half year is $26,261, Cofer wrote, with a projected cost of $52,522 for a full fiscal year.
The current Fiscal Year Budget included four mechanic positions, Cofer said, and the system does not intend to fill the fourth position, so “There is no negative impact on the current Fiscal Year budget as a result of this increase.”
In March of last year, the Board approved increasing the starting pay for nutrition workers from $10.86 per hour to $16.56 and for managers from $18.15 to $22.33 per hour.
In January of last year, the Board approved increases in the starting salary of bus drivers from $18.00 per hour to $20.57 and for bus drivers with 21 years of experience from $21.14 to $31.32
Financial Reports
Oconee County Schools has spent $4.1 million on technology systemwide since the current ESPLOST began in January 2023, according to a report Chief Financial Officer Peter Adams gave to the Board on Monday.
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That spending category remains open, Adams said, so the Board approved spending of $452,020 for 1,165 Chromebook computers and $49,620 for the 60 laptop computers will simply be added to that amount.
So far, according to Adams’s report, Oconee County Schools has spent $73.6 million for projects in the current ESPLOST cycle and another $9.9 million on bond payments, which will extend until 2033 and be paid for in part by the ESPLOST voters approved in November.
Oconee County Schools spent $1 million in ESPLOST funds from Oct. 31 to Nov. 30, closing out spending on parking additions at Oconee County High School, paving of the lot at the maintenance facility, installing security hardware at North Oconee High School, and funding sports field lighting at Oconee County High School.
The system took in $1.1 million in new ESPLOST revenue, and the Cash Balance Report Adams gave the Board shows an increase in the 2021 Debt Service Escrow Fund to $15.4 million.
The General Fund Balance for Oconee County Schools at the end of November was just less than $53 million, Adams reported, up from $48.7 million at the end of October, as the system took in $7.6 million in property taxes, due on Nov. 15. That figure represents 22.2 percent of the projected revenue from property taxes.
The General Fund Cash Balance at the end of November of 2024 had been $77.8 million, when 87.9 percent of the ad valorem taxes had been received.
CCRPI Data
Jennifer Whitaker, Chief Academic Officer for Oconee County Schools reported to the Board that the Georgia Department of Education has released the 2025 College and Career Ready Performance Index College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI).
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“CCRPI is a lagging measure based largely on last year's end of grade and end of course assessments,” she said. The scores “offer important insight into system performance,” she added.
Whitaker said that Oconee County Schools earned the number one ranking for county school systems in the state for both elementary Content Mastery and Readiness.
The system’s middle schools also were ranked number one among county school system in Content Mastery and Readiness, she said.
Oconee County’s two high schools rated number two among county school systems in Content Mastery and number three in Readiness, Whitaker said, and had the highest graduation rate among county systems in the state.
“These measures reflect high performance in core academic areas as well as strong indicators of preparedness for college careers and post-secondary opportunities,” she said.
Content Mastery addresses whether students are achieving at the level necessary to be prepared for the next grade, college, or career. It includes achievement scores in English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies, according to the Georgia Department of Education.
Readiness addresses the question: are students participating in activities preparing them for and demonstrating readiness for the next level, college, or career?
All Five Items
In addition to Content Mastery and Readiness, the CCRPI also measures Progress, or how much growth students demonstrate in English language arts and mathematics and how well English learners are progressing towards English language proficiency.
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A fourth measure is Closing Gaps, which measures whether all students and all subgroups continue to make improvements, and once a certain threshold is attained, sustain high levels of achievement.
The fifth measure is high school graduation rate.
The CCRPI data, available from the Georgia Department of Education, show the large gap between the performance of Oconee County students and of Georgia students overall.
All five measures on the CCRPI are scored on an 100 point scale, and Oconee County students score in the 90s on most measures, while scores statewide are as many as 30 points lower on several measures.
The data also show that the scores for Oconee County students in 2025 were lower than in 2024 on each of the four measures at the Elementary School level, though the differences often were small.
The same was true at the Middle School level.
At the High School level, Content Mastery and Graduate rates were higher in 2025 than in 2024, but the scores on Progress, Closing Gaps, and Readiness were lower.
Across the state, eight of the 13 scores increased from 2024 to 2025.
Other Action Items
Fred Ricketson, Director of Facilities for Oconee County Schools, told the Board on Monday that widening of the entrance to Oconee County Primary School and Oconee County Middle School from Hog Mountain Road was requested by “our transportation mechanics as well as our bus drivers.”
“The road was originally designed to be one lane,” Ricketson said, “but is being used as two lanes during our afternoon pickup time. It is so narrow that buses have to ride on the shoulder of the road, sometimes narrowly missing cars in the car rider line.”
Ricketson said the low bidder for the widening of the road “from anywhere from four to eight feet as necessary” was All About Asphalt from Hull for $55,406.
The work will be completed over spring break, Ricketson said. The Board approved the bid.
The Board also voted to place the draft 2027-2028 Academic Calendar on the table for public review and comment until the next board meeting in January
Video
The video below is on the Oconee County Schools YouTube channel.
Staff reports begin at 17:53 in the video with Whitaker.
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