The Clarke County Board of Education pushed back final approval for its $214 million tentative 2024 budget until later this month to schedule two more public hearings on the millage rate.
CCSD administrators are proposing keeping the property tax rate the same at 18.8 mills, but board member Tim Denson is pushing to lower the rate by 0.2 mills, pointing to the district’s large fund balance. “I feel like we can easily absorb that reduction,” Denson said.
The tentative budget includes about $2.4 million in unspent revenue. But administrators and some school board members want to keep that extra money to provide additional funding for fine arts, raise parapro pay and provide a cushion for fuel expenses.
“I don’t see the need to slash things,” Denson said, because CCSD’s total reserves are currently 24% of its budget, well above the recommended 15%.
Board member Patricia Yager said the small reduction won’t really help homeowners who’ve been asking for tax relief, saving the owner of a $300,000 home just $20. “To meet the demands of the community, dropping it [by] point two isn’t really going to affect that,” Yager said. But it would at least “show goodwill,” said board member Linda Davis.
The additional public hearings will take place at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 28 and Thursday, June 29 at CCSD’s headquarters in the former Piedmont College/Prince Avenue Baptist building. The board will vote to approve the millage rate and the budget at a called meeting immediately following the second hearing.
In other business, the school board voted unanimously to reject an application by Charlotte-based Movement Schools, a foundation financially backed by Movement Mortgage, to open a charter school in Athens. Board members did not discuss Superintendent Robbie Hooker’s recommendation to reject the application, but during a previous board discussion and questions put to Movement in writing, they expressed skepticism about its schools’ lack of a track record and the benefit it would bring to Athens. Hooker laid out several reasons to oppose the charter school in his written recommendation, including the fact that CCSD already has flexibility as a charter district and the lack of an academic track record, oversight by the BOE, alignment with CCSD’s strategic plan, plan to transport students or funding for arts education.
The June 1 meeting was the first where the BOE combined its monthly work session with its voting meeting. Moving forward, the school board will meet once per month rather than twice, with a work session at 5 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month and a voting meeting following at 7 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for July 13.
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