The Oconee County Board of Education on Monday night gave approval to a $122.5 million preliminary Fiscal Year 2027 budget, up 1.6 percent from the $120.5 million budget for the current fiscal year.
Revenue is projected at $120.7 million, and the budget is balanced by a transfer of funds from the General Fund Balance, or money held in reserve.
The budget is based on $57.9 million in local funding and $62.8 million in state funding. With the $1.8 million in Fund Balance transfer, 48.7 percent of the funding is local.
The bulk of local funding is from property taxes ($52.5 million), and the budget is based on a projected 3.0 percent growth in the Tax Digest to $3.9 billion.
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.
School Chief Financial Officer Peter Adams told the Board that the budget included numerous cuts, including eliminating positions, reflecting the declining enrollments in the system.
Staffing Cuts
Adams began presentation of the Fiscal Year 2027 Budget on Monday night by telling the Board that the budget development process “required the district to make significant reductions and adjustments to maintain long-term financial stability.”
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| Staff Reductions FY 2024 To FY 2027 |
Included is the elimination of “14 total OCS employees,” a number that would have been 23 had the General Assembly not passed HB 1193, the Georgia Early Literacy Act of 2026, Adams said.
HB 1193 provides funding through the Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula for literacy coaches in every K-3 public school.
Oconee County will receive funding for seven positions, Oconee County School Superintendent Melissa Butler said after the meeting, or one for each of the system’s six elementary schools and for its only primary school.
In addition, Butler said, Oconee County Schools will add two literacy coaches at the middle school level to be funded locally, one for Oconee County Middle School and one shared between Malcom Bridge Middle School and Dove Creek Middle School.
In the March 2026 enrollment report Oconee County Schools filed with the state, enrollment at Oconee County Middle School was 962 full time equivalents, while it was 509 at Dove Creek Elementary School and 520 at Malcom Bridge Middle School.
Adams presented the Board a slide showing elimination of 30 employees in the system going back to Fiscal Year 2024.
“This slide illustrates staffing reductions aligned with enrollment decreases we've experienced in Oconee County,” Adams said. “This represents a net reduction of 30 positions, which would have been 39 if the literacy coaches were included, reflecting this district's ongoing efforts to right size staffing in response to student population trends and maintain a fiscal balance for the Fiscal Year 27 tentative budget.”
Enrollment in Oconee County Schools has declined both of the last two years.
The loss of 14 employee positions will be achieved without any terminations, Adams told the Board.
SRO Reductions
The budget also includes a reduction in spending on the School Resource Office program of $436,074, Adams said.
This was achieved by reducing expenses on supplies and a cut in the number of officers from 16 to 14, Superintendent Butler said after the meeting.
In an email exchange last week, Sheriff James Hale said 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 Memorandum of Understanding signed by Oconee County Schools with the Board of Commissioners and the Sheriff’s Office in January of 2025 calls for up to 16 officers.
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.
“Since we haven’t filled those positions yet,” Hale said in an email message after the budget was released Monday night. “We will hold two positions open for right now. That still has all 12 schools with an SRO and two supervisors.”
Budget Summary
In the budget summary released on Tuesday morning, the amount of money for Instruction dropped from $84.1 million in Fiscal Year 2026 to $82.4 in the proposed Fiscal Year 2027 Budget.
Spending on Pupil Services increased from $3.8 million to $7.3 million.
Central Administration costs dropped from $1.0 million to $0.9 million, while School Administration costs increased from $8.1 million to $8.5 million.
Maintenance and operations increased from $8.9 million to $9.3 million.
School safety and security decreased from $2.7 million to $2.0 million.
School Food Services increased from $258,103 to $568,976.
State Funding
The FY 27 Budget is based on $57.9 in local revenue to be received during the fiscal year and $62.8 million in state funding. That is a ratio of 48.0 percent to 52.0 percent, and it is 47.5 percent to 52.5 percent in the current Fiscal Year 2026.
Adams said he estimated that the local tax digest will increase by 3.01 percent and produce $52.5 million in tax revenue with the reduced millage rate of 13.813.
The Fiscal Year 2026 budget estimated property tax revenue of $51.0 million with the millage rate of 13.962.
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| Local Fare Share FY 2020 To FY 2027 |
In his monthly financial report on Monday, Adams reported that after 10 months of collection, Oconee County Schools has received $51.0 million in revenue against the projected $51.0 million.
