Oconee County Schools has begun planning for the potential launch of a Georgia Pre-K program for the 2027-2028 school year, Jennifer Whitaker, Chief Academic Officer for the system, told the Oconee County Board of Education at its meeting on Monday.
The district plans to submit an application to the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) in January requesting approval to operate Pre-K classrooms, Whitaker reported.
Georgia Pre-K is a free, state-funded program for four-year-olds. At present, according to the DECAL search site, eight licensed Child Care Learning Centers in Oconee County are approved DECAL Pre-K operators.
All other 12 school districts in the Northeast Georgia Regional Education Service Agency (RESA) offer Georgia Pre-K programs, according to Oconee County Schools Superintendent Melissa Butler.
“We feel the time is right to give families another option while continuing to support our private providers,” Board Chair Michael Ransom said after the meeting.
In other action at the Board meeting on Monday, Ryan White, Chief Operations Officer for Oconee County Schools, told the Board that the Oconee County Civic Center has now been fully integrated into the technology and security infrastructure of the school system.
Chief Financial Officer Peter Adams reported that the September receipt of funds from the Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST) was up by 6.6 percent from the same month a year ago and that he expects to reach the cap for the tax within the next two months.
The Board adopted a Unified Literary Plan required by legislation approved by the General Assembly earlier this year.
Teaching And Learning Report
“Oconee County Schools is excited to begin planning for the potential launch of Georgia's Public Pre-K program for the 2027-2028 school year,” Whitaker said during her Teaching and Learning Report at the Oct. 19 meeting.
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| Whitaker 10/19/2026 |
“This opportunity would allow us to expand access to high quality early learning experiences and strengthen the transition from Pre-K to kindergarten,” she said.
“The number of classrooms and available student spaces will ultimately depend on DECAL approval,” she continued. “As part of the planning process, we are launching a community interest form to better understand the level of interest among Oconee County families.”
“Information collected through the form will help inform our application, including the number of classrooms requested,” according to Whitaker.
“Georgia Public Pre-K is a state-funded program with a limited number of spaces,” Whitaker said. “Completing the interest form will not guarantee enrollment. Once the district receives approval from DECAL, families will have an opportunity to formally register.”
“And if the number of eligible applicants exceeds the available spaces, enrollment will be determined by a lottery,” Whitaker continued.
“We look forward to keeping the Board and our community informed as we move through the application and planning process and work toward bringing Georgia Public Pre-K to Oconee County Schools,” Whitaker said.
In response to a question from Board Member Adam Hammond, Whitaker said “Once we receive approval from DECAL, which they tell us will probably be February of 2027, we will then make that enrollment process formal.”
“We will announce the location of those classrooms, explain the application process, and then we will determine if a lottery will be needed and then we will communicate that as well as when that will be held,” she said.
In response to questions from Board Member Ryan Hammock, Whitaker said “If a student lives in the attendance zone in which they would attend a Pre-K classroom and the bus is already coming through their neighborhood or and is in their zone, we would provide transportation.”
“They are allowed to participate in free and reduced lunch just as other students who attend Oconee County Schools,” she said.
Butler And Ransom Comments
Childcare learning centers with licensed classroom space for a minimum of 20 children, local school systems, charter schools, and other public institutions such as universities and military bases are eligible to apply to be a Georgia Pre-K provider.
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| Butler 10/19/2026 |
The full-day educational program is funded through the Georgia Lottery for Education and administered by DECAL.
DECAL enters into grant agreements with both public and private providers for the delivery of Pre-K services, according to its web site.
“Grant agreements are awarded to providers subject to funding availability, program compliance and identified need for additional Pre-K classes in the geographic area of the program,” the site states.
“We believe expanding early learning opportunities for families is another way we can support our youngest learners and help build a strong foundation for success in kindergarten and beyond,” Superintendent Butler said in an email message on Wednesday (Oct. 21).
“As we continue looking for ways to better serve our students and families, we believe the time is right to explore this opportunity,” she continued. “Applying now allows us to seek state approval for the upcoming school year, while our community interest survey will help us better understand the needs of our families and guide our planning.”
“In the past we were concerned that a district Pre-K program might duplicate services already available in Oconee County or take business away from private childcare providers,” Board Chair Ransom said in an email message on Thursday (Oct. 22).
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| Ransom 10/19/2026 |
“Those concerns still matter, but we feel the time is right to give families another option while continuing to support our private providers,” he continued.
At present, Oconee County Schools does offer preschool services for students with disabilities.
“These classes are sometimes identified as Pre-K in enrollment data, but they are separate from Georgia's Pre-K Program,” Callen Moore, Executive Director of Communications at Oconee County School, said in an email message on Thursday.
