The Oconee County Board of Education has rejected two offers it received for 42.7 acres on U.S. 441 north of Bishop that the Board purchased in 2007 as a possible school site but that are now considered to be surplus property.
Board Chair Michael Ransom said on Thursday that the Board instructed Superintendent Melissa Butler to inform the two parties that had made the offers of the Board's decision after the Board’s work session on Monday night.
Ransom confirmed on Friday that Ryan White, Chief Operations Officer, had “reached out to the interested parties earlier this week and let them know that we are not interested in selling at this time.”
Ransom said the Board concluded the offers did not reflect the value of the property.
The Board did not discuss the offers in the public part of its meeting on Monday, and although the Board did meet in executive session without specifying the reason after the work session on Monday, Ransom said the Board did not discuss the offers in that closed session.
Ransom acknowledged the Board had received an offer for the property after it spent an hour and 45 minutes in executive session following its regular meeting on March 2. He said it did not discuss real estate in the executive session after its March 9 meeting.
Ransom said on Friday that a second offer came in after the first offer became public. The Board has not released the names of the entities or persons making the offers or the details of those offers.
The Board on Monday also appointed an Executive Director of Special Education and a Director of Secondary Education for the next school year, received updates on plans for the new auxiliary gym at North Oconee High School, and heard proposals for increases to nurse pay scale and the Technology Support Technician II pay scale and to meal prices at the system’s schools.
Background On Offers
Following the March 2 meeting of the Board, Ransom said the Board had discussed in executive session an unsolicited offer it had received for the 42.7 acres on U.S. 441 north of Bishop.
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| Screen Shot Of White 4/13/2026 |
Ransom said at that time that the Board would determine if the offer “reflects fair market value” and “then decide whether to move forward with a sale or wait for another opportunity.”
Ransom said at the time that “We do not have any current plans for the property at this time. Given the layout of the parcel and its location, particularly the traffic along Highway 441, we do not believe it would be well-suited for a school site.”
Ransom said in a telephone conversation on Friday that the Board actually received a second bid shortly after the first was received, probably after the second bidder became aware of the first.
According to county tax records, the Board purchased the property in July of 2007 for $1.1 million.
The 42.7 acre parcel has frontage on U.S. 441 and on Union Church Road and is located north of the Golden Pantry Food Store and gas station. It is separated from Golden Pantry by two parcels.
Current assessed value of the property is $1.5 million. At present, the acreage is wooded and is zoned AG (Agricultural).
In the telephone conversation on Friday, Ransom said “Frankly, the offers, not that we’re trying to make money off the property or anything, but they were really lower than what market value in our opinion probably should be.”
“We’ll get rid of it at the right price, but we also don’t want to get rid of it for less than its real worth,” he said. “We decided, the last time we discussed it, that if nothing changed there was no point in selling it if we don’t have to.”
“I would like to have it off the books, but I don’t want to sell it for less than what it is valued at,” he said.
Superintendent Report
Superintendent Melissa Butler, in her Superintendent Report at the beginning of the meeting on Monday, referred to what she called a “situation” at North Oconee High School on April 3.
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| Butler 3/2/2026 |
In social media posts that day, Oconee County Schools reported “an anonymous bomb threat sent by email earlier in the day.”
At 1:39 p.m. on that date, Sheriff James Hale posted on Facebook that “The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office has completed its investigation into the reported threat at North Oconee High School. The school has been thoroughly searched and cleared, and there is no ongoing threat to students, staff, or the community.”
Students and staff at North Oconee High School were evacuated, and nearby Rocky Branch Elementary School was placed on lockdown as the Sheriff’s Office investigated the threat.
Butler said on Monday that she wanted “to acknowledge the unity our community showed during the April 3rd situation at North Oconee. I'm grateful to the Oconee County High School administration, the Oconee County Sheriff's Office, and our law enforcement partners for their swift response.”
“And I'm proud of the students, staff, and families for the way they came together throughout that situation,” she said.
Other Action
Following the executive session on Monday, the Board named Nicole Elkins as Executive Director of Special Education and Kristin Harrison as Director of Secondary Education effective on July 1.
Elkins has been an Early Childhood Intervention Specialist with Catoosa County Schools, where Butler was Deputy/Assistant Superintendent prior to moving to Oconee County last October.
During his report to the Board, Fred Ricketson, Director of Facilities, said that “The design continues to progress on the (North Oconee High School Auxiliary) gym with the intention that we would be complete with design by the end of calendar year.”
The gym is one of the listed projects for the Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST) approved by voters in November. Collection on that tax is expected to go into effect at the end of this year.
Ricketson also said he will recommend at the meeting on Monday (April 20), a $128,393 contract for flooring glue repairs at Oconee County Middle School, with funding provided by the current ESPLOST.
Justin Cofer, Chief Human Resources Officer, told the Board that a review of the “nurse compensation structure” shows that it “falls below that of neighboring districts.” Cofer said as a result he is proposing an increase of $6,000 annually across the school nursing scale.
Cofer also said he conducted a review of compensation for Technology Support Technicians II and is recommending that the Board approve at the meeting on Monday “an increase in the annual compensation across the pay scale of $3,500 and increasing their work calendar by 15 days that they will receive payment for at their daily rate.”
Chief Operations Officer White told the Board that he is recommending an increase of 25 cents for breakfasts and lunches at all of the system’s schools next school year to help address a projected deficit in the School Nutrition Enterprise Fund of nearly $500,000.
Even with the increase, he said, he projects a $330,000 deficit for Fiscal Year 2027, which he proposes to addressed by monies from the General Fund.
Video
The video embedded below is on the Oconee County Schools YouTube channel.
Butler began her report at 0:24 in the video.
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