The FY 2027 Budget assumes $74.2 million in funding for the county based on the QBE formula, compared with $73.1 million in Fiscal Year 2026.
But the QBE computation requires local school systems to fund the QBE calculation with 5 mills of local monies, so the state withholds that 5 mill amount from its allocation based on the QBE formula.
This is called the Local Fare Share, since it is intended to equalize funding across the state by requiring school systems with a stronger tax base to put in more actual dollars for local education than school systems with a weak tax base.
The Fiscal Year 2027 Budget for Oconee County Schools estimates the 5 mill contribution (or withhold) to be $14.6 million, compared with $13.7 million in the current year.
As a result, the state funding through the QBE will be $59.6 million, up just slightly from the $59.4 million in last year’s budget.
The actual allocation under the QBE formula for the current year was $59.3 million, or just less than was projected in last year’s budget.
Adams on Monday presented the Board with a table showing the Local Fair Share came close to doubling from 2020 to 2027. (The chart uses a different estimate of the Local Fair Share for 2027 than Adams used in the summary budget sheet he released on Tuesday.)
Budget Changes
Adams told the Board that $119.5 million is required for what he called a “continuation” budget, that is a budget that covers current costs.
In addition, state mandated new contributions to the health insurance program will cost $305,644, and state mandated new contributions to the Teacher Retirement System will add $248,142, Adams said.
Adams labeled as “Additional Budget Considerations” Salary Scale Enhancements, Salary Improvements, and increased funding of the School Food Nutrition Program.
The scale enhancements would add $399,134 to the budget, Adams said. A 2 percent across the board salary increase would add $1,789,146, and supplemental contributions to the School Food Nutrition Program would add $250,000.
Together, the mandated and optional increased spending amounts to $3 million, which Adams incorporated into the budget he presented to the Board.
Fund Balance
The FY 2027 Budget Adams presented is balanced by taking $1.8 million from the Fund Balance.
In his budget presentation, Adams estimated the Total Fund Balance to be $54. 6 million at the end of the year. In his separate Cash Balance Report to the Board on Monday, he listed the General Fund Balance as of April 30 at $74.9 million.
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| Adams 5/11/2027 |
Of that $54.6 million, Adams said $12.1 million is committed for retirement of the General Obligation Bonds the Board sold to fund projects it built under the current Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST), including Dove Creek Middle School and the Instructional Support Center.
Another $9.8 million of the $54.6 million is assigned: $5 million for the auxiliary gym at North Oconee High School, $2 million for extension of the practice field at Oconee County High School, and $2 for the budget shortfall.
Adams said the plan is to fund these projects by setting aside money so the Board does not have to issue revenue bonds under the ESPLOST that is expected to begin in January of next year.
In addition, $700,000 is set aside for a “Weapons Detection System.”
Superintendent Butler, in a text message on Tuesday, said this assignment is “a proactive measure in response to the uncertainty surrounding potential legislative actions related to school safety requirements.”
Legislation proposed in the 2026 session of the General Assembly requiring schools to install weapons detection systems at the entrances to every public school in the state passed the House but did not pass the Senate. The legislation did not include funding for those facilities.
“Because there is currently the possibility of future unfunded mandates regarding weapons detection systems, we felt it was fiscally responsible to account for those potential costs in advance,” Butler wrote.
Other Action On Tuesday
The Board on Tuesday also tentatively adopted 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.
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, in his report on ESPLOST Tax revenue, told the Board that collections were down in March by 2.4 percent over March of last year, the second month in a row that collections declined from that same month the previous year.
“We did get back above the million dollars in collections that we dipped over last month, so that was good news to see,” Adams said.
ESPLOST has generated more than $1 million every month since February of 2025 with the exception of February of 2026.
To date, ESPLOST has generated 41.3 million in revenue since it began in January of 2023, Adams reported.
The Board will hold hearings on the proposed Fiscal Year 2027 Budget at 4 p.m. on May 21 and at 4 p.m. on May 28 at the Instructional Support Center, 71 North Main Street, in Watkinsville.
Video
The video below is on the Oconee County Schools YouTube channel.
Adams began his fiscal reports at 21:08 in the video and his discussion of the Fiscal Year 2027 Budget at 24:41 in the video.
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