The Oconee County Board of Education on Monday evening unanimously adopted a final millage rate of 15.5 for 2022, rather than the 16.25 rate proposed by Superintendent Jason Branch.
The 15.5 millage rate represents a tax increase of 4.7 percent from the 2021 rate.
The Board would have had to have reduced the millage rate to 14.8 to have avoided an increase in property taxes for Oconee County property owners for the year.
The Georgia Hospital Association and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported on Friday that area hospitals had 39 COVID-19 patients, up from 33 on Friday of last week.
The number of ICU beds in use was 54, down from 70 a week earlier, and the number of adult ventilators in use was 23, down from 25 a week ago.
The Oconee County Board of Education on July 18 approved for discussion three policies mandated by legislation approved by the General Assembly this year.
The policies specify Unstructured Break Time, a Divisive Concepts Complaint Resolution Process, and a Material Harmful to Minors Complaint Resolution Process.
The three members of the Oconee County Board of Education who attended the public hearing on Monday evening on the proposed 9.8 percent increase in property taxes for Oconee County Schools got an earful.
The increase is “incomprehensible,” “unconscionable,” “ridiculous, absolutely absurd,” “a tax grab,” “nuts,” in the words of the 12 speakers at the 38-minute-long session.
The Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration, over the objection of its Republican Party representative, voted on Monday to accept the petitions of Melissa Eagling and Ryan Repetske to run as Independents for the Board of Education in November.
Director of Elections and Registration Rebecca Anglin said Eagling and Repetske had met the requirement that each get 1,425 signatures of voters on petitions asking that they be placed on the ballot.
The Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration will meet at 11 a.m. on Monday to review a report on the verification of signatures by voters asking to put Ryan Repetske and Melissa Eagling on the ballot as Independent in November.
The Board will then vote to accept or reject the petitions from Repetske and Eagling, seeking to run for the Board of Education, according to Oconee County Director of Elections and Registration Rebecca Anglin. Anglin chairs the Board.
Anglin said on Friday that she and her staff completed signature verifications on both of the submitted petitions about 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.
The Georgia Hospital Association and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported on Friday that area hospitals had 33 COVID-19 patients, the same number as on Friday of last week.
The number of ICU beds in use was 70, down from 72 a week earlier, and the number of adult ventilators in use was 26, down from 29 a week ago.
