Oconee County Schools Finance Director Peter Adams, in his presentation on the Fiscal Year 2027 Budget on Thursday (May 21), told the Board of Education that the budget he has prepared for them includes three “significant reductions” in spending.
The budget eliminates 14 school employees, cuts the operating budget by 3.3 percent, or $431,000, and cuts $436,074 from funding provided to the Sheriff for the School Resource Officer program, he said.
Adams said the staffing cuts reflect “the District’s ongoing efforts to right size staffing in response to student population trends,” and said the cuts in the School Resource Officer (SRO) program represent a “commitment to both safety and fiscal responsibility.”
Adams had made nearly identical comments when he first presented the budget to the Board at its meeting on May 11. The meeting on Thursday was the first of two required hearings on the budget, adopted preliminarily at the end of that May 11 meeting.
Adams said on Thursday, as he had at the May 11 meeting, that “We appreciate the continued partnership with the Sheriff’s Office and the County commissioners in working collaboratively to manage these costs.”
Board Member Adam Hammond thanked Adams and Superintendent Melissa Butler for the “collaborative spirit” that resulted in that agreement.
Adams never said how those cuts were to be achieved, and no Board member asked him to explain.
Butler, Sheriff James Hale, and Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell all agree that, for the upcoming fiscal year, Hale will not hire more than 14 officers, rather than the 16 he is allowed to hire under the agreement setting up the SRO program.
SRO Division
The Memorandum of Understanding signed by Board of Education with the Board of Commissioners and the Sheriff’s Office in January of 2025 stipulates that “the Sheriff will proceed to employ SROs...up to a maximum of 16 deputies.”
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| Hammond With Flyer 5/21/2026 |
The agreement covers the period from the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding at the January meeting until June 30 of 2026 and is automatically renewed for one year terms beginning on July 1 of each year unless either party opts out at least 30 days prior to the expiration date.
Hale, in a meeting with Oconee County Democrats on May 7, said he has created an SRO Division within his office based on that Memorandum and stressed that the skills of the SRO officers are different from the skills of those in other parts of his office.
SRO employees have to have special training and a distinct approach to their work, he said, and someone who is good on patrol might not be good at working with young people in the schools.
Hale said at that meeting that he currently has 11 officers in the schools, with two officers hired but in training. At present, one officer is serving two of the system’s 12 schools.
“The SRO division commander is a captain,” Hale said at the Democratic Party Meeting. “He's actually stationed at Malcolm Bridge Middle (School). His second in command is going to be a lieutenant. He's actually at Colham Ferry Elementary.”
“And then I have a pair of sergeants when we're fully staffed,” he said. “What they'll do is each sergeant will be assigned six schools. So we'll have the Red Side sergeant, and we'll have the Blue Side sergeant, and they'll be in charge of their six schools each.” (Red Side Schools feed to and include North Oconee High School, and Blue Side feed to and include Oconee County High School.)
“And basically, their job will be to go around and make sure all the other deputies that are working in the schools are doing what they're supposed to do, that they're there on time, if they need anything.”
The sergeants also will cover for those other deputies if they are sick or if they have to leave the building for some reason, Hale said. Hale said he cannot simply pull an officer from his traffic division to file a temporary vacancy because they are not likely to be trained for the work of a School Resource Officer,
The local Democratic Party had asked Hale, a Republican, to talk to them about school safety and immigration.
Follow Up From May 11 Meeting
When the Board went into executive session at the May 11 meeting where the budget was released, I asked Adams how he had achieved the $436,074 in savings in the SRO program.
He told me it reflected a reduction in the number of officers, but he didn’t know how many were cut.
Communications Director Steven Colquitt, who came forward as I approached Adams and overheard my question, said the reduction also reflected a decrease in spending for supplies.
Director of Student Services Kevin Yancey, who also overheard my conversation with Adams and had been involved in the negotiations over the Memorandum of Understanding for the program back in 2025, said funding would be provided for only 13 officers.
I sent an email to Sheriff Hale while the Board was in executive session.
“The budget approved by the Board has a reduction in spending on the SRO program,” I wrote. Yancey said it reflects a change in staffing. He said only 13 officers will be funded. That is one for each school and one supervisor.”
“That is different from what you said last week,” I added. “I want to make sure what I write reflects a consensus on the plans for the program.”
“I will have to check into that,” Hale wrote me back three hours later. “Our MOU is for 16. I know that there were talks of holding two positions out of the budget this fiscal year just because we haven’t filled the positions but that should leave 14 positions funded even still. Not sure what that’s about. I will have to look into it to give you a more educated answer.”
