Parents concerned about the possibility of mold in Oconee County Elementary School scored a major victory on Monday night when Board Member Adam Hammond said he was in favor of having mold testing done at the school.
Hammond made his comment following a renewal of a request for independent mold testing by Sarah Danis, who has spoken repeatedly before the Board along with other parents of children at the elementary school.
The Oconee County Board of Education seems to have little competition in hiring a replacement for retiring Superintendent Jason Branch.
Georgia Leadership Associates (GLA), which is handling the search for the Board, lists open searches for superintendents in three other school districts, but the deadline for applying in each case has passed.
Turnout in the second week of early voting in the Public Service Commission Party Primaries picked up just slightly, with 399 of Oconee County 34,515 eligible voters having cast a ballot by the end of voting on Saturday, or 1.2 percent.
Voting across the six days of voting this week averaged 39 per day, up from 32 per day in the first five days of early voting last week, which included the Memorial Day holiday, when early voting was closed.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday agreed to spend $755,363 for a roundabout at New High Shoals Road and Union Church Road, with construction to start in the next few weeks and to be completed by the end of the year.
The roundabout is the second of five planned roundabouts to be funded by the Transportation Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST). Work on a roundabout at Lane Creek Road and Snows Mill Road is underway.
Pam Hendrix, the only citizen who spoke at the first Oconee County Board of Education Budget Hearing on May 22, returned on Thursday (May 29) to use her allotted three minutes to continue her criticism of the Board and of the $120.5 million Fiscal Year 2026 Budget before it.
Hendrix, a local attorney who has been a frequent critic of government spending in the county, was the only citizen to speak on Thursday, the final hearing before the Board is scheduled to adopt the Fiscal Year 2026 Budget on June 9.
Early voting in Oconee County for the June 17 Public Service Commission primaries is off to an extremely slow start.
After five days of voting, only 160 voters have cast a ballot, 49 of them in the Democratic Primary and 111 in the Republican Primary.
The crowd that turned out for a listening session on the desired characteristics of the next superintendent of Oconee County Schools on Wednesday night came well prepared to pass along insights to the Oconee County Board of Education.
They also clearly were pleased to have a chance to talk about the topic.
