Heftiest budget yet sent to the county school trustees

If there’s final approval to the budget proposal unveiled last night, total dollars for a new year of public education in Oconee will reach an all-time high.  When you add up the local, state, and federal monies, the next Oconee school budget will reach $122 million.  The district’s chief financial officer, Jay Schickling, narrated the numbers that administrators believe are needed to pay the teachers, to pay others in the school workforce, and to keep the lights, the air, and the heat running in the classrooms.  Because of another money surplus realized in Columbia, Schickling indicated, the state will offer more assistance.  At home, tax collections, along with another healthy increase in what a school tax mill generates, the district’s financial guru believes the district can hold the line on county taxes.  The district is targeting May 2 as the date that it’ll traipse across S. Pine Street, enter into the chambers of County Council, to formally request sufficient millage to produce 50 million, 300 thousand in local monies.  Encouraging to the district’s money trackers is the increase tax collections by the county on behalf of the schools.