If the schools come up short, teacher jobs could be lost

Oconee school trustees are one week away from a final vote on a new budget for the next year. They gave the second of three required readings last night, knowing that a decision still to be made in Columbia will dictate the true amount of state aid that’ll be coming to the Oconee district in 2019-20. A committee of both chambers of the legislature must agree on the final numbers for state aid to the local districts. Another uncertainty facing Oconee public schools is whether the county council will consent to applying one additional mill of tax money, which could mean as much as an additional $411 thousand to their budget. Short of that, Dr. Michael Thorsland, district superintendent, laid out only two options. One is by increasing revenues; the other, by decreasing expenses.