“They are funded through a combination of state and federal grants, supplemented by local funds,” she said. At the beginning of this year, 65 students were enrolled in that program.
Literacy Plan
Whitaker also presented the Board with a Unified Literary Plan for Oconee County Schools in response to the requirements of House Bill 1193 passed by the Georgia legislature earlier this year.
The bill “requires each Georgia school district to develop and implement a Unified Literacy Plan to strengthen literacy instruction and improve student outcomes across the district,” Whitaker explained.
“The plan provides a cohesive framework for ensuring that literacy efforts are aligned across schools and grounded in evidence-based instructional practices,” she said.
Whitaker said the law requires the Board to approve the plan, which will then be submitted to the state for review.
The Board adopted the nine-page plan at the end of its meeting.
Civic Center
“One of the major projects at the start of this school year for our technology department has been the transformation of the Oconee County Civic Center into a learning space for our school district,” Chief Operations Officer White said in his report to the Board on Monday.
“From a technology perspective, our goal was to make the Civic Center more than just a performance or banquet venue,” he continued. “We wanted to make it a true extension of the OCS campus, a place where students and teachers could learn, collaborate, and use technology just as they would in any other instructional space.”
“To accomplish that, we established a network connection between the main Oconee County High School building and the Civic Center,” he said. “This allowed us to bring the Civic Center into the same secure technology environment as the rest of the school district.”
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners transferred ownership of the Civic Center to Oconee County Schools effective Sept. 1.
Prior to the transfer, Oconee County Schools used the Civic Center space, but the Civic Center was managed by the county.
Financial Reports
Chief Financial Office Adams told the Board that the General Fund Cash Balance at the end of September was $54.4 million. That is down from $59.3 million at the end August.
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| Adams 10/19/2026 |
At the end of September of last year, the Fund Balance was $49.4 million, or $5 million less that this year’s figure.
The $1.2 million ESPLOST receipt for September was up from the $1.1 million collection in September of last year, and collections have been more than $1 million 15 of the last 16 months.
By the end of September, total ESPLOST collections for the current tax stood at $47.1 million. The cap is $48.5 million.
Voters approved a renewal of that 1 percent sales tax to take place as soon as the cap is reached.
Adams told the Board that two bills approved by the General Assembly this year “represent a significant shift in how Georgia monitor school system finances. The state is moving toward a greater accountability, earlier identification of financial problems and stronger intervention when districts fail to maintain appropriate financial controls.”
“The legislation reinforces the Board's responsibility to understand the district's financial condition and provide appropriate oversight,” he said.
Other Action At Monday Meeting
In her Superintendent Report on Monday, Butler said the four-year graduation rate for the class of 2026 reached 99.8 percent, “the highest in district history and 11.3 percentage points above the state rate.”
“We are incredibly proud of our graduates and recognize that reaching this milestone takes years of encouragement and support beginning in our elementary schools and continuing through graduation,” she said. “Thank you to the teachers, staff, and families who helped these students along the way.”
Kevin Yancey, Executive Director of Student Services, said that applications for School Choice will be available on Nov. 13 and that each of the system’s 12 schools has excess capacity, making each school available for students who do not live in the designated district for that school.
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| Blume 10/19/2026 |
Philip Blume, Regional Director of the Athens area Scholastic Climbing League, addressed the Board during the Public Comment section of the meeting, saying he was “looking forward to...connecting and picking your brains and helping to create this community feature for Oconee County.”
The Board approved and placed on the table for discussion a modified policy for Use of Electronic Devices for Students that extends the system’s policy requiring that all cell phones and personal electronic devices “must be turned off and stored away during the bell-to-bell school day” to the two high schools.
It also approved and placed on the table for discussion a modification to the Board Purchasing Authority that requires the superintendent to notify the Board within 24 hours of emergency purchases, which could reach $250,000.
The Board was in executive session for 80 minutes at the end of Monday’s regular meeting and returned to approve a personnel report from Superintendent Butler than contained only three new hires and two separations.
“The Board was discussing a personnel related matter during the first portion of executive session that was unrelated to Mr. Cofer’s monthly report,” Board Chair Ransom explained in an email message on Wednesday (Oct. 21).
Justin Cofer is the system’s Chief Human Resources Officer.
Video
The embedded video below is on the YouTube Channel of Oconee County Schools.
Whitaker began her discussion of the Pre-K program at 27:27 in the video.
I attended the meeting and recorded my own video as a backup.
The still images used above are either frames from my video or images I shot with my camera.
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