“I also just confirmed with Dr. Butler that the MOU is still 16 positions but since we haven’t filled those positions yet we will hold two positions open for right now,” Hale wrote a half hour later. “That still has all 12 schools with an SRO and two supervisors.”
The next morning, Supt. Butler texted me to say “We had gone back and forth about 13 or 14. The final budget reflects 14.”
Following the meeting on Thursday, I sent an email message to John Daniell, Chair of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners, asking him if he could “give me a little perspective from the county’s perspective on the discussion leading to this decision to reduce the SRO force to 14 officers?”
Although the Sheriff is an elected Constitutional Officer, almost all of his funding comes from the county.
The Memorandum of Understanding stipulates that the Board of Education will reimburse the county for 90 percent of the costs of the SRO program
I noted in my email message to Daniell that there had been no mention of this reduction in funding for the SRO program when county Finance Director Melissa Braswell had presented the budget for the program to the Board of Commissioners.
Daniell sent a two-sentence response 15 minutes later.
“The Sheriff agreed to not fund 2 SRO positions for FY2027,” Daniell said. “The positions have not gone away, but are unlikely to be filled in FY 27 since it is difficult to find the right people and get them trained.”
Hammond And Butler
Adams used exactly the same words at the May 11 and at budget hearing on Thursday when he reviewed the cuts to the SRO program reflected in the budget.
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| Butler 5/21/2026 |
“We also appreciate the continued partnership with the Sheriff's Office and county commissioners and working collaboratively to manage these costs,” he said both times.
At the end of the meeting on Thursday, Board Member Hammond first “complimented” Adams for a single-page flyer that had been available at the entrance to the room for the budget hearing. The sheet listed and promoted a few features of the budget and school financing.
“I think this is a great visual representation of the increased pressures on the school system this year as far as funding goes,” Hammond said, “but also some of the efficiencies you guys have made. So I think this is a great educational tool.”
“Over the past couple of years,” Hammond continued, “it has been really apparent to me, that our taxpayers, our community, they want to see our governments work together. They want us to work with our partners, the county commissioners, the Chamber of Commerce, and I personally noticed an increased collaborative spirit.”
“Looking at the nearly half million dollar savings when it comes to SROs is proof of that,” Hammond said. “So thanks to you, Dr. Butler and team, for taking that on, for I think taxpayers welcome it.”
“I appreciate that,” Butler responded. “The commissioners and the Sheriffs Office really worked with us on that agreement.”
Budget Additions
Adams said in his presentation on Thursday, as he had at the May 11 meeting, that the Fiscal Year 2027 Budget includes new spending in three areas.
The first is salary scale enhancements for Technical Support Technicians II at a cost of $24,465, for school nurses, at a cost of $74,669, and for coaching supplements, at a cost of $300,000. The total cost for salary scale enhancements is $399,134.
“These areas were chosen after studies were done,” Adams said, “and they were targeted as our high-priority areas for this upcoming fiscal year.”
The second increased spending is $250,000 to cover a budget shortfall in the School Food Nutrition program, Adams said.
“To address this gap,” Adams said, “the district is implementing a combination of menu adjustments and a targeted price increase, and this targeted price increase includes a 25 percent increase in meal prices to help recoup those costs.”
“In order to fully offset these funds,” Adams said, “meal prices would have needed to increase by approximately 75 cents. We thought that would place too great a burden on Oconee County families.”
Any price increase does not affect the free lunch program funded by federal monies for low income students.
The third increase, at a cost of $1.8 million, is a 2 percent salary increase for all employees, Adams said.
“This adjustment is intended to support employee retention and remain competitive in our regional market,” Adams said. “Our staff are our most significant resource, and compensation is a key factor in maintaining that high-quality workforce we have.”
Budget Parameters
The budget outline, also available at the entrance to the room on Thursday, shows spending at $122.5 million, up from $120.5 million in the current fiscal year, or a 1.6 percent increase.
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| Adams And Board 5/21/2026 |
Revenue is projected at $120.7 million, up 1.3 percent from the current year. The budget is balanced by a transfer of funds from the General Fund Balance, or money held in reserve.
The proposed millage rate is 13.813 mills, down from the current 13.962 mills.
If the Board is able to adopt that tax rate later in the summer when Oconee County Tax Commissioner Jennifer Riddle releases final Tax Digest figures, it will have rolled back the millage rate enough to avoid what the state labels a tax increase.
Such action would be the second year in a row that the Board of Education adopted a rollback millage rate.
The budget is based on an estimated Tax Digest of $3.9 billion, which Adams said he arrived at by estimating growth from the current digest of 3 percent.
