The Oconee County Board of Education does not have any plans to add a third high school in the near future, given the current decline in enrollments in the Oconee County Schools system.
The Board is anticipating some growth in enrollments and is monitoring the zoning and the issuance of building permits, but both high schools are under capacity and can absorb some growth.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners does not have any plans to begin offering sewer capacity for residential development in the county.
Plans to add a second sewer plan on the Middle Oconee River are not expected to be made operational for many years.
These are some of the insights offered by Ryan Hammock, incumbent Post 3 member of the Oconee County Board of Education, and Amrey Harden, incumbent Post 3 member of the Board of Commissioners at the meeting of the Oconee County Republican Party last week.
The pair, seeking the party’s nomination for their reelection to their current positions in the May 19 Party Primary, were featured speakers at the February meeting of the Oconee County Republican Party.
They were joined by Doug McKillip, seeking the party’s nomination for state Senate Distict 46, which includes all of Oconee County, Mesah Mainor, seeking the party nomination for state Superintendent of Schools, and David Clark, seeking the party nomination for Lieutenant Governor.
Qualification begins on Monday, and so far neither Hammock nor Harden have any declared opposition in the primary. Amy Parrish, who is not seeking re-election to Post 2 on the Board of Education, was in attendance at the meeting, as was Kate Patterson, who is seeking to replace Parrish, but neither spoke at the meeting.
Hammock
“One of the most exciting and one of the proudest things that I'm able to do being on the School Board is being able to attend graduation, being able to shake the hands of people as they're crossing that stage to get their diploma,” Hammock told the 45 people gathered at the Piedmont Oconee Health Campus, 1305 Jennings Mill Road, on Feb. 23.
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| Hammock 2/23/2026 |
“I think our system helps to create critical, independent thinkers, which then allows them to become productive members of our society,” he said.
“That's why I decided to run for reelection,” he said. “I did that to be able to help my kids, to help other kids in the county, and I think that helps our environment and just our entire community.”
Hammock said he had been told before he ran the first time in 2022 that the biggest decision the Board possibly could make was to hire a new superintendent.
“When you think about the culture of any organization,” he said. “it tends to start at the top. And the top is going to be that chief executive officer.”
“We help with policy, we help with guidance, we help with talking with people in the community about individual things that impact their family,” Hammock said referring to the Board.
“What we do not do is to get involved in the day-to-day inner workings and operations of the system,” he added. “That's what we hire a superintendent for.”
“So if we hire a wrong superintendent, it can really shift the balance in the school system very quickly,” he said. “If we hire the right superintendent, and I believe we have, it can help keep a positive climate, a positive environment.”
The Board hired Melissa Butler, who took over as superintendent in October. Jason Branch stepped down at the end of June after a 13-year term as superintendent.
More From Hammock
Hammock said he was pleased that the Board had been able to roll back the millage rate for property taxes each year he has served and had a full rollback this past year, meaning that the rollback was sufficient to offset inflationary growth in the tax digest.
In response to a question, Hammock said the Board is exploring ways to expand its Career, Technical and Agricultural Education (CTAE) programs and is reviewing what other systems around the state are doing.
“There's a lot that we're looking at doing,” he added, “but we have to make sure it works for our community.”
In response to a question on enrollments, Hammock said “What we've seen this year is a slight decline.”
Full time equivalent (FTE) enrollment at Oconee County Schools dropped by 192 from October of 2024 to October of 2025, based on the official enrollment figures Oconee County Schools filed with the Georgia Department of Education. From October of 2023 to October of 2024, FTEs had dropped by 61.
Hammock said estimating what enrollment will look like in the next five years is “a tough thing to navigate.”
“I don't see a new school on our horizon,” he said. “I don't see a new high school on our horizon.”
Each of the high schools had a capacity of 1,500 students, he noted, and neither is at capacity. “There's some flexibility in that number,” he added, because many students are not on campus for the full day because they are taking college classes while still in high school.
Harden
Harden said he is promising the same thing in this campaign this year as he did in 2020, when he won a special election after the passing of William “Bubber” Wilkes.
