The Glynn County Board of Education voted Tuesday to reduce its millage rate by a quarter-point.
Even with the cut, the school tax for property owners will go up by about 5%.
The 15.650 millage rate will be reduced to 15.400 if the measure passes following public input opportunities.
Glynn County Schools saw an 11.77% increase this year in the tax digest.
Decreasing the rate by .25 mils will still provide the school district with around a $1.5 million increase. The school system will be required by law to advertise a 4.93% tax increase.
Before voting, school board member Hank Yeargan asked if the school system will be able to cover the costs of programs and personnel that have been funded through federal COVID-19 relief funds, which expire next year, if the board approves the millage rate decrease.
“Regardless of what we do, we will not be able to keep all the programs that we created,” said Scott Spence, superintendent. “We would be able to keep the things that we want to keep that are working with the quarter of a mil or no reduction.”
He said the school system will plan to move some of the staff that are currently in temporary positions into permanent ones.
“Anyone who is doing a good job for the Glynn County School System, we’re going to find a way to keep them,” he said. “We’re not just going to cut people because of that. We’ll find a way to keep them.”
If the board had chosen to maintain its millage rate, the school district would have seen a more than $3 million increase in its budget. The board voted unanimously 7-0 to tentatively decrease the rate.
Even with the budget increase, Spence noted the costs of running the district will continue to go up.
“Food costs more, paper towels cost more. We provided raises to our employees,” he said. “So it does cost more money to operate.”
Public hearings on the millage rate will take place at noon and 6 p.m. Aug. 17 and at noon on Aug. 24, when the board will vote to approve the final millage rate.
In other business, the board pushed its vote on a resolution regarding the Well, a daytime shelter for the homeless in downtown Brunswick located near two local public schools, to its next monthly meeting.
“We still are in progress on the draft resolution that was presented to everyone,” said board chair Eaddy Sams. “It’s just going to take a little time, and we’re going to revisit that again in September.”
Board attorney Andrew Lakin took a moment at the end of the meeting to remember former educator Buck Crosby, who died Saturday.
The school board members and administration also stood to clap and thank the district’s chief of school improvement Valerie Whitehead for her long career with the school system. Whitehead will retire at the end of this month.
“For nearly 35 years, Dr. Valerie Whitehead has worked in the Glynn County School System, and she’s done it with honor and with dignity,” Spence said. “She has worked extremely hard, and she’s a very dedicated person.”
Whitehead was a crucial leader for the school district during the onset and ensuing years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m not sure what we would have done during the 2020-21 school year without you,” Spence said. “Thank you for everything, and thank you for a wonderful career.”