About halfway through her hour-long presentation to the Oconee County Board of Education, Oconee County Schools Chief Financial Officer Liz Harlow paused and asked a question.
Harlow had just reviewed the current fiscal year budget and presented a slide showing the calendar for the Fiscal Year 2024 Budget.
“Are there any goals that the Board would like to consider for the FY 24 Budget?” Harlow asked.
The Hard Labor Creek Reservoir Management Board on Monday approved an $8.3 million proposal from Jacobs Engineering Consulting Group Inc. of Atlanta for design of the water treatment plant at the reservoir jointly owned by Oconee and Walton counties.
The Board also agreed to shortlist and request competitive pricing from the three highest ranked firms for engineering design services for the transmission system from the plant to Walton County’s currently existing water distribution system.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported three new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in its report on Wednesday, including one in Clarke County.
The Department of Public Health reported four confirmed deaths from the disease in the Northeast Health District on Wednesday of last week.
Oconee County Schools has received and approved a whopping 379 applications for School Choice, meaning that the student requested and was granted transfer to a different school in the system than the one assigned as a result of redistricting.
Last year, by comparison, Oconee County Schools received 84 applications and seven of those were denied because the applications were made to schools, North Oconee High School and Malcom Bridge Middle School, where no space was available.
Three pieces of legislation introduced in the Georgia House of Representatives could have impact on the District Attorney Office serving Oconee County.
House Bill 48, introduced on Jan. 23, would make the election of the District Attorney of the Western Judicial Circuit consisting of Oconee and Clarke counties, and all other circuits in the state, nonpartisan.
Attorney David Ellison, representing Deferred Tax LLC before the Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night, made it clear his client was not interested in any compromise over the rezone request for a shopping center with a Publix on the Oconee Connector at Mars Hill Road.
“You should approve the rezone as submitted,” he said several times.
Land Planner Ken Beall, also representing Deferred Tax, said the same.
The Board of Commissioners responded by voting unanimously to turn down Deferred Tax LLC, owned by Maxie Price, with no real discussion.
Both of Oconee county’s high schools currently are under capacity.
School administrators are projecting, however, that North Oconee High School will be over capacity by eight students next year, while Oconee County High School will be over capacity in 2032.
In eleven years, by 2034, North Oconee High School will be 94 students over its capacity of 1,500 students, and Oconee County High School will be 99 students over its capacity of that same number, the administrators project.
It is time to make decisions about how to accommodate the roughly 200 students the existing two high school currently are not designed to accommodate, Superintendent Jason Branch and Associate Superintendent Dallas LeDuff told the Board of Education at its retreat last month.