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| Harden 2/23/2026 |
“I have strived every day to serve this community with a level head and steady hands,” he said.
“One of the things that I've realized right quick on the Board of Commissioners is that we work as a team,” he said. “And that's very important. And not only as a team for the county, but also the team for the community as far as working with the local School Board.”
“We've had a lot more conversations than in years past,” he said. “I'm real appreciative of the efforts of the Board of Education members who put forth an effort as well as the commissioners to have better transparency.”
Harden said among the things he considers as accomplishments of the Board during the time he has been a member is the annual reduction in the property tax millage rate and the increase in property tax exemptions for homeowner and for senior citizens.
“We upheld the wishes of the voters when it came to the statewide floating homestead exemption,” Horton said. “We felt like, if the citizens of Oconee County wanted that, then that we needed to uphold the wishes of the citizens, and we're glad we were able to do that.”
Harden, turning to Hammock, noted that the School Board opted out of the floating, or inflation-adjusted, homestead exemption, meaning it did not granted the floating homestead exemption in calculation of school property taxes.
Harden also listed as an accomplishment creation of the School Resource Office Program in collation with the Board of Education and an increase in salaries for officers to make it easier for Sheriff James Hall to hire those officers.
More From Harden
Harden also mentioned as accomplishments intersection improvements throughout the county, the surfacing of roads in residential neighborhoods, improvements and expansion of the parks, and broadband expansion.
“We have a lot of basic services that are provided to the citizens of Oconee County,” he said. “I mentioned some of them tonight. Our roads, our law enforcement, our court system, our elections, our fire rescue, our utilities, and we can't forget the coroner. Every once in a while we have to call the coroner.”
The first question to Harden was about the county’s plans for its sewer system, with the statement that “hopefully we're not going to allow the explosion of condos, apartments, that sort of thing.”
“The sewer capacity that we have is reserved for commercial.” Harden said. “The county currently will not allow the sewer capacity used for residents.”
Harden said the county has purchased property on the Middle Oconee River behind Athens Academy for a second sewage treatment plant, but “it's going to be somebody's future. I don't think it's going to be done anytime soon.”
The next questioner said ‘Between Presbyterian Village and Butler's Crossing is the nicest sidewalk I've ever seen in my life. I've never seen anybody use it. So why do we need that?”
Harden said the multi-use path is part of a “sidewalk and trail network for the community. Now, that just happens to be the first one.”
“But, you know, not everybody can join the gym and go workout,” he said. “Some people need to take advantage of that. It is one of those quality of life things. I believe they're necessary.”
McKillip
McKillip began his comments by saying he knows he needs to distinguish himself from the three other candidates who have said they plan to qualify for the Republican Party Primary on May 19: Michael Broun, Marc McMain, and Steven Strickland.
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| McKillip 2/23/2026 |
Incumbent Republican Bill Cowsert is seeking the party nomination for Attorney General.
“First of all, I've done this job before,” McKillip said. “I was a legislator for six years. You know, if you're going to hire somebody to fly an airplane, you probably want to hire somebody who's flown an airplane before.”
“And it's not a simple job,” he continued. “It's a complicated job. I was there for six years, four as a Democrat, two as a Republican.”
McKillip represented Athens-Clarke County in then House District 115 as a Democrat from 2007 to 2010 and as a Republican from 2011 to 2012. At that time, all of Oconee County fell in House District 113.
McKillip said he became a Democrat after joining a legislative prayer breakfast.
“That group is how I came to be a saved Christian,” he said. “And shortly thereafter, I changed parties. I'm not saying that you've got to be a Christian to be a Republican, or a Republican to be a Christian, but it makes it easier.”
“And so I started being a Republican in the House of Representatives,” he said, “just like Nathan Deal, Sonny Perdue switched parties, Donald Trump switched parties, Ronald Reagan switched parties.”
McKillip said the second thing that sets him apart from the other candidates is that “I'm not taking a dime from anyone. I've made my committee, Doug for a Conservative Georgia, so that on every piece of mail it says paid for by Doug.”