Because the Oconee County Board of Education opted out of the statewide floating homestead exemption approved by voters last year, the Tax Digest used in computation of the revenue for Oconee County Schools for the current fiscal year is $88.7 million higher than the Tax Digest use for compensation of tax revenue for the county.
Oconee County Tax Commissioner Riddle said in an email on May 18 that the state Department of Revenue has informed her “the opt in/out provision is in place for this year as it was last year,” meaning the higher Tax Digest figure will be used again this year.
The elimination of that opt-out option included in the passage of Senate Bill 33 earlier this year “doesn't become effective until 2027,” Riddle wrote.
Adams, in his presentation on Thursday as well as on May 11, spoke of the adverse effects of increased property tax assessments on calculation of funding through the Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula.
At the May 11 meeting, Board Member Ryan Hammock asked Adams if the QBE contribution was calculated using the Tax Digest before or after reductions in that digest for local homestead exemptions. Adams said he didn’t know the answer.
Senate Bill 33 does specify that the QBE will not be based solely on the gross tax digest. Rather the tax digest used for the QBE computation will be reduced to reflect homestead exemptions.
The language of the bill is very contorted, however, and, in response to my question about the bill’s impact on computation of the QBE for Oconee County Schools, Butler said in an email message on May 14 that “Many of these are questions we are working to understand as well.”
“Local exemptions have never decreased the overall tax digest or LFS before,” she wrote, “so we will have to continue working to learn more as this unfolds.” LFS stands for Local Fair Share, or the amount of money Oconee County Schools is required to contribute to funding of the QBE allocations.
Federal Funds Budget
The Board at its May 11 meeting also tentatively approved a Federal Fund Budget for Fiscal Year 2027 of $6.3 million. That is down from the current Federal Fund Budget of $7.6 million.
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| Ransom 5/21/2026 |
The biggest change is a decrease in School Nutrition funding from $4.2 million in the current fiscal year to $3.3 million in Fiscal Year 2027.
Adams reviewed the Federal Funds Budget at the hearing on Thursday.
Adams had told the Board that the budget included nine new positions for literacy coaches, seven of those funded by the state.
Superintendent Butler said after the May 11 meeting that the state funding is for one literacy coach for each of the system’s six elementary schools and one for its only primary school.
In addition, Butler said, Oconee County Schools will add two literacy coaches at the middle school level, one for Oconee County Middle School and one shared between Malcom Bridge Middle School and Dove Creek Middle School.
In response to a question from School Board Chair Michael Ransom on Thursday, Adams said the two literacy coaches not funded by the state will be funded from the Federal Funds Budget.
Butler said after the meeting that “we’ll use a mixture of Title IA and Title II Funds” for those positions.
Title I Part A are federal funds to support improving the academic achievement of students who are economically and educationally disadvantaged.
Title II Part A funds support professional learning for educators and leaders at the school, district and state levels.
The Federal Funds Budget approved by the Board for Fiscal Year 2027 lists $572,048 in Title I Part A funds and $172,984 in Title II Part A funds. In Fiscal Year 2026, those figures were $585,704 and $223,662 respectively.
Butler said she would have Chief Academic Officer Jennifer Whitaker send me “a summary of what the funds we reallocated were used for last year” by the end of the day on Friday.
Butler asked me to remind her if I did not hear from Whitaker by Friday afternoon. I forgot to tell her when I did not get a response from Whitaker.
Citizen Comment
Olin Wood, who identified himself as the owner and operator of A1 Fire Extinguisher, was the only citizen to speak at the public hearing on the budget.
Wood did not address the budget, but rather challenged the decision by the Board to award a contract for maintenance of the fire extinguishers in the school system to another contractor.
“I've done extinguisher work for the county and the board office for 32 years without interruption,” he said. “I provide top-notch service is what I'm thinking. I've never had any complaints from anybody at the board office, and I'd just love to keep it local if there's any way possible.”
“We try to keep local whenever we can,” Board Chair Ransom said, noting that the awarded contract is with a local company, “and we've got to look at whatever the best value is going forward.”
A second public hearing for the Fiscal Year 2027 General Fund Budget and Federal Funds Budget is scheduled for 4 p.m. on May 28 at the Instructional Support Center, 71 North Main Street in Watkinsville. The hearing on Thursday was in that same room.
Final budget adoption and tentative millage rate adoption are scheduled for the regular Board of Education meeting at 6 p.m. on June 15 at the Instructional Support Center.
Video
The video below is of the entire meeting of the Board of Education on May 21.
Hammond made his comments at 22:52 in the video.
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