School board to discuss millage rate
Aug. 8—The Glynn County Board of Education is set to decide Tuesday whether to change its millage rate this year.
The school board will meet for its regular monthly meeting at 6 p.m., and the agenda includes a vote on the 2022-2023 millage rate.
The school system recently received the tax digest numbers from the local tax commissioner, and the collection increase was 12%, which is significantly higher than the 4% increase the school system budgeted for, said Chris Griner, assistant superintendent for finances for Glynn County Schools.
The rollback rate this year is 14.938 to keep the millage rate at 16.157.
Before the school board officially adopted the millage rate, it is required to host three public hearings. The tentative schedule for those meetings is 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. Aug. 18 and 12 p.m. Aug. 25, to be followed by a special-called board meeting to adopt the rate.
The trends are there for an upcoming recession, Griner said, which could force the school board to make difficult funding decisions down the road. CARES Act funding will expire in 2024, and programs being funded with that federal money — like the new Horizons Academy at Risley Annex — will have to be reviewed before that deadline.
School board member Mike Hulsey said he may be in favor of decreasing the millage rate.
"I've been saying for a couple of months now that we need to look at a decrease in the millage rate, and now I'm more convinced," he said at a work session Thursday.
He said he is not suggesting going back to the rollback rate, which would be the millage rate that would keep collections at their 2021 rate.
"But in my opinion we need to seriously look at retro-earning some of this no matter what the economy does," Hulsey said. "... We knew all along we were going to have to make some decisions about CARES Act funding ... We're going to have to make some tough decisions for sure."
The school board will meeting will be broadcast online on the school system's Facebook and YouTube pages.