“I'm not taking any lobbyist money,” he said. “I'm not taking any high-dollar donor money, and I'm not taking any corporate money.”
More From McKillip
“I'm not for casinos. I'm not going to vote for casinos,” McKillip said. “It's just not anything I think Georgia needs. Georgia was great when I grew up without a casino. And there's a big push for casinos. And so, not this guy. And I'm not going to listen to anybody who tells me we need a casino.”
In response to a question, McKillip said he was in favor of term limits.”
“I think they're a great idea as long as we also somehow limit the bureaucracies,” he said. “The problem is there's a lot of people in Atlanta, and a lot of people in D.C., that are making all the decisions and have no idea.”
“Do you think the Democrats will come after you?” someone from the audience asked McKillip.
“They'll come after me 100 percent,” he said. “Because whatever I do, whatever bill I pick up, I start to move it forward, they'll know that I can do it. And they don't want me there.”
“You know, this is a 62 percent safe Republican district,” McKillip said. “This year, unless things get better, I can see it being 50 percent, 53, 54, 55.”
“If I win the primary,” he said. “They'll sit tight for a bit and see what happens.”
Mainor
Mainor told the Oconee County Republicans that she, too, is a Democrat who has moved to the Republican Party.
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| Mainor 2/23/2026 |
“Growing up, we did not talk about politics at home,” she said. “You know, we just voted Democrat.”
“I was elected to the state House and went in as a Democrat,” she continued. “I wanted to do my community service, and so I was there all night reading through the bills, just trying to be a great steward for my community. And as I was reading the bills, every single time it was a different position than what the Democrats were taking.”
After finding herself taking a different position from her Democratic colleagues,” Mainor said, “I said, you know what, clearly I'm not a Democrat. I just must not be a Democrat.”
Incumbent Republican Richard Woods is seeking reelection, and Mainor and at least two other Republicans have indicated they are going to challenge him for the Party nomination.
“Why are there so many people running against the incumbent right now?” Mainor asked.
“Our math proficiency has gone has gone down 10 points, and our reading proficiency has gone down 6 points,” she said.
“Mississippi used to be the slast school in the country in performance,” she said. “They paid less money per pupil for educating them, and they were at the bottom of the totem pole. Now they're in the top 10. Georgia is now in the bottom 10. That's all under our current leadership.”
Clark
Clark, one of seven candidates for lieutenant governor, currently is serving in the Georgia House representing parts of Gwinnett, Forsyth and Hall counties. He is a military veteran, just ending a tour with the Green Berets.
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| Clark 2/23/2026 |
“I can tell you,” he said, “I'm the only battle tested candidate running in this race, whether it's in defense of my nation overseas in combat, whether it's standing up to the left and the radical ideology,” or whether it is standing “up to members of your party when they're not willing to do the right thing.”
Clark said one of his priorities as lieutenant governor would be elimination of the state income tax, as is being proposed by current Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones.
“But I will say this,” he added, “if you're going to cut about $15 billion from state income tax, it's going to come from somewhere.”
“I'm not an economist, I'm not a tax accountant” Clark said, “but there's two things I'm an expert in: common sense and sniffing out BS.”
Clark said he is more in support of the House plan to eliminate property taxes on home owners.
Property taxes are “crushing people,” he said, “specifically seniors are getting annihilated.”
“I've had more calls the 12 years I've been down here from seniors calling me saying, if my property tax goes up one more time, I could lose my forever home.”
“I think we need to tackle that big time,” he said.
Note
The Feb. 23 meeting of the Oconee County Republican Party ran for two hours. Each of the five candidates who spoke also took questions.
Harden, for example, spoke for 15 minutes and then answered questions for another 11 minutes.
My summary above for Harden and for all of the candidates represents only a small part of what each said.
I tried to capture a central argument each of the candidates was making. I gave more space to the three local candidates than to the two state-wide candidates.
The Party does not allow video or audio recording of its meeting, however, so this summary is the only one available of the comments made by the candidates.
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